Mitch McConnell, Rick Scott & Donald Trump, big failures edition

Anyone looking for villains to blame for Republicans not retaking the Senate majority have their pick of lots of villains. Let's start with the 3 biggest culprits, though. That list starts with Donald Trump but also includes his friend (just kidding) Mitch McConnell and NRSC Chair Rick Scott.

Ben Domenech didn't pull his punches in his article critiquing Senate Republicans' failures. In the article, he wrote "In the wake of a number of fractious primaries, GOP Senate candidates essentially went dark in the summer, their ad budgets expended and without the resources to get back on the air. Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer and the DSCC defined the Republican outsiders for a new audience of general election voters. Scott’s NRSC spent money early to push back, while McConnell sat on his resources and waited. McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund adopts a strategy that hasn’t worked for a decade of not spending until later. If Democrats convince over half the voters, in June and July, that the Republican candidate is unacceptable, you cannot and will not change their minds in September and October, no matter how much you spend. Holding your fire until Labor Day just doesn’t work."

Then Domenech got nasty:

A comparison between Ron Johnson and Dr. Oz is enlightening here. By adhering to a strategic principle that hasn’t worked for a long time, McConnell and his SLF set up a number of candidates for failure. Just look at the discombobulation of New Hampshire, where they spent millions against Don Bolduc before he won the nomination, millions for him afterward, then pulled it because he said some not nice things about McConnell. The SLF exists in all practical terms for maintaining McConnell as Leader, not achieving a Republican majority.

Mitch sabotaged candidates he didn't like. It's that simple. Check this out:

Rick Scott tried opposing Mitch McConnell, which is fine with me. The bad part, though, is that he put his own plan out that included tax hikes for low-income people and that called for a review of programs like Social Security and Medicare every 5 years. That's as politically stupid as anything I've ever seen. The policies didn't matter because Democrats used that proposal to tar-and-feather every Republican in every battleground state. In each tight race, Democrats pointed to Rick Scott's initiatives as proof that Republicans are heartless. Democrats do that every 2 years so that isn't surprising. What's awful is that Sen. Scott gift-wrapped this Christmas-come-early present this past summer. That's the definition of stupid.

Finally, there's Donald Trump. Trump picked lots of primary winners but most of his candidates lost their general election fights. That's proof that Trump has support within the GOP. That needs to get fixed ASAP. I don't care if he picks winners in April-June, only to watch them lose in November. Trump's America First policies are fantastic. His brand, however, is toxic on steroids. If he cared about the GOP instead of his ego, he'd announce that he isn't seeking the GOP nomination instead of putting the GOP through a divisive fight. It's time for him to step aside.

People will say that we should let the people speak. I'd reply that they just finished speaking. The question is whether Republicans will listen this time. Sen. McConnell, Sen. Scott and President Trump failed rank-and-file Republicans. It's time for them to step aside. Period.