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As government shutdown drags on, where is Senator McConnell?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When President Donald Trump stormed out of a White House meeting with congressional leaders last Wednesday, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sat there silently, uttering not a word as the talks blew up, according to others in the room.
U.S. President Donald Trump departs with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Mike Pence after addressing a closed Senate Republican policy lunch as a partial government shutdown enters its 19th day on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 9, 2019.
The No. 1 Republican in Congress, who rose to power on his reputation as a master of legislative wrangling, has had little to say in public or private during a partial federal government shutdown that began on Dec. 22 and has no end in sight.
Showing no interest in defying his president and Trump’s demand that triggered the shutdown for funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall opposed by Democrats, McConnell has kept a low profile. This posture, allies and opponents said, is about McConnell protecting himself, vulnerable Republicans and their control of the Senate ahead of the 2020 elections.
At the core of McConnell’s quiet loyalty to Trump, despite past friction between them, is a calculation that Trump’s popularity with Republican voters makes standing by him, in the long run, politically wiser than responding to short-term worries about the shutdown, aides and experts said.
Showing no interest in defying his president and Trump’s demand that triggered the shutdown for funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall opposed by Democrats, McConnell has kept a low profile. This posture, allies and opponents said, is about McConnell protecting himself, vulnerable Republicans and their control of the Senate ahead of the 2020 elections.
At the core of McConnell’s quiet loyalty to Trump, despite past friction between them, is a calculation that Trump’s popularity with Republican voters makes standing by him, in the long run, politically wiser than responding to short-term worries about the shutdown, aides and experts said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-shutdown-mcconnell-analysis/as-government-shutdown-drags-on-where-is-senator-mcconnell-idUSKCN1P52I9
19 replies
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I'm pretty sure McConnell is some mutant form of the common snapping turtle.
Get up close and personal with this TRAITOR!!! He should not be able to go ANYWHERE without somebody there PROTESTING!!!! 
Somebody edited that photo to remove the collar and leash from McConnell.
https://www.ai-cio.com/news/pbgc-director-nominee-gets-kicked-back-trump/
January 8, 2019
PBGC Director Nominee Gets Kicked Back to Trump
Clock runs out on controversial nod for brother-in-law of Mitch McConnell, Elaine Chao.
Gordon Hartogensis
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/17/mitch-mcconnell-know-run-agency-1033119
Want to run an agency? It helps to know Mitch McConnell
Trump's nominee to run pension agency has a thin resume.
By IAN KULLGREN
12/17/2018 05:10 AM EST
January 8, 2019
PBGC Director Nominee Gets Kicked Back to Trump
Clock runs out on controversial nod for brother-in-law of Mitch McConnell, Elaine Chao.
Gordon Hartogensis
The nomination of Gordon Hartogensis as director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) has been kicked back to President Trump due to inaction by the US Senate.
In May, Trump nominated Hartogensis to replace PGBC Director Thomas Reeder, who was nominated by President Obama, and whose term was set to end in 2020. In a release announcing the nomination, the White House praised Hartogensis as “an investor and technology sector leader with experience managing financial equities, bonds, private placements, and software development.”
However, the move was criticized for its apparent nepotism, as Hartogensis is the brother-in-law of both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. The 2018 legislative session ended without a formal vote on Hartogensis’ appointment, and as a result, Senate rules require the nomination to be returned to the president.
In May, Trump nominated Hartogensis to replace PGBC Director Thomas Reeder, who was nominated by President Obama, and whose term was set to end in 2020. In a release announcing the nomination, the White House praised Hartogensis as “an investor and technology sector leader with experience managing financial equities, bonds, private placements, and software development.”
However, the move was criticized for its apparent nepotism, as Hartogensis is the brother-in-law of both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. The 2018 legislative session ended without a formal vote on Hartogensis’ appointment, and as a result, Senate rules require the nomination to be returned to the president.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/17/mitch-mcconnell-know-run-agency-1033119
Want to run an agency? It helps to know Mitch McConnell
Trump's nominee to run pension agency has a thin resume.
By IAN KULLGREN
12/17/2018 05:10 AM EST
The Trump administration, staring down a $54 billion pension crisis, is placing its faith in a man who is a stranger to most of Washington but for one big connection: His brother-in-law is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his sister-in-law is Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.
Gordon Hartogensis has little professional paper trail, and has largely just managed his family’s sprawling investment portfolio after striking gold in a '90s startup and retiring by the time he was 29. But he is expected to gain Senate confirmation by the end of the year to run the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the troubled government backstop for people whose pension plans have become insolvent.
Hartogensis, 48, who’s married to Chao’s sister, will oversee an agency with nearly 1,000 employees that manages $100 billion in assets and handed out $5.8 billion to more than 861,000 retirees in 2018. He’ll also have to deal with lawmakers as they contemplate a bailout plan that can avert a shortfall of tens of billions of dollars in the corporation’s cash reserves.
Hartogensis’ low public profile and his lack of government and management experience sets him apart from previous occupants of the job, who have typically worked in politics and at federal agencies such as the Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget before taking over. The nomination has drawn criticism for that reason.
Gordon Hartogensis has little professional paper trail, and has largely just managed his family’s sprawling investment portfolio after striking gold in a '90s startup and retiring by the time he was 29. But he is expected to gain Senate confirmation by the end of the year to run the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the troubled government backstop for people whose pension plans have become insolvent.
Hartogensis, 48, who’s married to Chao’s sister, will oversee an agency with nearly 1,000 employees that manages $100 billion in assets and handed out $5.8 billion to more than 861,000 retirees in 2018. He’ll also have to deal with lawmakers as they contemplate a bailout plan that can avert a shortfall of tens of billions of dollars in the corporation’s cash reserves.
Hartogensis’ low public profile and his lack of government and management experience sets him apart from previous occupants of the job, who have typically worked in politics and at federal agencies such as the Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget before taking over. The nomination has drawn criticism for that reason.
