You’ve probably seen this already, but I found it fascinating:
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but he would not say Friday what that would mean for the 413,000 Kentuckians who have health insurance through the state’s health care exchange.
McConnell told reporters that the fate of Kynect – Kentucky’s state-run health insurance exchange – is not linked to the federal health care law. But the exchange would not exist if not for the federal law that created it.
Mitch figured he could just waltz into his home state, push out this turd of a lie, and the clueless press would let it sit out there, stinking, for a cycle or two. Then Alison Lundergan Grimes would call him a liar, and the he-said/she-said would go on for a few more cycles.
Instead, Adam Beam, who’s the “Kentucky Statehouse Correspondent” of the AP, dispatched Mitch’s bullshit in one sentence. Mitch is going to have to come up with some fresh new lie because this one just got shot to pieces.
JPL
Are we sure that the lie won’t work? He’ll blame the governor for ridding the state of health care.
debbie
So he defeats the Tea Party and then panders to them? So much for a return to the “principled” GOP everyone claimed the primaries to be.
Baud
It’s hard to know which lies will work. The Turtle is not very popular in Kentucky, so it’s possible people there aren’t interested in buying what he’s selling.
wvng
It is only shot to pieces in print. If the teevee media don’t pick it up then the he said/she said is still viable.
Baud
Somewhat OT, but the Republicans did this on Friday to escape media coverage, but I hope the blogs don’t miss this [politico link]:
Gene108
I read the whole article. Outside of a clause in a sentence at the end of the second paragraph, the article is mostly he said/she said.
A reader has to really be paying attention to pick up on the part of the sentence that says state exchanges would not exist without the federal law. The way people skim articles, I think a lot of people would not pick up on what comes after the second hyphen.
Yes, Yertle’s BS is pointed out, but not nearly forcefully enough to really break through the cognative dissonance that has most likely set into the minds of Kentucky residents that their healthcare exchange and Medicare expansion is in anyway linked to what Nancy Pelosi and Barack Hussein Obama did in Washington, DC.
Glidwrith
I always figured this was the reason they attacked Obamacare so mercilessly even knowing how popular the components are (ie the Kentuckian that loves Kynect but hates Obamacare). They destroy the hard work and credit the Dems get, then put in the same system with their name on it – voila! The rebranding maneuver (or is that manure?) that they keep trying to pull off with women, gays and every shade of brown.
ETA – maneuver not maneuvoer; no wake-me up beverage yet.
Professor
Can anyone confirm whether Yertle has even read the ACA statute?
p.a.
As shows up every election season, the Washington yahoos are so used to being fluffed by Faux Nooz and the Villagers if there are actual practicing journalists at the state level when they return to campaign they are in trouble. If there are.
OzarkHillbilly
I can’t wait for the TV ad:
Yertle states this at the press conference. Next scene, the entire room full of reporters falls on the ground laughing at the absurdity. That is all today’s GOP deserves: Derisive laughter.
Soonergrunt
Are you sure that the headline shouldn’t be “SHOCKING–Reporter does his job!”
Alex S.
That’s the fundamental reason why McConnell has already lost the race. Lunderson Grimes should repeat it again and again and again that McConnell can’t have it both ways. Republicans have had it both ways far too long.
Culture of Truth
The truth is somewhere in between.
scav
@OzarkHillbilly: Good image, but personally, I’m not holding my breath for a full roomful of reporters making a sane, non-toadying response to a source simultaneously. There will always be the prostrate few, on the lookout for a nickname of their very own and a swing on the tire.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Baud:
(Insert Nelson Muntz laugh)
What a bummer for the GOP; they take the good time and trouble to dismantle campaign finance laws only to discover that they’ve handed over the power of the purse to deep-pocketed wingnuts with agendas of their own. I’m confident that SCOTUS will uphold the Republicans’ right to be in thrall to as many moneyed interests as possible.
Fuzzy
I think McConnell’s engineering the defeat of several VA help bills will doom him. The more they rail on POTUS for failing the soldiers, the more it will be pointed out that all those bills for veteran aid were defeated by Republicans. That should be the constant story flowing from every Democrat for two years. We have the GOP by the balls and now we must squeeze hard.
jayboat
I hear there’s BBQ over near the swing.
OzarkHillbilly
@scav: Nobody ever said ads have to reflect reality, did they? It is a fantasy of mine but I’d still like to see it done.
RaflW
@OzarkHillbilly: As opposed to falling on their knees to fellate him, as happens now?
scav
@OzarkHillbilly: Indeed, I very much appreciated the fleeting image, much as I enjoy the reindeer flybys on December two-four.
scav
@OzarkHillbilly: Indeed, I very much appreciated the fleeting image, much as I enjoy the reindeer flybys on December two-four.
scav
FYWP is busy this early in the morning. Somebody get it coffee!
EriktheRed
I hope that’s true, but never understimate the power of ODS.
MattF
Yertle is pretty smart, so his incoherence here is telling. It wouldn’t surprise me if the actual people who live in KY are tired of being lied to.
SFAW
@Alex S.:
I bet Senator Harvey Gantt agrees with you.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m a-thinkin’ that, given half a chance, the Roberts Court would rule that they can lie outright – but only if you’re a Republican candidate.
Anton Sirius
McConnell ran a laughably bad campaign all through the primary. No reason to think he’d get his act together now.
Kerry Reid
Haven’t there already been a lot of articles showing that people in Kentucky themselves aren’t aware that Kynect is part of “Obamacare?” I can’t blame the asshole for catering to the racism and stupidity of the electorate– it seems to have worked pretty well for him in the past.
ruemara
Sadly, they’d rather hate Obama than be grateful that they have healthcare and acknowledge that’s because of him. Racism is a hell of a drug.
azlib
Politics is mostly tribal. I am not sure facts really matter. Seems McConnell is playing to his ill-informed tribe with this play. We will see if Lunderson Grimes can get her tribe to the polls.
My experience is, most people are not rational when it comes to politics. I see it all the time in otherwise seemingly rational people. I was having a conversation about Tesla trying to work around the franchise restrictions in most states on its auto salesl and pointing out how businesses try to create little monopolies. Suddenly, the conversation was about electric cars and how awful they are and how terrible Harry Reid is for wanting to rename the Washington Redskins or something. Weird.
Frankensteinbeck
I’m not sure on this one. Grimes is facing a huge uphill battle in the State of Hate, and it’s stunning she’s even neck and neck in the polls now. ODS is thick and evil here. On the other hand, Kentucky is the poster state for Obamacare working. If Grimes starts throwing around ‘McConnell wants to repeal Kynect and take away the great health insurance it gives you’, that will make a dent. The popular governor will definitely back her up. Precisely because people are disconnected from the facts, the accusation will have more power than the defense.
gf120581
@Frankensteinbeck: Her biggest asset is that McConnell is loathed in KY. His approvals are below Obama’s in the state.
However, that only means Yertle will go utter scorched earth to save his ass. If you plan to watch this race, better have a strong stomach.
Botsplainer
Here’s what the anger addicts who provide Citizens United money don’t understand – DVR and Netflix.
An ever increasing population of urban and suburban voters aren’t ever seeing their issue and candidate ads. The demographic that tends to watch antenna and cable TV (where the ads show up) is shrinking hard.
Yertle’s about to spend big money on ads that won’t be watched.
JDM
A lot of local press never got the memo from national about how The New Press is supposed to work. So they still do reporting instead of stenography.
feebog
Mrs. Grimes needs to get off the fence and tell it like it is. I understand that “Obamacare” is not popular in KY, but she does not have to use the term. She can simply point out that KYNECT is not possible without the Affordable Care Act and call Yertle out on the lie. Surely she can say “Affordable Care Act” and KYNECT in the same paragraph.
piratedan
I dunno, I get the feeling the McConnell is from the Goebbels wing of the GOP, there is no big lie, only versions of reality and the GOP has a mandate on their own. Besides, one print article versus millions of dollars spent in slanted ads painting Ms. Grimes as anything from a goldigging hussy to a secret Sharia Law supporter should throw enough crap on the wall to provide the cover needed.
sicilian dish
This is actually pretty smart. Kentucky Kynect has achieved great success and most of the newly insured have no idea they are enrolled in Obamacare. Mitch is forcing Dems to admit that Kynect is Obamacare. It doesn’t matter that we are past the point that the law can be repealed, Mitch just needs the votes of enough dumb people who don’t recognize reality.
It's Not The Fall, It's The Landing
I don’t see how this is a problem for McConnell. From supply side economics to WMDs in Iraq, it’s a perfectly ordinary thing for Republicans to continue to repeat all sorts of lies that already have been convincingly refuted by overwhelming factual evidence.
If someone points out that Kynect wouldn’t be possible without the ACA, Yertle just accuses _them_ of lying, and it’s back to he-said, she-said.
Patricia Kayden
I will be shocked if Yertle loses. Lying has never hurt Republicans.