It is amazing the lengths to which the Republican Party of Kentucky will go to protect Mitch McConnell. Lest anyone forget, the Republican Party of Kentucky conducts its business in Frankfort from its headquarters housed in the "Mitch McConnell Building".
As you read the following story, and consider the documents related to it, consider the definition of a censure:
The counties that have censured Mitch McConnell, according to the definition above, have simply but carefully expressed their severe disapproval of Mitch McConnell in formal statements, passed by majority votes in their respective county parties.
There are many who have argued that censuring Mitch McConnell is meaningless; it does nothing. Really? If that's true, why is the Republican Party of Kentucky so eager to kill the censures that have been published by several county parties? Why are they going to such extraordinary steps to silence those Republicans who serve on those county parties? Why would they violate the rights of those Republicans to freely associate and freely speak on this issue? Were the colonies out of order when they authored the Declaration of Independence?
According to the Republican Party of Kentucky, the Declaration of Independence was out of order because King Charles was not a member of the colonies. Do you think that logic is bizarre? Keep reading, that's the reason given to conclude that Hardin County's censure resolution was "out of order".
On November 29th, 2022 the Hardin County Republican Committee voted to censure Senator Mitch
McConnell. Here is a copy of that censure:
On December 5, 2022 Cheryl Benitez, chair of the Hardin County Republican Committee, filed an appeal with the
2nd District Republican Committee that challenged the censure resolution. Here is a copy of the Benitez letter of challenge:
On December 28th, 2022 the 2nd District Republican Committee convened virtually to deliberate and
ultimately was able to reach a majority decision which was published on December 30, 2022.
To summarize the reasoning of the 2nd District Committee, because Mitch McConnell is not a member of the Hardin County Republican Party, he cannot be censured by the Hardin County Republican Party.
On January 5, 2023, the Hardin County party members appealed the 2nd district committee decision to the state committee.
IMPORTANT: The presentation of Cheryl Benitez and Laura Larue was done in secret. No recording of that presentation has been made public although we know that the presentation was recorded. Beyond the Benitez letter of December 5th, no other documents supporting the appeal were made public.
When I learned of the Cheryl Benitez letter of December 5, 2022, I wrote to Chairman Mac Brown and strongly hinted at the backlash he could expect if the RPK moved to silence Hardin County, and in essence to silence all counties. Here is my letter and supporting documents:
The following email, with additional documents already sent to Chairman Mac Brown, was sent to Timothy Gilliam on December 18, 2022. Here is that email and supporting documents:
NOTE: You can send your communications about this page to the manager of the web page, Robert L (Bob) Barney, barneyrl@compulife.com or call him at (859) 858-9030
