The Lexington Herald Leader ran an piece from McClatchy Newspapers saying that Kentucky's Mitch McConnell was "marginalized" in the fight over the huge spending bill passed by the Senate with the help of three republicans. They either don't know McConnell or are giving him cover.
The goal of the game McConnell always plays is for Mitch to be the winner. He knows all too well that the sentiment of the public was strongly against this bill. But, he also knew that the dems wanted it very badly. McConnell may have wanted the bill to pass so his Senate republicans could go back to their conservative base and tell them they did all they could.
Mitch may have wanted the bill to pass so he could send messages into states next year where he is targeting democrats for a serious challenge that their senator abandoned them, hocked their future and sent the nation spiraling down into a black hole of debt.
Mitch may have wanted the bill to pass, and wanted the president to know that he could help get it passed in exchange for favors later on. The three republican senators who voted in favor of the bill might very well have done so with McConnell's blessing and secret encouragement. They are from liberal states anyway.
Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine are safe from serious challenge and if McConnell had anything to do with it he would likely have promised them his help in fending off any GOP challengers. His reputation in Kentucky confirms that he obviously has no qualms about meddling in republican primaries, from a safe distance of course, and even in some cases telegraphing his preferences with only the thinnest veil of deniability.
McConnell plays the game of politics so well that it is hard to see him making his plays at all. But one thing is sure, he was not marginalized on this issue. He may have abandoned the best interests of the American people to win a larger battle that he has mapped out in his own mind, and justified it in much the same way as a military general can knowingly sacrifice troops in order to win a war, but marginalized, never.
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