Unfit
For eight years Mitch McConnell did everything in his power to block any initiative by President Obama; no matter the cost to the nation. It simply wouldn’t do to have the Democrats governing, to have a Democrat in the White House; especially not a popular black President. He never was much on democracy. McConnell couldn’t thwart the will of the people in the 2008 presidential election, but, from the start, it was ‘whatever it takes’ to ensure that Obama was a one-term president. Things didn’t get any better; Throughout the eight years. whenever Obama reached out his hand, McConnell spat in it.
In Obama’s last year in office, the year before Trump took-over, McConnell, single-handedly, unconstitutionally, denied him an appointment to the Supreme Court after Justice Scalia died in February of 2016. But one of many appointments denied during those last four years, this was the most egregious. One he bragged about for years.
In 2016, when the Obama Administration briefed McConnell on Russian interference in the election, McConnell threatened to accuse Obama of trying to tilt the election in Hillary Clinton’s favor if the Administration went public with the confirmed information. This after he had approved the expenditure of thousands of hours of the Senate’s time and millions of taxpayer dollars on an investigation into the Benghazi Incident, one that McConnell knew was a sham, an investigation meant to harm Clinton’s chances if she ran in 2016. Mitch could never find a good reason to do the right thing.
With more than a little help from McConnell, Putin, Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, Fox News, the other major news outlets via the Fox stovepipe, and a good bit of old fashioned, recently Supreme Court anointed, Republican Party led, voter suppression, Trump was elected President in 2016 by a margin of (-) three million votes.
With democracy averted, McConnell gleefully pushed through Federalist Society approved, right-wingers, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh. When Justice Ginsburg died in mid-September 2020, McConnell lied himself into a knot of knots and proclaimed that it was Trump’s constitutional right to appoint her replacement. McConnell rushed through the appointment of the right-wing, Federalist Society approved, Amy Coney Barrett to replace the liberal icon Ginsburg. McConnell simply proving once more that no one can go lower than he can.
After the House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against President trump for his attempt to extort false evidence against Joe Biden from the President of Ukraine in a July phone call in December of 2019, McConnell coordinated with the White House on a defense strategy in the run up to the trial in February 2020; refused to allow witnesses to be called in the Senate Trial.
During a televised debate of his 2020 senatorial contest with his Democratic opponent, Amy McGrath, McConnell bragged of extorting $17billion from blue states for Kentucky. Blue states are those states represented by venomous liberals like Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Elizabeth Warren.
When meat-packers like Tyson’s Foods refused to spend the money to implement measures to save the lives of their low wage workers by reducing the risk of COVID-19 infection, McConnell was there for the owners with legislative proposals that would grant them immunity from prosecution for failing to implement the needed measures.
McConnell was strongly opposed to any pandemic relief that might afford workers the option of avoiding the risk contacting COVID at work by staying home. After all, economic servitude must be preserved, and economic servitude doesn’t work at all well if the workers have options (McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, served as Secretary of Labor for the full eight years of the George W. Bush Administration). From June to November of this 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, McConnell refused to bring a House approved COVID relief package to the floor of the Senate; too busy approving right-wing judges to the Federal Courts to be bothered with the plight of suffering Americans.
Far too many elected officials have enabled and abetted Donald J. Trump in his ascendance to power, in his abuses of the office of President. None have enabled and abetted Trump in these endeavors more than Senator McConnell. The shock exhibited by McConnell on the evening and night of 6, January upon his much-belated realization of the consequences of his condoning, enabling, and abetting this monster undoes nothing, absolves him of nothing. Any negotiation for forgiveness must be denied. Mitch McConnell should resign, and he should be barred from ever again holding public office. He is unfit for office.
Ken,
Last night it still looked like Trump was going to escape the 25th amendment provision. Good luck with McConnell. KY voters still like Bitch McConnell. BTW, if you have to go then turn away from the wind.
Morning Ron
At the risk of being pollyannaish: The Republican Party, especially the House and Senate, are about to undergo a long overdue reformation. In the Senate, I envision a Romney led mutiny. The Popes and Cardinals of the 13th were geniuses in comparison to Mitch’s cadre of Blunt, Cornyn, Blackburn, Hyde-Smith, Kennedy, … . Blackburn, Hyde-Smith, and Kennedy, are especially embarrassingly stupid. Did you hear them speak on Wed nite? Ever? Speaking of stupid, in the House, the search for a Republican with an IQ above 85 continues. McCarthy is proof positive that not all Californians are above average.
Ken,
You have laid out the case against Mitch McConnell well and I agree with all you say. Unfortunately, there are too many of these power hungry, egotistical, hypocritical elected officials that make governing in any rational manner nearly impossible.
Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz are highlighted in my mind, among so many others, and are now scrambling to distance themselves from the madman at the top. Had they and McConnell raised their voices earlier, in defense of the country they now claim to love, they could have put an end to this insane Trump presidency long ago. And even now, following an attack and insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, incited by the President, Congress is not in an emergency session to remove a psychopathic President; they have gone home. No, he is too dangerous for social media accounts, but he can still have his nuclear codes and Commander in Chief title.
McConnell is, and has been particularly onerous because of the enormous power he holds as Senate Majority Leader. Many major issues have been denied bipartisan consideration, discussion and solutions because of power manipulation to achieve various ulterior, sinister and many times unrelated political party ends.
Underlying it all and frustrating any effort at good governance is the extraordinary and unjustifiable power granted to the House and Senate political leadership no matter how slim the political party majority. We are now about to enter an era where ties and the narrowest political majorities will rule. While I’m pleased that at least the next two years will be controlled by the party of my choice, I know it’s only a moment in time and anything accomplished could likely be undermined and overturned in short order once the political pendulum swings the other way.
We should not be surprised because this enormous “political” power was planned, developed and granted to the parties by themselves and can be changed by them whenever they feel the need. [Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, “Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings.”]
While operating behind a facade of good government, country over party, honest and truthful behavior, the parties are by nature self-serving and focused on achieving power and control to satisfy their various ideological objectives. Each House IS NOT CAPABLE OF determining its own Rules of its Proceedings. Until we correct this situation we will continue to have a dysfunctional, erratic, unsustainable government incapable of addressing the exceeding complex issues we face as a nation. Rules of Proceedings must be developed by a neutral, objective, independent body and codified, reviewed and updated periodically.[https://tinyurl.com/y2k42yoj]
I don’t think that you have identified the cause. It’s on my list.
@J.P. McJefferson,
Excellent. Well said. Thanks.
Good morning, Ken.
My wife voted for Romney in 2012, but I did not. Mitt learned something implementing universal health insurance in a state dominated by insurance company interests. He is a traditional Republican, like my wife and her entire family, unfortunately. Her Christian conservative background gave her strong family values in place of the typical materialistic betrayal that I had experienced in past marriages.
OTOH, Trump, McConnell, Cruz, and many others within the Republican fold are less trustworthy, while the good ones are just corporatist whores. But yeah, I have always preferred whores to psychopaths.
That said though, J.P. made excellent points. Given the system that we have, then systemic corruption IS the natural outcome.
Personally, I won’t rest until the Republican Party is utterly destroyed. I am not a Democrat. But in a two party system you look like a Democrat when you are trying to do this, I’m in favor of good public policy that isn’t captured by corporate interests. How can that be achieved? With two small d democratic parties, one liberal and one conservative. Why? Because that is the way humans are built. Some humans value structure and security above everything. Others value novelty and change. There is a natural tension there and we are always going to tend to cleave into these two camps. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Change and progress is necessary and good. But it is also potentially dangerous. Tradition and respect for the past is meaningful as well. Security means something. It is in the debate between these different outlooks that sound public policy can be arrived at. That is when sound public policy is honestly the motivation for both sides. Somehow this is where we need to be. The first step to getting there is the utter destruction of the Republican Party as it is currently constituted.
My only disagreement with what J. P. wrote is the rules making. They are capable of making their own rules. Be it, not the best situation.
However, what we have been experiencing is what I came to understand back during the Bush/Cheney reign and the fight over the filibusterer referred to as “going nuclear”.
It was then that I realized the only reason we have a democracy is because the 2 leaders of each party in the Senate (the house does not matter due to it’s size) agree to abide by the rules they created for conducting their business. Once 1 says “No”, there is nothing the other can do. This is most onerous when that 1 is the majority as we have seen with Moscow Mitch.
What gave Moscow Mitch the daemon power is Newt Gingrich’s work in the 90’s where he lead the Republican party to understand it was party first along with the change in language used in political discourse such that debate was morphed into defeat of the “enemy”. Moscow Mitch would not has as complete a power hold if not for the party first creed.
However, while this was happening, we also let consolidation of our media system take place and morph it’s “free press” constitutional responsibility into free market entertainment. Add some back ground work over time by the Republican party regarding ideological shifts of our judiciary regarding politics (the money issue, voter act) and here we are.
Removing the rule making from each house won’t solve the issue. The only real solution, and I accept this is not easy, is to change peoples perception of their life as ti relates to living and functioning within a democracy. But, isn’t that the inherent struggle in having a democracy? Just as working to continually breath is for life?
Though, the Republican party has show how easy it is if you plan for the long haul. That is, if you plan for the change over generations. And, you have the opposite party that misses the lesson and instead only see the surface lesson that the other side is winning and thus we need to emulate them.
One last thing, it should have been recognized that we were doomed when the word “brand” was accepted as proper when referring to each political party. That was the point of the end of the war to put economy first and society in service of it.
Giving the House & Senate the power to create and change their own rules when the parties in power shift over time, is like playing a game with no referee and allowing the side with the ball to make the rules and call the fouls. We need independently developed, objective rules and procedures focused on good government and sound decision making that are the same for all and updated overtime. We can do so much better.
@SW,
Is that Sandwichman? In any case, your comment was an awesome statement of realism, which I hold in high regard. You got my best of thread award nomination for that one. Then with an extra dollar you can buy a $1 sandwich.
Ken,
While I wish you were right about the change in the Rep Party, I think there is no chance of any change at all. Trump got 74 million votes during a pandemic where he was responsible of tens of thousands of needless deaths.
Every Rep politician in the country noticed that.
EMichael
All the changes seen since 1965 are a consequence of the takeover of the party by the ex-Dixiecrats; all the ‘my way or the highway’ crap, the trying to impose their goofy arsed sh*t on the country, … . My hoped for reformation is meant to rectify this. I want Romney, he’s the only hope at this point, to take back the party.
Isn’t it about time the GOP was labeled a violence-encouraging terrorist organization?
Some time ago the founding fathers realized as the population of the US grew there would come a time a parliamentary form of government would become necessary.
400 + representing 330 + million people is ludicrous if not because of how easy it is to buy half the vote but how under- represented Americans have become.
The Senate is nothing more than career building a major league team whose self importance has paralyzed us with their stricken progress and I would suggest eliminating it would be like removing a straight jacket on freedom itself.
Seriously, who could argue a group of civic minded adults, not seniors; meeting four times a year to get the nations business done would by far exceed anything the US Senate is capable of.
And as far as the Constitution goes, does anyone not agree it is far overdue a rewrite for the 21st century. It has outlived its antiquity.
Add to the above a return to sound money policies; between 1799 and 1899 a pound of nails in the US cost exactly the same. Could anyone imagine what real stability like this would do for the inequality that exists today? Many forget that the efficiency of technology is a gift to mankind that lowers prices, just the opposite of what we have today.
So it’s not like a course correction is not recommended here; it really is a necessity.
George:
And what would you propose?
One topic at least as important as the impeachment, the judiciary. Failing to expand the Supreme Court and all the Federal courts will be a disaster for our democracy. Rights will be rolled back, and judiciary interference with the Biden Administration could well result in government by the minority.
That is why we must call our Senators and implore them to change the Senate Rules to kill the filibuster. Make those opposed to ending this monstrosity put themselves on the record. It’s too important to ignore.
“We continue to believe that Congress should exercise its constitutional authority to expand the Supreme Court, allowing Biden to rebalance the bench and preserve the institution’s legitimacy. But it’s not clear Democrats will be willing to take such a step. Joe Manchin, a pivotal Democratic senator, has forsworn court expansion and its necessary predicate, the abolition of the filibuster. There are not, it seems, a sufficient number of votes to reform the judiciary in ways that would preserve it as functional. Lack of action ensures that Biden will be boxed in on all sides by the dead hand of the Trump administration…..
Congress has the power to rein in a federal judiciary that subverts democratic values and fundamental rights. It does not seem willing to deploy this tool in the very near future, and time is already running out. There are dark days ahead for our courts, and the coming clash will be clarifying. Biden’s Justice Department will seek to roll back the odious legal legacy of theTrump administration. His judicial nominees will wage war—collegially, in eloquent dissents—against the ascendant jurisprudence of Trumpism.And it won’t be long before we see structural distortions to voting rights, the census, as the machinery of democracy itself is being manipulated by judges wishing to cement minority privileges. In fact, it’s already happening. The coming years will involve a delicate recalibration of the relationship between the institutions of justice and justice itself. Those are not just fights for Biden, or the judiciary, or the DOJ. We will all need to be part of a process that is equal parts institutional repair and radical change.”
https://slate.com/news-and-…
We need to see if Manchin is willing to replace McConnell as the most hated man in the Senate.
@George,
I want a pony.
Run75441, hello and interesting you see proposals as solution here. I love the fact you are curious. By continuing protest over the dysfunction currently in place, the effort would change to a collective sense of civic duty, free of the hate and division we previously wielded, where an exclusive emphasis toward what we can do for country becomes paramount. Just in time I might add because the Nation needs all the help we can muster. Arguably, it was a similar effort that bolstered the original document. Our voices here would be put to paper and presented as petition to rewrite the worn out parts of the document, salvaging what is commonly agreed continues to work for the Republic.
Participants here are varied, neutral, and kind to the idea of the progressive good intended. Our power, albeit obscured with the scars of a disbelief we have any, is perhaps the only rusty thing that remains for our organized common good. Have a wonderful new day.
George:
I appreciate your return. Just to advise, I am a moderator here and I try to converse where I can. The House will work if it is proportioned properly. The smaller the population assigned to each Rep, the harder it is to Gerrymander and to ignore a proportion of your constituents both of which occur now. The Senate as the upper part of government also was meant to give proportionality to the less populated states in the EC. With the EC, the only issue I see in it functioning properly is due to the the Reapportionment Act of 1929.
I do not believe we could ever get to a rewrite of the constitution. The politics are too far apart. The changes I mentioned above are possible as the political beliefs shift across the country.
“…During a televised debate of his 2020 senatorial contest with his Democratic opponent, Amy McGrath, McConnell bragged of extorting $17billion from blue states for Kentucky…”
“…When meat-packers like Tyson’s Foods refused to spend the money to implement measures to save the lives of their low wage workers by reducing the risk of COVID-19 infection, McConnell was there for the owners with legislative proposals that would grant them immunity from prosecution for failing to implement the needed measures…”
“…Mitch McConnell should resign, and he should be barred from ever again holding public office. He is unfit for office…”
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[Little irony there. Like Trump, being unfit for office is the means by which McConnell has been successfully able to seek election. Pork for voters and pork for donors. All God’s children got pork. Amen.]
What happens the next time a president tries to steal an election?
via @BostonGlobe – January 9
WASHINGTON — As they emerged from the wreckage of a ransacked Capitol this week, many lawmakers said they did not recognize their own country.
The riot, incited by a defeated president determined to stay in power, looked like something that would happen in a “banana republic,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. At least two military veterans who serve in Congress told reporters they had not seen anything like it since they were deployed in Iraq.
But to a cadre of political scientists and legal experts who have been closely watching President Trump’s attempts to cling to power since losing the November election, the most frightening part of Wednesday for the future of US democracy was not the mob, but the 147 Republican lawmakers who voted to object to the election results even after the riot.
That vote showed that many in the political elite were willing to depart from the central norm upholding any democracy — that the loser and their party accepts their loss — and to try to take advantage of the antiquated and vague laws that govern Congress’s limited role in presidential elections.
‘Our president wants us here’: The mob that stormed the Capitol
The scene raises the frightening possibility that unscrupulous lawmakers, egged on by enraged grassroots supporters, could go even further in attempting to overturn election results in the future. And there’s little to stop them.
“The moment people don’t feel it is in their interest to act democratically, democracy is just lost,” said Michael Miller, a democracy expert at George Washington University. “The Constitution cannot save it. It’s not going to leap out of its case in the National Archives and start attacking people.”
If there’s any good news that sprang from Wednesday’s violence, it’s that for now, the US electoral system has withstood the immense strain Trump placed on it. Despite hordes of Trump supporters invading the Capitol and derailing the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s win, Congress eventually discharged its duty and finished tallying the Electoral College’s votes in the wee hours of Thursday morning. …
@Fred,
Good article. Thanks. Agreed. Anti-government anarchists are nothing new here, but political elites backing them is.
Rebekah Mercer is co-founder (money bag for) Parler.