Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made the mistake of casually saying that there may be a “handful of things” in Obamacare that really aren’t so bad.
Naturally, McConnell’s primary opponents have taken this as a sign that Mitch is a secret Lefty who has flip flopped on Obamacare.
McConnell’s remarks quickly became fodder for his conservative primary challenger, Matt Bevin, who accused the GOP leader’s of “flip-flop[ping] on repealing Obamacare in its entirety.”
“We have to do whatever it takes to repeal Obamacare, and if we can’t repeal it, we have a responsibility to the American people to defund it,” Bevin said in a statement Thursday, responding to McConnell’s remarks. “If Mitch McConnell had ever worked in the private sector, he might understand that. If Senator McConnell is not willing to act to end Obamacare, he needs to get out of the way.”
A “handful of things” are “probably OK?” No! You must immediately declare that you hate Obamacare in its entirety — even the parts you may have written yourself — and vow to repeal or defund it.
The unfortunate truth is pressure from his opponents may compel McConnell to support Senator Mike Lee’s effort to shut the government down over Obamacare or, at the very least, push him to take other countervailing measures to prove that he’s a real wingnut, too.
The latter hasn’t worked out so well for fellow Senator Marco Rubio.