WASHINGTON – It’s now apparent that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has pulled what might be termed a Gregor Samsa, metamorphosing from a center-right dealmaker in his early days to the sullen obstructionist committing significant harm to the nation that we all, unfortunately, now recognize.
There always has been some mystery regarding what compelled the Louisvillian to embrace the dark side but now there might be a clue, provided by Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, perhaps the best political analyst working today.
In an interview on Vox.com that covered substantial ground, Ornstein asserted that McConnell was “complicit’’ in recruiting Republican Senate candidates bent on essentially destroying the institution, mistakenly thinking he could control them once he had attained his dream job as majority leader.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
“They all came in believing that Washington was a cesspool,’’ Ornstein said of the new lawmakers infiltrating the capital under the aegis of the GOP. “So what followed has been a very deliberate attempt to blow up and delegitimize government, not just the president but the actions of government itself in Washington.’’
Under McConnell and others, it should be said, the norms of what are regarded as appropriate and not appropriate in both the policy and the political realms have been degraded. McConnell “went out and really tried to fan the flames of Tea Party and populist anger, working it to their advantage in midterm contests. But what ended up happening was that they undermined their own authority.’’
McConnell was among those, Ornstein said, who believed “they could now co-opt these people. Instead, they were co-opted themselves.’’
In other words, McConnell openly embraced the Tea Party warriors looking to obtain a Senate seat, believing they would open the door to him serving as top dog and, once there, they would, as Cartman might put it, “respect my authoritah.’’ After all, he has managed to neutralize his fellow Kentucky Republican, Sen. Rand Paul, who came in with the Tea Party tide and initially looked like a burr in Mitch’s saddle. Instead they emerged as allies and McConnell figured he could spin his magic on the others as well.
That hasn’t proved to be the case. In pursuit of his own personal ambition, to the detriment of the republic, McConnell has fallen in line to appease the crazies like Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-WI, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-AR, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-IA and several others in order to retain the lifestyle and position to which he has become accustomed.
It’s like Joe Boyd selling out to Mr. Applegate. And what has it gotten the man glorified from coast-to-coast as a political genius, the lawmaker who consistently outwits his foes, leading the GOP like Moses into the Promised Land?
Well, for one thing, it’s rendered him the most despised politician in the country. A Public Policy Polling survey released on March 31 showed McConnell carried the approval of 16 percent of those questioned, disapproved by 64 percent, making him the most unpopular major political figure in the country. Associating with McConnell, PPP said in its analysis, “may not be good news for the members of his caucus seeking reelection across the country this year.’’
Now, to be fair, that poll was taken more than a month ago and things have changed. An updated PPP survey, released on May 9, established that old Mitch now carries the approval of 11 percent of those questioned. At this rate, by Election Day, he’ll be owing points.
By means of contrast, the man McConnell has assiduously sought to destroy in order to promote his own vanity, President Obama, has earned the approval of 52 percent of those polled by Gallup.
So it’s becoming obvious that, despite his claims to the contrary, McConnell’s scam on the American people isn’t working. The reasons are clear despite the genius non de plume.
McConnell, seemingly not content to simply destroy the federal government’s legislative and executive branches, has taken a real sledge hammer to the judiciary. He remains steadfast in his refusal to consider Obama’s nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, U.S. District Court Judge Merrick Garland, despite polls that show Americans overwhelmingly demand confirmation hearings.
Meanwhile, McConnell is stonewalling other federal judgeships.
“The Senate has not confirmed a single judicial nominee in a month,’’ Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Tuesday. “Not one. And yet, Republicans continue to claim the Senate is back to work. When qualified nominees who were unanimously approved by the Judiciary Committee are left waiting for months, the Senate is not working. It is not fulfilling its constitutional role and it certainly is not doing the job of the American people who deserve prompt justice in our courts.”
And it goes downhill from there. Outside of the judiciary, the Senate under McConnell is dragging its feet on confirming presidential nominees to key federal posts. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has determined that the upper chamber has confirmed the fewest civilian presidential nominees of any Congress in the past 30 years and there’s no reason to believe it will pick up the pace.
As of April 30, 198 Obama nominees have been confirmed during the 114th Congress, excluding military appointments. During the final two years of President George W. Bush’s administration, by contrast, 345 nominees were confirmed.
“The Republican Senate is making history for all the wrong reasons,” said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada. “Since taking the Senate majority, Republicans have doubled down on their commitment to gridlock, confirming the fewest nominations in decades. This is yet another example of Senate Republicans refusing to do their jobs.”
And it’s not like the poor boys and girls of the upper chamber are being overworked. McConnell has scheduled the Senate to be in session only 149 days this year but the grand total will wind up being fewer than that because, by taking most Friday’s off, the chamber is on track to meet for only just 124 days – the fewest since 1956.
What McConnell fails to relate in his prolonged swagger is that many of these issues could have been resolved years earlier but efforts were blocked as a result of Republican filibusters – a ploy launched by McConnell to show Democrats and Reid in particular as incompetent. It’s only because Democrats are willing to play ball for the good of the nation, where minority Republicans were not, that the measures are now passing
Meanwhile, the Senate has failed to fulfill McConnell’s vow to pass a budget by the April 15 deadline this year – after having vigorously condemned Democrats for failing to adopt a spending outline when they were in the majority in recent years.
“So what I ask is where are all the Republican senators who came to the floor to bash Democrats on the lack of a budget resolution?’’ Reid recently noted. “They’ve gone silent.”
Efforts to develop a plan to address the potential threats posed by the international spread of the Zika virus have thus far been dashed under McConnell’s stewardship. And the GOP majority still has its back turned on the ignominious water crisis facing the citizens of Flint, MI, despite the pleas of Democratic lawmakers.
Yet McConnell rarely misses an opportunity to glorify his sagging tenure. “Under a new Republican majority, the Senate is getting back to work and progress is being made on behalf of the American people,’’ he is proud of saying.
“Whether it’s providing long-term solutions for highway funding, or permanent tax relief for families and small businesses, or common-sense reforms for airline passengers and airport security, this much is clear: the Republican-led Senate is working to address issues that affect our constituents on a daily basis,’’ he said in an April 20 floor speech.
What McConnell fails to relate in his prolonged swagger is that many of these issues could have been resolved years earlier but efforts were blocked as a result of Republican filibusters – a ploy launched by McConnell to show Democrats and Reid in particular as incompetent. It’s only because Democrats are willing to play ball for the good of the nation, where minority Republicans were not, that the measures are now passing.
It’s called the bait-and-switch. Reid has taken to calling McConnell “the proud guardian of gridlock.’’
“I really have to smile when I hear the Republican leader,’’ Reid said during a recent floor speech. “He says it almost every day — the ‘Senate is back to work’ speech. Some Republicans show up only half the time for work and want a raise. They go through the motions but they feel they do their job. They fail to fund opioid legislation. They fail to do anything about the water in Flint, MI. They fail to fix the renewable tax credit. They fail to address the Zika virus, and on and on.’’
In other words, under McConnell, the Senate is a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
But perhaps McConnell’s greatest achievement, though unintended, through his scamming and obstructionism and spreading disregard for the people’s government throughout the land is the GOP’s presumed nomination of Donald J. Trump as the next president of the United States.
Quite a record, indeed.
Washington correspondent Bill Straub served 11 years as the Frankfort Bureau chief for The Kentucky Post. He also is the former White House/political correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service. A member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, he currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and writes frequently about the federal government and politics. Email him at williamgstraub@gmail.com.
