KENTUCKY’S
KING
staff. “He set a standard out there
for all of us in the party,” Hornback says. “Our thoughts are pretty much in line.”
McConnell is in line to awkwardly embrace them all, whether
teaching state pols how to raise
money or set up committees or
simply create a lasting culture.
If that means using his beloved
University of Louisville football
games as Republican unity sessions, so be it. Invites to his tailgate parties are coveted.
“Before I was Senate president,
he did it with the prior Senate
president,” Stivers says of the
tailgates. “He did it with me as a
floor leader.”
McConnell might, if the mood
strikes during the game, offer a
stiff high five. “You can see almost
the emotion,” Stivers says.
MONUMENTS
In place of a discernible philosophy or lasting impact on the lives
of ordinary citizens, there are
other monuments. In Owensboro,
there’s a Mitch McConnell Way
and, on the city’s riverfront, a
Mitch McConnell Plaza. Outside
Louisville, there is a 5.4-mile trail
in the Jefferson County National
Forest called Mitch McConnell
HUFFINGTON
08.11.13
Loop. In 2004, Bowling Green established the River Walk at Mitch
McConnell Park.
The Mitch McConnell Center for
Political Leadership crowds half
a floor of the University of Louisville’s library with a hodgepodge
of mundane artifacts celebrating
his Senate career. One placard
notes that he has served longer
than Wendell Ford, while another
details his interest in Henry Clay’s
desk. A portrait of a younger McConnell is inscribed: “In a representative democracy senators are
elected to lead, not merely to reflect which way the political wind
is blowing at any given time.”
Though Paducah has yet to name
a building or street after McConnell, the town is a testament to
his complicated legacy. Millions
in earmarks have promised new
waterfront development, but that
optimism recedes a block or two
away from the Ohio River. The
downtown business district is gaptoothed with darkened buildings
and empty lots. Even the storefront
biker church looks in need of salvation, inhabiting half of a big pink
building still advertising discount
clothes for a long-departed retailer.
Remnants of the city’s Spielbergian rocket dreams endure in the
murals along the imposing flood
wall that still celebrate the Atomic
City. Both the city and its senator