Latest in the Great Kentucky Crossfire

“I did it because fuck you Mitch:”

Sen. Rand Paul said Mitch McConnell is to blame for the unraveling of Chad Meredith’s planned nomination to be a federal district court judge. “I support Chad Meredith and supported him when he was considered for a different position. I think he would make a good judge. Unfortunately, instead of communicating and lining up support for him, Senator McConnell chose to cut a secret deal with the White House that fell apart,” Paul said in a statement to McClatchyDC Monday evening. Kentucky’s junior Republican senator told reporters on Monday that he did not sign off on Meredith because McConnell failed to consult with him on the selection.

All with the caveat that no one involved in this is in any way likely to tell the truth. Kentucky politics is grand in its eldritch horror, although it’s a shame that it’s being exported onto the rest of the country. One thing that I’ve noticed is that outside observers exaggerate the degree of control that Mitch has over the state GOP apparatus. The Mitch Machine is extremely impressive, but Mitch can’t dictate outcomes (he backed Paul’s opponent in 2010, and Matt Bevin’s opponent in 2015) in GOP primaries, and he doesn’t have that much influence on the Democratic side.