McConnell: Who is Erick Erickson?

In a radio interview Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, dismissed attacks by conservative activist Erick Erickson by downplaying the CNN contributor's significance.Erickson held a conference call earlier this week to share his contempt for Kentucky's senior Senator, where he blamed McConnell for failing to be conservative enough. He also attributed the loss of several Tea Party candidate across the country to the Senator's backroom maneuvering.But McConnell told talk radio host Laura Ingram those criticisms were "totally inaccurate" and that he has never even heard of Erickson—who is editor of Red State.com and frequently appears on CNN. McConnell added that Erickson has no audience.From Daily Caller: Early Thursday morning, Erickson took to his blog and launched another missive against McConnell in response to the interview.From Red State: Mitch McConnell’s remark is just another example of him being vastly overrated as both a strategist and tactician. He claims to have advanced the conservative cause, but told Laura he has to be mindful that to govern Republicans must reach out to all Americans. Perhaps that is why in 2010, with the rise of the tea party, Mitch McConnell backed Arlen Specter against Pat Toomey, Charlie Crist against Marco Rubio (McConnell staffers went to Florida to help Crist), Robert Bennett against Mike Lee, and Trey Grayson against Rand Paul. I grew up thinking Mitch McConnell was a right wing warrior. It turns out he’s just a typical Washingtonian appropriator who has presided over a massive expansion of the welfare state doing not much more than issuing bold platitudes as he cuts deals to expand government spending and along the way made some major tactical and strategic blunders that groups like ACORN were able to thrive.McConnell supporters, however, point out that Erickson's criticisms are mostly personal attacks that don't matter outside the activist realm. And other conservative activists, such as anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist, have backed the Senator's leadership of the caucus.