#StandWithMitch? Sen. McConnell Piggybacks On Rand Paul’s Filibuster In Fundraising Email

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) didn’t join his fellow Kentucky senator’s filibuster until it was nearly its twelfth hour, but that hasn’t stopped him from using it as a fundraising tool in a new email delivered to supporters today. The email asks supporters to sign a petition on Facebook that reads, “I stand WITH Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell. They are shining examples of Republican leadership” and make a donation to McConnell’s campaign.

Does McConnell’s fundraising plea represent another instance of the senator jumping on the Rand Paul “bandwagon,” as Mediaite’s Andrew Kirell put it in a recent column, or was he genuinely inspired by the filibuster to make a renewed stand for civil liberties?

Jon Stewart was one of the first to go after McConnell for hopping on the “concern-the-executive-branch-might-be-trampling-the-Constitution-train” on an episode of The Daily Show last week. Stewart pointed out that unlike the younger generation of senators like Paul and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), McConnell was in office during the Bush years and did not stand up against issues like “torture” and “warrant-less wiretapping.”

Watch video below, via Comedy Central:

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