Mitch McConnell At Odds With Party Over Income Tax In Fiscal Cliff Talks

The gathering revolt in the House and among conservatives over the Senate tax deal is bad news for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who looked like Henry Clay late Monday night but who is emerging with feet of clay as of Tuesday night.

McConnell, who faces reelection in Kentucky next year, evidently calculated that for the good of the country, his Republican Party and his own chances of winning another term that it would be a good idea to broker a deal containing an income tax on the rich. He had taken steps to protect his own right flank in Kentucky by hiring Sen. Rand Paul's campaign manager as his own.

McConnell's fiscal cliff decision at first looked both shrewd and even courageous. The senator has a portrait of the revered Kentuckian Clay -- the Great Compromiser -- in his office, and he would like to be seen as a constructive, statesmanly figure of national scope.

But he seems to have miscalculated the almost suicidal opposition of the new, younger rank-and-file GOP to tax increases of any kind, especially the iconic income rates cut by former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. The Tea Party would prefer, in general, to bring the global economy to a halt than to cut a deal.

To them, "The Great Compromiser" is the worst thing you can be.

McConnell's nemesis and fellow Kentucky Republican, Sen. Rand Paul, was one of only a handful of GOPers to vote "no" last night.

No Clay he, and he doesn't want to be.

Whether McConnell's championing of the tax deal will cost him in Kentucky isn't clear yet. There is no immediately obvious candidate to challenge him from the right in a GOP primary. But if national conservative groups see him as weak or a traitor -- and some are already talking that way -- there could be national money on the table to fund a bid.

And two years ago no one thought that anyone could beat McConnell's handpicked choice for the Kentucky Senate seat being vacated by Jim Bunning. Well, Paul came out of nowhere and did just that.

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