With Roy Moore now embroiled in salacious accusations that threaten to lose a Senate seat for Republicans, office holders in the Republican party are coming out in droves to pile on. I can’t say that I blame them.

If I’m Rep. Barbara Comstock (R – VA), I’m doing exactly what she did today. I’m distancing myself from this guy. True or not, there’s nothing to gain by sticking by him. I understand the political position they are in.

But in light of all this, we should ask ourselves exactly how we got Roy Moore in the first place. He wasn’t the most conservative candidate. He certainly wasn’t the most well spoken. So how’d he win?

Because Mitch McConnell and his merry band of Super PACs refused to support (and instead destroyed) the most conservative and least objectionable person in the race.

That would be Rep. Mo Brooks.

Yes, that Mo Brooks. The staunch, well spoken conservative lawmaker who also risked his life to help his fellow Congressional members when an anti-Republican shooter opened fire on a softball game.

The “establishment” (I know that’s a “Trumpy” word now, but what else are we supposed to call Mitch McConnell?) spent millions on ads trashing Mo Brooks. McConnell also sent one of his top lieutenants to gin up a primary competitor for Brooks in his House race, apparently just to screw with the guy. Because of this, Brooks was never able to get his candidacy off the ground in the primaries.

Via the Politico.

McConnell is responding in kind. His super PAC is set to spend as much as $8 million to boost his favored candidate, recently appointed Republican Sen. Luther Strange. McConnell has activated his sprawling donor network and pressed the White House for more resources. And the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP campaign arm McConnell controls, has warned consultants they’ll be cut off from future work if they assist Strange’s opponents.

And in a highly unusual step, one of McConnell’s top political lieutenants has begun quietly advising a long-shot Republican primary candidate running for Brooks’ House seat. The move is designed to get in the congressman’s head and dissuade him from emptying his campaign war chest in the race for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ old Senate seat.

I was listening to Glenn Beck on podcast earlier while running and they were musing about how Mo Brooks could of lost to Roy Moore, seemingly having no answer.

But the answer is simple.

Brooks did not lose to Roy Moore. He lost to Mitch McConnell. Had the national party rallied around Brooks from the outset instead of looking to bury him, he could of taken on Roy Moore in a heads up fight. There was enough support between Brooks and Strange that a unified effort behind Brooks could of made him a winner. Instead, McConnell backed a sleazy, corrupt toady in Luther Strange and sought to wipe out anyone in his way.

This has happened over and over under McConnell’s leadership.

In Mississippi’s last Senate primary, McConnell pulled out his bag of disgusting tricks and viciously savaged the conservative in the race. As a result we got another six years of Thad Cochran, who now can barely speak without drooling and wanders aimlessly around the Capitol. (I don’t say that as a joke. His health has actually failed to that level). Why’d we get Cochran? Because McConnell couldn’t dare let another Cruz-esque Republican into the Senate. He’d rather have someone clearly unable to do the job than a conservative who might rock the boat.

And let’s not forget that the establishment’s embrace of Trump over Cruz was a big factor in the 2016 Republican Presidential primary. Time and again, McConnell and his like minded associates have thrown the baby out with the bath water just to sabotage conservative candidates.

So while I get all these establishment figures distancing themselves from Roy Moore, they should be reminded that they are partially responsible for some of the less than ideal candidates we end up with. Too often in the primaries, voters are left with two bad choices because the real conservative was blown up on the launch pad by the turtle man.

When the Republican national party apparatus decides they want to actually start backing real conservative candidates, we’ll start to see better men and women come out of the primaries.

Or McConnell can just continue to do what he’s been doing and we can keep seeing voters over-correct by nominating guys like Roy Moore and Donald Trump. His choice.