Mitch McConnell’s chief of staff — currently assigned as a senior staffer at the National Republican Senatorial Committee through the 2014 election — compared the Senate Conservatives Fund to a drunk making a ruckus at a bar.
“S.C.F. has been wandering around the country destroying the Republican Party like a drunk who tears up every bar they walk into,” Josh Holmes said according to The New York Times. “The difference this cycle is that they strolled into Mitch McConnell’s bar and he doesn’t throw you out, he locks the door.”
Holme’s comments came in a report about how the NRSC warned a Republican advertising firm that it would not get contracts from the committee if it continued to target incumbent Republicans by working with the Senate Conservatives Fund.
The executive director for the Senate Conservatives Fund said Holmes’s comments is a perfect example of how McConnell works.
“It’s a classic example of how Mitch McConnell operates. Rather than inspiring people to support something larger than himself, he uses threats and intimidation to destroy everyone who disagrees with him,” Senate Conservatives Fund Executive Director Matt Hoskins said in an email to TPM. “This isn’t what leaders do. It’s what bullies do. Fortunately, the grassroots in this country are not afraid of Mitch McConnell and his gang of K Street lobbyists. They know McConnell does not represent them and they’re ready to fight for something better.”
Senate Conservatives Fund’s primary focus is hitting Republican incumbents who, the group argues, aren’t sufficiently conservative. In particular, the group has been highly critical of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The group argues that McConnell is not really opposed to Obamacare.
