Huffington Magazine Issue 61 | Page 53

KENTUCKY’S KING holler over” can be the best way to give directions. McConnell capitalizes on his country cachet with ads accusing his opponents of being inauthentic creatures of the political machine. The first and most notorious was a cold-blooded ad he ran in his first Senate race in 1984 against Walter “Dee” Huddleston, an ad that became infamous for debasing the tone of national campaigns. Although Huddleston had one of the strongest attendance records in Congress, he had missed a few votes while giving paid speeches. McConnell’s “Hound Dog” ad, produced by future Fox News chief Roger Ailes, featured a man with a pack of dogs searching for Huddleston. It was funny, wry and gently mocking, but the effect was devastating. Huddleston didn’t think anyone would fall for the ad. “I thought the bloodhounds were kind of silly, but as it went on, I thought it was pretty effective,” he told HuffPost. “It wasn’t true.” The ad was so effective that McConnell spit out a sequel in which the man chases an actor playing Huddleston up a tree. It was a sign of things to come, and the launch of a long arc in a HUFFINGTON 08.11.13 lengthy and controversial career. Once McConnell won high office and moved to Washington, his embrace of the broad uses of government dwindled, and he came more and more to focus his career on the goal of acquiring power. By 1990, when Sloane took on McConnell for his Senate seat, the old respect between the two men had gone out the window. On the stump, McConnell called for abolishing campaign donations from political action committees, yet by October he had taken close to $900,000 in PAC money. He deployed class-war tactics, calling Sloane his “millionaire opponent” for holding stock in oil companies, although McConnell and his campaign were highly favored by the industry. “Just remember: Every time the price of gas goes up, rich people like Harvey get richer — and Kentucky families get poorer. We need to fight back,” McConnell argued. McConnell’s campaign even came out and said he was open to raising taxes on the wealthy by eliminating some deductions. In a TV ad, he professed the belief that “everyone should pay their fair share” in taxes, “including the rich.” The central selling point of Sloane’s campaign was his long dedication to universal health