Senate Republican Mitch McConnell Tells Democrats How To Win In November

No Kidding! Wednesday March 3, 2010 Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) laid out a major condition for Democratic success in the mid-term elections. The Democrats must pass the current health care reform legislation.

That, of course, is not what McConnell said. He said that if Democrats succeed in passing this Health Care Reform Legislation it will ruin them. He said Republican candidates will win by running to repeal this reform. He said red unicorns will descend from dark clouds and trample Democratic voters right at the polls.

But consider this, Mitch McConnell, who always looks surprised and weepy—as though he can’t believe what he hears himself saying, is no fan of the Democrats. If passing healthcare reform would lead the Democrats to their certain, painful political (or literal) demise, McConnell, Boehner (Boner), Demint and company would be putting up the weakest possible opposition while dancing in the halls. “We really don’t like this bill,” McConnell would be saying, “but if the majority party really wants to pass it, who are we to stand in their way.”

McConnell’s panicked opposition tells a different story. Once the legislation is passed, Democratic candidates can point to all the extremely popular provisions in the bill and say their Republican opponents were against those.

A Democratic candidate can say, “My Republican opponent wants to repeal the health care legislation which means he’s in favor of your insurance premium going through the roof. He’s in favor of your insurance company capping your coverage or denying you coverage for pre-existing conditions.” Do you really think Republicans want to face that?

Democrats can follow passing health care reform with an agenda of smaller, more focused bills to help the economy. The American people crave legislative action, particularly action that the Democrats can point to and say, “We did this for you!”