Today Kentucky's Two Biggest Newspapers Told The Voters Why They Should Send McConnell Packing

Although the right-wing crackpot newspaper in Cincinnati, Ohio endorsed McConnell, yesterday Kentucky's two biggest newspapers, the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader, both recommended that Kentucky voters fire McConnell and replace him with Secretary of State Alison Grimes. The latest polling shows a dead-heat, within the margin of error, although McConnell had already spent $21,494,327 by the September 30 FEC reporting deadline (and has written his campaign another $1.8 million check in the past couple of days), in the same time that Grimes spent $11,862,353. Right-wing attack groups have spent another $14,471,946 smearing Grimes plus $4,582,271 trying to paint a positive image of McConnell and make him look like less of an alien from another planet.

The Herald-Leader editors tell their readers that "Kentuckians should do themselves-- and the country-- a favor by electing Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes." The Courier-Journal editors came to a similar conclusion: "Kentucky needs a U.S. senator who sees a higher calling than personal ambition and a greater goal than self-aggrandizement. For those reasons and for her evident potential, we endorse Ms. Grimes for election on Nov. 4." More from the Courier-Journal:

On Nov. 4, voters could choose the familiar persona of Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell, 72, who is seeking a sixth Senate term after 30 years in office.

Or Kentuckians can risk crossing the threshold into the future by voting for a young, relatively untested Democratic challenger who nonetheless offers intelligence, energy and clear potential to take on the job as Kentucky’s next U.S. senator.

We urge voters to choose the future and elect Alison Lundergan Grimes.

...Grimes, to her credit, was willing to appear before this newspaper’s editorial board, fielding an hour’s worth of questions in an interview that was streamed live online and remains archived on the C-J website. She did this fully aware that Mr. McConnell’s campaign could-- and did-- seize on snippets to use in political attacks.

Mr. McConnell, in turn, never accepted a similar invitation dating back to early September to appear before the C-J editorial board, thus shielding himself from scrutiny as well as any potential for attack ads based on his responses. Kentuckians should take measure of that: Thirty years in the Senate, and no comment.

More discouraging-- and most important to voters-- is that he appears lacking a vision for Kentucky or the country as a whole. Rather, his decades-long drive to increase his power and political standing has resulted in this campaign based on his boast that if he is re-elected and Republicans win a Senate majority, he would become Senate majority leader. Some voters believe Kentucky will benefit from keeping Mr. McConnell in such a national leadership position, but we believe that alone is not a reason for giving him another term.

Both candidates have failed the voters through limited access, rote talking points, slickly packaged appearances and a barrage of attack ads that at best are misleading and at worst, outright false.

But Ms. Grimes has laid out positions on a number of issues that matter to voters, ones that separate her from her opponent.

• Health care. Ms. Grimes supports the Affordable Care Act and Kynect, Kentucky’s version of the federal health law that now provides about 520,000 Kentuckians with health coverage and access to care. While Ms. Grimes says she would work to “streamline” and improve the law, she does not seek its repeal.

Mr. McConnell repeatedly has vowed to repeal it “root and branch.” More recently, as Kynect grows in acceptance and popularity, he has adopted the bizarre claim that Kynect is just “a website” that somehow could operate independently if the federal law is repealed.

Of course it can’t-- it’s a fully operational, online state health exchange with a website Kentuckians are using by the hundreds of thousands to purchase health insurance or sign up for Medicaid through the federally backed program.

• Coal and jobs. While both candidates have indulged in “War on Coal” rhetoric, Ms. Grimes offers proposals to save coal jobs through investing in clean coal technology. She also supports creating jobs outside coal through increased federal job training programs, expanding apprenticeships, improving technical and vocational education and expanding high speed Internet throughout Kentucky to lure employers.

She also has won the endorsement of the United Mine Workers Union through pledges to enforce coal safety regulations and improve processing of claims for black lung disease, which stubbornly persists among miners.

• Workers, women and families. Ms. Grimes supports an increase in the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. She supports eliminating the wage gap between men and women. And she supports federal help making child care more affordable to working parents.

• Education. Early childhood education including pre-school and Head Start is a priority for Ms. Grimes who says the U.S. must invest more in such programs reduce poverty and improve opportunities for children.

• Social issues. Though voters have not ranked these as important as others in the Bluegrass Poll, Ms. Grimes supports abortion access, describing it as “a personal choice between a woman, her doctor and her God” and she believes all couples, regardless of gender, should be able to make the commitment of marriage.

In his long career in politics, starting as Jefferson County judge-executive, Mr. McConnell has in the past effectively served his community and his state. In more recent years, some credited him with roles in pulling the nation from the brink of the fiscal cliff and breaking several deadlocks in Congress, including helping end the 16-day government shutdown last year.

But as the stakes grew higher and campaigns more costly, he lost his way to the point where he now is identified largely as the master of obstruction and gridlock in Washington.

The Herald-Leader also urged their readers to go to the polls a week from tomorrow and end McConnell's corrupt, obstructionist career.

Grimes has tirelessly reached out to every corner of the state. She has shown that, as the Senate's first Kentucky woman, she would bring energy, focus and independence to helping build a more secure future for Kentuckians and other average Americans.

But, wait, you say: How can our poor state afford to give up the power that Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has amassed in 30 years in Washington, especially if Republicans take the Senate, making him the majority leader?

McConnell does have power. He commands a perpetual-motion money machine; dollars flow in, favors flow out. 
The problem is how McConnell uses his power. He has repeatedly hurt the country to advance his political strategy.

McConnell has sabotaged jobs and transportation bills, even as Kentucky's unemployment exceeds the nation's and an Interstate 75 bridge crumbles over the Ohio River. He blocked tax credits for companies that move jobs back to this country while preserving breaks for those that move jobs overseas. He opposed extending unemployment benefits, while bemoaning the "jobless" recovery. He brags about resolving crises that he helped create.

The Senate may never recover from the bitter paralysis McConnell has inflicted through record filibusters that allow his minority to rule by obstruction.

Even before Barack Obama was sworn in, McConnell told his fellow Republicans that their strategy was to deny the new president any big wins. The country was in two wars and at deep risk of sliding into a depression, but making an adversary look bad was McConnell's main mission.

His signature cause-- flooding elections with ever more money-- corrupts. He poses as a champion of the right to criticize the government, but it's really his rich buddies' right to buy the government that he champions.

If McConnell had a better record, he would not have to argue for six more years by obsessively linking Grimes to Obama, who will be gone in two years no matter what.

McConnell, 72, insists that Grimes would be a partisan puppet, unable to think for herself or steer an independent course. Grimes, 35, a state official for three years, is as qualified as McConnell was when he pulled an upset in 1984. Win this and she's a rising star, commanding respect and attention. She's already formed alliances with Senate women and would be part of a women's caucus that is the most effective bipartisan force in Congress today.

Grimes has emerged as an authentic voice for pro-business Kentucky Democrats. She staunchly defends the coal industry and gun rights. She also recognizes there's no prosperity when working people can't live on their pay. She supports a minimum wage increase, lower student loan rates, child care, equal rights for women and gays, and letting immigrants earn citizenship.

McConnell opposes a minimum wage increase and refinancing student loans. He has said that discrimination against women is no longer a problem; he's fine with discriminating against gays. He undermined immigration reform this year even as Kentucky farms struggle to find workers.

And McConnell is pushing two outlandish deceptions:


• This election's outcome can reverse coal's decline in Eastern Kentucky. McConnell harps on 7,000 coal jobs lost under Obama. But what of the 20,000 coal jobs lost in his first 24 years in Washington? Why has he offered no plan for this inevitable economic transition, even now? Grimes pledges support for economic diversification and benefits for sick miners.

• You can keep Kynect while he repeals the Affordable Care Act. Reality: If McConnell has his way, a half-million Kentuckians will lose access to health care and the state will lose a chance to tackle costly ills like addiction, diabetes and cancer.

Kentuckians can't do much to stop a Supreme Court majority that's enabling the corrosion of our democracy by unlimited, secret contributions, in court cases bearing McConnell's stamp.

Kentuckians can send a powerful message on Nov. 4 and carve out a better future by retiring McConnell and making Grimes their senator.