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At 72, GOP's McConnell Vows He'll 'Crush Them All'


Senator-Mitch-McConnell-R.jpgAddison Mitchell McConnell Jr., better known as U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is shooting for his sixth six-year term, a Congressional longevity record that goes back to 1985.  He is a crocodile by most of the current age levels in the Congress.
 
He is the longest serving U.S. Senator in Kentucky history. He is also the seventh most-senior Senator and the fourth most senior Republican member.
 
At 72, when many of his old buddies in his home town of Sheffield, AL are taking it easy, relaxing on front-porch rocking chairs, McConnell says he is not slowing down. He wants to keep his important post in the U.S. Senate - and the Senate, just as anxiously, needs McConnell for another six years.
 
McConnell has two big hurdles coming up. Either contest will make or break him. The first arrives May 20, the Republican primary election in Kentucky.  The second shows up Nov. 4 to elect or re-elect a Kentucky son to the U.S. Senate.
 
Of all the mid-term elections scheduled for May 20, the one in Kentucky is where the country's political eyes and ears will be focused. The reason:  Across the political land, all 435 House seats and 36 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be on the ballots.
 
The GOP has made no secret that it needs and wants to gain at least six more seats in the Senate to be able to control both the House and the Senate in the coming years. The Senate is banking on Democrats losing at least that number.
 
Right now, the Democratic Party holds 53 seats in the Senate; Independents, two; and he GOP 45.  Fifty-five seats is considered a majority.
 
In the House of Representatives, the Republicans hold 233 seats; the Democrats, 199. There are three vacant seats.
 
McConnell's chief opponent May 20 appears to be Matthew Griswold Bevin, better known as Matt Bevin, the millionaire entrepreneur from Louisville, KY.
 
Bevin can't stand McConnell at the same McConnell dismisses Bevin as a lightweight. Many in the Senate's so-called Tea Party back Bevin. But neither candidate appears to have anywhere near a 50 percent voter approval level weeks before the primary.
 
McConnell has raised almost $25 million and spent about half of that at this writing.  Bevin's supporters claim they will have $3 million shortly and will spend all of that before May 20.
 
Both are confident they will breeze through the primary to face top Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky's Secretary of State, in the Nov. 4 general election.
 
McConnell has told supporters he will "crush them all," no matter how many challengers he may face May 20 or Nov. 4.
 
Bill Clinton is beating the drums for Grimes. The National Rifle Association is beating the drums loudly for McConnell.
 
McConnell will win May 20 -- but he'll be history Nov. 4. 
 

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