Archive for Kentucky

AUDIO: Gabby Giffords group targets Ayotte, McConnell. Ayotte’s approvals plunge after “no” vote on gun background checks.

gabby giffords mark kelly smile

Americans for Responsible Solutions, the grassroots movement led by Gabby Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly, has launched an “accountability campaign” that focuses on Senator McConnell of Kentucky and Senator Ayotte of New Hampshire:

ARS, founded by Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly, will begin airing radio ads today in Kentucky and New Hampshire, highlighting Senator Mitch McConnell and Senator Kelly Ayotte’s vote against this sensible solution to keeping our families safe from gun violence.

The ads highlight McConnell and Ayotte’s putting loyalty to the special interest gun lobby in Washington instead of supporting wildly popular sensible policies that would keep their communities safer. In Kentucky, 82 percent of people support background checks; in New Hampshire, 89 percent of residents support them.

Transcripts:

kelly ayotte

Ignored – Ayotte

Woman 1: Remember that ad Kelly Ayotte ran saying she’s one of us.

Woman 2: Oh, where she’s out for a run?

Woman 1: (SFX: Newspaper rustling) Yeah. Well, it sure didn’t take long for her to “go Washington.” Says here Ayotte voted against improving background checks to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.

Woman 2: Are you serious? 89 percent of the people in New Hampshire support universal background checks. She just ignored us?

Woman 1: Sure did. This was common sense legislation written by a Republican and a Democrat. Supported by law enforcement. And it protected Second Amendment rights. But Ayotte voted against it anyway.

Woman 2: And ignored the will of the people.

Woman 1: Well, I’m calling Senator Ayotte and telling her to listen to the people for a change. You should too. The number is202-224-3324.

Woman 2: Paid for by Americans for Responsible Solutions.

*********

mitch mcconnell

LISTEN

(Montage of News clips from Newtown of the shooting).

Announcer: We watched. We listened. We felt it. Newtown.

But Senator McConnell won’t listen to us.

Eighty-two percent of Kentuckians support universal background checks.

But Senator McConnell voted against them.

McConnell opposed common sense checks to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.

Written by a Republican and a Democrat. Supported by law enforcement officers. It was a common sense plan that protected Second Amendment Rights.

But Senator McConnell ignored the will of the people. Making our children and our families less save…. And putting the Washington special interests ahead of Kentucky… AGAIN.

Call Senator McConnell at 202-224-2541. And tell him to start listening to us, for a change.

Paid for by Americans for Responsible Solutions.

And HuffPo is reporting that Ayotte’s approval ratings have dropped sharply since her no vote on background checks. The gun safety issue is not going away, despite misinformation to the contrary being spread by those on the right:

A new poll has New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R) down a total of 15 points from her previous approval rating in a survey that followed her vote against requiring background checks for firearms purchases.

Ayotte’s plunge underscores the changing politics around gun control and gun safety. In years past, lawmakers worried that a vote for gun control would bring the anger of the National Rifle Association. In the new reality, votes against gun control also carry a political risk, as the Ayotte poll indicates.

Cartoon of the Day- Senator McConnell bugged?

mcconnellbugged

Via.

Did Mitch McConnell violate federal law by misusing his Senate staff?

huh what'd they say

The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics and Washington has asked the FBI to investigate whether or not Mitch McConnell is in hot water. CREW is asking if “Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), violated federal law and Senate rules by misusing Senate staff or resources to conduct opposition research on potential campaign opponents.”

(CNN) – One of the questions to emerge from that secret recording of a Mitch McConnell campaign strategy session is whether it proves the Senate Minority Leader is caught on tape misusing his congressional staff. [...]

In the Mother Jones transcript, a campaign strategist at the McConnell meeting in February is quoted as thanking “LAs” or legislative assistants (legislative assistant being a title for a specific congressional staff position) for their work in developing opposition research on potential opponents, including actress Ashley Judd, who has since decided against a run for the Kentucky seat.

“So I’ll just preface my comments that this reflects the work of a lot of folks: Josh, Jesse, Phil Maxson, a lot of LAs, thank them three times, so this is a compilation of work, all the way through,” the unidentified strategist is quoted as saying in the liberal magazine’s transcript.

Yes CNN, “the liberal magazine’s transcript” is making all kinds of biased liberal assumptions in its biased liberal transcript. Good thing unbiased “liberal media” source CNN pointed that out.

The question CREW is asking is whether the adviser said, “thank them for their free time.” You can hear that part in the first few seconds of the audio above, starting at about :25, ending at about :33.

As CNN notes, Congressional staffers are allowed to volunteer their personal time to political activities. Socialists!

Before I read the full post or anything that would sway me one way or the other, I listened to the recording several times, and each time I thought I heard “three times,” with an S at the end. Then I read the rest of the report to understand that the conclusion wouldn’t favor Team McConnell. Fine by me.

Listen carefully yourselves and let me know what you think.

VIDEO: Source says 2 members of Progress Kentucky behind recordings of secret McConnell meeting on Ashley Judd

Noel Vasquez/Getty Images

Noel Vasquez/Getty Images

Mitch McConnell and his aides were laughing it up at a secret meeting about opposition research they did on Ashley Judd’s depression issues– because, you know, her suffering, coping, and openness about it was so hilarious.

John Dean’s reaction was, “McConnell campaign recording sounds like one of Nixon’s Tapes.” Here’s the AUDIO and Ashley Judd’s response.

Now Jacob Conway, who sits on the executive committee of the Jefferson County, Kentucky Democratic Party, is saying that Shawn Reilly and Curtis Morrison, who founded and volunteered for Progress Kentucky, respectively, bragged to him about how they recorded that meeting:

Video via TPM.

Jacob Conway, who sits on the executive committee of the Jefferson County, Ky. Democratic Party:

“The only reason that I came forward with what I knew was I was trying to protect the Democratic Party. I believe in our party’s values, and I was doing what I thought was best for the party because I did not want their bad behavior, their poor mistakes — I shouldn’t say “bad behavior” — their mistakes, their lack of judgment to hurt our party’s efforts here in the state Kentucky and in Jefferson County, here in Louisville.”

Public radio station WFPL is reporting that Conway said neither the local nor the state Democratic party had any part in the incident, but that Reilly and Morrison bragged to him about recording the meeting which they were able to hear from the hallway. Because the door had a vent at the bottom, they were able to document what was going on inside with an iPhone or some other small device.

Since the meeting was audible from the hallway, it’s not clear if recording it qualifies as eavesdropping, so this remains the Big Question o’ the Day.

More here.

UPDATE: Report: Progress Kentucky Co-Founder Denies Taping McConnell Meeting

John Dean: “McConnell campaign recording sounds like one of Nixon’s Tapes.” Here’s the AUDIO, Ashley Judd’s response.

ashley juddtweet john dean ashley judd mitch mcconnell tape

Link

MotherJonesVideo:

Oppo research meeting against Ashley Judd. Recorded February 2, 2013 in Louisville, KY. Read the full story here: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2…

Last year, David Corn at Mother Jones helped derail Mitt Romney’s campaign by releasing bartender Scott Prouty’s secret recording of Romney’s offensive, tone deaf ”47 percent” comments at a fundraiser.

Presenting David Corn tapes: The sequel.

Back in February, good old family values Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) discussed Ashley Judd’s history with depression and how it might be used in a campaign. (As you know, Ashley Judd has said she will not run for Senate.) But oops, his little opposition research meeting was secretly taped, and now he wants to turn the smears into a Watergate Moment.  Team McConnell wants the FBI to investigate

But David Corn said in his Mother Jones report that the recording “wasn’t the product of a Watergate-style bugging.” In fact, on MSNBC just now, he called the accusations an attempt to distract by McConnell, and also said that the Senator has yet to respond to the substance of his reporting.

Ironically, it’s the McConnell audio that sounds Nixonian. Just ask former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean, or rather, read his tweet above.

Corn:

The McConnell aides, though, raised the possibility of doing more than calling attention to Judd’s well-known history; they discussed how they could make her seem a true weirdo.

Ashley Judd has responded. Via TPM:

“This is year another example of the politics of personal destruction that embody Mitch McConnell and are pervasive in Washington, D.C,” Judd said in the statement. “We expected nothing less from Mitch McConnell and his camp to take a personal struggle such as depression, which many Americans cope with on a daily basis, and turn it into a laughing matter.”

Here’s how they talked about the “weirdo” who they found so amusing. This is the voice of an aide, who David Corn refers to as the meeting leader:

“She’s clearly, this sounds extreme, but she is emotionally unbalanced. I mean it’s been documented. Jesse can go in chapter and verse from her autobiography about, you know, she’s suffered some suicidal tendencies. She was hospitalized for 42 days when she had a mental breakdown in the ’90s.”

You can find Corn’s entire piece here, including more details, audio, and his response to McConnell’s accusations.

Why Mitch McConnell is “enjoying how a small group of Dems duped the so-called liberal media.”

angry frustrated biting laptop

This is one of those stories that is so infuriating that I have no additional commentary. I’d just be sputtering, swearing, and typing in ALL CAPS.

Please go read ‘s post at The Daily Beast. You’ll be sputtering, too:

The most egregious disinformation came from entirely anonymous sources.

Such was the charge that Judd told a group of supporters at a private dinner in Louisville, “I have been raped twice, so I think I can handle Mitch McConnell.” The actress’ apparent flippant comparison of a political campaign to sexual assault spread like Ebola across the Internet, leading some to classify Judd as the Democratic version of Todd Akin. [...]

The problem is, it never happened.

All the while, I imagine McConnell sitting back, watching the antics with his sly, tight grin, enjoying how a small group of Democrats duped the so-called liberal media into creating the false narrative of a Democratic civil war. Only a master politician could get so damn lucky.

Sometimes I hate writing about politics. Very few things have infuriated me the way covering some of these stories has.

Oh, and…

bias liberal media my ass smaller

Ashley Judd will not run for Senate

ashley judd

Damn:

tweets ashley juddLink

Read the tweets in the screen shot from the bottom up. More:

 

 

What a shame. This would have been a battle worth fighting… against Mitch McConnell. All our previous posts about Judd here.