The chatter amongst the Inside-the-Beltway C&CCS* set is the recent flare up in the barely simmering ideological flame war between the Establishment “Main Street Republican” Decepticons and grassroots Tea Party activists leading into the 2014 election cycle for the very soul and future direction of “Conservatism” in America.
In addition to not-so-subtle chats with martial industry lobbyists, at a fundraiser held in early November McConnell personally demanded Defense contractors pony up to stop the Tea Party assault or face a defense contract spending drought in the next Congress.

Sources close to the discussions state McConnell is looking for deep pockets to fund his “one issue” campaign to “teach” those who seek to primary “approved” Establishment Republicans a “lesson” as some type of ill conceived anodynic salve that will simultaneously heal the internecine rupture and rally the troops while affirmatively castigating the wayward “wild eyed” Tea Party patriots and extinguishing any lingering questions about his impoverished ability to lead fence sitting middle America into rallying behind a resurgent majority Republican Congress. Overall support from the defense industries has tapered significantly since the 2008 cycle, and McConnell is demanding they open the spigot – wide.

Adding to McConnell’s duress is the release of polling numbers that show the Senior Senator from Kentucky in a statistical dead heat with the expected Democratic nominee in his own district, a little factoid that is gleefully exploited by the partisan hard Left.
As whispers in Washington about McConnell’s ability to bring home a Senate majority in 2014 increase with intensity, McConnell was forced to publicly backpedal  issuing the standard Washington “non apology apology” and insist he was misunderstood and is, in reality, a “big fan” of the Tea Party!

However, if there is any doubt as to whether or not McConnell is a bonafide Decepticon, one only needs to review his statements on and off the record over the past few months.  McConnell seems to agree more with the Prog talking points designed solely to Alinsky and demonize the Tea Party than with the substance of Tea Party objections to the Decepticon axis of malfeasance.

The Opposition:

“Republicans have not learned their lesson, which will benefit Democrats.”

“…Even with all of this bad news, Tea Party Republicans still intend to repeat their tactics again in January and February when the budget and debt ceiling deadlines approach again. They truly have not learned any lessons from this time around. They are willing to damage their own party and hurt America just to oppose President Obama. And if they keep refusing to back down, it’ll not only mean more support for Democrats in future elections, but also definitive victories.”
Source: https://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/10/19/mitch-mcconnell-alison-lundergan-senate/
Now compare and contrast the Prog anti-Tea Party talking points quoted above to McConnell’s own recent (December 2013) statements enumerating his grievances against the Tea Party, demanding that the GOP get on board to “stand up to” and “push back” against Tea Party conservatives, whilst appearing to simultaneously agree with the Prog groundwork already laid to blame potential Republican losses not on the disconnect between “Main Street Republicans” (ie: sell out Decepticons) and the concerns of “soft” middle and Right leaning voters facing escalating economic insecurity, but because of “unrealistic” “Tea Party insistence” on stopping the federal spending spigot which has been coupled with the expansion of government from a central provider of resources for the “common weal” into an insatiable Leviathan.  McConnell has proven himself to be quite adroit in appropriating the tactics and language of the ascendant far-Left, as evidenced by his blithe use of Isolate – Marginalize – Personalize the independent Tea Party groups he views as most troublesome to his Agenda of “Business as Usual”.

“…The Senate Conservatives Fund is giving conservatism a bad name,”
“They’re [SCF] participating in ruining the [Republican] brand,” McConnell said.
Source
“…There is one particular organization that I was talking about, which I think has been counterproductive.”

…”It is the one that I think has engaged in outrageous behavior that’s cost us seats…”