Mitch McConnell on conservative activist groups: "I think we are going to crush them everywhere"

This election season, Republicans led by Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky are taking a much harder line as they sense the majority within reach. Top congressional Republicans and their allies are challenging the advocacy groups head on in an aggressive effort to undermine their credibility. The goal is to deny them any Senate primary victories, cut into their fund-raising and diminish them as a future force in Republican politics.

“I think we are going to crush them everywhere,” Mr. McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, said in an interview, referring to the network of activist organizations working against him and two Republican incumbents in Kansas and Mississippi while engaging in a handful of other contests. “I don’t think they are going to have a single nominee anywhere in the country.”…

In contrast to 2010 and 2012, it seems improbable that in 2014 either the Mississippi or the Kansas Senate seat could fall into Democratic hands, no matter who the Republican nominee is. But Senate Republicans are mounting strong efforts on behalf of Mr. Cochran and Mr. Roberts to see them re-elected and to send a message to the activist groups.

“I know this: Politics doesn’t like losers,” said Mr. McConnell, who suggested that a high-profile series of defeats would deflate the groups. “If you don’t have anything to point to, it is kind of hard to keep it going.”