Joe Arnold is reporting that McConnell favorite and wealthy GOP fund raiser Cathy Bailey is thinking harder now about entering the race for the United States Senate. Her comments about Grayson, though understated, are searing nonetheless:
Asked by WHAS11's Joe Arnold if she is now considering entering the U.S. Senate race, the former Ambassador to Latvia under President George W. Bush said she and other conservatives are "watching it closely."
"Obviously, this race is wide open," Bailey said in a statement, "The establishment's moderate choice has slipped and hasn't lived up to the hype." [WHAS11]
Bailey went on to call Rand Paul's accomplishments "impressive" despite what she called some of his "extreme positions".
When asked about the possibility of Cathy Bailey entering the race Trey Grayson said he had "zero concern that Senator McConnell or anyone else that's been a big backer of mine or big supporter ...is going to jump ship"
McConnell has not publicly endorsed Grayson although he is hosting a second fund raiser for him in New York on December 7th. Grayson's comments pretty clearly remove any doubt about McConnell's role in Grayson's candidacy.
Grayson also went on to slam Rand Paul in the WHAS report saying that talk about him losing support in the media is due to what he called "this little phenomenon, where you guys have this crush on this doctor from Bowling Green who has some crazy ideas."
Based on Bailey's comments her role may not be so easy to identify as at first blush might appear. Her connections with McConnell suggest that she is gearing up in the wings for a possible run if Trey more than stumbles, but her role may also be to add fuel to the fire Grayson lit by trying to paint Rand Paul as "crazy".
That sentiment seemed to be echoed by Bailey who called Paul "extreme". In any event, Joe's report is a pretty clear indication of the strategy lurking around in McConnell's head. Like his father before him it looks like the "mainstream" moderates will try to paint Rand Paul and his supporters with the "tin-foil" hat image they assigned to his father in 2008. And unless Paul can win some of the party loyalists to his cause, that image might just stick.
Traitor Trey picked up on the fact that even Cathy Bailey is calling Trey Grayson the establishment moderate candidate, which is bound to make it even tougher on Grayson to run away from himself.
Posted by: Tracy Saboe | November 20, 2009 at 03:58 AM