
McConnell's control the Republican Senate Leadership Fund, a large basket of money which he uses to support the candidates who will support him, is strong and complete. He uses it ruthlessly in advertising, portraying primary opponents of his favorites dishonestly and smothering the airwaves with negative ads which routinely have destroyed them. No example is better than the primary election runoff in Mississippi in 2014 when McConnell's resources were used to end the promising run of Chris McDaniel for the Senate. Despite young McDaniel clearly winning the election, he did not receive the magic 50% and a runoff was required. That's when Mitch and the GOP RINO leadership team put the dirty tricks to work to allow the aging Thad Cochran, a man who likely might not have even understand what he was running for, to squeak by and return to do Mitch's bidding in Washington.
Now, of course, the media is gleefully seeing the outcome of yesterday's election as a rebuke of Trump by his Republican base since the President weakly endorsed Luther Strange against Moore. But what they don't realize is that the endorsement was merely an attempt to curry favor with Mitch to get his agenda through the Senate which we have seen McConnell is either uncapable of doing or actually might oppose. And during his visit to supposedly campaign for Strange, Trump even publicly admitted that he may have made a mistake with his endorsement.
The reality of the situation is that despite his firing, Steve Bannon still remains in touch with Trump and gives him advice from a populist perspective. So, don't expect Trump to be upset with a Senator Moore who will give clear support to Trump's attempt to throttle the Establishment. That is the reason why Moore ran in the first place and the people of Alabama support it. It's just too bad that Trump took the advice given to him by well-placed White House insiders instead of listening to Bannon in the first place.
Repercussions within the Establishment of fear have already surfaced, beginning with the announcement by Bob Corker, Senator from Tennessee and a clear Establishment favorite, to opt out of running for reelection in 2018. Expect more heads to roll on Mitch's team as it finally sinks in that the movement Trump heralded is not going away but is a growing phenomenon in the Republican Party. And the signal that the Bannon-inspired nuts and bolts operation sends to the President is that they will keep the President on track from the outside. That's something not even the big lobbyist dollars can counter as the numbers grow.
Look for more of the staid out of touch Republican Senators who are up for election to opt not to run again. And if they stay in the race, look for the energy level and quality of challengers to grow and prosper. Americans knows what the Establishment of both parties has done to our country over the last half century and they are sick of it. Their time is just about up. Look for more pro-America change in 2018.