Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell dismissed President Bill Clinton's appearance in Kentucky on Tuesday, saying the 42nd president's visit to help Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes wouldn't damage McConnell's chances of winning re-election.
"I welcome him back," the Kentucky Republican told reporters at the Capitol during the weekly leadership news conference -- a venue where he normally refuses to answer questions about his re-election fight.
McConnell said Clinton's appearances in the Bluegrass State have traditionally brought him good luck. In 1996, when Clinton won Kentucky during his presidential re-election, McConnell was also on the ballot and won by 160,000 votes. The Senate Republican also won in 2008 when Clinton again visited the state to stump for wife Hillary Clinton's presidential bid.
"Every time he's been, it's been really good for me," McConnell said.
McConnell also dismissed a bill to raise the federal minimum wage as a job-killer; opponent Grimes has repeatedly said she would vote in favor of raising the minimum wage.
"I would hope not," McConnell said when asked if he thought Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would bring the minimum wage bill to the Senate floor.
"The last thing we need to be doing right now in our country is passing legislation that destroys even more jobs. Now this is a tepid recovery at best, the worst recovery after a deep recession after World War II," he said. "Goodness gracious - we ought to be trying to create jobs by doing things like approving the keystone pipeline, rather than passing legislation that destroys jobs."