| MITCH, PLEASE! How Mitch McConnell Sold Out Kentucky (and America Too) Matt Jones with Chris Tomlin New York: Simon & Schuster, March 2020 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-1-9821-4204-9 | ||||
| ISBN-10 1-9821-4204-9 | 500pp. | HC | $27.00 | |
| Place | Tagline | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Powell County (August 24, 2019) |
Rallying 'Round the Rooster | Matt Jones makes his first political speech |
| Place | Tagline | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Hardin County | Mitch and the Hounds | The Roger Ailes ad that got Mitch into the Senate |
| Grayson County | Guns and Babies | The dominant political issues in much of Kentucky, related to the travelers in this very red county by Democrats Becky and Harold Miller of Leitchfield. |
| Breckenridge County | "He Doesn't Even Know Who I Am to Look at Me" | Democrat Dean Schamore, a Gulf War veteran, served in the Republican-dominated state lege until targeted for a smear campaign by the Kentuckians for Strong Leadership PAC. |
| Meade County | "Surely People Aren't Buying This; They Know Me" | Jeff Greer, another state representative targeted for the crime of being a Democrat. |
| Bullitt County | When We Walked in Fields of Gold | Home of Fort Knox, the county's economy was decimated by troop drawdowns by the BRAC. McConnell had only words in support. |
| LaRue County | Oral Reports About Lincoln Are Off-Limits | A telling comparison of Honest Abe with Mendacious Mitch. |
| Nelson County | "Screw Your Tourism Business, I Want Answers" | Home to the Old Barton 1792 and Heaven Hill distilleries and the annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival, the tourist town of Bardstown has lately lost favor due to some local murders. The locals try to hide this — a strategy much used by Mitch McConnell in politics. |
| Hart County | "You Ready for a Gun, Fella?" | How the ACA has helped Kentucky — epitomized by the tale of Nichole Nimmo, suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and Hodgkin's Lymphoma. |
| Spencer County | "I Don't Watch the News. . . . I Have Enough Issues in My Life" | Cheri Bustos tells Matt Jones the three most important things in campaigning: money, money, and money.1 |
| Place | Tagline | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Graves County | 99 Problems, but a Mitch Ain't One | Matt Jones takes part in the Fancy Farm Picnic — according to him, one of the best events in politics anywhere. |
| McCracken County | "I Guess It Was at Least Better Than a Poke in the Eye" | McConnell's role in cleaning up after the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. |
| Livingston County | "I Hope This Is Not the Moment This Bridge Chooses To Collapse" | Kentucky infrastructure failures, episode 1: the Lucy Jefferson Lewis Memorial Bridge. |
| Crittenden County | "You Don't Get Any Real Answer" | Kentucky infrastructure failures, episode 2: a bridge on Highway 64 is finished, but the road connecting to it is not. |
| Lyon County | "Nobody Thinks, When They Bump Their Knee, 'Oh, It Might Be Cancer'" | Eddyville native Cullan Brown, a UK athlete stricken with osteosarcoma. |
| Trigg County | Fish Are Flying By My Head | Matt Jones takes part in a midnight raid on invasive Asian carp at Lake Barkley. |
| Ballard County | Calling Chuck Schumer | More on Asian carp; Matt Jones deals with Chuck Schumer & Amy McGrath. |
| Carlisle County | "They Think He Helps Trump Get Stuff Done" | Given their poor roads, the good folks of Carlisle County have been pushing for a Mississippi River port — to no avail. |
| Hickman County | "Senator McConnell Looks Out for the People of Kentucky" | To the struggling small farmers of Hickman County, Trump's $28 billion bailout looks good. |
| Fulton County | The Banana Fashion Show | Once known as the banana capital of the world, Fulton County sets a heap o'store by its festival. |
| Calloway County | "I'm as Republican as Fuck" | Matt quizzes the students of Murray State University about McConnell, with disappointing results (except for green-bandana guy.) |
| Caldwell County | "He's Been There Too Long" | Things look better when he meets young people in Princeton, including its 25-year-old mayor Dakota Young. |
| Marshall County | "We're Not Democrats, We're Not Republicans, We're Marshall Countians" | Local response to a shooting at Marshall County High School highlights the gun-control dilemma. |
| Place | Tagline | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Boone County | "How Much Money Do You Think These Billionaires Need?" | The "trickle-down" myth — as in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 |
| Kenton County | The Intersection of Disaster | The crumbling Brent Spence Bridge |
| Campbell County | The Original Sin City | Newport: the gritty prototype for Las Vegas |
| Grant County | Render Unto Caesar That Which Is Caesar's | Ken Ham's Ark Encounter |
| Pendleton County | The Town McConnell Forgot | Falmouth: flooded and largely abandoned |
| Owen County | Playing Strip Pool | Struggling public education |
| Trimble County | Waiting on Their McConnell Prize | Emblematic of struggling rural counties |
| Gallatin County | Rubbin's Racin' | Matt versus Amy McGrath |
| Henry County | Mitch the Environmental Killer | Wendell Berry versus Mitch |
| Carroll County | Get Shorty | Harold "Shorty" Tomlinson, working both sides of the aisle |
| Shelby County | "It's Like I'm Just in Somebody Else's House | A weird monument, and a haven for Latinos |
| Oldham County | "If He's Not Going to Do Anything, He's Got to Go" | Elsie Carter, a die-hard Trump supporter (so far) |
| Place | Tagline | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Leslie County | They took us to the scene of that disaster I was so surprised to not find any sign of death at all Just another country hillside with some mudholes and some junk The mines were deadly silent like a rathole in the wall 2 |
The Hurricane Creek mine disaster, December 1970 |
| Letcher County | "Last I Checked, He Was Sleeping with Your Boss" | Black lung disease, resurgent |
| Pike County | "He Feels Like Nobody Can Bring Him Down. I Am Sure Gonna Try" | MM holds up the American Mines Act, slights miners who come to DC to meet him |
| Floyd County | "Well, That's What Christianity Is Supposed To Be About, Isn't It?" | Democrat Greg Stumbo, controversial native son |
| Martin County | "He Could Have at Least Lied To Me" | Massey Energy coal slurry pollutes Tug Fork River, destroys county's water supply. MM doesn't help. |
| Perry County | Friend of Coal | Paul Wellstone meets with miners; MM meets with mine owners. |
| Harlan County | "He's Not Pro-Coal. I Don't Even Think He's Pro-Kentucky" | Blackjewel Mine CEO stiffs miners; MM ignores the problem. |
| Johnson County | "There's Just No Opportunity Here for Our Kids" | Paintville: mining out, opioids in; both MM and HRC get blame |
| Breathitt County | Bloody Breathitt | Politician Cluster Howard seeks to revitalize area, inspires Obama's RECLAIM Act |
| Wolfe County | Fighting the Opioid Epidemic | MM holds up 2018 bipartisan bill to hurt Democrats |
| Lawrence County | The City of Hope | Louisa leading the way with Addiction Recovery Center |
| Carter County | "It's Like Being Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at the Same Time" | Former addict Eric Bush tells his story |
| Knott County | "It Usually Began for Them with a Prescription" | The Artisan Center and the Troublesome Creek Stringed Instrument Company, both funded by NEA grants MM hates the National Endowment for the Arts. |
| Elliott County | "Hey, Rocky! Go Get 'Em!" | Rocky J. Adkins, a Democrat the locals respect |
| Magoffin County | Magoffin County Cadillac | Todd Preston, Magoffin County mountain man |
| Washington, DC | Begging for Dollars | Matt Jones makes another plea for high-level support. |
| Place | Tagline | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Christian County | People Want to Be Heard" | Matt goes to Hopkinsville, where he experienced the 2017 solar eclipse, and visits County Judge-Executive Steve Tribble, a great communicator he dubs the anti-McConnell. |
| Daviess County | Kentucky's Official Granddad | In Owensboro, Matt visits his friend Clay Ford, grandson of respected Senator Wendell Ford, and discusses how the longtime Democratic stronghold turned Republican after Wendell Ford's death. |
| Henderson County | Mitch Doesn't Like You | Dorsey Ridley describes for Matt the rare grant McConnell gave to the city of Henderson — and how he behaved at the dedication. |
| McLean County | "Let's Call a Spade a Spade: It's Not Working for Farmers" | Matt comes to McLean County, with its wonderfully named cities, where Tommy Howard and his son Nathan explain why small farmers have it hard under McConnell's tenure. |
| Hancock County | Buffering... | Hancock County is losing people and industrial jobs because it's a dry county and has poor Internet & cell-phone service. Federal grants for service improvements have not come. |
| Butler County | The Giving Table | Storekeeper Roger Moore and other locals tell Matt they can't remember McConnell ever visiting or doing anything for their city of Morgantown. |
| Muhlenberg County | "Mr. Peabody's Coal Train Has Hauled It Away" | In Greenville, Matt finds Brent Yonts, an attorney who has fought for decades to get coal miners afflicted with black lung a better deal. |
| Logan County | The Pro-Life Democrat | Matt meets Logan County judge-executive Logan Chick, a rare pro-life Democrat. |
| Hopkins County | Skatepark Resistance | At the Skyview Skatepark, Jessica Short tells Matt about Resist Kentucky, a group of locals dedicated to getting people like McConnell out of office. |
| Webster County | Smelly Chickens | As in many other parts of Kentucky, Republicans dominate Webster County. Here, they forbid Democrats from meeting in the Dixon Community Center. |
| Union County | "This Is the Business We Have Chosen" | The key to Union County's good economy is locally owned Jim David Meats. Matt is impressed by the huge facility and by president Jimmy Baird, whose well-treated workforce includes Hispanics. |
| Todd County | The Life of a Migrant Worker | Hispanics, including seasonal workers from Mexico, are also treated well on the farm owned by Jerry Wayne and Shea Simons. But the current federal stance is a problem for them. |
| Ohio County | Bill Monroe and the Best of Beef O'Brady's | Matt is schmoozing with local Democrats in Beaver Dam, birthplace of Bill Monroe, when Republican state representative Scott Lewis walks in. Despite initial apprehension, Matt finds him friendly and muses that this may contribute to Ohio County's relative happiness. |
| Washington, DC | Good Luck Chuck | A long meeting back inside the beltway results in Matt getting Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's support — FWIW. |
| Place | Tagline | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Lincoln County | "I Hope Other Candidates Will Fairly Soon Either Shit or Get Off the Pot" | Mike Broihier, former Marine Lt. Col., discusses with Matt their respective plans to run against McConnell. |
| Jackson County | "If the Lord Himself Came Back as a Democrat" | J. B. Estridge laments the solidly-GOP citizens of his county, telling Matt, "They think Trump is the greatest thing since sliced bread, they do—they think he's a really smart man, old Trump." |
| Rockcastle County | What's the Worst Thing You've Ever Done? | Matt is warned by friends, and by the Tracker, of McGrath & McConnell doing opposition research on him and his girl friend. |
| Pulaski County | A Day of Pride in Somerset | Somerset, largest town in this rock-ribbed Republican county, gets a Pride parade — harbinger of changing views? |
| McCreary County | "The Affordable Care Act Saved My Neck" | McCreary County, the poorest in Kentucky, is greatly helped by the ACA — which McConnell is dedicated to killing. |
| Wayne County | Saving Rural Hospitals | The ACA is doing that also. |
| Garrard County | Getting Help from McConnell Is Like Winning a Lottery Where No One Knows the Rules or How to Play | Dr. John Belanger and the 20-year-old, ACA-dependent Paint Lick Family Clinic. |
| Whitley County | Hanging at Glen's Restaurant | Reaching county #69, Matt and Chris acknowledge some travel fatigue. |
| Knox County | It's Time to Put Stitches on the Wound | In Barbourville, Union College Prof. Joseph Pearson gives Matt another negative assessment of McConnell. |
| Laurel County | Christianity in the Trump Era | Laurel County, relatively successful, also has a very conservative and fundamentalist populace. This troubles Brian House, a pastor in the town of London. |
| Clay County | Mitch McConnell Was Wantin' to Know If There Really Was Someone Praying for Matthew Jones | Mountain preacher Jason Root, legally blind, spends his life helping people in unexpected ways. |
| Bell County | "Dig Up Any Dirt You Have on These People!" | Matt vists his mother in Middlesboro to discuss his planned run against McConnell. |
| Place | Tagline | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Jefferson County | I Can't Say Mitch Let Us Down, Because to Him, We Never Existed | Segregation in Louisville |
| Place | Tagline | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Boyd County | Moscow Mitch | Braidy Industries in Ashland — and Oleg Deripaska's Rusal |
| Greenup County | "I Really Believe That If We Give Them Time, They Can Come Through" | Ground was broken here in 2018 for the Braidy facility. But in late 2019, Matt finds no sign of progress. |
| Lewis County | "I Don't Even Care About Your Background, as Long as You Will Work" | Drug use hits Jim Meadows's farm, making employees almost impossible to find. |
| Mason County | Mitch Doesn't Love the Kids | Chris tells of his youth group's trip to Washington, where he meets Wendell Ford, Mitch McConnell, and some dude named Biden. |
| Robertson County | Slow Down, Chris | Chris has an encounter with the police. |
| Fleming County | "Mitch McConnell Doesn't Care About Black Kentucky" | Randy Taylor, a local African-American minister, explains that McConnell has no interest in the black community. |
| Nicholas County | The Savior of Big Tobacco | Small farms dot the county's rolling hills. Most raised tobacco until 20 years ago, when a law requiring tobacco companies to buy a portion of the leaf from small farmers was struck down — with assistance from Mitch McConnell. |
| Bracken County | Leaving Small Farmers Behind | The loss of the tobacco market has hurt small farmers here similarly. |
| Montgomery County | Business Up Front, Party in the Back | Former USDA worker Danny Razor details McConnell's role in the tobacco buyout program. |
| Bath County | The Most Anti-Mitch County of All | This mountain enclave is pro-life and pro-gun, but still votes Democratic because the people feel McConnell sold out their staple crop of tobacco. |
| Morgan County | The Tornado That Changed Everything | On 2 March 2012, a tornado wrecked the mountain town of West Liberty. McConnell visited, expressed his sympathy. But the townspeople recall no actual help from him (or from Democrats.) |
| Menifee County | Winning Is All That Matters | Very dependent on federal programs, Menifee is another county that flipped Republican in 2016, partly because the Democratic Party abandoned "flyover country." |
| Lee County | "Mitch's Stance Is Whatever Makes Him Look Good" | What the tagline, the words of an anonymous roadside fruit peddler, says. |
| Owsley County | Fastest Internet in the State | The lowest median household income in Kentucky is found here. But thanks largely to longtime mayor of Booneville Charles Long, things are improving. Money from Obama's stimulus program funded creation of the Action Team and Teleworks Hub, which uses its new fast Internet connection to support local providers of customer service centers for the likes of Apple. |
| Rowan County | Fiddling our Stories | Rowan County hosts Morehead State University, where Jesse Wells teaches about Appalachian music. Professor Wells and others are helping restore the county's reputation, trashed by recalcitrant county clerk Kim Davis. |
| Estill County | Kickin' It on the Creek | Taking a break from talking about Mitch McConnell, Matt enjoys the bluegrass festival called Kickin' It on the Creek, held on the property of local legend Byron Roberts. |
| Place | Tagline | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Warren County | "Money Is Speech" | Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission |
| Allen County | The Dollar General Takeover | Dollar General chain is the fastest growing retailer in America. Like Walmart, it drives out locally owned stores and ships wealth out of the community. |
| Simpson County | Criminal Justice Reform: Simpson County Style | Frustrated with the recidivism in Kentucky's overcrowded prison system, Eric Vaughn created Second Chance Offender Rehabilitation and Education. |
| Russell County | Fruit of the Loom Leaves Town | Following the pattern after NAFTA became law, four Fruit of the Loom factories in Russell, Green, and Taylor counties disappeared, removing some 8,000 jobs total. |
| Green County | It Won't Be the Same Again | Some of the workers at the Fruit of the Loom plant in Green County benefited from NAFTA retraining funds. Most did not. |
| Marion County | Will Hemp Save the Day? | A 2018 change in the Farm Bill raised hope for hemp as a money crop in Kentucky. McConnell took a victory lap, never mentioning that he held up the change for a decade or that he tuned it to favor Big Ag. |
| Edmonson County | Telling Stories | Natty Bumppo (born as John Dean) and big Johnny Vincent tell tall tales, Natty asserting that he registers Republican in order to have the right to vote in Edmonson County. |
| Metcalfe County | I Have the Full Ability to Own Any Weapon I Want | Josh England, owner of Summer Shade Guns, believes he should have the right to own any weapon he chooses. But though he thinks Trump is a fine president and praises most Republicans, he's a registered Independent. He doesn't like McConnell. |
| Monroe County | A Wall with Respect | Monroe County, atop the Pennyroyal Plateau, is home to Billy Joe Williams, owner of a body shop in Tompkinsville. Billy Joe loves Mitch McConnell, likes Trump's wall, but thinks the Republicans ought to give Hispanic immigrants legal status. |
| Barren County | "If There Is a Heartbeat, There Is Life" | Matt meets two women who are strongly pro-life. So is Mitch McConnell — now. But he began his career in Jefferson County as pro-choice. |
| Washington County | "They Portray Us As Baby Killers. . . . How Ignorant Is That?" | Abortion divides this community, with its roughly equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans. "How can you be a one-issue voter in 2019?" Julie Spalding, president of the county's Democratic Women's Club, asks rhetorically. She continues, "They fail to take into consideration the totality of what goes on in our world. We have a large number of farmers and people who are really hurting, and they continue to vote against their best interests." |
| Cumberland County | "You Almost Aren't a Real Person" | Judge David Williams was known as the "Bully of Burkesville" during his 12 years as president of the state senate. After he lost in a run for governor, he turned humble and reflective. In office, he told Matt, he became almost entirely a political being. The description has also been applied to Mitch McConnell. |
| Clinton County | Guys Around Here Just Vote Republican | Matt may have erred by basing his profile of the county on one young man named Jordan, who votes Republican because it's what people around there do. "You know," he amplifies, "Democrats a lot of times are hollering about wanting to take our guns and this and that." Then again, this was the county Where Matt and Chris were told they weren't welcome to attend Sunday evening service at the largest church in Albany. |
| Adair County | "I Don't Drink, Smoke, or Chew, but How Is It Between Me and You?" | Matt and Chris make up their deficiency at Calvary Temple Church, where Pastor Troy McWhorter is just beginning a stemwinder sermon. As they slip out after 45 minutes, the people around them invite them to return. This reminds Matt that "Not all of us Christians are Jerry Falwell Jr." |
| Taylor County | To Grandma's House We Go | The trek turns personal as Matt passes his late grandmother's house, visits his Aunt Sue, and reflects on his absent biological father. |
| Place | Tagline | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Mercer County | Beijing Mitch | Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission |
| Boyle County | "It's My Kitchen, and I'll Fry If I Want To" | Centre College, a liberal arts school considered one of the best in the state, brings a diversity of views and a welcome geniality to conservative Boyle County. |
| Casey County | The Bread of Life | People like Jerry and Sandy Tucker, who adopted 33 children — most with disabilities — while running the Bread of Life Café and Born Free Ministries, are why Matt came back to Kentucky after Duke Law School, and why he's considering a run against Mitch McConnell. |
| Jessamine County | Thirty-Six Years Is Too Long for Anyone | Republican state representative Tom Buford is well liked after a thirty-year career. But Matt's interlocutors favor term limits for him, and even more strongly for Mitch McConnell. |
| Scott County | Chasing Amy | Scott County is the fastest growing county in Kentucky, and the Toyota manufacturing Plant, as big as 169 football fields in aggregate, is one reason why. Scott County is also home to Amy McGrath. |
| Woodford County | The Politics of Personal Destruction | In 2013 James Kay, Woodward County judge-executive, ran for state representative in a special election. He told Matt, "As soon as I was nominated and the race was announced, McConnell had the Republican party hire ten new staffers just to work on this race." Opposition research began. They even hire a private investigator to follow him around looking for dirt. Typical tactics for The Grim Reaper. |
| Madison County | Free College the Right Way | Another small liberal arts institution, Berea College, graces Madison County. It is a unique operation. Students accepted to Berea pay no tuition, but are expected to hold jobs on campus to defray costs. Half of its graduates are debt-free; for the rest, $6,000 is the average debt burden. |
| Clark County | The Obstructionist in Chief | For unknown reasons, McConnell wanted to visit the class of Ann Humble, social-studies teacher at Clark County High School. She kept putting him off, so finally he called her superintendent. She arranged a meeting in the library, where McConnell lectured a class of AP students on the basic structure of the federal government. In other news, McConnell blocked President Obama's nominee for the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit: a Kentuckian named Lisabeth Tabor Hughes. |
| Bourbon County | Politics as Potato Chips | Bourbon County is thoroughbred horse country. As Matt puts it, "Thoroughbred owners fork out almost the yearly median salary in the state to help McConnell, who, in turn, helps push for tax breaks on ownership and income that save the industry millions." |
| Anderson County | "Mitch Will Say That He Supports Troops in Front of the Cameras, but Actions Speak Louder Than Words" | "In just one year, McConnell led the effort to kill the Wounded Veteran Job Security Act, the Veterans Retraining Act, the Veterans Business Center Act, the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program Reauthorization Act, and the Disabled Veterans Home Improvement and Structural Alteration Grant Increase Act." (Matt, page 427) All were proposed by President Obama. |
| Harrison County | "Thank God We're Not Mississippi" | Matt visits with attorney Greg Coulson, who points out McConnell's faith in (or rhetoric about) supply-side economics — aka "trickle down." He voted against an amendment to restore pre-2001 tax rates on those making over $1 million and use the proceeds to fund school construction, Head Start, and child care programs. Rural Kentucky would have benefited greatly. |
| New York City | Free Matt Jones | For a brief getaway, Matt takes his radio show to the Big Apple, only to find that the chairman of the Kentucky Republican Party had filed an FEC complaint charging that it, and this book, were illegal contributions to his campaign. This was a ploy with multiple levels. |
| Fayette County | I Will Be Taking My Talents To . . . | Matt announces his decision on whether to run. It's in the book. |
| Place | Tagline | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Franklin County | It's a New Day in Kentucky | Andy Brashear's victory over unpopular governor Matt Bevin |
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