But the point isn't really to catch the perpetrator. The point is this ridiculous splash on his campaign website, in which visitors are told that McConnell's office was "wiretapped" by "liberals" and are encouraged to respond by sending all of their contact information, along with some money, to Mitch McConnell's reelection campaign.

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In addition to portraying her as a Hollywood liberal, the team suggested using her well-known struggles with depression against her, and essentially planned to portray her as an anti-American weirdo. "This sounds extreme, but she is emotionally unbalanced," the aide leading the meeting told McConnell.

In her 2011 memoir, Judd discussed her past bouts with depression, which included a brief hospitalization and the revelation that she had had thoughts of suicide -- in 6th grade. As they went through the material, McConnell's staff laughed heartily at several occasions and mocked Judd's comment about the culture shock she feels upon returning to the U.S. after a stint abroad.

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Miller writes on the Daily Beast:

As the actress contemplated whether to move back to Kentucky and challenge Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, I was alternating with Congressman John Yarmuth as witness for the defense against a steady stream of salacious recriminations.

The prosecution was assisted in nearly every article by the same handful of Democratic professionals railing against the prospects of a Judd candidacy, promoting instead the potential Senate candidacy of Kentucky’s young Secretary of State, Alison Lundergan Grimes. While many may legitimately believe that Grimes is the better candidate, many of those who have been quoted impugning Judd, or have done so on background, also have personal motives: some stand to profit from a Grimes campaign, some may have been trying to redress perceived “disses” by the actress, and some may be aiming to keep Grimes out of the 2015 gubernatorial race, where she could undermine their preferred candidates.

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From the Washington Post:

Democratic Senate strategists have argued that Judd would be a good, if unconventional candidate, pointing to her ability to rival or even eclipse McConnell in fundraising. But McConnell’s path to victory involves savaging his opponent, and Judd’s status as an actress and celebrity would have offered him loads of ammunition.

The most likely Democratic candidate is now Secretary of State Allison Lundergan Grimes.

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Politico reports that Clinton is courting Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Kentucky secretary of state, to get into the race:

Grimes does have the Clintons in her corner. Earlier this month, the former president — a longtime friend of Grimes’s father — privately urged the young secretary of state to mount a Senate bid while assuring Grimes that both he and his wife, Hillary, would get behind her should she decide to take on the powerful Senate GOP leader, according to several sources familiar with the matter.

Grimes has also reportedly met with officials from the DSCC, according to Politico.

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Get used to seeing the president's home under attack. This summer brings "White House Down," a film starring Jamie Foxx as the president in a seat of power under siege. Later this month, the "G.I. Joe" sequel is to feature black flags flown over the White House as a mysterious supervillain impersonates the president and takes over the country. The "Iron Man 3" trailer reaches its climax at a shot of Air Force One getting shot out of the sky.

So what is it we thrill to about watching our national landmarks destroyed on the big screen? And at a time when real North Korea nuclear threats are in the news, what's so entertaining about watching them score a direct hit on Washington?

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To save cash, White House tours are curtailed,

But the House tours have NOT been derailed.

So you still can have fun,

Seeing nothing get done,

On the Hill, watching nonsense unveiled.

Madeleine Begun Kane

Bayside, N.Y.

I must say I'm calling it quits,

On caring which cardinal sits,

In St. Peter's chair --

The whole damned affair,

Is Mardi Gras, minus the tits.

Nancy Cahill

The new Pope hails from Argentina.

And I’m wondering just what that might mean-a.

Let’s hope that his Latin,

Is smoother than satin,

And that his church is in for one big house clean-a.

Gary Sandy

Davis, Calif.

In the senate McConnell's a dean,

Of the GOP obstruction machine.

But his name will be mud,

When our dear Ashley Judd,

Kicks his ass in twenty fourteen.

Mike Moulton

Gainesville, Fla.

Rand Paul held the floor by the hour,

His words pouring forth like a shower.

He could have gone on,

Saying drone use begone,

But his bladder held ultimate power.

Thompson Lange

Carmel, Calif.

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The news anchor is about to hit movie screens in perhaps his highest-profile cameo yet, as a news anchor (for a generic news network, explicitly not MSNBC) in the action drama "Olympus Has Fallen," which depicts an attack by North Koreans upon the White House and features Aaron Eckhart and potential Senate candidate Ashley Judd as the president and first lady. We spoke to O'Donnell about his unusual career, why Jim Lehrer would never do what he does, and his future in Hollywood.

Why do you say yes when offered films? The director of "Olympus Has Fallen" told us that he'd reached out to many news anchors, including CNN's Don Lemon, and only you were able to do it.

Because I miss show business so desperately that I will do anything short of pornography at this point to hang around sets and have fun.

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Sen. Mitch McConnell, in addition to being a fixture on the Sunday talk show circuit, leads a diverse Senate Republican caucus. Actress Ashley Judd continues to lay the groundwork for a potential run against McConnell in 2014, which has the national and state press abuzz. And the commonwealth’s junior senator, Rand Paul, just made a 13-hour splash on CSPAN-2 with his filibuster last week. And he’s a top contender for the GOP’s presidential nomination in 2016.

But this isn’t the result of some Kentucky machine churning out political superstars. “None of them came up in the traditional way. They didn’t come up through the Legislature. Even McConnell was sort of nobody’s protégé. He just kind of worked his way up,” said Trey Grayson, the former Kentucky secretary of state who is now director of the Harvard Institute of Politics.

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Because of her star power and because of the political power of the man she wants to unseat, Judd’s flirtation with the race has drawn considerable national attention, and the coverage will only intensify if she gets in. That has led Dave Weigel, among others, to argue that the political world’s focus on Judd is misplaced – that her party label, liberal views and Hollywood background are all a poor match for an electorate that has become increasingly Republican over the last few decades.

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Reached via email, Judd

...offered a not-quite-ironclad denial to The Huffington Post. “I am not sure who is saying this stuff, but it is not I! I’d prefer as a fan of your journalism that you stay accurate and credible. We told everyone who called us yesterday these stories are fabrications.”

But she declined to specify which "stories,” did not say what wasn't "accurate,” and did not respond when asked directly whether she had, in fact, decided to run or chosen a time to declare her intentions.

According to the piece, Judd plans to go public with her decision around the time of the Kentucky Derby when Kentuckyis in the media spotlight.

Judd, sources say, is working with New York pollster Jefrey Pollock; has interviewed a number of media consultants including Anita Dunn, formerly of the Obama campaigns, and J.B. Poersch, the former head of the Democrats' national senate campaign committee, as well as leaders of Emily's List; and is lining up allies and field organizers.

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Yes, the Daily Caller piece, to which I refuse to link, was sexist and gross. It was, as ThinkProgress's Alyssa Rosenberg put it, "part and parcel of the right’s current strategy to discredit promising female advocates," and "an attempt to make her seem less serious by impugning her sexual chastity." Was Scott Brown's strategically placed arm over the flesh he bared in Cosmo the difference between his getting elected to the Senate and not, or was it the double standard?

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Alex Pappas, the Caller's best reporter, writes today that "Ashley Judd’s biggest problem" is "her history of bizarre comments." The comments, about gender inequality and mountaintop removal coal mining, could be damaging in conservative Kentucky, but are not overtly explosive.

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"I would be surprised if she doesn't run at this point," Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., told ABC News.

"My impression is this is something she wants to do, and she is now taking the time to make the contacts she needs to make throughout the state to try and generate commitments of support and, in some cases, fundraising," Yarmuth said. "She is certainly acting like a candidate, a potential candidate.

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A couple of weeks ago, Karl Rove went on the O'Reilly Factor to explain why he'd decided to run a campaign video attacking a woman who has not yet declared she's running. "She's going to get to know that she is not going to be able to wait until, you know, the screen writers from California and the producers could make her look good, and prepare the ads and give her lots of lines to memorize so that she can handle these things," he said.

O'Reilly had one question: "If you make her cry, will you feel bad?"

"No, I wouldn't," Rove responded. "O'Reilly, only you could be concerned with making a political figure cry. I mean, please."

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On Valentine's Day, she dined with some of the state’s top Democratic officials, including Rep. John Yarmuth, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and former Kentucky Democratic Party Chairman Jonathan Miller. Miller told the National Journal that he thinks Judd has the best shot of any Democrat of knocking off McConnell, who is surprisingly weak at home, despite his immense power in Washington. "These days, there's nobody who's more of a symbol of Washington than McConnell,” he said, and Judd is a real outsider. "Going against the ultimate insider is a real asset."

This week, Judd met with officials from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of Senate Democrats, though they refuse to comment on the meeting or whom they would like to be the party’s nominee.

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McConnell has been the Senate minority leader since 2006, succeeding Bill Frist just as the party lost its majority in the chamber. Twice in his tenure – in 2010 and again in 2012 – Republicans have seemed poised to win back the majority only to fall short thanks to a combination of counterproductive primary results and a national image problem that turned off swing voters in key races. As ’14 approaches, Republicans are again looking at a favorable map, though it would take some big breaks for them to overcome the Democrats' current 55-45 advantage. But McConnell himself has a much simpler concern: saving his own job.

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Give him points for honesty. The key concept behind his super PAC’s first attack ad of the new election cycle was indeed to belittle the high-profile, politically active Judd. Rove and American Crossroads GPS dropped $10,000 to “stick a pin in her balloon,” going up with a satiric Judd for Senate campaign spot that portrays her as an airhead, a “leader who knows how to follow,” and dismisses her as a silly Hollywood liberal.

Far from a unique personal shot at Judd, the attack is part of a long pattern of Rove attacking women in troubling ways rhetorically distinct from his campaigns against male candidates.

One can say that he is an equal opportunity smear artist, but there is a context and a history to Rove's anti-Judd salvo. He routinely resorts to anti-woman insults and insinuations that cut deeper than his usual attacks – characterizing women in politics as having stereotypically negative female traits (subject to hysteria, too emotional, weak and weepy, bleeding heart, flighty or frigid, and lesbian).

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Persistent rumors have surfaced recently that Judd, a woman whose career highlights include humanitarian work in the Congo, campaigning for Barack Obama and making a movie with Dwayne Johnson, is mulling a run against Kentucky Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2014. She reportedly met recently with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and has begun privately researching campaign strategy. Last month, she told reporters the people of Kentucky "need a fighter."

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Judd is reportedly considering a challenge to Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell, who is up for reelection in 2014.

Watch:

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