Bill Straub: What an incredible week it was for Mitch McConnell, as he set a record for bollixing things up

So what has Senate Republican Leader Mitch “Root-‘n-Branch” McConnell done over the space of a single week in March to further bollix this long-suffering republic?

To borrow from Elizabeth Barrett Browning, let me count the ways.

1. The Louisville lawmaker has joined his fellow Republicans in a massive home run trot over what may – or may not – be the results of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and President Trump’s (Ouch!) possible connections to said plot.

On this point, one can hardly blame ol’ Root-‘n-Branch. Attorney General William Barr released a four-page synopsis of Mueller’s findings in which he essentially declared “Nothing to see here, folks, move along.” Trying to run a legislative body with a president facing possible impeachment can’t be anybody’s notion of a good time and McConnell understandably expressed his relief in an understated way.

“Many Republicans have long believed that Russia poses a significant threat to American interests,’’ McConnell said, taking a tact that differs markedly from that assumed by the president, who has done everything except ask his pal Vladimir Putin to bring his country into the union. “I hope the Special Counsel’s report will help inform and improve our efforts to protect our democracy.”

Fine. But then, as expected, he stood afront of an effort by Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer, of New York, seeking the release of the Mueller report in its entirety so Congress and the American people can pass their own judgments.

Barr’s synopsis is monumentally insufficient for any number of reasons. Even if you accept the attorney general’s assurance that the report absolves Trump of colluding with the Kremlin to win the 2016 election, there remains something of an open question over obstruction of justice.

For reasons still lost in the fog, Mueller decided to leave the issue of whether Trump should be charged with obstruction to the Justice Department. Barr answered with a strong “no’’ quicker than you can say Jack Robinson. It’s known there were potential overt acts involved here – Trump asked former FBI director James Comey to “go easy” on his former national-security adviser Michael Flynn for lying to his agency and eventually firing Comey outright, apparently for appointing Mueller to look into the whole Russia mess.

Complicating matters further, Barr, before he was appointed attorney general by Trump, authored a memo saying he thought the obstruction investigation was “fatally misconceived,” which is rather like calling balls and strikes before a pitch is thrown.

The entire Mueller report should be issued based on the obstruction issue alone. The fact that the whole kit-and-kaboodle took two years and cost the public millions of dollars, and that previous Special Counsel reports have been released outright, certainly argues in favor of full disclosure.

“It’s a simple request for transparency,” Schumer said. “Nothing more, nothing less.”

But transparency has never been McConnell’s watchword – whatever happened to transparency in political contributions, for instance? Ol’ Root-‘n-Branch is playing his usual waiting game, trying to develop a theory to deny public access to a report that could lead to complications.

McConnell nixed it, asserting that “it’s not unreasonable to give the special counsel and the Justice Department just a little time to complete their review in a professional and responsible manner.”

The Schumer resolution didn’t include a timetable – only that it should be released. And it was non-binding.

Good try, Mitch.

2. While we’re on the subject of Russia and the 2016 presidential election, McConnell did something this week so incredible, so awe-inspiring that it brings tears to the eyes and forces you to your feet to applaud.

In a Senate floor speech, Ol’ Root-‘n-Branch blamed former President Barack Obama for failing to take stronger action to counter Russian involvement in the electoral process, which accrued to the benefit of Trump.

“It is deeply disturbing that the Obama administration was apparently insufficiently prepared to anticipate and counter these Russian threats,” McConnell said. “It was hardly a secret prior to November 2016 that Putin’s Russia was not and is not our friend. And yet, for years, the previous administration ignored, excused and failed to confront Putin’s malign activities, both at home and abroad.”


Good lord in heaven. Ladies and gentlemen, there is breath-taking audacity. And then there is Addison Mitchell McConnell.

In case you have forgotten, the Obama administration was well aware of Kremlin involvement and sought to make a strong, united stand against the incursion.

But one person stood in the way – Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Louisville.

Let us recap. The Washington Post reported that in early September 2016, then-Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and then-FBI Director James Comey traveled to Capitol Hill to inform legislative leaders of Russian involvement and hopefully form a united, bipartisan front to inform the public.

It didn’t work. McConnell expressed “skepticism that the underlying intelligence truly supported the White House’s claims,’’ according to the Post. He considered the move a political ploy to aid the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

That scenario was later confirmed by two Obama White House officials, Vice President Joe Biden and Chief of Staff Denis McDonough.

Biden, during an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations, said McConnell “wanted no part of having a bipartisan commitment saying, essentially, ‘Russia’s doing this. Stop,’’’ McConnell’s response was “all about the political play,’’ he added, and that Obama pulled back in the absence of bipartisan support.

McConnell and other congressional leaders eventually issued a cautious statement in September 2016, encouraging election officials to ensure that their computer networks were “secure from attack.” Russia was not mentioned.

McDonough said that was McConnell’s doing. Appearing on Meet The Press in March 2018, McDonough said Obama asked Congressional leaders in a bipartisan meeting in the Oval Office “to join him in asking the states to work with us on this question.’’

It took more than three weeks to get a statement that was “dramatically watered down,’’ McDonough said. Asked if that was done at McConnell’s insistence, the former chief of staff offered a simple answer: “Yes.’’

You gotta hand it to the man, he’s got some gall. Kentucky should be so proud.

3. Thinking yet again he’s the smartest guy in the room – something he does constantly, filled with the praise of sycophants in his ears – ol’ Root-‘n-Branch thought it would be great fun to call up for the Senate’s consideration the Green New Deal, authored by, among others, Sen. Ed Markey, D-MA, and Rep. Alexandrea Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, who has somehow emerged as the poster girl for the Republican right.

Now McConnell was on record saying he doesn’t intend to call up for consideration any bill that won’t pass or attract a presidential veto, thus handing the reins of the Senate over to Trump, who can’t even handle the job he was elected to fill. But ol’ Mitch, that fun-loving guy, made an exception for the Green New Deal, which met none of his criteria. He just thought it would be cute to put Democrats on the spot.

The measure, among others things, calls for the U.S. to meet all its power demands through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources. It seeks to upgrade power grids, upgrade buildings to make them more energy efficient and overhaul the nation’s transportation system. It also includes non-energy provisions like job guarantees, strengthening labor laws and free college education.

Obviously, some of the dogs in that package won’t hunt, which is why you have committees to consider the proposals, make changes and then open it up to amendments on the floor. Mitch thought it would be a real knee-slapper to avoid all that and just send it directly to the full Senate where it fell 57-0 with most Democrats voting present.

Here we should remember that McConnell has one of the worst environmental voting records in the Senate, still clinging to the nonsense notion that coal is somehow going to save us all. The League of Conservation Voters has given him a lifetime score of 7 percent – meaning he votes for legislation favoring the environment seven out of every 100 times.

And here he is chortling over legislation aimed at addressing global climate change without offering anything better. What a jokester.

Ocasio-Cortez was right: “What McConnell’s doing is that he’s trying to rush this bill to the floor without a hearing … without working through committee — because he doesn’t want to save our planet. Because he thinks we can drink oil in 30 years when all our water is poisoned.”

Drink that, Senator.

4. Finally, McConnell received a lukewarm reception at AIPAC – the American Israel Public Affairs Committee – where he offered an overt play for the Jewish vote by asserting to those gathered that the apparent rise in anti-Semitism is coming from the left (read Democrats) and not the right (his Republicans).

Root-‘n-Branch said anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiments may be “confined to a small fringe today. But that small fringe is gaining momentum within the far left and increasingly shaping the left’s agenda.’’

McConnell went on to say that he was “troubled that leading Democrats seem reluctant to plainly call out problems within their own ranks,’’ an apparent reference to two lawmakers who are Muslim who have made critical statements in regard to Israeli policies, especially those affecting Palestine.

Let’s get this over with quickly – growing anti-Semitism is primarily on the far right, often involving neo-Nazis. During the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA., in 2017, demonstrators were heard chanting “Jews will not replace us’’ and offered other phrases that aren’t fit to print here. That’s not to say there aren’t some issues on the left, but they pale when compared to idiots flashing swastikas and dressing like storm troopers.

McConnell knows this. But there he was at AIPAC, insisting that “None of you came here to hear partisan politics. It is not my intention to engage in it.”

The man is without a shred of honor.

At any rate, four outrages in a week is heavy lifting for most human beings but a normal workload for ol’ Root-‘n-Branch. It is quite an accomplishment and consideration must be paid.

It was the sort of week for which he is famous. The same could be said for Dillinger.

NKyTribune’s Washington columnist 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.