Here's an interesting editorial on Mitch McConnell's effect on the country.

THE BACK OF HIS HAND  from The Courier-Journal

If Mitch McConnell has his way, this year's campaign for his Senate seat will be about the taxpayer money he brings home and conspicuously distributes, while admiring voters applaud.

Fair enough. This is part of what a long-time Washington insider can do. However, politics should be more than just cash and carry.

For example, Mr. McConnell blocked the Senate Democrats' stimulus package, preferring instead a cheaper, less humane House-passed plan that got President Bush's blessing but won't include some of the country's most needy.

The Senate majority wants $30 billion more for an economic rev-up. This should be seen as doable by those who have squandered $100 billion per year on war in Iraq. But Sen. McConnell objects, resisting payments of $500 each to some 20 million low-income Americans living only on Social Security benefits, and to about 250,000 veterans dependent on government benefits.

When you step into the voting booth this fall, Sen. McConnell wants you to remember not how thoroughly he thwarted those in need but how craftily he distributes federal handouts to his home state.

"I can give you their own speech on unemployment compensation, on food stamps," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, referring to talks with the GOP administration. "They don't believe in them, OK? So there was no way to agree, when they don't believe that food stamps are important -- when they believe that if you extend unemployment benefits it only keeps people from looking for a job, which is a little hard to comprehend."

A McConnell spokesman complains that Sen. Reid and his allies "already conceded they are trying to make a point, not a law." This is true. They are trying to make the point that some of society's most vulnerable -- real people with real needs -- should be included in the stimulus effort, with increased benefits for the elderly and veterans, subsidies for low-income families facing huge home heating bills and other energy costs, mortgage counseling for distressed homeowners, extended unemployment benefits, increased food stamps and tax credits for alternative energy sources.

Millions of Americans are in economic trouble, while the Big Energy friends of George W. Bush and Mitch McConnell wallow in historic profits. Yesterday, Exxon Mobil Corp. posted the largest annual gain ever by a U.S. company -- $40.6 billion. The rest of us are left to cower at the gasoline pumps.

Mitch McConnell feels he deserves re-election because he "does so much for Kentucky." Never mind what he and his friend have done to America.