Secret tapes reveal that Mitch McConnell was so terrified of Ashley Judd that he planned to smear her if she chose to run.

Courtesy of Mother Jones: 

On February 2, Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the US Senate, opened up his 2014 reelection campaign headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, and in front of several dozen supporters vowed to "point out" the weaknesses of any opponent fielded by the Democrats. "They want to fight? We're ready," he declared. McConnell was serious: Later that day, he was huddling with aides in a private meeting to discuss how to attack his possible Democratic foes, including actor/activist Ashley Judd, who was then contemplating challenging the minority leader. During this strategy session—a recording of which was obtained by Mother Jones—McConnell and his aides considered assaulting Judd for her past struggles with depression and for her religious views.

Mother Jones has the audio if you want to hear it, but essentially it involves the McConnell team sitting around listening to tapes of Judd talking about her depression and religious views followed by their laughter and agreement that it is "a wealth of material" they can use to discredit her.

As you can imagine the McConnell campaign is none too happy that we have been able to hear of their plans, and have issued a statement calling it "Nixonian:"  

“We’ve always said the Left will stop at nothing to attack Sen. McConnell, but Nixonian tactics to bug campaign headquarters is above and beyond,” Jesse Benton, McConnell’s campaign manager, said in a statement.

I think this is a good place to remind this prick that Nixon was THEIR guy!

They have also called in the FBI to investigate potential wiretapping.

However Mother Jones is not worried and is standing by the integrity of their sources and defending the tactics used: 

We are still waiting for Sen. Mitch McConnell to comment on the substance of the story. Before posting this article, we contacted his Senate office and his campaign office—in particular, his campaign manager, Jesse Benton—and no one responded. As the story makes clear, we were recently provided the tape by a source who wished to remain anonymous. We were not involved in the making of the tape, but we published a story on the tape due to its obvious newsworthiness. It is our understanding that the tape was not the product of a Watergate-style bugging operation. We cannot comment beyond that.

A spokesperson for Ashley Judd has also responded to this story:  

"This is yet another example of the politics of personal destruction that embody Mitch McConnell and are pervasive in Washington, D.C.," Judd's spokeswoman, Cara Tripicchio, said in a statement. 

"We expected nothing less from Mitch McConnell and his camp than to take a personal struggle such as depression, which many Americans cope with on a daily basis, and turn it into a laughing matter," the Judd statement continued. "Every day it becomes clearer how much we need change in Washington from this kind of rhetoric and actions."

Apparently much of the information obtained by this "opposition research" came from audio recordings of Judd's book,  "All that is Bitter and Sweet."

I will once again state for the record that I think Judd would have destroyed McConnell in the election, and the fact the he was prepared to go THIS route in an attempt to impugn her character is evidence which suggests that he felt the same.

As it is I have much less confidence that the next Democrat chosen to run against him will be any more successful than the last.