Bill Straub: Shameless McConnell claiming credit for putting Congress back to work a strange notion

WASHINGTON – A lot has been written over the years, both good and bad, about Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. But one area where the pro-Mitch and anti-Mitch forces ought to be able to unite is over the precept that humility and modesty are not the man from Louisville’s greatest virtues.

In a town where singing your own song is de rigueur, McConnell is the Ethel Merman of the political class, able to reach the back row without benefit of a microphone when he’s reminding folks of just how terrific he is.

Lately McConnell has been using that voice to extol his performance as majority leader during the first session of the 114th Congress which is rapidly drawing to a close. To hear Mitch tell it, the citizenry of these United States owes him a debt of gratitude for putting the lower chamber, as he puts it, “back to work.”

“In the last election the American people chose a new direction with a new Republican majority in Congress,’’ McConnell said during a recent floor speech. “We have been working hard ever since to get Congress back on their side and back to work. Over the past year, Americans have seen committees up and running again. Americans have seen bills passed again. Americans have seen meaningful bipartisan bills being signed into law again. Americans have also seen members of opposing parties working together to make progress on important issues, from trade to Medicare to cyber security. We have seen examples of it this year on some of Washington’s stickiest issues.’’

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is claiming credit for passing the same legislation he was once responsible for blocking

Senate actions under his guidance, McConnell said, “represent significant accomplishments for the new Congress and significant wins for the American people. After all, some pundits said Washington could never take these issues on at all. But we did, and we now expect to finish Congress’s work on all of those matters in the coming days.’’

In fact, as McConnell noted, Congress has managed to push through significant measures this session, ranging from a five-year transportation bill –- without the help of Rep. Thomas Massie, R-SomewhereorotherLewisCounty — to a replacement for the unpopular No Child Left Behind law championed by former President George W. Bush and adopted during his administration.

But any fair assessment of the situation must give McConnell and his fellow Republicans only minimal credit. Democrats attempted to address most if not all of these “stickiest’’ issues when they held the majority from 2007 to 2015 but were consistently thwarted by the GOP’s historic use of the filibuster.

In other words, Senate Democrats during the administration of President Obama and under the direction of Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, endeavored to address many of these very same issues but were prohibited from doing so by the Republican minority. Once McConnell and the GOP captured the majority they took the initiative and, with Democrats helping rather than hindering, passed some worthwhile legislation.

But it’s a classic three-card-monte game. McConnell is claiming credit for accomplishments he obstructed in the past. As comedian/commentator Jon Stewart accurately noted recently, “Mitch McConnell doesn’t give a s–t about anything but politics.”

Yet he claims the Senate is “back to work on the side of the American people.’’ Facts show the Senate was never against the American people – just a segment thirsty for power.

The proof is in the numbers. During the 113th Congress, with Democrats still maintaining the majority, Reid was forced to file a cloture motion – which permits lawmakers to override a filibuster with 60 votes — 253 times, an all-time record, an average of 126 times per year. This year, with the GOP in charge. Democrats have forced McConnell to file a cloture motion 68 times.

“The Republican leader comes to the floor virtually every day and talks about this great new Senate,’’ Reid said. “He talked about the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. We tried to do that many times. It was blocked by Republicans. That is why it was not done before. Highways. We tried valiantly to do something on highways, but all we could ever get, because of the obstruction of the Republicans, was short-term extensions.’’

Reid asserted that a number of bills that passed this year “languished in the Senate…because of Republican filibusters.’’

“We tried to pass those bills in the last two Congresses,’’ he said. “They were blocked by Republicans. We are now helping pass legislation, and that is our job. The job of Republicans was to oppose everything President Obama wanted, and that is, in fact, what was done.’’

So, as usual McConnell is making a cheap political claim and enthusiastically patting himself on the back. But there’s reason to believe that, in one area at least, the first year of his tenure as majority leader has been an unmitigated disaster, and that’s in the nomination process, particularly when it comes to federal judgeships. It’s not going too far to say that McConnell is ignoring his constitutional responsibility to provide advice and consent on presidential nominations.

The Senate has confirmed only 11 federal judge nominees this year. There are now 19 more judicial emergencies within the system than when Republicans took control of the Senate.

There’s no shortage of individuals to vote on – there are 19 nominees pending on the executive calendar and several passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by unanimous voice vote. Some of those being stalled in a rapidly deteriorating system are downright puzzling — seven of the pending nominees maintain the support of their Republican home state senators.

In a letter to McConnell dated Dec. 2, Paulette Brown, president of the American Bar Association, said the federal judiciary has not yet reached crisis level but asserted that the courts “are unfortunately worse off today than they were at the start of this Congress.’’

“There are 22 more vacancies (with three more in the pipeline this month) and more than twice the number of judicial emergencies today than there were this past January,’’ Brown said. “In some of our courts with judicial emergencies, litigants have to put their businesses or private lives on hold indefinitely while waiting for their day in court.’’

It is, she said, “unnecessary and unfair.’’

Often cited is the case of U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Luis Felipe Restrepo, who carries the support of Sen. Pat Toomey, R-PA.

Restrepo was initially nominated to rise to the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals on Nov. 12, 2014. That nomination was returned to President Obama when the 113th Congress adjourned but he was re-nominated on Jan. 7.

Restrepo waited until July 9 to have his nomination reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by voice vote. It has been laying around ever since. He has, in fact, been passed over in favor of nominees who received the committee’s blessing after him, forcing Toomey to write a letter to McConnell begging the leader to bring the nomination up for consideration. McConnell finally relented and has scheduled a vote for Jan. 11 – more than a year after the submission – which has not received any public opposition – was made.

Restrepo, by the way, is one of four Latino judicial nominees who have resided for months in McConnell’s never-never land.

Judicial nominees aren’t the only ones who have been kept waiting. Several key administration appointments remain in limbo, including Adam Szubin, Obama’s choice to serve as undersecretary for terrorism and financial crimes at the Treasury Department – a job that involves tracking terrorists to prevent them from raising money for their nefarious schemes.

That’s right – McConnell is sitting on the nomination of a potential key player in the fight against terrorism without explanation.

Szubin, who is serving in an acting capacity, carries bipartisan support but has been waiting more than 200 days for confirmation. He wasn’t even able to get a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee until Sept. 17, at which time the panel chairman, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-AL, praised his past work.

It’s no secret that McConnell cares not one whit for policy. He’s all about politics and gamesmanship, presenting himself as the savior while all he’s doing is tuning up Nero’s fiddle. And he hopes, as the Wizard of Oz instructed, that no one pays attention to that man behind the curtain.

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. He currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and writes frequently about the federal government and politics. Email him at williamgstraub@gmail.com.