Mitch McConnell is feeling the heat. Consequently, he’s lashing out in all directions, flailing against conservatives, the Tea Party and most of all the Senate Conservative Fund started by Jim Demint. In this morning’s news, McConnell’s proxies, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the NRSC, accused the SCF of being a front man for selling Mark Levin’s books. Levin has been outspoken about his opposition to McConnell and McConnell’s spineless and ineffective opposition to Obama, Reid and the liberals in Washington.

Erick Erickson, writing in Red State, is no McConnell fan. He, like Levin, has endorsed Matt Bevin, McConnell’s primary opponent. Erickson wrote the column below in response to the attacks against Mark Levin.

The Single Biggest Thing You Can Do to Clean Up the GOP

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  January 10th at 12:25 AM

If you have not heard, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has attacked nationally syndicated conservative radio host and best selling author Mark Levin.

They publicly attacked Mark Levin because the Jim DeMint created Senate Conservatives Fund (“SCF”) gives out copies of Mark Levin’s book. The NRSC alleges a quid pro quo relationship to help drive up the popularity of Levin’s book. The book was published in 2009 before SCF was a significant force and had already become a best seller before SCF gave out copies.

This attack follows the National Republican Senatorial Committee (“NRSC”) attacking conservative businesses and threatening to drive them from business because they happen to do business with the Senate Conservatives Fund. The NRSC’s tactics mirror the harassment the IRS inflicted on tea party groups.

Those attacks came after US News and World Report columnist Brian Walsh leveled attacks on conservative groups, including the Senate Conservatives Fund, for daring to hold Republicans accountable for their promises. Subsequent to that column US News and World Report had to admit Brian Walsh is on the payroll of the NRSC.

The Chamber of Commerce, the Main Street Partnership, the NRSC, and lobbyists galore in Washington are coordinating attacks on conservative groups and conservative candidates for daring to champion limited government and hold the GOP accountable for breaking promises. These groups have no interest in supporting limited government and free markets. They support their government and their markets with your tax dollars.

The GOP in Washington has decided that the problem is not government, but Democrats in charge of government. And they’ve decided to punish any conservative who points out government itself is the problem. Conservative groups are attacked by Republican leaders. Conservative candidates are attacked by Republican leaders. Conservative talk radio hosts are attacked by Republican leaders.

The single biggest thing you can do to clean up the GOP is to defeat Mitch McConnell in Kentucky by supporting Matt Bevin. The NRSC attacks all came after the Senate Conservatives Fund decided to support Bevin. The attacks on Mark Levin came after he spoke kindly of Matt Bevin. The attacks on conservative candidates came after Matt Bevin became a credible candidate.

All these attacks came because Mitch McConnell would rather rule in Hell than serve in Heaven. He would rather a Senate GOP minority with himself in charge than a Senate GOP majority with himself retired.

You beat Mitch McConnell, you will find many Republican squishes with squishy soiled underwear. Until you beat Mitch McConnell, these guys in Washington will neither respect you nor fear you.

But when you beat the sitting Senate Republican Leader in a primary, suddenly Washington knows the grassroots are in charge. The attacks on conservatives will only get worse until conservatives beat Mitch McConnell.

And we have our chance with Matt Bevin.

But, it’s not just McConnell and the NRSC, it is also, now, the rank and file Washington ‘Pubs attacking those who helped elect them. Missouri Representative Blaine Leutkemeyer (R-MO-9) is another ‘Pub biting the hand that elected him.

Republican Congressman, Blaine Leutkemeyer is the latest to attack the Tea Party

January 6, 2014

It appears as if the Republican Party has developed a practice of deflecting criticism by casting blame at the Tea Party. Now, Missouri’s 3rd District Congressman, Blaine Leutkemeyer, is taking fire for attacking the Tea Party and accusing the them of “undermining” the Republican agenda. On a St. Louis, conservative, talk radio station, KFTK 97.1 FM , Leutkemeyer specifically accused the Tea Party groups, Heritage Action, Freedomworks and Club for Growth of working in opposition of conservative values and of being liberal organizations whose only interest is to raise money for themselves.

During a press conference in December, the Speaker of the House, John Boehner took a stab at Tea Party groups and various members have followed suit. Congressman Blaine Leutkemeyer rallied to Speaker, John Boehner’s defense for his comments attacking the Tea Party in his radio interviews with Randy Tobler.

“They are misleading their followers. They’re pushing our members in places where they don’t want to be, and frankly I just think they have lost all credibility. You know they pushed us into this fight to defund Obamacare and to shut down the government. And most of you know, and my members know, that wasn’t the strategy that I had in mind.”

~John Boehner

Leutkemeyer specifically targeted Heritage Action as being a non-conservative organization and outlined that they were thrown out of the Republican Conservative Study Group because they were seen as undermining its members, and acting in opposition to the caucus agenda. Leutkemeyer went on to say Heritage Action is actually a liberal organization in conservative clothes. In an interview, with Randy Tobler, on January 4, 2014, Leutkemeyer cited Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, scored a 70% rating on what he, and his staff, considered the most important 20 bills of last year’s session, and 100% on the top 10 bills. He failed to cite specific bills in the interview, or if the bills were also Heritage Action identified bills.

On the Heritage Action Scorecard website, Pelosi actually scored a 16%, which is also equal to the House Democrat average. Leutkemeyer scored 63%, two percentage points below the House Republican average, and he is also the lowest ranking Missouri House Republican, according to the HA scorecard. Heritage Action calculates scores by awarding percentage points to members who vote for and/or co-sponsor bills. Voting against and not co-sponsoring does not negate percentage points in the calculation.

“These groups have a different agenda, that is not a conservative agenda. They do not understand the concept of how to be part of a team.”

~Blaine Leutkemeyer

The criticism began during a December 28, 2013, interview, on the Randy Tobler show, on KFTK 97.1 FM. Tobler took calls from grassroots listeners and fielded a variety of civil but irate comments, so he gave Leutkemeyer an opportunity to return, the following week, to clarify his statements. Leutkemeyer minced no words for his disdain for the three organizations.

Ben Evans, the St. Louis Regional Coordinator for Heritage Action for America, believes Leutkemeyer is falling into lockstep with establishment Republicans, and mimicking the Tea Party attack tactics, because he may be receiving a great deal of heat from his district’s constituents.

“None of these guys want to have conversations about the bills that are in play, right now. They just want to focus on the fight between the grassroots and the GOP. So they use this sort of thing to get the conversation away from what is actually going on in the bill. So you think about what Boehner said before they passed the budget deal, The reason why he made that comment was not because we were fighting him. It was because he didn’t want anyone to see what was going on in that bill, and of course, once it was passed we saw that it cut pensions to the military, and didn’t cut pensions to current government employees. That is the tactic that Leutkemeyer is using right now. They are doing this sort of thing to distract from the real issues.”

~Ben Evans

The column continues with comments by Randy Tobler who attempted to mend the fences destroyed by Leutkemeyer and his Washington puppet-masters. I can see some of Tobler’s viewpoints, but, sadly, he’s mistaken. It is not miscommunication, as Tobler believes. It is purposeful attacks by the Washington establishment who have suddenly realized they could all be tossed out of office. If that happens, they have no where to go, having burned their home-state bridges many times. No where except to admit they never were conservatives and to go to the dems for salvation like other RINOs who have been removed from office.