FUCK YOU, Mitch McConnell

 

This from the guy who is most responsible for Trump being president today.

Another alarming freezing episode

 

Are these really merely age-related events?

“I’m sure Jesus loves him, but everybody else thinks—everybody else …” said Kennedy, 73, before trailing off. You can see it in his face—his eyes and mouth particularly—as he struggles to remember what he meant to say or where he is before ultimately giving up and freezing.

  New Republic

And who's the idiot now?  Maybe Jesus hushed him.

What Kennedy meant to say was “Jesus loves him, but everyone else thinks he’s an idiot,” a phrase he’s repeated countless times over the years. Kennedy’s moment is reminiscent of Mitch McConnell freezing multiple times in 2023, and with the same dissociative look as Kennedy, simply trailing off mid-sentence, looking as if he forgot who or where he was.

[...]

Representative Gerry Connolly, Dianne Feinstein, and most famously President Joe Biden are other examples.

Video is embedded in the article. Kudlow tries to cover, saying it was a technical problem. "That's the same mic we lost with Senator Rand Paul." Watch the clip. That is obviously not a mic problem.

Mitch McConnell is the devil incarnate

Big Beautiful Unpopular Bill

 

I'm not convinced Republicans in Congress care about its popularity.

Leave McConnell to his legacy

 

The longest-serving party leader in Senate history, McConnell has wielded power ruthlessly to advance conservative goals.

[...]

The conservative Supreme Court he and Trump co-created to overturn Roe’s longstanding constitutional right to abortion has triggered a sustained voter backlash across red states and blue. The entire country, meanwhile, remains trapped and threatened by the Republican party’s inability to move past Trump—even after he fomented a multi-front attack on democracy to stay in power.

[...]

The longer all of this goes on, the more McConnell—who was Senate majority leader when Trump loyalists stormed the Capitol—bears the burden of not stopping it, or at least trying, when he could have and should have.

[...]

McConnell controlled the Senate schedule until January 20, 2021, but he was unwilling to hold Trump’s [first impeachment] trial while Trump was still president: He refused to reconvene the Senate for an emergency session and said that it would be better for the nation to try Trump after he left office.

Yet when the newly Democratic Senate voted 56–44 in February 2021 that it had the jurisdiction to put a former president on trial, McConnell joined most other Republicans in opposing such a trial as unconstitutional.

[...]

Four days later, as the [eventual] trial closed, McConnell told his colleagues that he would vote to acquit Trump. Had he instead voted for conviction and encouraged others to so as well, he likely would have brought some Republican colleagues with him. In the end, fifty-seven senators voted for a conviction that would have barred Trump from future office—and while seven of them were Republicans, the total was still ten short of the two-thirds needed.

[...]

McConnell’s votes against a Senate trial and against conviction helped ensure that Trump would be free to wreak his usual havoc. McConnell could have stepped up. He could have taken a definitive stand, given his GOP colleagues political cover, and made the case to convict. He could have discussed help and support for people worried about primary challengers or even physical safety.

[...]

At least seven deaths have been connected to the [January 6 MAGA Capitol] attack. Over 1,200 people have been arrested and over 450 sentenced to prison. How could McConnell not have tried?

[...]

It’s a maddening cycle that has forced state and federal investigators, prosecutors, election officials, and courts into an expensive and seemingly endless process of trying to hold one man accountable. The opportunity cost at all levels of government is astronomical when you consider the time, money, and head space that would be available if they were not consumed by coping with Trump issues. That includes a Supreme Court dominated by six conservatives, three of them Trump appointees, who are asked repeatedly to deliver the last word on Trump-era legal mayhem.

The conservative supermajority is McConnell’s handiwork. He started by stealing a high court seat from second-term Democrat Barack Obama after Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016—ten months before the next election and nearly a year before Obama’s tenure ended. But McConnell immediately claimed that wasn’t long enough: “The American people‎ should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”

Obama quickly nominated Merrick Garland, and as promised, McConnell blocked him. It was the most craven move I could remember in decades of reporting on politics—until nearly five years later when, by his own standards, McConnell stole another justice from Democrats. The Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett within a month of her nomination and eight days before Trump lost to Biden. So much for the people’s voice.

[...]

Obama could have ramped up to make it happen—a massive public pressure campaign and simply going ahead and installing a new justice by recess appointment because the people had already spoken (by electing Obama). Let the lawsuits come. Find another nominee if Garland chose to skip the fray.

Maybe that was unrealistic. Maybe it would have failed. But the fight would have made headlines and, just maybe, put enough glare on the Supreme Court to elevate both the stakes and voter turnout in the 2016 presidential election.

  Bulwark

Obama made a lot of missteps that helped usher in our current crises. Another one was refusing to take on the W Bush war crimes. "We're going to look forward, not backward." Same democracy-threatening approach Gerald Ford took in pardoning Richard Nixon.

The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg also missed a chance to head off today’s conservative supermajority. Obama hinted to her about retirement at a 2013 lunch, when she had weathered two bouts of cancer and, at 80, was the oldest person on the court. That went nowhere.

Don't hint.

McConnell was far from alone in his abdication of leadership, but he was the Republican with the most power and opportunity to oust Trump—not from the White House but from politics and future public office—at the moment of his gravest offense against the country and Constitution.

McConnell's recent votes against confirming the worst of the worst of Trump 2.0's cabinet nominees may be his attempt to redeem himself in part. It can't work if that's his play. Too little, too late, and it doesn't matter now. It also doesn't affect his job prospects in the Senate because he's on his way out anyway. Coward and democracy destroyer. That's his legacy.

Marching right along

 

So sad.  Mitch, if not the only reason we're in this spot with her being nominated, is a major one.

Home for the aged in the US Capitol

Nancy Pelosi (age 84) has just had a hip replacement after a fall.  I'm guessing she may have to quit wearing spike heels.  Or should, anyway.

And 82-year-old Mitch is going down, literally.

Mitch McConnell’s fall this week in the U.S. Capitol — his fourth public health episode in the past 21 months — is spurring fresh calls from Republicans for his resignation and underscores the fragility of what’s expected to be his final two legacy-affirming years in the U.S. Senate.

[...]

The 82-year-old suffered a sprained wrist and a cut to the face after falling Tuesday afternoon.

[...]

Donald Trump’s allies showed no mercy toward their longtime nemesis, who they see as a relic from a pre-Trump Republican Party far past his prime.

“This guy needs to get out of the Senate,” posted Ryan Fournier, the chair of Students for Trump.

“It’s time for Mitch McConnell to retire. Enough is enough,” added Gunther Eagelman, a MAGA influencer from Texas.

  McClatchy

Oh, no. He still has two years to finish his crusade to destroy America.

A “violent” and “concussive” fall in March 2023 caused bleeding to the back of McConnell’s head, a loss of consciousness and a cracked rib, according to a biography of the Kentuckian published in October.

At a press conference on July 26, 2023, a freezing episode before cameras had some McConnell aides wondering if their boss might die.

A month later it happened again, igniting widespread speculation that McConnell’s health was in severe decline.

[...]

McConnell has said he plans to finish his six-year term, which expires in early 2027. While he has not formally announced his decision about a reelection campaign, a political aide told the Herald-Leader in March he would not run for an eighth term in 2026 when he would be 84.

How reasonable of him. FFS.

No single person, no matter how wide or deep their MAGA influence, can push McConnell from his beloved Senate.

But he’s already on the cusp of handing over a copious amount of power.

In less than a month, he’ll no longer be in Senate leadership and his fractured relationship with the incoming president will likely relegate him to the periphery of debates around legislation and political strategy.

He's in the running to beat Dianne Feinstein, who was ushered around the halls in a wheelchair asking where she was going in her last year (age 90), for most fragile old nutter in Congress.

In his interview with the author Michael Tackett, McConnell complained that his health troubles were being lumped in with Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who at age 90 died in the Senate, as well as President Biden’s lagging capacity due to his age.

“I am thrown into the mix with them?” McConnell asked Tackett. “Really? There’s no evidence of that.”

[...]

Still, he’s made clear he’ll dedicate his time as a rank and file member pressing for a robust U.S. foreign policy to ensure national security at home.

Oh, yeah? Let me see him vote against installing Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard in the Trump administration. Then maybe I'll consider that as truth.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 12/18/2024:

Mitch McConnell can sit down and STFU

He's right, of course, but the real danger was in having Mitch McConnell playing the role he did while in the Senate.  We wouldn't be in this predicament but for Mitch McConnell.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 12/14/2024:

We shall see

Mitch McConnell is largely responsible for the shape this country is in.  And he's not going to be around for the next Congress, so...he can sit his ass down and watch what happens like the rest of us.

Mitch McConnell is still a prick

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in an interview last year that he hopes former President Trump will “pay a price” for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to Axios, which obtained an early copy of a book by journalist Michael Tackett.

“If he hasn’t committed indictable offenses, I don’t know what one is,” McConnell told Tackett, weeks after special counsel Jack Smith brought the election subversion case against the former president, according to Axios.

  The Hill

How can he pay a price when people like McConnell vote to let him slide? Mitch McConnell needs to fuck right off to Hell.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Inevitability strikes

I assume McConnell is being fitted for his flame-retardant afterlife suit.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

McConnell stepping down

Not soon enough.  His term doesn't end until 2027.

Now that he has single-handedly wrecked the country's bid for greatness, he's not running again.

McConnell’s decision to step aside was also foreseeable for a simple, stark reason beyond his age of 82. His party had moved sharply away from him — and toward his intraparty nemesis, former President Trump — even as he remained its titular head in the upper chamber.

The venom with which Trump attacked him was unignorable.

[...]

President Biden told reporters he was “sorry to hear” McConnell was stepping down. In a later statement, Biden — a Washington institutionalist like the outgoing leader — called McConnell “my friend” and noted that they had been able to work “together in good faith even though we have many political disagreements.”

  The Hill

That alone disqualifies Biden as a capable leader. McConnell never did anything in good faith.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), one of the brashest Trump loyalists in Congress, expressed glee on social media at how McConnell had now been “86’d” alongside former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and outgoing Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) [...] greeted McConnell’s departure as “an opportunity to refocus our efforts on solving the significant challenges facing our country and actually reflect the aspirations of voters.”

[...]

Trump’s resurgence has left McConnell out on an uncomfortable limb. If Trump were to win in November, he would almost certainly engineer McConnell’s ouster — an inglorious end to such a long career.

[...]

Talks have been taking place between the McConnell and Trump camps as to under what circumstances the Senate minority leader might endorse the former president — something he has conspicuously failed to do so far.

One source briefed on those talks told this column that the basic outline would have McConnell endorsing Trump as the party’s de facto leader in return for a quietening of Trump’s attacks.

I'm sure he'll evenetually bend the knee.

McConnell's health issues no doubt also were a deciding factor in his choice.

McConnell suffered a bad fall last year and, in the months afterward, twice froze on camera — two embarrassing moments that sharpened questions about his leadership capacity.

[...]

On Tuesday, he bowed to the apparently unstoppable twin forces of Trumpism and time.

And there'll be nothing but praise and plaudits for him by both the media and Democratic leaders.

The House Freedom Caucus mocked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) after he announced his retirement from his leadership position Wednesday, suggesting that his stance on Ukraine aligns with his Democrat colleagues.

[...]

He said he plans to serve the remainder of his term, which ends in 2027.

[...]

I will complete my job my colleagues have given me until we select a new leader in November and they take the helm next January,” he said.

[...]

“Our thoughts are with our Democrat colleagues in the Senate on the retirement of their Co-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (D-Ukraine). No need to wait till November… Senate Republicans should IMMEDIATELY elect a *Republican* Minority Leader,” the House Freedom Caucus wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 02:30 pm:

UPDATE 03/01/2024:

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/mitch-mcconnell-retiring-senate/?utm_campaign=SproutSocial&utm_content=thenation&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

The old bastard is still an SOB

This is the GOP.  They don't want to fix problems.  They want to campaign on them.

Despicable.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

GOP SNAFU

The stalemate in the House is forcing the Senate to pick up the legislative slack and take the lead on spending.

[...]

There is less than a month before the next government shutdown deadline, with the House having effectively zapped three weeks of the stopgap bill that helped cost Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) the Speakership earlier this month.

The Senate is also set to work up the White House’s $105 billion supplemental package that includes aid for Israel and Ukraine in their battles against Hamas and Russia, respectively.

This leaves lawmakers with a time crunch as they hope to get the work done before Thanksgiving without much help from across the Capitol complex, where funding legislation normally originates.

[...]

The effort on the Israel and the Ukraine fronts in Congress are being shepherded by the two Senate leaders. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has been a leading proponent for the boost in funds, saying in a statement after Biden announced his plan that it “sends a clear message to America’s friends and allies that we have your back.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also appeared on a pair of Sunday talk shows last week to talk up the need for funds to help the two war-torn countries, having said on Friday that the situation requires “decisive action” by the upper chamber.

  The Hill

House Republicans haven't been listening to Mitch McConnell for years. And, you know what? Fuck Mitch McConnell. It's because of him we're still in this predicament. His leadership in the refusal to impeach Trump when he knew Trump was responsible for the January 6 insurrection (McConnell said so on February 13 following the failed coup), and his cheating bullshit packing the court with Trump nominees have brought us to the brink of losing democracy.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

New revelations nearly every day

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Mitch had another glitch

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to have another possible medical episode on Wednesday, freezing for more than half a minute when questioned at an event in Kentucky.

Video footage showed McConnell, 81, trailing off and remaining silent after he was asked if he would seek re-election in 2026.

An aide then stepped in to ask the top Republican House lawmaker if he heard the question. She then informed reporters that the lawmaker would "need a minute."

  MSN

He needs more than a minute. He needs to retire and seek serious medical attention.

(And Dianne Feinstein, too.)

And look how thin and frail he looks.  He can hardly walk on his own.

   

Pardon my lack of sympathy, but too bad this didn't happen to him 10 years ago. We might have had a chance to save democracy.

But this is madness - keeping those old, obviously feeble and mentally challenged politicians in office until they're on death's door.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Is Mitch's hold on Kentucky slipping?

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) speech at the annual Fancy Farm picnic in Kentucky over the weekend was met with heckles and jeers from the crowd, who chanted that he should “retire” and nearly drowned out his remarks.

[...]

“Elaine and I are really excited to be back at Fancy Farm on behalf of the strongest Republican team we’ve ever run in our state,” McConnell declared in the Saturday speech, receiving a crescendo of boos from the audience, which included many Democrats.

[...]

The crowd then loudly began chanting “retire!” as McConnell peppered his speech with shots at Beshear and other Democrats.

[...]

The crowd also chanted “Lost the Senate!” — referring to the Republicans’ loss of the Senate majority after the 2020 election — and “Shame on You!”

[...]

The video clip of McConnell plowing his way through his prepared remarks as the crowd loudly called on him to step down from office circulated widely on social media and even prompted a jab from former President Trump, who hasn’t spoken to the Senate GOP leader since December of 2020.

“I AGREE!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social social media platform. “BOOOOO — RETIRE, RETIRE, RETIRE — BOOOOOO!!!”

  The Hill

Personally, I think they should both be set to sail to the other side of the world.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Oh my

Not quickly.  

And take Dianne Feinstein with you.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 07/27/2023:  Aides reported this as a "bout of light headedness."  That is not what it was.  It was a glitch in his brain.  Glitch McConnell.  Sorry.  But it was right there.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) fell while leaving a plane earlier this month, NBC News reported Wednesday after the 81-year-old lawmaker froze up in mid-speech during a news conference.

The accident at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport had not been revealed publicly, according to the network. McConnell did not appear seriously hurt and returned to the Capitol that day, but the details were concerning.

[...]

McConnell [...] broke his rib and sustained a concussion in a fall in March. He fractured a shoulder in an accident in 2019.

[...]

On Wednesday as he addressed reporters, McConnell stopped speaking and appeared disoriented.

  The Hill

That also wasn't "disoriented". He froze up, like a droid that had its plug pulled.

He returned later and said only: “I’m fine.”

No, Mitch, you're not fine.

And we never did learn what was with that weird blue/black skin condition on his face and hands.

Yes, he's still an asshole.

UPDATE 07/27/2023:

Still out

The Senate is missing three of its members since early March.

Mitch McConnell, who fell on March 9 and was hospitalized for concussion from a fall, has still not returned to work in the Senate.  It turns out he was released to a rehab facility, and also had a fractured rib.  (I still wonder what was going on with his hands.  Remember that?  We never found out.)

John Fetterman, who checked himself into the hospital for depression, on or about March 7, has also not returned, but he has been working from the hospital.

Dianne Feinstein, who was hospitalized and being treated for shingles on or about March 3, but was since released to go home, will not be going back to the Senate, although at the time, she was saying she hoped to get back to the Senate very soon.  Vying for her seat are Katie Porter, Barbara Lee, and Adam Schiff, all outstanding candidates.

UPDATE 03/20/2023 9:30am:

The last time all 100 senators were on the floor voting together was more than seven months ago. And it’s starting to take a toll on both parties.

This Congress features one of history’s oldest Senates, a fact that’s fueled ongoing debate about gerontocracy in government. Yet it’s not just age keeping one member — and sometimes six or more — from the floor: Blame a confluence of illnesses, family matters and impending retirements dating well into last year.

Just last week, five senators missed every vote, with several out for extended absences. And it doesn’t look like all 100 senators will be back this week.

[...]

[Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who prides himself on his attendance record, is recovering from hip surgery but has not missed any votes since he had coronavirus in late 2020. Over the past two months, he’s progressed from a wheelchair to a cane as he returns from the procedure.

[...]

Feinstein’s absence from her perch on the Judiciary Committee is an acute Democratic concern. The party is trying to move judicial nominees out of committee to the floor but have postponed panel votes during her absence.

[...]

“I’m anxious, because I can’t really have a mark-up of new judge nominees until she’s there,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the party’s No. 2 and the Senate Judiciary Committee chair.

  Politico

Perhaps that's part of the reason they were able to convince her to stand down.

Durbin announced Sunday that he had tested positive for coronavirus and would quarantine, adding another absence.

[...]

Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) asked questions at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on Fetterman’s behalf last week and said in an interview he’s consulting with Fetterman’s chief of staff: “Anything I can do to help my colleague.”

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) is also working with Fetterman’s staff to help with constituent requests and potential legislation, like their bipartisan rail safety bill.

[...]

Casey missed a few days of Senate business in February after prostate cancer surgery, but he’s been back for several weeks.

[...]

Republicans want to peel back President Joe Biden’s water environmental regulations, but last week’s vote was delayed because McConnell, No. 3 Senate Republican John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) all missed votes. Cruz is expected back this week, according to an aide.

Too bad.

[Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the GOP whip,] partially blamed the lax attendance on some senators not considering the Senate’s recent schedule a must-attend affair. The agenda lately has mostly consisted of disapproval votes of Biden administration or D.C. Council policies, nominees and rolling back the Iraq military authorization.

[...]

“People feel maybe a little bit more flexibility than they would if we were doing really consequential legislating right now."

That last, at least, seems like a pretty consequential piece of leg. Name names, John.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

This is your Republican party

Earlier this week, ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) sent a letter to Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) urging Republicans to join him and his fellow Democrats in denouncing “white nationalism and white supremacy in all its forms, including the ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory.”

Though all 20 committee Democrats signed the letter, all 26 Republicans on the committee refused to sign.

  The Hill

The House voted on Thursday to overturn the Biden administration’s water regulations — a goal that’s not expected to come to fruition but one that gave Republicans another chance to force some Democrats into a tough vote.

[...]

The rule in question designates which waters require permits for activities like construction and mining that may hurt water quality, deciding what counts as Waters of the United States under the Clean Water Act.

The Biden administration takes a broader view than its predecessor on which waters are subject to protection. However, prior to the Biden regulations, the narrower regulations from the era of former President Trump were also not in effect after they were taken down in court.

[...]

The resolution will head to the Senate, where its prospects are unclear.

[...]

Complicating things more for Democrats, Sens. John Fetterman (Pa.) and Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) are out for medical reasons.

However, the White House has already said Biden would veto the measure if it makes it to his desk.

  The Hill

And Mitch is also out for medical reasons. (Feinstein should have been replaced years ago.)

Meanwhile, Fetterman is working from the hospital.

Wishing him a speedy recovery and looking forward to hearing of his coming influence on the Senate.

UPDATE 11:18 am:

UPDATE 03/14/2023: