As I said, Beshear needs to know if McConnell dies, but that’s it. He doesn’t need to know if he’s getting better, going to come back to the job, even if he is brain-dead and on life support. These aren’t actionable (regardless of whether they should be).
In any case, this kind of stunt wouldn’t help Beshear. There’s no point in losing voters in Kentucky to gain them in Illinois.
McConnell works for the people of Kentucky, and their representative is their governor. Senators were originally selected by the legislature, not the governor, (and of course are now popularly elected) but i don’t think it’s inappropriate for the governor to take an interest.
I do think it would be weird for him to travel to DC just to drop in and say, “hi”, though.
When I was a regular employee, if i was incapacitated and unable to work for more than a couple of days, i had to send a doctor’s note to HR. I didn’t have to tell everyone exactly what was wrong with me (although most employees do tell their coworkers what they have). I’m not sure what the parallel is. That would seem “fair”, but the Senate is governed by the constitution. And i suppose the constitution doesn’t actually give anyone oversight of senators. And senators certainly took ill from time to time back in the days when the constitution was written. This is not an unforeseen issue. I think, constitutionally, “he can’t show up” is okay. Being physically incapacitated is certainly not a “high crime or misdemeanor”.
You can keep calling it a “stunt” and claiming there is no need for the governor to take any interest all you want, but that won’t make either of them true.
I agree - but then it’s weird that he would have to, rather than just having a quiet phone call with either McConnell or McConnell’s office or family. Beshear is not the one making it weird in the first place.
If it were just a matter of setting aside an hour to drive to the general hospital in Louisville, then I would agree that he should go in for a visit. But not if it involves traveling all day and the cost of a planet ticket.
And paid by every American taxpayer.
Also, have they publicized where McConnell is staying at all? Is Beshear just supposed to wander around hospital to hospital?
I believe you have heard the last of Mitch! There’s no doubt in my mind he is in a coma or incapacitated unable to function! The GOP have long ago decided to protect the Trump and his MAGA ideology over the country and the American people! Lying is expected in that party!
I do not believe so.
The paramedic call to his home on June 14th was to his home in DC, not in Kentucky. He has, according to his staff, been in a hospital and/or rehab facility since, and the assumption is that he’s in a DC-area facility (rather than having been transported back to Kentucky).
It’s a safe bet that McConnell’s staff, and his wife, know where he is, but beyond that, anything is a guess. I also would guess that his location has not been publicized in order to prevent a campout of the press outside the facility, in hopes of a sighting.
I’m a little surprised that some kind of campout hasn’t already been set up at multiple hospitals/rehab centers. The number of realistic possibilities has to be less than a dozen, unless he’s been moved out of DC.
Of interest to me, also: Bigger secrets seem to commonly be held far less well. The motivation to keep McConnell’s secret here must be very strong.
Say, I don’t know, George Soros sent out a few dozen people to comb area rehabs and hospitals and made surreptitious cash offers to cleaning staff, nurses assistants, etc. to divulge McConnell’s whereabouts. Let’s say it’s life-changing money: several million free and clear. You’re a janitor. You’re an NA. You’re an intake clerk. You take the money and leak to the press. And then you’re found out.
What’s the absolute worst that can be officially ** done to you as the leaker? You no longer need the job. Some kind of civil penalty, since anybody can sue for anything? Name dragged through the mud in the media (traditional and social)? What else?
I can’t wrap my head around the apparent strength of the clasp on the lock here.
** “Officially” here meaning to exclude death threats, motivated strangers approaching you on the street to do you harm, people coming after your family, etc. If those kinds of outcomes are even realistic.
There’s a third way to remove a Senator from office; death.
And there’s a possibility that McConnell has died, and thereby vacated his office, and people are concealing his death to manipulate the process of replacing him. If so, this is a legal issue and government officials have a right and a duty to investigate what’s going on.
You’re assuming that there’s someone for whom it’s worth megabucks to find out. Newspapers can’t even keep regular investigative journalists employed.
He wouldn’t get past the front desk. I’m quite sure the whatever facility McConnell is in keeps a list of allowed vs. non-allowed visitors. And the list is probably immediate family and a few named staff members. Otherwise every nutjob in the world who wanted to see McConnell alive could just wander in.
Treat it as a hypothetical, then. Maybe even cynically boil it down to a cash amount:
Given (virtually) unlimited dollars to investigate, discover, and confirm Mitch McConnell’s whereabouts, how much has to be spent?
…
Further – there could be some independent journalists (a lot of the Twitter/X/BlueSky set) who truly have nothing better to do that camp out at a random suburban DC rehab center. If they’ve guessed wrong, oh well. If they’ve guessed right … what a huge feather in their cap. Probably a decently lucrative feather at that (though in that particular event, I doubt life-changing cash. But maybe?).
What I don’t understand is why they don’t say “we expect him back at work in August” or some such. The open-endedness fuels a lot of the mystery.
…Why? What difference does it make if he’s in one rehab center versus another?
There really seems to be very little juice to squeeze here. A very old man had a medical episode of some sort and now seems to be bedridden to some degree. The exact specifics aren’t very interesting, especially once the photograph poked holes in the more ludicrous internet fantasies about him being literally dead but on ice until X date for Y nonsensical reason.
@kenobi_65 and @Gyrate have covered the “Why?” well in recent posts.
Aside from those reasons … frankly, it’s offensive that McConnell’s fitness for office is the kind of thing that’s considered OK to keep secret indefinitely. The simple act of discovering McConnell’s whereabouts – even if that’s the ONLY information learned – also helps head off future huge-secret-keeping. The public’s general “right to know” really should be expanding in political times like these, not contracting. “Secrets for secrets’ sake” shouldn’t be any further normalized than is critically necessary for national security, etc.
I understand others don’t agree. Makes the world go 'round.
There really seems to be very little juice to squeeze here. A very old man had a medical episode of some sort and now seems to be bedridden to some degree.
This is a thoughtful comment. Think of it as akin to “the coverup is worse than the crime”. McConnell’s whereabouts and fitness for office might or might not be all that important in the wide-angle grand scheme. The cover-up, however IMHO is a gigantic deal.
What I don’t understand is the left-leaning portions of social media being up in arms, spouting conspiracy theories about the GOP hiding this till August whatever cutoff blah blah. The longer Mitch is still Senator for Kentucky but not in the chamber voting the worse it is for Republicans. Massie would not win a special election; any temporary replacement of McConnell would be a more reliable vote for MAGA than Mitch has been recently. If McConnell’s staff is, out of political spite/pettiness, hiding death or permanent debilitation that would mandate vacating the seat the target of that spite is Trump, not the Democrats.
The left should be quietly celebrating ever vote Mitch misses instead of complaining that we don’t know the truth about his condition.
Well, it would be a HIPAA violation, so monetary penalties.
Setting aside the question as to whether even George Soros would spend several million just to find out where Mitch is (and he wouldn’t), what janitor/NA/intake clerk would believe the person making the offer? If someone out of the blue offered me millions for some mundane information about my job, I’d assume they were a liar or a crackpot, not that my ship had come in.
Maybe there are, and no one has found Mitch yet. Maybe it’s a gated place, (I doubt Mitch is going to a middle class rehab center) and the most they can do is guess who is in the blacked out cars that occasionally drive in & out.
Because for some of us, the D vs R game-playing is just not that important an aspect of the whole situation. I’d feel exactly the same if Den O’Cratt from Leftsville were MIA.