I love capitalism. Mitch McConnell is still squirming from his “Moscow Mitch” nickname, and Kentucky Democrats are taking it all the way to the bank. Good for them. For some reason, McConnell’s most recent nickname rankles him. He didn’t mind “Cocaine Mitch.” As a matter of fact, he enjoyed it, and sold tee shirts with the moniker himself, at $34 a pop. Cocaine Mitch arose because drugs were allegedly found on a ship owned by a company in which McConnell’s wife’s family had an interest. McConnell also enjoyed “Grim Reaper” and made a joke out of it. “For the first time in my memory I agree with Nancy Pelosi.” But Moscow Mitch is different. You remember McConnell’s speech a few days ago, to a mostly empty chamber, railing about McCarthyism, and “lies.”
That being the case, it’s most likely that the Moscow Mitch paraphernalia which has flooded Kentucky for two days, swelling the coffers of the Kentucky Democratic Party’s war chest, is yet another burr under his saddle. And who broke the story? Would you believe Fox News?
Capitalizing on McConnell’s ire, the Kentucky Democratic Party on Wednesday rolled out an array of “Moscow Mitch” merchandise online, including a T-shirt, a hat, drinkware, stickers and buttons. Nearly all items come with the phrase “Just say nyet! to Moscow Mitch.”
“People are sick of [McConnell’s policies], and this is their way of expressing their outrage,” Kentucky Democratic Party spokeswoman Marisa McNee said in a press release. “This campaign has really caught the imagination of voters in Kentucky and across the country.”
The Kentucky Democrat Party said it’s gotten orders for the merchandise from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
A Kentucky Journalist named Marshall Ward coined the phrase “Moscow Mitch” in an editorial he did April 24 for a local paper. Braidy Industries, a Kentucky aluminum mill, accepted a $200Mil investment from Rusal, a Russian firm. Rusal is owned by Oleg Deripaska, whom you may remember used to finance a great many of Paul Manafort’s projects. The Treasury Department decided to lift sanctions on Rusal in January, and then shortly thereafter, all that money flowed into Kentucky. Coincidence, much? At the very least, it might explain why McConnell got so hot under the collar when called “Moscow Mitch.” The optics of this are lousy, to say the very least, and to that end Braidy Industries retained the services of a public relations firm run by one of McConnell’s former staffers to put these issues in a more positive light. Rotsa ruck.
What is hilarious about this, is that John McCain accused Kentucky’s other senator, Rand Paul, of being in cahoots with Russia, in March of 2017, when Paul objected to the inclusion of Montenegro into NATO. Here’s a snip from a piece I wrote then. The quoted material is a transcript from C-SPAN.
“You are achieving the objectives of Vladimir Putin… trying to dismember this small country which has already been the subject of an attempted coup.” McCain continued: “If they object, they are now carrying out the desires and ambitions of Vladimir Putin and I do not say that lightly.”____________Them’s fightin’ words apparently because the good senator from Kentucky put down his mic and stalked out of the room.____________“I note the senator from Kentucky leaving the floor without justification or any rationale for the action he has just taken. That is really remarkable, that a senator blocking a treaty that is supported by the overwhelming number—perhaps 98, at least, of his colleagues—would come to the floor and object and walk away. “The only conclusion you can draw when he walks away is he has no justification for his objection to having a small nation be part of NATO that is under assault from the Russians. “So I repeat again, the senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin.”
Moscow Mitch does not want this ad to hit one million views. Whatever you do don’t RETWEET pic.twitter.com/UtemlVEs6F
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) August 2, 2019
This video is a gem, the best 1:17 you’ll spend all day.
Ha! “For some reason, this rankles him.” Want a guess at that reason? Here’s mine. They know that the nicknames are effective. He just always presumed that Dems would be either “too classy,” or “too weak” to use them.
They should NOT be used in all cases, at any time, or they become like Trump’s nicknames and lose all impact.
But Mitch knows he’s caught. He presumed he could slide through his obstruction to Republican attempts to rig another election. Now he’s getting called on that, which makes him vulnerable.
Sounds good to me! I had a similar thought. My thought was that McConnell is a cunning old bastard. He knows that this is going to stick. He also knows, and so does the aluminum company, that the optics suck. So he’s sweating this one. And maybe Amy McGrath can take it all the way home. Wouldn’t that be grand? In any event, McConnell is more inconvenienced than he’s been in a while and that’s always good to see.
I think I heard a couple blips from the lips of, “MoscowMitch” a couple days ago, the stuttering is not flattering at all for the biggest FogHornLegHorn voice in Congress, who usually rules with his loud resonant voice, like when he told E. Warren to shut up and sit down one day, on National TV ….
The optics on those things we are beginning to hear/see from the supposed POTUS are one of horror and disbelief, but that has faded to F*** Trump, and the masses of Republicans in Congress are beginning to shed themselves of anything that points them through the lens of “MoscowMitch”, as in the Senate, and even in the House are feeling the absurd brilliant light from the flares these two idiots keep launching, as signposts with big arrows point directly to Trump for the majority of everything screwed up in the WH, and the horrible obstruction from Mitch the bitch is becoming so absurd and he is stomping on literally hundreds, (6), of proposals from the House … the facts are, more of this internal worm screwing over virtually everyone in vile ways because he sits on his hands ALL the time now, he slapped everything down he could from Obama, now it’s Pelosi/the House and US … WE are getting tired of the fiddle-fart McConnell stinking every thing up in the Senate and, oh yea, it is getting tiresome for the Republicans to explain away their pay checks for NOTHING to their own states … must be nice for all those useless Republicans collecting lots of pay, (they raise their own pay occasionally), then there are ALL THOSE WONDERFUL PERKS as well, including, but not limited to, free total healthcare … imagine that !
The fact that this has gotten under McConnell’s skin is noteworthy. Also noteworthy are the optics of the aluminum company in Kentucky. This is a bad blow to the turtle. Too bad, as Trump would say.
Just bought a t-shirt.
HAHA! Good for you! I may buy one myself!!
May Kentucky tell Moscow Mitch “Dosvedanya, suchka!” in 2020.
I take it that means “goodbye?”
Correct, Ursula. The second part is a rather rude insult that roughly translates as “witch with a capital B”.
Moscow Mitch is Putin’s B**ch.
Technically, you DON’T want to wish that to Mitch.
The Russian “do svidaniya” is much more accurately translated as “until we see each other again” (akin to the French “au revoir” and the German “auf Wiedersehen” or the English “see ya”). The word “proschay” is closer to “goodbye” in meaning “in case I don’t see you again” (but I seriously doubt many of us would even wish Mitch that much).
Oh, I don’t know, Joseph. “See you later” has some very interesting implications in Mafia speak.
See ya – wouldn’t want to be ya.
Postcards.
Moscow Mitch is in the Russell SOB (As is Leningrad Lindsey, BTW). But it might be more effective to use a Kentucky address. They’re not hard to find, but I was so charmed that one is in Bowling Green that I copied that one …
Moscow Mitch
Federal Building
241 E. Main Street, Rm. 102
Bowling Green, KY 42101
And if anyone else thinks Lindsey also needs some “love” –
Leningrad Lindsey
508 Hampton Street, Suite 202
Columbia, SC 29201
I just gave $100 to Amy McGrath, though past experience cautions that Kentucky is a state that is likely to disappoint. Keeping fingers crossed, getting rid of this treasonous piece of shit would be party time.