The Turtle Gets Shelled

Looks like Sen. Mitch McConnell is going to draw a primary challenger from the right after all.

Louisville businessman, Matt Bevin, plans to enter the Kentucky U.S. Senate race against Mitch McConnell, WHAS11 has learned.

Sources say, Bevin plans to air television commercials next week. An announcement is also planed as early as next week.

Bevin is a partner at Waycross Partners, a Louisville hedge fund.  He is the founder and former CEO of Integrity Asset Management in Louisville (the investment management firm was sold to a Michigan firm in 2010). A  former U.S. Army officer, Bevin also owns Bevin Brothers Mfg. Co. in East Hampton, Connecticut.  The bell making company was founded by Bevin's great-great-great-grandfather in 1832.

So Bevin has some pretty deep pockets. And the interesting thing is the actual Tea Party here in Kentucky is furious with the guy.

"Would this business owner taking taxpayer money to rebuild his business after a fire be considered to support limited government, free-markets, fiscal responsibility? What happen to his business insurance coverage?" asked John T. Kemper of the United Kentucky Tea Party.

Kemper has pledged to secure a well-funded tea party candidate to challenge McConnell in the 2014 race.

“I’ve never heard of this new guy but what would I know about the Kentucky Tea Party, right?" wrote Christopher Hightower a one-time statehouse candidate and volunteer for Rand Paul's 2010 U.S. Senate campaign.  "Of course the media will anoint anyone as a Tea Party candidate, as long as they take on Sen. McConnell.”

The Louisville Tea Party President, meanwhile, said Tuesday she was angry with The Hill reporter Alexandra Jaffe who interviewed her concerning the Bevin story.

"I just wanted to set the record straight that the reporter from The Hill twisted my words around like no other reporter I've ever talked to," said Sarah Durand, Louisville Tea Party President.  " Everything I said was taken out of context to present a story that is extremely inaccurate."

Durand said the story gave the impression that Bevin was courting tea party support.  In reality, she asserted, some Republicans have courted Bevin.

Bevin is talking to a variety of people about the senate race, including McConnell supporters, Durand said.   She added that she would never encourage anyone to run for political office.

Now things get interesting.  Post Rand Paul,  the Tea Party here has basically been shut out and shut up.  Nobody wants to hear from them anyway.  And it looks like they're being brushed aside again to make way from another clown from the country club business wing of the party, who saw how McConnell made tens of millions of dollars as a US Senator and wants in on the action.

Imagine that.