Mitch McConnell Killed Bipartisan Energy Bill Just to Help Repug Candidate in New Hampshire

Yet more proof that Mitch does not give a flying fuck about the Kentuckians he supposedly represents. He deliberately scuttled a bill that would have helped everyone in Kentucky who drives or uses electricity because he cares more about repug candidates in foreign states.

Kevin Drum:

Earlier this week, Republicans killed a carefully crafted, bipartisan energy bill that was three years in the making. Ostensibly, this was done in protest against Harry Reid's refusal to allow votes on additional amendments, an issue that's been a longtime grievance for the GOP. But that wasn't the real problem. After all, everyone knows that delicately constructed bills like this one need to be passed on an all-or-nothing basis once a majority coalition has been painstakingly assembled. What's more, the Republican amendments were all on tangential hobbyhorses (Keystone XL, EPA power plant regs, etc.) that were designed solely as election-year rube bait anyway.

No, it turns out that the bill was killed because Scott Brown, who's running for a Senate seat in New Hampshire against Jeanne Shaheen, asked Mitch McConnell to kill it. Jon Chait tells the story:

Brown is running against Shaheen this November, and Republicans — especially would-be Majority leader Mitch McConnell — want Brown to beat Shaheen because they want to win a majority. 

Brown needs to deprive Shaheen of the afterglow that would come from shepherding a (now rare) bipartisan bill through Congress....

Brown's gonna lose big to Shaheen, but Mitch will probably beat Alison Lundergan Grimes, who's running so repug-lite she should be on the repug primary ballot, not the Democratic one.