They're 'the kiss of death'

Maybe I'm a victim of fanciful thinking, but I can't help reading more into the story -- "2012 contenders shun Hill support" -- than Politico explicitly reports. "The chase for congressional backing [by GOP presidential aspirants] has been moving at a snail’s pace this year compared with the previous election cycle," which is, or so says Politico,

a reflection of the slowly forming presidential field, concern in Congress about the strength of the candidates and a desire by White House hopefuls to keep their distance from an unpopular Washington.

The first given reason has nothing to do with the story's thrust -- it is individual candidates shunning the Hill, so the pace of presidential field formation would have little to do with actual endorsement requests; the second excuse is essentially an irrelevant reversal of the story's theme -- it is candidates shunning the Hill, not the Hill shunning the candidates; however in the third excuse we creep perhaps closer to the story -- Republican White House hopefuls view Washington as a toxic dump. 

But Politico's reporting of this all-inclusive dump -- "an unpopular Washington" -- has a fishy smell to it. For 222 years America's bumbling, incompetent Emerald City has been unpopular among the virtuous munchkins as a kind of alternating good-natured or ill-tempered sport. If, in this 222nd year, Washington seems more unpopular than ever, then might there be a reportable reason? -- and might it lie in the stench and swill of both a partisan and empirical miasma?

Ah, now we're getting somewhere (I either know, or fancy). If you're not quite tracking me yet, then this ambiguous quote from one of Washington's leading wizards should put you on the unambiguous scent:

"Given the landscape, would you want to be endorsed by some Washington insider?" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who plans to remain neutral in the race, asked half-jokingly. "It’s the kiss of death."

McConnell has seldom encountered a straightforward situation that he couldn't glibly molest into a crooked half-truth. The elementary trick to reading McConnell is simply to assume the unctuous deception, the devilish partial reality, the malicious misdirection, and to keep in mind that if he seems vague, he's terrified. Thus "It's" the kiss of death translates rather easily into "We" -- congressional Republicans -- are the kiss the death.

Put yourself in, say, Mitt Romney's shoes. Would you want Paul Ryan's endorsement? Or Eric Cantor's, or John Boehner's, or the Senate minority leader's -- the guy who led his fellow GOP senators into House Republicans' Gallipoli?

Today's presidential candidates' "We'll call you, don't call us" approach to congressional Republicans is one of judicious distance. McConnell & Co. may want to depict the lay of Capitol Hill as one of generic desolation and universal toxicity, but it was the singular pathogen of the House budget bill -- namely, its feckless crime against Medicare -- that poisoned relations between presidential candidates and congressional incumbents.

The latter collectivity is glowing like a cockroach at Alamogordo, the former collectivity knows it, and therein lies the political mortality of both.