Saying Senator Mitch McConnell would be “too tough to replace,” the Kentucky Enquirer has endorsed Mitch McConnell.

Sen. Mitch McConnell tells us that he believes "divided government is best," meaning splitting control of the legislative and executive branches between the Republicans and Democrats.

That's not to say the Kentucky Republican, the Senate minority leader, wouldn't like the GOP to come out on top of everything in this fall's elections. But McConnell is a political realist who sees the likelihood of the Democrats maintaining and probably expanding their majorities in the House and Senate. Working from the minority, he will have to have a bi-partisan approach if he wants to get things done.

"Leadership involves big egos and sharp elbows," he told the Enquirer Editorial Board. "We have a very ideologically diverse conference, but the way things happen is in the middle."

McConnell entered the Senate in 1984. In 2005 he became the longest serving senator from Kentucky in the state's history and in 2006 he became Senate Republican leader. He is not shy about using his position to benefit Kentucky, bringing home $500 million in federal projects last year.

We often have decried the "earmarking" practice of legislators packing their favorite projects into federal spending bills. But McConnell is a master of the art and defends it as "a tussle over spending priorities between the administration and the legislature."
It's not that simple, of course. Earmarks warp the budgeting process to the whims of powerful members. The result is usually an increase in spending as members approve each other's piles of pork.

Still, it is beyond argument that McConnell's influence in this system has been good for Kentucky. The projects he brought into the state recently include $5 million in earmarks for Northern Kentucky University. "Which part of that would you like rather seen go somewhere else?" he asked last month during a debate with his Democratic opponent, Bruce Lunsford.

McConnell's position as minority leader puts him in the middle of virtually every issue in Congress. That will be especially important in the coming term as Congress grapples with energy policy and the nation's crumbling highway infrastructure. Both issues are very close to Kentucky and Ohio. There is bipartisan support now for a varied energy policy that includes offshore drilling, and alternative fuels, including the development of clean coal. Kentucky and Ohio sit atop vast coal reserves and McConnell's position in Washington will benefit the region as those resources are developed.

Likewise, the Brent Spence Bridge across the Ohio River is a $3.5 billion problem that will need strong federal support to fix - support McConnell will be in a position to provide.
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Bruce Lunsford won’t answer questions about the financial rescue package, won’t say how he would’ve voted, and has no plan for turning our economy around.

From the Herald-Leader:

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell said his vote for a $700 billion bailout of the nation's financial system shouldn't be considered a political liability even as the issue has become a major theme of his re-election race.

"It's not fair to paint this as some kind of fatal vote when you've got such a huge bipartisan majority voting for it," McConnell said Saturday in his first detailed discussion with Kentucky reporters of the vote he took 11 days ago.

The bill passed the Senate 74-25 on Oct. 1, and two days later in the House on a 263-171 vote.

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McConnell, however, argues that the move was necessary to lubricate a credit system that was about to grind to a halt, drying up loans for businesses and individuals.

"Do we do unpopular things from time to time in government? Yeah. But I think the feeling about it has gotten better," he said. "I thought it was important to do for the country regardless of when it came up, whether it came up during an election or not. We're not sent there to avoid doing important things for America."

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Lunsford, who ran in the Race for a Cure in Louisville that raised money for breast cancer research and campaigned Saturday in Greenup County, has tiptoed around questions about whether he would have voted for the bill.

On Thursday, Elaine Chao was on the campaign trail in Paducah and visited the Paducah Sun. They published this editorial after the meeting:

…McConnell, only the second Kentuckian to serve as leader of his party in the Senate, has used his position to make sure the Commonwealth is not overlooked. In fact, he brought $500 million to Kentucky last year, much of it to the Purchase Area.

 How would that change if challenger Bruce Lunsford is successful in his bid to unseat the senator?

Chao pointed out that the highest level of federal spending secured by any freshman member of the majority party in 2007 was $16 million by Sen. Bob Casey -- scion of Pennsylvania's leading political family. With Kentucky's relatively small population, its Washington delegation would lose considerable influence without a senator in such a high leadership position, she said. The numbers speak for themselves.

McConnell has secured hundreds of millions in federal grants to Kentucky's universities, hundreds of millions more for Fort Campbell and Fort Knox.

Closer to home, the senator has secured $9 million for Paducah's riverfront project.

 And he has helped secure more than $1 billion for cleanup at the Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and more than $15 million for medical monitoring -- including cancer screening, lung scans and conventional medical work-ups -- for current and retired employees of the plant.

He has helped secure more than $250 million for the Kentucky Lock and Dam project, more than $1 billion for all of the Commonwealth's locks and dams.

The minority leader has also worked personally with many former workers at the Gaseous Diffusion Plant to ensure they received the medical assistance they needed. And, working with Congressman Ed Whitfield, Sen. Jim Bunning and local union leaders, McConnell closed a loophole in the U.S.-Russia nuclear suspension treaty that would have allowed unlimited dumping of cheap Russian uranium into U.S. markets, threatening the Paducah plant's viability.

McConnell has also worked with state and local officials to help Paducah in its pursuit of a coal-to-liquid fuel refinery by extending tax incentives slated to expire. The plant, if it comes to fruition, is expected to employ 1,100 workers.
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