McConnell's bizarre threats show the danger of a GOP-controlled Congress

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has long benefited from a kind of built-in media presumption of his tactical brilliance. His procedural feints are regularly depicted at first as masterstrokes, even though they sometimes flop, showing him to be operating from a weaker position than his perpetual aura of confidence implied.

Yet now the Kentucky Republican’s latest move is raising eyebrows among some of the savviest reporters in Washington. McConnell is threatening to tank negotiations over a major bill boosting U.S. manufacturing and research — to get Democrats to back off pursuing a Democrats-only measure addressing climate change, prescription drug prices and health-care costs.

It’s a useful warning of what a GOP-controlled Congress would look like: more governing-by-arsonist-threat and more blockading of policies that might help people, justified with arguments that are saturated in bad faith and driven by no discernible vision of what’s in the public interest.

Democrats are set to respond with a new proposal to tax very high earners to extend the solvency of Medicare, a Democratic aide tells me. This will be added to a package being negotiated with Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), to pass with only Democrats via “reconciliation.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/07/mitch-mcconnell-threats-gop-congress/

McConnell's an asshole. It's what he does.

[DBoon]

1. good thing Kentucky doesn't have nukes

or McConnell would be threatening to blow up the world like Putin

[wryter2000]

2. I wonder

If McConnell is flailing because he has no power to do anything, and he can't block everything.

[onecaliberal]

3. This is what I'm saying. It will be awful and they don't care. It has ZERO to do with what Dems do.

[kimbutgar]

4. I still think his election was rigged

It always stunk the way he won. Him Lindsey and Collins are highly suspicious wins.

[LessAspin]

5. Every Accusation is a Confession

That would not surprise me. Even though McConnell likely would have won anyway he doesn't seem to be the type to leave anything to chance. Take the recent saga of the Biden nomination of that sketchy Kentucky judge brokered by McConnell...

Now we find out that the freaking nomination of Meredith has been blocked by none other than Rand Paul of all people. RAND PAUL. The other senator from Kentucky. If you think this was a surprise to McConnell, I have a bridge to sell you.

So to recap, McConnell brokered a deal with Biden to nominate an Anti-Abortion judge knowing that this would piss off and discourage Democratic voters who see yet another promise the Democrats haven't delivered on (ala Climate change, tuition relief, voter rights, etc) all the while knowing,...absolutely knowing.... that he wouldn't have to follow through since Rand Paul was going to block it. Wow.

And as a special bonus, Paul is blocking it by not turning in a blue slip, a quaint little tradition (not a rule) in the senate where a senator from the state of the appointment can object and the Senate will not proceed. A tradition, it should be noted, that the GOP cast aside when Trump was filling bench appointments left and right.

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2022/07/16/biden-abandons-plans-to-nominate-anti-abortion-judge-blames-rand-paul/65374957007/