So attacking the Capitol wasn’t “legitimate political discourse,” is what I’m hearing here.

Senate Republicans have spent the last few days sniping at the RNC for censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, which I’m guessing is partly a matter of heartfelt disgust and partly a matter of electoral politics. It’d be fascinating to know how much more muted the reaction would have been, though, if the RNC had avoided using the instantly infamous term “legitimate political discourse” to describe January 6 in its censure resolution. The committee clarified afterward that that was a reference to the rally that preceded the assault on Congress, not to the assault itself. But it was either a colossal blunder by Ronna McDaniel and her team not to anticipate how the reference would be commonly understood or they did it deliberately, to wink at the rioters and their MAGA apologists, and underestimated the backlash they’d get.

Either way, McConnell made clear on behalf of his caucus today that he wants nothing to do with the “legitimate political discourse” that Democrats will try to hang around Republicans’ necks this fall.

McConnell calls Jan. 6 a "violent insurrection" and says the RNC shouldn't have censured Cheney and Kinzinger pic.twitter.com/wcE1EQRH9y

— Jan Wolfe (@JanNWolfe) February 8, 2022

The reprimands from the Senate GOP began with a series of texts to McDaniel from her uncle:

Sen. Mitt Romney says he texted his niece — Ronna McDaniel, head of the RNC — to express his point of view condemning the censure resolution.

Asked about the impact on the midterms, he said: “Anything that my party does that comes across as being stupid is not going to help us”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 7, 2022

Sen. Mitt Romney: "It could not have been a more inappropriate message, one, to sanction two people of character as they did, but number two, to suggest that a violent attack on the seat of democracy is legitimate political discourse is so far from accurate." @NBCNews

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 8, 2022

Susan Collins complained to reporters after the RNC resolution passed that people “who assaulted police officers, broke windows and breached the Capitol were not engaged in legitimate political discourse, and to say otherwise is absurd.” But it wasn’t just the pro-impeachment faction of the caucus that was annoyed:

“I think Republicans ought to stop shooting at Republicans, including the chairman,” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a member of the GOP leadership, told CNN…

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said he had spoken with McDaniel about the controversy, who had told him that she “condemned the violence” but had argued they were criticizing the panel for targeting individuals who hadn’t engaged in violence that day.

“I think all of us up here want to talk about forward and not backward,” Graham said. “We want to talk about why we should be in charge of the House and the Senate, and when you’re not talking about that, that takes you in the wrong direction.”

The Romneys and Collinses are doubtless sincerely appalled to see Cheney and Kinzinger sanctioned for trying to hold Trump to account for his part on January 6. But the Grahams and Cornyns are peeved because they know Trump’s planning to launch his revenge tour on anti-Trump Republicans during the primaries this summer, they further know that Democrats and the media will make hay of it to try to divide the right and paint the GOP as pro-insurrection, and they can’t understand why the RNC would play into their hands by choosing to attack Cheney and Kinzinger itself.

The entire reason Kevin McCarthy hasn’t moved to oust Cheney and Kinzinger from the House GOP caucus is because he doesn’t want to create any distractions from Biden’s failures. Republicans are desperate to win back some of the suburban swing voters who ditched the party during the Trump years, after all, and they think COVID restrictions and inflation are their ticket. But if the party piles on Cheney and Kinzinger, the message will be sent that you can’t be a Republican in good standing if you’re not slavishly pro-Trump. Which isn’t the signal to send to people who voted Biden in 2020 because they dislike Trump and weren’t thrilled with what went down at the Capitol on certification day.

There’s nothing McConnell and his caucus can do to stop Trump and his MAGA toadies from creating that perception by campaigning loudly and vigorously against Cheney this summer. But they can certainly expect the RNC not to make the problem worse, generating unhelpful media coverage about what now passes for “legitimate political discourse” according to the GOP base.

With today’s message, I think McConnell may also have been trying to steel McCarthy’s spine. He knows McCarthy’s under pressure from Trump and the gang to boot Cheney and Kinzinger from the caucus, another development that would send the wrong message to swing voters about the party being a small tent. McCarthy’s doing the smart thing by letting it lie but the Trump faction in the House cares about settling his personal grudges more than they care about expanding the party:

“That’s the question that everyone should pay attention to: If Kevin McCarthy does go against Liz Cheney,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right Georgia Republican and one of Trump’s closest allies. “That’s the inside baseball that people should be watching.”…

The discussion about how to handle Cheney and Kinzinger recently made its way to McCarthy’s office. Behind closed doors, the GOP leader met with members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, which had been agitating for months to kick Cheney and Kinzinger out of the GOP conference, something that requires a two-thirds majority.

Supposedly the MAGAs came away from that meeting convinced that they should focus on campaigning against Cheney in her primary, not on kicking her out of the caucus. Score one for McCarthy.

Here he is being asked about the RNC resolution today. Slightly different reaction from McConnell’s.

I tried to ask @GOPLeader about the RNC’s resolution describing Jan. 6 as “legitimate political discourse”

He told me to make an appointment with his office… insisting it’s “not good” to answer questions in hallways. pic.twitter.com/yaL8opl6Pf

— Rachel Scott (@rachelvscott) February 8, 2022