In his Saturday Playbook email, Politico’s Mike Allen defended GOP establishment Senators like Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Lamar Alexander and others facing Tea Party challengers as up against nothing more than an “expensive headache” they will defeat.
Allen, a denizen of D.C. political establishment, highlighted two news stories to make his point: One from the New York Times, and the other from the Associated Press. The New York Times’ Jennifer Steinhauser reported with Jonathan Weisman on the front page of the Gray Lady on Saturday that “[d]espite their careful efforts, some of the best-known and most influential Republicans in the Senate have been unable to shake threats from the right and have attracted rivals who portray these lawmakers as a central part of the problem in Washington.”
“In Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, the party’s Senate leader, is fending off a charismatic and wealthy conservative challenger,” they wrote, referring to businessman Matt Bevin’s candidacy against McConnell.
They also referred to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) as a “reliably conservative voice on foreign policy” while noting that he has drawn three primary challengers: State Sen. Lee Bright, businesswoman and graduate of The Citadel Nancy Mace and conservative activist and computer programmer Richard Cash.
“In South Carolina, Lindsey Graham , one of the Senate’s most reliably conservative voices on foreign policy, is being painted by primary opponents as a veritable clone of President Obama,” the New York Times reporters wrote.
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