McConnell draws criticism from some in GOP

• McConnell and GOP spent millions trying to retake Senate
• Democrats add two more seats to their majority
• Party worries about changing demographics

WASHINGTON -- After spending millions of dollars trying to take over the U.S. Senate, the Republican Party instead lost two seats on Tuesday.

And some conservatives are blaming Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and others in what they call the "Republican establishment," although the Kentucky Republican does not appear to be in danger of an internal party challenge.

"He does have a slightly more conservative conference ... but I (don't) see a lot of change happening here," said Jennifer Duffy, senior editor at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Any uprising would come from the tea party, she said, which doesn't have enough votes to force a change.

Still, McConnell faces daunting political challenges in trying to manage a divided party in the Senate, said Norman Ornstein, a longtime congressional observer.

"This is not going to be an easy two years for McConnell," said Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, a Washington think tank.

McConnell — who stated in October 2010 that his top political goal was to make President Barack Obama a one-term president — declined an interview request through a spokesman Wednesday afternoon.

But earlier in the day, he issued a statement that sounded far from conciliatory:

"Now it's time for the president to propose solutions that actually have a chance of passing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and a closely divided Senate, step up to the plate on the challenges of the moment, and deliver in a way that he did not in his first four years in office."

McConnell reiterated what he said at the start of Obama's first term: "To the extent he wants to move to the political center, which is where the work gets done in a divided government, we'll be there to meet him halfway."

But Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who is the outgoing chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and is in line to be McConnell's top lieutenant in the new Congress, suggested Wednesday that the GOP will need to conduct some self-examination.

"It's clear that with our losses in the presidential race, and a number of key Senate races, we have a period of reflection and recalibration ahead for the Republican Party," Cornyn said. "While some will want to blame one wing of the party over the other, the reality is candidates from all corners of our GOP lost

."

GOP 'death rattle'

Before Tuesday's voting, Democrats held a thin majority with 53 seats, including two independents who caucus with them.

McConnell and the Republicans had pumped millions of dollars into GOP Senate races in hopes of a GOP takeover of the chamber, which would have made him majority leader.

But Senate contests decided Tuesday instead gave the Democrats a net gain of two seats.

Conservative activist Richard Viguerie, a fundraiser and political direct mail guru, called Tuesday's results "a disaster" and "the death rattle of the establishment GOP."

McConnell and other GOP leaders should quit, Viguerie wrote on his Conservative HQ.com website.

One of the Democratic pickups was in Indiana, where Rep. Joe Donnelly beat GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who sparked a furor when he said in a debate that a pregnancy from a rape was "something that God intended."

McConnell, whose political action committee had given $5,000 to Mourdock's campaign, stood by him in the race, saying "It's incredibly irresponsible for anyone to take what Richard said about his views on life to demean his opposition to the detestable act of rape."

But RedState.com, a conservative blog, said McConnell's sins included a failure to stay with Rep. Todd Akin, the GOP Senate candidate in Missouri, after Akin said a woman's body could prevent a pregnancy after a "legitimate rape." McConnell, Cornyn and other top Republican leaders withdrew their backing for Akin.

"As it turned out," RedState said Wednesday, "Missouri would have been a slam-dunk (even after the 'legitimate rape' comment), had McConnell and Cornyn not cut Akin off for over a month. Did they think this would cause the GOP faithful to crawl over glass to make McConnell majority leader?"

Duffy, however, said the more moderate Republicans are frustrated that the party "seized defeat from the jaws of victory" in back-to-back election cycles because of candidates who were out of the mainstream.

"How do they prevent the Richard Mourdocks and Todd Akins from happening again?" Duffy asked.

Demographics

Duffy said she has spoken to Republicans who are worried about the party's trajectory in a nation of changing demographics.

"It's a question of what needs to happen with this party so they stop losing elections," Duffy said. "Just look at the exit poll, that tells you everything you need to know, like (the Democrats) winning Latinos with slightly over 70 percent of the vote."

Thomas Mann, a Brookings Institution senior fellow who authored a book with Ornstein on political gridlock in Washington, said in an email that, while McConnell is expected to remain minority leader, he likely will be "unable to retain unified support of his party colleagues in opposing/filibustering everything Obama proposes."

And McConnell already is having some trouble recruiting help for the next election. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., his choice to head the GOP senatorial committee for the 2014 elections, has declined that role. Rubio's office said the senator, the father of four young children, cited family reasons.

Ornstein said McConnell now will have to navigate opposing political currents among his GOP colleagues.

"He's got a restive collection of people who are tired of following a strategy of filibustering everything and voting 'no,'" Ornstein said. "The problem-solving caucus is waiting to break out."

That already is in evidence as a fiscal crisis looms in the lame-duck session of Congress. A so-called "Gang of Eight" Republican and Democratic senators has been talking about legislative steps to head off automatic federal spending cuts that worry business leaders.

On the flip side, Ornstein said, McConnell must try to mollify his tea party colleagues while readying his own 2014 re-election bid.

Too much cooperation with Democrats could hurt him with hard-core conservatives, and too much obstruction could produce a backlash, Ornstein said.

"It's a tricky time for McConnell," he said.