The world of Republican advisers close to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell breathed a sigh of relief tonight as ex-con coal baron Don Blankenship conceded the Republican Party’s Senate nomination in West Virginia.

“Obviously the right thing happened here,” said one senior McConnell adviser.

“What was proven tonight is Don Blankenship doesn’t have any place in the conservative wing of the Republican Party. He is in a very distant third, where he deserves to be.”

A super PAC with ties to McConnell spent well over a $1 million attacking Blankenship.

The adviser argued that there were two candidates in the race – West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Rep. Evan Jenkins – who would make the race against Democrat Joe Manchin a top tier contest in November, but that Blankenship would have sunk their chances.

The adviser would not rule out that McConnell was celebrating tonight with bourbon.

“There is no bourbon like a Kentucky bourbon,” the adviser said. “He doesn’t pick among his favorite children.”

The adviser continued: “Suffice it to say, I am sure he thinks this is the right result.”