This just in: The "Moscow Mitch" moniker is rattling Kentucky's senior senator who is famous for dismissing detrators with icy smugness. The majority leader popped his cork on the Senate floor today, lambasting "hyperventilating hacks" for hanging the handle on him and accusing him of being a "Russian asset." Click here to see Moscow Mitch morph into Meltdown Mitch.
By BERRY CRAIG
AFT Local 1360
Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe show, was all over the news last weekend after he nicknamed Mitch McConnell “Moscow Mitch.”
"I'm glad to see he's on board," said retired teacher Marshall Ward of Murray, who hung the "Moscow" Mitch handle on the Senate majority leader in the Murray Ledger & Times on April 24.
“I’ve been trying to contact Morning Joe, but haven’t been able to find an email address or phone number,” said Ward, who writes a political column for his hometown paper. His columns also appear on the Kentucky State AFL-CIO website.
“‘Moscow’ Mitch’s legacy will be ‘He helped open up the floodgates of Russian influence which harmed our democracy,’” Ward wrote in the Ledger & Times.
Ward’s a liberal Democrat, which makes him an endangered species in the Republican Red Jackson Purchase, as far west as Kentucky goes.
Anyway, McConnell is often the object of Ward’s disaffection.
“... ‘Moscow’ Mitch is benefitting from his direct and indirect ties to Putin and Russian oligarchs, which guided his vote to lift Russian sanctions in January 2019,” Ward added in his April musing. “Why would Mitch NOT work for the interests and welfare of the American people and the Commonwealth? Why would McConnell cling to Trump, who is a lover of all things Putin?”
McConnell’s not a lover of all things Ward.
In a March column, Ward predicted, "History will not be so kind to Mitch. He will be remembered as the main enabler of a president who is a pathological liar and autocrat."
You'd think Moscow Mitch would be too busy in Washington packing water for Putin's pal in the White House to notice Ward's column. But McConnell fired back in the Murray paper, claiming the "column was filled with misleading statements and outright falsehoods." He said Ward "may prefer Nancy Pelosi's far-left vision for the Commonwealth and our country, but the overwhelming majority of Kentuckians do not."
In any event, Ward is glad to see "Moscow Mitch" catching on coast-to-coast, thanks to Scarborough.
"Suffice to say when Mitch McConnell gets called out by a former Republican congressman as 'Moscow Mitch' it's time to change the slogan from 'Ditch Mitch' to 'Replace Moscow Mitch,'" suggested Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan.
It may be too late to print up "Replace Moscow Mitch" bumper stickers for Saturday's Fancy Farm picnic. But homemade signs would do nicely.