American Thinker: "Is Mitch McConnell shafting the base?"

James Lewis raises some very interesting questions, although I don't know if McConnell still deserves the "conservative label." However, the Fred Thompson developments are going to be worth watching, especially after McConnell was quietly pushing the Massachusetts liberal Mitt Romney for President, and even encouraged the rest of Kentucky's Republican delegation to endorse Romney:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is one of the smartest conservatives in the Senate. But on the dangerous immigration bill, he has been silent as the grave. His website is conspicuously silent on immigration.

A wave of conservative outrage against a catastrophic immigration bill might put Fred Thompson at the head of the pack, and carry him into the nomination. It may even boost him into the Presidency in 2008. Senator Mitch McConnell may be allied with former Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, who has been pushing the Thompson candidacy. Call it the Three Border State Senators, quietly singing the same song.

If the Kennedy-McCain bill is passed, McConnell may jump aboard the Thompson bandwagon. If it is defeated, he may finally come out against it. But what we are seeing today is a disastrous lack of leadership coming from the Senate Republican leaders.

The voters have a right to ask Senator Mitch McConnell where he stands. Is he risking our national security to promote Fred Thompson's candidacy? That's a Machiavellian gambit, not a conservative one.