Friday 8 February 2013

Kill Ensign Lefler!

Ashley Judd, the actress, comes from Kentucky; she’s related to the Judds, the country singers. So many people hate the current Kentucky Senator, Mitch McConnell, the architect of all the gridlock on Capitol Hill, that they want Judd to run against him. Judd hasn’t even said she’s running: she said she’s taking a look at the idea – that’s it.

But the Republican attack machine is already rolling. They’ve already launched attack ads against Judd, who, so far, is an actress and nothing more. And Karl Rove and the gang have promised to launch a sustained campaign of negative attacks against her, a non-candidate. Rove openly admitted they are taking the low road: “We are making fun of her”.

And keep in mind, Ashley Judd is about the most inoffensive person there is. She came to prominence playing Ensign Lefler, an adorable teenager on Star Trek, made a few damsel-in-distress movies, did some modeling, joined causes to fight AIDS and poverty, and supported Obama’s presidential campaigns. That’s it. So…how are they going to attack her, exactly? If she runs, this is going to backfire, big time.

This is all Team GOP has left – attack, attack, attack. They certainly can’t run on their policies or their accomplishments. And they can’t run McConnell on his record: even in Kentucky they know he’s the one who has crippled the federal government. They heard him admit he was stopping up the pipes for partisan political purposes, hoping to crash the economy and make Obama a one-term president, which in less tolerant times would be called treason. So for him a positive campaign is obviously not an option.

What was all that we were hearing a month ago, about the GOP putting on a smiley face and trying to win back women, after their harsh anti-woman policies of the last few years? I guess the smiley mask is coming back off again.

With luck Rove will prove about as prescient about the Kentucky Senate race as he was about the 2012 presidential race.

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