All Mitch has to do is allow the Senate to vote on the House bills, and there will be a steady progression towards veto-proof majorities to reopen more and more parts of the government. And even that progression would put pressure on Trump to sign at least some of those bills.
But Mitch hasn’t allowed a vote, and it sure doesn’t look like he’s going to allow one anytime soon. It’s his shutdown. It’s time to hang it around his neck, and see that he can’t get away with deflecting attention and responsibility the way he almost always is able to do.
Mitch, this thread’s for you, because it’s your freakin’ shutdown.
Let’s be honest. It’s Mexico’s shutdown. If they had just paid for the wall like Trump promised there would be nothing but rainbows and unicorns going forward.
Apparently, the good people of Kentucky, at least six times, have had a look at this mook and said to themselves, “yep, this guy represents my best interests”, while in the meantime, somewhere along the way, he decided that it was all about preserving Republican power rather than representing a constituency. So it’s kinda their shutdown as well.
Tru dat. But somehow he always manages to avoid flak for having refused to allow votes.
Time to start changing that. Probably hopeless to change the minds of his Kentucky constituents, but if he can be made to feel a bit less welcome around DC, that would be progress.
Poor guy needs an intervention. All of a sudden, there are a metric ton of Dem women he could get his hate on for, but he still can’t let go of Hillary.
I’m more than a little infuriated that he’s ceding control of the Senate to Donald Trump.
I appreciate Party continuity, and respecting the leaders of your party, and working together for a common purpose, but when EVERY member of your party (including yourself) expressed support for a bill, how do you refuse to allow it to be voted on because Trump doesn’t like it?
Does the Senate have any purpose or are they just a puppet body controlled by the President?
The problem is that Mitch is up for re-election in 2020 and he has incredibly crappy polling numbers. Just about any other Republican could primary his ass. Until Kavanaugh. McConnell’s support of chump’s guy raised his poll numbers 17%. Mitch may be evil but he isn’t stupid. As long as he is seen by the people of Kentucky to be chump’s stooge, he has a very good chance of being returned to DC. Break with Der Fuhrer and he’s toast.
His stubbornness also gives the rest of the Republicans political cover so they don’t have to stick their necks out. Which is why they haven’t replaced him as Majority Leader.
Mitch will go down in history as a traitor to the Constitution. He started by stealing a Supreme Court seat from Obama and killing the 60 vote requirement for Supreme Court justices in the process. Then he weakens the nation by forcing a shutdown that he could avoid if only he would allow a vote. The Senate is not subservient to the president, it is part of a co-equal, primary branch of government.
I find Mitch McConnell to be a fair, principled and honest politician. This shutdown is on the Democrats, against whom McConnell is heroically making an Alamo-esque last stand. Dems blink first.
History is not going to be kind to McConnell. If and when Trump goes down and is seen to be the American Hating Fuckstick that he is… Mcconnell will be the guy who supported the traitor, and made sure that the Legislative Branch was neutered.