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McConnell, Cantor And Paul Warn GOPers At KY Breakfast: Dems Will Destroy America!


Kentucky Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul

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GRAVES COUNTY HIGH, WESTERN KY -- Before they head out to gorge on a full day of political picnicking at Fancy Farm, Republicans from across the state of Kentucky were treated to a healthy portion of red meat this morning by Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul and Eric Cantor.

The event was the Graves County Republican Party Breakfast, an annual gathering that draws partisans from far and wide to be rallied, and the speakers didn't disappoint. The three men essentially told the crowd that unless something is done about the Democrats in Washington, America will be transformed into a distopian hellscape where only socialists waving their universal health care cards come out during the day while true patriots are forced to scrounge for the scraps of democracy under cover of night. Or something like that.

Cantor, McConnnell and Paul couldn't quite agree on just what sort of country America will become when the Democrats are done with it, but they all said things will be very different if Paul doesn't make it to the Senate and Cantor doesn't see his party win the House.

Cantor delivered the keynote at the breakfast, and was greeted with warm applause for stopping by Kentucky on his 2010 rounds. In the longest speech of the morning, he argued that unless Democratic spending is checked by a GOP-controlled House, America is destined to become Greece.

"According to their plan, they are leading us to an America that few of us will recognize," Cantor said. "And if you want to think about what that looks like, just remember the scenes that we saw across the television screens and internet several months ago in Greece. In that country, you saw people taking to the streets, demanding more and more from their government, because they've accepted the fact that it's their central government that determines their fate."

McConnell argued it was a different European nation that Democrats are trying to transform the U.S. into: France.

In the course of defending his leadership of the Senate GOP, which he proudly admitted has been memorable for its unprecedented obstruction, McConnell said he had had no choice but to turn seemingly every legislative maneuver, no matter how minor, into a weeks-long procedural slog.

"We decided when they decided they were going to turn us into France, we were going to say no," McConnell said. "Had we sort of gone over and made everything bipartisan -- you know they're going to run against us as the Party Of No. Well, it depends on what you're saying no to, ladies and gentleman."

McConnell said he was "proud to say no" to Democratic proposals like the stimulus, which he called "borrowing money from your grandchildren to hire 250,000 new federal employees."

When it came time for Paul to take the podium, he said that unless he's in the Senate to stop them, the Democrats will not stop with an America that looks like Greece or France. The America he predicts we'll see after several more years of Democratic rule will look like the grandaddy of socialist states. To illustrate his point, he told a long story about the late 1960s.

"When I was a little kid, about 10 or 11 years old, I used to play chess with a guy we called Captain Pete," Paul told the Republicans munching on eggs in the high school cafeteria this morning. "He was from the Ukraine...and he knew a little bit about the Iron Curtain because he had lived under it."

"He had fought in the czar's army," Paul continued, telling the tale of Captain Pete's time as a teenage soldier fighting the Bolsheviks in early 20th century Russia. "I always thought, well why would he fight for the czar? The czar wasn't really a particularly good guy, he was a monarch and an autocrat...[Captain Pete] didn't really fight for the czar, he fought because his family owned two acres of land -- they grew their crops, they grew their vegetables and they didn't really understand how come it was they were supposed to give them to people who didn't work, who didn't grow their own crops, who didn't own any land."

"I'm proud to be an American, and I'm proud of our system," Paul concluded. "We need to send people to Washington who will stand up and say, 'You know what? We're not embarrassed that we make a profit. We're not embarrassed that we own property or that we own a farm."

The crowd applauded politely, and a few cheered. Shortly after that, they went out to their cars and headed to the Fancy Farm picnic, full of political red meat and ready to eat some of the real stuff themselves.

Comments (47) | Join the Conversation!

Recommend Recommend (2)

August 7, 2010 1:12 PM   

Sadly, this isn't just an example of teh New Krazy. Instead, it's pretty par for the course for Kentucky Republicans. They've been talking this way since about 1900.

Indeed, when my Grandmother was a little girl, her parents used to tell her that The Democrat would come get her if she didn't do her chores/do her homework/stop picking on her brothers/etc. etc. etc. She didn't know what a Democrat was, but it was clearly terrifying.

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August 7, 2010 5:44 PM    in reply to The Commenter Formerly Known as NCSteve

I trust Mark Twain to be as observant and insightful as anyone in this country has ever been and this is Mark on Kentucky:when the end of the world comes, I want to be in Kentucky, because everything there happens 20 years after it happens anywhere else."Of course this could be said to be true of just about anyplace repcons or conservatives of any stripe hold sway.

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August 7, 2010 9:23 PM    in reply to donquijoterocket

LOL! I'm definitely using that one.

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August 7, 2010 1:17 PM   

I just find it amazing that they forget who was in charge when the economy collapsed. I think the GOP has already destroyed the America we once knew. They won't be happy until they finish brining the country to its knees.

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August 7, 2010 2:11 PM    in reply to loria

Yep, and then when the American people take to the streets they can call out the National Guard to put down the riots and run on a platform of law and order.

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August 7, 2010 6:18 PM    in reply to loria

True to form, the GOP and the Right accusing their opponent of their own worst sins:

The three men essentially told the crowd that unless something is done about the Democrats in Washington, America will be transformed into a distopian hellscape . . .

If people are so stupid, ignorant, and racist, that they continue to believe the lies because it fits their mindset, then they get what they have comin.

I'm waiting for the morons in Arizona (and all the other people supporting racist law) to have the light-bulb go off over their swiss-cheese craniums and realize that they have murdered their economy and way of life with their racism.

I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.

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August 7, 2010 9:28 PM    in reply to FreemanW

Indeed. Don't hold your breath!

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August 7, 2010 1:18 PM   

"We're not embarrassed that our company stole its emloyees retirement funds! We're not embarrassed that we polluted the environment so it is uninhabitable! We're not embarrassed that we lied about our 20% growth each year, so that now all investors and the company itself have lost everything!"
Rand Paul: Idiot extraordinaire.

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August 7, 2010 1:19 PM   

....I can just imagine how the speaches started..."Good morning brothers and sisters..." "and hey! Is that uncle Daddy sitting over there with cousin/sister Mary Lou?" Republicans used to be conservative on fiscal matters and liberal on social matters...I guess they should have drunk the flouride enriched water...

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August 7, 2010 1:26 PM   

Repubs predict the world we knew will vanish if the Democrats continue to "control" Congress. Democrats point out that the world we knew already has vanished because the Repubs truly did control the Congress for several years. I have a choice: believe what the Repubs say (impossible unless I lose my mind) or believe my eyes. I'm thinking......

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August 7, 2010 5:15 PM    in reply to hoppycalif2

OH, come on now Hoppycali.... Who you gonna believe, The Repugnicons (who would NEVER tell an untruth) or your lying eyes? :)

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August 7, 2010 1:26 PM   

I never cease to be amazed at the idiotic level of rhetoric from these Republicans. Vitter, McConnell (back of the bus, Nancy), Angle, Palin, Steele, Paul, McCain etc. You really couldn't script this. If someone hears of or reads a sensible comment from the GOP, please share it, because such a thing is rarer than hens' teeth.

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August 7, 2010 1:40 PM    in reply to Peter

What is worse is the people there eat up every word of it, and want to hear more.

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August 7, 2010 2:05 PM    in reply to davewtf

Thank goodness...some comments that make sense. You should all go post on "The Hill" because most of the comments there are made either by one wingnut with a single user name or many Fox News watchers that have made it their mission to comment on every issue.

Many of them are particularly nasty and often make no intelligible sense.

Hope you take the time to bring forward your point of view.

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August 7, 2010 4:52 PM    in reply to davewtf

That's not entirely true. I live about an hour from Fancy Farm and there are many liberals in West Kentucky. Many people like the rhetoric but they know it's just that. I didn't attend the picnic, it's too damn hot but I'm sure it attracted some of the fringe given the circumstances.

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August 7, 2010 5:40 PM    in reply to davewtf

Meant to tell you that there's a fairly strong union base in the area. A large paper mill and many General Tire retirees and former workers live nearby and they won't stand for too many whackos.

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August 7, 2010 1:35 PM   

And Conway pretends Rand in a single Senatorial vote will destroy America!!

What a fearmonger Conway is.

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August 7, 2010 6:23 PM    in reply to sailingaway

Moron

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August 7, 2010 7:26 PM    in reply to FreemanW

Ignore the troll.

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August 7, 2010 1:40 PM   

What is wrong with France?

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August 7, 2010 1:59 PM    in reply to davewtf

FRANCE HAD THE BALLS TO ADVISE GEORGE W. BUSH AND HIS GOP COHORTS THAT INVADING IRAQ WOULD BE ILLEGAL AND A DISASTER!!! ...(and that democracy can't be exported with a gun, particularly in the Middle East).

Of course the fact that the French were right, and that George W. Bush was not only wrong about Iraq being a threat to America, but showed himself to America and the world as being a sociopathic carnival barker for war did not diminish the love for him by the wingnuts of The Base and their hate for everything French!

The French refused to join with us and Tony I (Blair, the BP Tony is #2) and the UNRESTRAINED JOY that Republicans felt on starting SHOCK AND AWE as our troops marched into Iraq in 2003 reached all the way to the GOP controlled Congressional cafeteria, when in a paroxysm of patriotism and blather, Republicans re-named French Fries to Freedom Fries!!

That is just one of many GOP legacies - of lies, hypocrisy, delusion, and incompetence, leading to the economic collapse and explosion of government debt.

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August 8, 2010 12:07 AM    in reply to NobleCommentDecider

Have you tried prozac? Maybe it would help. All America knows that it is the Republican party that truley loves America because America is in our heart.

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August 8, 2010 8:52 PM    in reply to The Decider

Right. All America knows that. Reps love America so much they want to own it.

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August 9, 2010 10:35 AM    in reply to The Decider

You forgot to mention that America's in your wallet as well.

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August 9, 2010 11:29 AM    in reply to The Decider

You forgot to mention that America's in your wallet as well.

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August 7, 2010 2:20 PM    in reply to davewtf

In France, you don't have the freedom to go bankrupt and lose everything if you get sick while uninsured. Why, in France you could hardly manage to die of an untreated disease even if you wanted to! Worse yet, you are forced to have six weeks or so of annual paid vacation. This is the reason there are so many French illegal immigrants in the United States, where we have the freedom to escape through the holes in the fraying social safety net.

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August 7, 2010 1:51 PM   

Anybody who can't tell the difference between confiscating a farm and assuring affordable health care is too stupid to hold public office. Anyone dishonest enough to know the difference but claim they're the same should be run out of town on a rail.

And anyone who complains about people who don't work as part of his campaign for a high-pay low-effort U.S. Senate seat is so hypocritical as to deserve "enhanced interrogation."

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August 7, 2010 3:00 PM    in reply to FlownOver

But where would GOP rhetoric be without false analogies? Where would they be if they couldn't compare the estate tax to the holocaust?

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August 7, 2010 5:27 PM    in reply to FlownOver

Contrary to Paul's revisionist history of the Russian civil war (which is already poorly understood by most Americans), the Bolsheviks expected everyone to work, doing one thing or another, under the new order. It may not have been a great system but practically nobody outside of the upper echelons of the Communist party could get away with not working very hard.

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August 7, 2010 5:54 PM    in reply to Jon Lester

It's long been my contention that the Russian revolution really only succeeded in installing a new class of autocrat atop the old economic system. It was still feudalism they just rearranged some of the terminology.Pretty much what conservatives in this country would do if they had a chance to fully implement their oligarchy(I spose I could have been snarky and used the Glennda the Beckerhead blackboard spelling of that word, but I've got too much respect for the language to submit it to any more indignities just for a cheap point)

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August 8, 2010 6:50 PM    in reply to donquijoterocket

Whether he's aware of it or not, Paul won't tell anyone that the White movement was also anti-Semitic in character, and its own Gen. Konstantin Sakharov supposedly said it "was the first manifestation of fascism."

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August 7, 2010 2:57 PM   

At least they are finally being honest about something. They resent having to help out their fellow human being and think anyone without a job or land is a worthless P.O.S.

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August 7, 2010 3:06 PM   

Rand Paul: friend to absolute monarchs everywhere.

But seriously, I love how they're proud that they've spent the last two years getting absolutely fuckall done while drawing big fat government checks. I think I found Raygun's "welfare queens"...

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August 7, 2010 3:25 PM   

Yeah, the smug GOP politicians can count on their base not remembering the prosperous Clinton years (However, they will remind them of the blowjobs Clinton got and they didn't). so I guess they're correct in saying that a prosperity is something Teabaggers won't recognize as a characteristic of this country, after eight years of Bush stealing from the middle class and handing over to the greed stricken wealthy class. Let's make sure that Republicans are no more relevant in this country. Vote them out of office, make them squeal like the pigs they are, but pay them no mind.

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August 7, 2010 4:58 PM   

That guy in the yellow shirt is pretty much how I picture most of these nut jobs: fat, male, and not very smart looking. And, of course, conservative.

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August 7, 2010 5:06 PM   

9.5 percent


$ 1 3 , 3 1 8 , 9 9 0 , 1 3 9 , 0 4 2 . 6 0

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August 7, 2010 6:19 PM    in reply to Silence

Why is it that conservatives and Reprobates suck so bad at math?

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August 8, 2010 10:10 AM    in reply to Silence

9 Years of war:

5,631 US Dead

$1.09 Trillion into Fiscal 2010

Thanks, George and Silence.

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August 7, 2010 5:53 PM   

just came from fancy farm, protesting paul, cantor and mcconnell. this headline is misleading. there are also dems present. john yarmouth is there, so is jack conway, and jody richardson. the headline makes it sound like only members of the gop are at the festivities in graves county, and the only ones giving speeches.

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August 9, 2010 6:03 PM    in reply to Denise

the headline refers to the graves county republican party breakfast. i'm guessing maybe you didn't actually read past the headline before bothering to criticize it.

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August 7, 2010 8:05 PM   

I don't wish to destroy America.

I just wish to destroy the repub America.

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August 7, 2010 8:54 PM   

What is wrong with the voters in these Southern States. Certainly, some people must have a moral center where they know the difference between what is true, right, and even Christian since most purport to be Christians. Tax cuts, NO votes on unemployment, No votes on helping small businesses, No on health care, etc. are all antiethical to Christianity and caring about others as well as ourselves. Are they really just selfish bast**ds? Is it that a bi-racial person inhabits the WH? What is it?

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August 7, 2010 9:55 PM   

It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that Republicans have a self-determined mental illness, that left unchecked, causes the most grievously afflicted to run for office.

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August 7, 2010 10:21 PM   

It always shocks me when I read these outlandish statements made by the nutters and baggers and then I step back and realizne that they are not talking to intelligent people. They know they can say crazy things to the crazy people in their base. The nutters and baggers are made up of the most angry, the biggest racists, and the most fearful, illiterates the GoP can find. Sadly the GOP is not concerned with the survival of this nation or solutions to the problems. They are unable to articulate the fact they and their failed philosophy created the mess we are in therefore they are unable to fix the problem.

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August 8, 2010 2:49 AM   

The Republican party is a twisted fascist entity whose sole main purpose is to strip mine the wealth of the country and concentrate it to the minority of the few.
The Democratic party is a passive aggressive whore who wants to be wanted, and will sleep with anyone who will give them what they want which is the concentration of political and social power to the government.
The strange thing is that both are getting what the want...the Dem's enable the Republicans to concentrate wealth to the few, and the Republicans assist the Dem's with concentrating power to the government.
Of course, they'll both say "oh no, no, that's not what we're doing at all!"
But their one overriding problem is that the fruit of their endeavors have brought us, this nation, to this point in time.
So really, the Republicans and the Democrats are destroying this nation...I'm just wondering if either of them have a plan for the next version of what we'll be as a incorporated national entity with a defunct and antiquated Constitution.

I don't know...but we do live in interesting times, now.

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August 8, 2010 8:35 PM   

If you want to know what the Republicans are doing or planning, look at what they are accusing the Dems of. The idea is to blunt any Dem criticism by being able to say, "Yah, what you are accusing us of is what we warned the country last year that you were doing." Preemptive criticism.
The other reason they do this is they don't have the imagination to think up fresh lies to throw at the Dems.
I have been observing this pattern since the early Reagan administration.
The scary part is that The Reps DO intend to destroy America, at least as we have known it in the past. They are creating a fascist oligarchy, where all wealth and power is in the hands of a tiny minority. For decades now they have shown no interest in "governing".
They have one answer for everything- lower taxes for the rich, free hand for corporations. They justify everything by Supply Side Economics, a feudal fantasy from day 1, completely refuted by anyone who does not stand to gain by it, and even many who do.

The Democrats are a sad bunch, a sorry horse to have to ride to try to save the nation. But the Republicans are evil.

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August 9, 2010 11:22 AM   

I continue to be amazed how many middle and lower class Americans vote against their financial interests....and for the interests of so few that sit at the very top of the income and wealth ladder. Democracy is for the MAJORITY...not for the few at the top as the Republicans would like everyone to accept or believe.

Trickle down (supply side Or Reagonomics) is NOT consistent with being a Democracy....that is Feudalism.

I hope the populous wakes up and starts voting people like Boehner (went golfing over 165 times so far this year) and McConnell, and Rand Paul and others.....these are country clubbers who want to continue to exploit and degrade the populous so the rich can continue to live the high life.

The dems aren't pefrect - far from it - but they are much closer to the middle and lower class than anything we'll ever see via the Republicans.

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