John David Dyche: "McConnell's A 'Center-Right' Guy". So, Stick With Mitch!
McConnell's a 'center-right' guy
John David Dyche
Kentuckians are politically schizophrenic if they oust Mitch McConnell from the U.S. Senate. His foe, Bruce Lunsford, will support the liberal political agenda of President Obama (sorry GOP, a landslide looms), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But Kentuckians overwhelmingly oppose most of their leftist laundry list.
The election will make McConnell either America's highest-ranking elected Republican, and the most meaningful check on Democratic domination of Washington, or a figure of merely historical significance.
Unlike the hollow Lunsford, who has frequently funded Republicans, including President Bush and McConnell himself, McConnell has been taking principled stands on tough issues almost his entire life. Sometimes he has changed his mind or succumbed to cynical opportunism, but contrary to what the vast anti-McConnell mainstream media conspiracy deceptively wants voters to believe, his has not been the career of a political mercenary or conservative ideologue.
Three decades of public service reveal the real McConnell as a pragmatic, center-right, "Main Street" style of Republican who puts priority on accomplishment rather than self-aggrandizement. He has courageously taken some politically unpopular stands and provided leadership on big issues that win him widespread admiration, but little political benefit back home. The current crop of McConnell profile pieces focus on campaign finance, earmarks, Iraq and tobacco, but overlook telling examples of the core traits that have truly marked McConnell since he was young.
A grade-school photo from solidly Democratic Alabama shows a defiant McConnell lad sporting an "I Like Ike" button. As a campus politician at the University of Louisville, he introduced über-conservative Barry Goldwater, but did not back him for president because the Arizonan opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. McConnell co-authored an article in the campus newspaper urging passage of President John F. Kennedy's bill, which was then languishing in a Congress controlled by segregationist Southern Democrats.
McConnell campaigned for a statewide anti-discrimination statute. He urged students at a 1964 "Freedom Rally" to march on Frankfort with Martin Luther King Jr. and, more recently, worked with Jesse Jackson Jr. to put a statue of civil rights icon Rosa Parks in the Capitol.
As Jefferson County judge-executive, McConnell cleaned up and professionalized local government. By expanding Jefferson County Forest, he began building what would become perhaps the most "pro-parks" political legacy in the commonwealth's history. Putting the community's interests before his own, McConnell twice put aside partisanship and ignored political risk to work with Democrats for city-county merger.
In the Senate, McConnell earned bipartisan respect for his leadership role in the ethics investigation of powerful Republican Bob Packwood, the Oregon senator who sexually harassed several women and obstructed an official inquiry. McConnell introduced an expulsion resolution and pressed it until Packwood resigned.
Many Kentuckians are unaware of McConnell's much-deserved international reputation on human rights. To China's consternation, he sponsored the Hong Kong Policy Act to protect that city's autonomy and freedom. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, activist-rocker Bono and others laud him as America's foremost advocate for long-oppressed Burma. McConnell criticized administrations of both parties for focusing on Russia instead of freedom-seeking former Soviet republics.
Liberals boast about their commitment to civil liberties, but McConnell is without peer when it comes to championing freedom of speech. He has worked with groups of all political stripes to protect everyone's right to participate in the political process. McConnell has repeatedly relied on First Amendment grounds to oppose constitutional amendments banning flag-burning.
Low taxes are McConnell's other constant. He will occasionally cooperate with Obama, as on the recent financial rescue, but not to increase taxes on the so-called "wealthy" and small businesses.
Assessing a leader like McConnell based on attack ads or a brief period's events simply makes no sense. Taking the full measure of such an accomplished man requires much broader scope. Outsiders often ridicule Kentuckians as benighted provincials. Rejecting a representative, indeed statesman, of McConnell's stature would provide supporting evidence for such condescending critics.
John David Dyche is a Louisville attorney who writes a political column on alternate Tuesdays in Forum. He is completing a biography of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. His views are his own, not those of the law firm in which he practices. Read him on-line at www.courier-journal.com; e-mail: jddyche@yahoo.com.
Editor's comment: I have always figured that defeating Mitch is akin to Kentuckians putting a slug between their eyes, politically speaking.
So stick with Mitch.
If anyone has contra view, they are invited to express them here, or engage n a debate with me.
Any takers?
John David Dyche
Kentuckians are politically schizophrenic if they oust Mitch McConnell from the U.S. Senate. His foe, Bruce Lunsford, will support the liberal political agenda of President Obama (sorry GOP, a landslide looms), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But Kentuckians overwhelmingly oppose most of their leftist laundry list.
The election will make McConnell either America's highest-ranking elected Republican, and the most meaningful check on Democratic domination of Washington, or a figure of merely historical significance.
Unlike the hollow Lunsford, who has frequently funded Republicans, including President Bush and McConnell himself, McConnell has been taking principled stands on tough issues almost his entire life. Sometimes he has changed his mind or succumbed to cynical opportunism, but contrary to what the vast anti-McConnell mainstream media conspiracy deceptively wants voters to believe, his has not been the career of a political mercenary or conservative ideologue.
Three decades of public service reveal the real McConnell as a pragmatic, center-right, "Main Street" style of Republican who puts priority on accomplishment rather than self-aggrandizement. He has courageously taken some politically unpopular stands and provided leadership on big issues that win him widespread admiration, but little political benefit back home. The current crop of McConnell profile pieces focus on campaign finance, earmarks, Iraq and tobacco, but overlook telling examples of the core traits that have truly marked McConnell since he was young.
A grade-school photo from solidly Democratic Alabama shows a defiant McConnell lad sporting an "I Like Ike" button. As a campus politician at the University of Louisville, he introduced über-conservative Barry Goldwater, but did not back him for president because the Arizonan opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. McConnell co-authored an article in the campus newspaper urging passage of President John F. Kennedy's bill, which was then languishing in a Congress controlled by segregationist Southern Democrats.
McConnell campaigned for a statewide anti-discrimination statute. He urged students at a 1964 "Freedom Rally" to march on Frankfort with Martin Luther King Jr. and, more recently, worked with Jesse Jackson Jr. to put a statue of civil rights icon Rosa Parks in the Capitol.
As Jefferson County judge-executive, McConnell cleaned up and professionalized local government. By expanding Jefferson County Forest, he began building what would become perhaps the most "pro-parks" political legacy in the commonwealth's history. Putting the community's interests before his own, McConnell twice put aside partisanship and ignored political risk to work with Democrats for city-county merger.
In the Senate, McConnell earned bipartisan respect for his leadership role in the ethics investigation of powerful Republican Bob Packwood, the Oregon senator who sexually harassed several women and obstructed an official inquiry. McConnell introduced an expulsion resolution and pressed it until Packwood resigned.
Many Kentuckians are unaware of McConnell's much-deserved international reputation on human rights. To China's consternation, he sponsored the Hong Kong Policy Act to protect that city's autonomy and freedom. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, activist-rocker Bono and others laud him as America's foremost advocate for long-oppressed Burma. McConnell criticized administrations of both parties for focusing on Russia instead of freedom-seeking former Soviet republics.
Liberals boast about their commitment to civil liberties, but McConnell is without peer when it comes to championing freedom of speech. He has worked with groups of all political stripes to protect everyone's right to participate in the political process. McConnell has repeatedly relied on First Amendment grounds to oppose constitutional amendments banning flag-burning.
Low taxes are McConnell's other constant. He will occasionally cooperate with Obama, as on the recent financial rescue, but not to increase taxes on the so-called "wealthy" and small businesses.
Assessing a leader like McConnell based on attack ads or a brief period's events simply makes no sense. Taking the full measure of such an accomplished man requires much broader scope. Outsiders often ridicule Kentuckians as benighted provincials. Rejecting a representative, indeed statesman, of McConnell's stature would provide supporting evidence for such condescending critics.
John David Dyche is a Louisville attorney who writes a political column on alternate Tuesdays in Forum. He is completing a biography of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. His views are his own, not those of the law firm in which he practices. Read him on-line at www.courier-journal.com; e-mail: jddyche@yahoo.com.
Editor's comment: I have always figured that defeating Mitch is akin to Kentuckians putting a slug between their eyes, politically speaking.
So stick with Mitch.
If anyone has contra view, they are invited to express them here, or engage n a debate with me.
Any takers?
Labels: Stick with Mitch
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