As long as he can’t show up for any votes thereby diminishing the GOP majority I don’t care whether he is secretly dead, a vegetable or whatever.
Another good rule of thumb is that people who are hiding something have something to hide.
Personally, I’m in the camp that believes Mitch is in bad enough shape that he can’t release a video because it would immediately expose that he’s not fit to hold office. But it also occurs to me that maybe he just doesn’t care. He’s essentially taking a long vacation (longer than should be required to recover from “a fall and pneumonia”) and people who want him to confirm that he’s alive are just background noise that he has tuned out. And once he no longer requires active health care he’ll go back to legislating it away from more people. That’s the real nightmare.
I’m guessing McConnell doesn’t have a lot of legislating in his future. I feel it’s more likely that the next time he doesn’t require active health care, his family will need to decide between burial or cremation.
I mean, we will see the next time a vote comes up that hinges on a few key votes swinging. If there’s one thing McConnell has demonstrated he consistently cares about his entire life, it’s turning tiny differences in vote count into enormous mandates to ram through unpopular but sweeping changes to American life.
This isn’t the Presidency so it doesn’t matter if McConnell is not fit to hold office. The only way to remove a U.S. Senator is impeachment or by a vote of 2/3s of members to expel them. That is not happening to him even if he stays in a coma through the midterms.
Yes and no. It does matter, IMO, though not at the same degree.
It’s not just that an incapacitated or gravely ill Senator can’t participate in votes; he also cannot participate in committee hearings (he is the current Chair of the Senate Rules Committee, and a member of the Appropriations and Agriculture committees), participate in confirmation hearings and votes, and do the other work that a member of Congress is elected to do. He was elected by the people of Kentucky to represent them in the Senate, and he is apparently not actually doing that now.
The fact that he’s 6 months away from leaving Congress anyway also, maybe, makes that less urgent, but what if he had 2 more years in office?
The number of social media posters demanding that KY Governor Beshear DO SOMETHING! about the McConnell situation is bizarre.
They apparently believe Beshear should barge into McConnell’s hospital room to personally ascertain his condition and then either call a special election or just appoint someone else by fiat.
It’s hard to see what he can try that he hasn’t already done.
Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best ones. Certainly Beshear knows McConnell well enough socially to pay him a friendly visit. Republicans have said publicly, multiple times that Mitch is capable of fielding multiple long phone calls in a day while he works. So what would happen if Beshear just goes to visit? I wonder how far he would get. And if he can’t get through on a particular day, what happens if he comes back the next day? And the next? And so on.
Why? A Governor has better things to do that waste his time with a weird conspiracy theory. The Picture shows he is conscious , and even smiling. Of course, that doesnt mean he is fit enough to return to Congress.
But he isnt dead, and he isnt a vegetable or anything like that.
Senator Karl Mundt of South Dakota was out for something like 1000 days. Senator Mark Kirk was out for one year. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords out for 200 days, and so forth.
McConnell has been out for a little over one month. No big deal.
We need to get over it, and stop with the conspiracy theories.
And, in each of those cases, it was made clear to their constituents what had happened to each of them (obviously, in Giffords’ case, it was very well known what had befallen her), and what to expect as far as their recovery.
In Mundt’s case, he suffered a serious stroke three years before the end of his term, and refused to resign, though he could no longer do his job, and never returned to it; it took 2+ years before he was finally stripped of his committee memberships by his fellow Republican Senators.
So amend the Constitution to deal with these situations. (Good luck with that btw)
Short of an amendment the Senate is stuck with things like this happening if the person who is unable to perform the job won’t (or can’t) resign.
Completely agreed.
My point was that when you said:
…I believe that it does matter. But, as you note, there’s just no realistic way to force the issue if an infirm Congressperson, who is no longer able to do the job, refuses to step down, or if that person is so infirm that they are unable to make their own decisions, but their family and staff works to keep them in office anyway.
Beshear wouldn’t be investigating a conspiracy theory, he’d just be making a social call to a colleague. After all, Beshear has written a letter inquiring about McConnell’s health. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone for any reason at all? And the only reason Beshear would need to waste any time would be if he was unable to make this simple social call because he was blocked by McConnell’s staff. If that happens, it’s certainly going to look strange but if McConnell is doing as well as the public has been told he is doing, there’s no reason why Beshear shouldn’t be able to pop in and say hi.
Well, a simple social call would certainly assure everyone of that. But if it’s not possible then I am naturally going to be inclined to continue wondering what is actually going on. It’s not like we’re asking Mitch for his long-form birth certificate or something.
Except it wouldn’t be a social call. Showing up to visit unannounced, then following up every day would be making a political point. It would be a transparent stunt, patronizing to everyone.
Writing a letter is one thing, but going beyond that is another. McConnell isn’t in Beshear’s purview.
I don’t think it matters much, but I can appreciate that some, including yourself, do. The Senate and the committees should be robust enough to operate without a member, even a chair. I assume they could vote a new chair if there was a need.
At this point, the rehab picture should be enough. His absence would only be an issue if there was some fraud (if he was dead or the photo faked).
I don’t like McConnell or his politics and I’m fine with making political hay over his absence. A little hay might help the Dems, but too much and it will turn to white noise.
Knowing the status of the state’s senior senator is kind of important for the governor, and it doesn’t have to be an unannounced visit.
I’m not saying he has to bring a camera crew with him. And here’s the thing. He only has to come back day after day if this simple act of saying hi to his colleague doesn’t succeed the first time. Because from what we have been told about McConnell, he is awake and aware. He is receiving multiple phone calls and he is receiving visitors, as demonstrated by the photo of him with his wife. He is reported to be receiving updates on current events and he is apparently working from his hospital bed. Beshear should be able to pop in to say hi without a problem. Unless perhaps those various Republicans who reported multiple 20 minute phone calls with Mitch were lying?
Also, it is the era of transparent, patronizing political stunts and it’s only fair that Republicans be on the receiving end for a change. McConnell will get over it. If he, at his advanced age, can survive a fall and a bout of pneumonia, he can survive anything!
Why though? The Senator doesn’t work for the Governor. Beshear might need to know if McConnell dies, but he doesn’t need a play-by-play before then.
Unless they are friends, an in-person visit isn’t appropriate. It would make Beshear look terrible: silly, jerkish, subject to McConnell. None of these would help him with voters in Kentucky.
The Governor shouldn’t be doing wellness checks on old people, even US Senators.
McConnell’s death or incapacity would affect what the governor does for reasons already thoroughly discussed here. And there is a difference between “play-by-play” and knowing his general condition.
Also note that Beshear is in Kentucky, while McConnell is probably in the DC area. That alone makes a hospital visit nontrivial.