Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is becoming increasingly concerned about his 2014 re-election chances in Kentucky, according to a Progressive Super PAC that says it is partnering with unnamed TEA Party groups to paint McConnell as a corrupt insider and knock him out of his longtime Senate seat in a Republican primary.

A recent McConnell campaign fundraising email accused liberals of “attempting to infiltrate conservative” groups in Kentucky. Another McConnell campaign email accused the liberal organization MoveOn.org of supporting a “phony TEA Party” in an attempt to beat the senior senator. Though MoveOn disputed the McConnell campaign’s charges, the progressive super PAC Progress Kentucky is openly waging the kind of attack that McConnell seems worried about...

Progress Kentucky, which filed as a Kentucky-based super PAC on Dec. 13, says it is making a concerted push to align itself with TEA Party groups in order to field and support a viable Republican primary challenger for McConnell. Reilly said that his group is already in productive communication with TEA Party leaders across the state.

Matt Bevin, a 46-year old investment management adviser who hails from New Hampshire and owns a bell-making business in Connecticut, has expressed interest in challenging McConnell in a Republican primary. A prominent philanthropist and Louisville resident since the late 1990s, insiders believe Bevin could help the TEA Party portray a more educated and moderate image after more than three years of attacks targeting it as a “racist” political movement.

Progress Kentucky supports Bevin’s potential candidacy, and Reilly expressed excitement at the prospect of “a young guy with a huge company” challenging McConnell.

“TEA Party, Beer party. Doesn’t matter — as long as he’s challenging Mitch McConnell, we’re not gonna hate,” Progress Kentucky declared on its Facebook page, in reference to a news item on Bevin.

READ FULL SOURCE ARTICLE: 02/22/2013

Editor's Note: Eyebrows are raised with a curious eye...Since when does the Progressive Movement embrace: a) the "manufactured, astroturf" TEA Party Movement, and b) corporate America?...Something doesn't smell right here...and even though we are no fans of Mitch McConnell (could the GOP find someone less dynamic than Mitch McConnell to be their voice of inspiration in the US Senate?) we do not trust the Progressives to throw them and believe their motives to be suspect...