The so-called “war on women” campaign is back.
Or at least that’s what the Democrats working to defeat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in the Kentucky Senate race want you to think.
Using a tactic out of President Obama’s re-election campaign’s playbook, the campaign of Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes is going all out trying to paint McConnell as a sexist over a Tweet neither he nor his campaign sent out.
Everything began Tuesday when the National Republican Senatorial Committee — the political arm of incumbent Republican senators that supports McConnell’s re-election — tweeted a link to a blog post asking if Grimes is the new “Obama Girl.” The post detailed how the Democrat quietly attended a fundraiser with first lady Michelle Obama, who called for new gun control and praised her husband’s unpopular health-care law. Both are deeply unpopular stances in Kentucky.
The phrase “Obama Girl” references the series of videos made by a model in 2007 in support of Obama. The blog included a photoshopped image of Grimes head on the body of that woman, though the image has since removed it.
Liberal websites immediately attacked the political organization over the Tweet. “NRSC Tweets Sexualized Attack Against Alison Lundergan Grimes,” the Huffington Post headline screamed. The NRSC apologized, called the Tweet offensive and blamed a junior staffer.
But by Tuesday afternoon, Grimes campaign was working hard to connect McConnell to the Tweet, releasing numerous statements using the it to accuse the Republican of sexism. “The incredibly inappropriate comments from Senator McConnell’s team mark a developing pattern and demonstrate just how out of touch McConnell is with the women of Kentucky,” Grimes said.
In another release, Grimes’ campaign connected McConnell to the Tweet: “From voting against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and Paycheck Fairness Act, to blocking the Violence Against Women Act, Mitch McConnell has voted against Kentucky women’s interests time and time again. Now comes a gratuitous assault on Grimes that is a shameful insult to all Kentucky women.”
Grimes spokeswoman Charly Norton, a former Obama campaign spokeswoman, called on McConnell to “apologize to the women of Kentucky and tell them what he thinks about this growing sexism from his organization.”
“The only thing worse than this latest sexualized attack is Mitch McConnell’s abysmal record on issues important to women,” she said.
On Wednesday, McConnell’s campaign held a conference call with its “Women for Team Mitch” coalition leaders to call the line of attack “ridiculous.”
“I find it ridiculous that Alison Lundergan Grimes is trying to make a big deal out of some Tweet that has nothing to do with Senator McConnell when here at home Kentuckians are suffering from rising unemployment in our coal region due to President Obama’s excessive regulations and more than 280,000 hard working Kentuckians have lost their health insurance due to Obamacare,” said Ellen Williams, the former chairwoman of the Republican Party of Kentucky.
Said Williams: “Alison Lundergan Grimes should be talking about these issues with Kentucky women instead of scouring Twitter for political opportunities.”
Allison Ball, an attorney in Kentucky, also accused Grimes of only caring “about sexism when it’s politically beneficial for Alison Lundergan Grimes.” She cited how Grimes didn’t call on Democratic State Rep. John A. Arnold to resign after three women accused him of sexual harassment.
“She refused to stand up for the women who were sexually assaulted in her own workplace by her own colleagues, but will publicly demagogue with national Democrats for her own political gain,” Ball said.
Critics say the Democrats are being hypocritical. While the Grimes campaign is decrying the Obama girl image, the candidate recently tweeted a photo of herself in a tank top holding a gun. She often refers to herself as “Kentucky woman.”
And while the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee blasted their counterparts at the NRSC over the Tweet, DSCC spokeswoman Regan Page referred to the “Obama Girl” model as “a love-struck, sex-crazed girl from a viral video” — something that could also be seen as offensive.
But while Republicans claim the Grimes campaign is blowing the Tweet way out of proportion, the Grimes’ campaign is signaling it has no intention to stop anytime soon.
On Wednesday, the campaign released a statement from Elsie Case, Grimes’ maternal grandmother.
“Senator McConnell, you owe the women of Kentucky an apology,” Case said. “There are a million of us mothers and grandmothers in Kentucky who think Team Mitch ought to wash their mouths out with soap.”