How do you take a state Romney carried by 23 points with 116 of 120 counties and turn it into a dead heat?  Ask Mitch McConnell.

Kentuckians are not happy with Obama.  Amidst the war on coal, even 40% of Democrats voted against Obama in the presidential primary.  They overwhelmingly supported Romney in the presidential election, even though his persona was not exactly a great fit with the state.  Obama has since escalated his war on coal.  Wouldn’t it go without saying that the sitting Republican senator from the state would easily cruise to reelection?

Yesterday, two polls showed the race between Mitch McConnell and Allison Lundergan Grimes to be a dead heat.  Yes, they were Democrat surveys that had some push-poll bias in them.  But even the Republican poll that was published last week had McConnell under 50%.  Remember, it took over $20 million in a cheap media market state to eke out a victory in 2008 against Bruce Lunsford.  It was touch-and-go for a while even with Obama on the ballot.  He just pulled it out after running a scorched earth campaign on his opponent.

Democrats are not targeting him because he is effective; they are targeting him because he is vulnerable.

There are a number of Republicans up for reelection next year from red states.  Which other Republican from a Romney+23 state is even close to being vulnerable in a general election?  How in the world do you bridge that gap?

At a time when we can easily win back the Senate on red state territory, do we really need to spend tens of millions of Republican dollars bailing out a failed leader in a slam dunk seat?  It would be one thing if we had to spend that type of money on a guy like Ted Cruz.  But for a finger likin’ fraud?  Really?

And it is precisely the unprincipled deal-making persona that has made him so vulnerable in a red state.  He talks loudly and carries a white flag; he stands for nothing and appeals to nobody, and the voters see that.  The McConnell apologists can kick and scream all they want, but it is incontrovertibly clear that McConnell is dramatically underperforming the generic Republican bent of the state, and has been for quite some time.  This has left a gaping hole for a phony moderate Democrat like Grimes to jump through and exploit his weakness with a contrived “outsider” populist campaign.

Why waste all that money that could be spent on electing more Ted Cruzs and Mike Lees for a man who undermines these fighters at every turn?  By nominating a fresh new conservative like Matt Bevin, we can take the seat off the table, get rid of a K Street weather vane, and send a revolutionary fighter to the Senate in one package.

I’m sure McConnell’s former staffers can land him a lucrative job on K Street or at the Chamber of [Government Run] Commerce if need be.