Mitch McConnell has been known to be very politically fickle. He has telegraphed his support of candidates in the past while keeping a safe distance from them, and keeping his powder dry.
In the United States Senate race McConnell's support for Trey Grayson has been apparent from the beginning. But standing in the wings there has always been former Ambassador to Latvia and former RNC committeewoman from Kentucky, Cathy Bailey.
A few months ago quite a bit of chatter arose about Bailey perhaps entering the US Senate race. Some insiders took this as an indication that McConnell's support of Grayson might have been cooling after some of the bones in Grayson's closet started to be rattled a bit.
It was about that time that Grayson turned on the afterburners in his fund raising and turned in a nice report showing about $600,000 raised in one quarter. Then McConnell agreed to host a fund raising event in DC for Trey and invited some of his Senate cronies.
But word on the street is that Trey has been scrambling the last few days trying to put together a really good second quarter. In a couple weeks we will know for sure how well he did.
But an interesting development has popped up on the radar screen just as the quarter is ending.
Cathy Bailey will be hosting a private lunch at her house for the visiting Laura Bush in Louisville next Tuesday. Nothing particularly odd about that considering how close Cathy is with the former first family.
But in politics, the timing of things is often revealing of more than what at first appears. Although reading these tea leaves is subject to more than one interpretation, the combination of a sudden flurry of activity by Trey, coupled with a sudden push by him for money joined in the press of the day with a story about Cathy Bailey hosting a private party for Laura Bush does raise the possibility of an interesting scenario.
Might McConnell be unimpressed with Grayson's ability to raise money compared to what Rand Paul has been able to bring in? Might McConnell be exploring the possibility of changing horses?
Stay tuned. In so many ways these races for the U.S. Senate are getting "curious-er and curious-er" every day.
No way the national GOP wants Grayson and Bailey running against each other. Their game is always to clear the field as best as possible to have the cheapest and least-damaging primaries as possible....and have one candidate they like.
Grayson is already official.
I think it's just a party among close friends.
Posted by: Dan | September 29, 2009 at 06:05 PM