In Support of Mitch McConnell
Double standards are on display again as grifting and opportunistic conservatives join the left to pile on McConnell while an infirm President babbles and shuffles on.
As a former Senate official and GOP leadership aide, I know a thing or two about Senate leaders.
After all, I worked for two as Secretary of the Senate (Robert J. Dole and Trent Lott) and knew another pretty well (Dr. Bill Frist). Okay, it’s been a while, but in the Senate, things change slowly.
I also know the current GOP Leader, Mitch McConnell.
I first met with Sen. McConnell when his first reelection campaign was handed to me in 1989 as a new deputy political director at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the official campaign committee for the Senate GOP. I was responsible for vulnerable incumbent Republicans, having played a similar role successfully a few years earlier for endangered House incumbents. McConnell was an upset winner in 1984 for his Senate seat in Kentucky, then seen as a Democratic stronghold, upsetting Walter “Dee” Huddleston. His campaign issued three brilliant campaign ads featuring bloodhounds crafted by the estimable Larry McCarthy (the late Roger Ailes is wrongly given all the credit, though they worked together), who includes himself in this commercial (the guy by the pool).
I didn’t need to spend much time in Kentucky because McConnell ran the most effective reelection campaign I’d ever witnessed, featuring a masterful voter identification and turnout program and superb, aggressive, always-on-offense campaign planning and execution, top-to-bottom, start-to-finish. I learned more from him and his campaign than I would ever hope to impart, despite my own considerable experience. McConnell won handily over Dr. Harvey Sloan despite the GOP losing two seats in that Bush 41 midterm election. I just kept out of McConnell’s way and ensured he had all the support he needed from the NRSC.
“Switch to Mitch,” the 1984 commercials expertly concluded. Years later, running for reelection, the theme switched to “Stick with Mitch.” Those who have unsuccessfully challenged McConnell in his seven Senate elections have rarely been heard from again.
Fast forward six years. I sat down with Sen. McConnell in 1996 - another reelection year - after he’d been in the Senate for about 11 years. He wasn’t in leadership yet (his colleagues would soon elect him to chair the NRSC for the 1998 and 2000 elections). As an outgoing Secretary of the Senate, I had been nominated by outgoing GOP leader Dole to a seat on the Federal Election Commission (FEC). McConnell, a leading Senate expert on campaigns and elections with strong views about the FEC, wanted to meet with me. We hit it off well, and he supported my nomination. Months later, I withdrew my nomination to accept another job in the food industry, and how that all transpired is worth a post one of these days. Dealing with the Clinton Administration was. . . interesting.
His colleagues later chose McConnell as Assistant Republican Leader (whip) in 2003, and he ascended to the GOP Leader four years later when incumbent Bill Frist (R-TN) did not seek reelection. Just a few years ago, McConnell penned his memoir, “The Long Game,” a fascinating read that includes McConnell overcoming polio as a young child, his political climb, and his observations and lessons on politics and the Senate as an institution, with lots of interesting stories and examples. It is a timeless and instructive contribution.
McConnell is the longest-serving Senate party leader in American history. He is now 81 and serving his seventh six-year term as Kentucky’s senior senator. By all accounts, he still has a solid grip on his job. He was last reelected in 2020.
He also took a severe fall earlier this year and suffered a concussion.
Recoveries from concussions can be long and complicated. McConnell has felt lightheaded during a couple of recent press conferences, pausing or “freezing” in response to a question. Being dehydrated will contribute to that as well. It is painful to watch such moments. In each case, McConnell quickly recovered (within a minute or two), returned to the podium, and cogently and expertly finished comments and answered questions. Still, you likely don’t hear much about that.
But “cogent” and “expert” are not attributes of President Biden’s occasional public appearances. Watching McConnell struggle momentarily is less painful and cringeworthy than watching Joe Biden stumble on stages and steps, mumble made-up stories about his past, get lost at events, and even be steered away from inquiring media by a staffer dressed up as the Easter Bunny. At least Biden had nice things to say about McConnell’s latest episode at a podium. Of course, Biden did because he’d like a little sympathy for his never-ending miscues and undoubtedly appreciates the diversion.
But let’s be clear - those who are lumping McConnell and Biden’s cognitive abilities together are profoundly ignorant or worse.
As a legislative leader, McConnell doesn’t have his finger on the nuclear button. And he’s well behind several others in presidential succession, including Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who is second after the Vice President and Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray (D-WA).
Side note: Customarily, the Senate Pro Tempore is the most senior Senator in the majority party. Murray is not the most senior Democratic Senator. Diane Feinstein (D-CA), 90, is. Senate Democrats quietly took care of their own “issue” in selecting Murray after the 2022 elections.
I suspect America’s tyrannical enemies, including Kim Jong Il, Chairman Xi Jinping, and Vladimir Putin, are paying much more attention to Biden’s infirmities than McConnell’s press conferences.
But that doesn't seem true for the media, partisans, and a few conservative grifters. Unhappy with McConnell and Senate GOP actions (or, more accurately, not understanding the nature of McConnell’s job or how the Senate functions), calls for McConnell to step down are drowning out even Biden’s weekly, sometimes daily senior moments.
And then there’s Pennsylvania’s latest contribution to the US Senate, Democrat John Fetterman, who rarely is seen on the Senate floor because he prefers wearing his trademark hoodie, gym shorts, and sneakers instead of a suit (the Senate requires a coat and tie for male Senators on the floor). When voting, he opens a rear chamber door, leans in, and yells out his vote to not violate the Senate’s dress code. He’s not the first to have done so, but it’s not a good look, nor does it make for a modestly effective full-time Senator. But he’s a Democrat, so a gushing Hollywood movie is probably in the works.
No recent reports have been seen or heard on the return of Fetterman’s cognitive abilities following an election-year stroke in 2022. We continue to wish him a full recovery.
Compared to McConnell, how the media in Pennsylvania and Washington have covered Fetterman’s tragic travails is one of many examples of Beltway (and beyond) media partisanship, double standards, malfeasance, and hypocrisy.
“New Debate Rages Over Age Limits for Politicians After McConnell’s Latest Freeze,” yelled The Epoch Times, a favorite media outlet among conservatives. “Some Republicans want more details on McConnell's health after another freeze-up,” screamed NBC, not citing a single US Senator. Some of the more usual suspects on the right, including Trumpist US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), called on McConnell “to go.” I get the temptation for House Republicans to trash the US Senate, which they’ve done for as long as I can remember. But it’s not newsworthy.
Media commentators like Monica Crowley, my friend Chris Stigall, and others use this episode to venture into ageism as if anyone over 80 is infirm and incapable of service (I spare no one from criticism at this site). If we're lucky, we’ll all be there someday and sooner than we think. We all age differently. Seventy-eight-year-old Donald Trump certainly seems to prove that, especially when compared to Joe Biden. Dr. Henry Kissinger, age 100, may have thoughts. He just wrote another book and traveled to China. Agree with him or not, he’s a force of nature. We all should be blessed with his DNA.
And conspiracy theorists such as Jordan Schachtel, who blogs at Substack, even go so far as to attack the Capitol’s attending physician, Dr. Brian Monahan, for being a career government doctor and criticizing his advice as the Covid pandemic unfolded. After speaking to his neurology team, Monahan gave McConnell the green light to return to his regular schedule.
I know a thing or two about attending physicians of the Capitol and can confirm that they are consummate, non-partisan, non-political experts, many of them senior-ranking career military medical officials. When they start throwing around stupid phrases like “the Uniparty’s favorite doctor,” I’m tempted to hit the unsubscribe button, especially when Schachtel compares the doctor to Anthony Fauci (below the belt!) and weaves in McConnell’s supposed fealty to the pharmaceutical theory.
Good grief. I’m surprised he didn’t include UFOs, 9/11 trutherism, Sasquatch, the moon landing, and the Loch Ness monster in his post. Maybe that’s coming.
I get the angst and frustration of many conservative activists over how Senate and House Republicans act (or don’t) on many issues. I also get the game many conservative media mavens are playing, which is to cater to the Trump base because they are a large, engaged, and generous audience. If this blog played that game, I’d undoubtedly have double or triple the subscribers. Playing to Trump supporters (and never Trumpers) is a lucrative business model. I wonder how they’ll segue when Trump finally exits the stage, now or in four years. They’d better start thinking about that.
Some Trumpists are still mad over McConnell’s criticisms of the 45th President in the context of the “J6” debacle. McConnell’s political instincts are sometimes off, such as when he endorsed then-GOP-now-Democrat ex-Gov. Charlie Crist for US Senate in Florida over Marco Rubio in 2012, or completely eschews the need for national legislative leaders to assert a legislative agenda during elections, as the House GOP did this past election, and both House and Senate Republicans did well in 1994.
I’ve been wrong politically many times. Nobody’s perfect.
A couple of points. Sen. McConnell is accountable to his Senate GOP colleagues as their elected leader and to the people of Kentucky as their US Senator. McConnell loves and supports the institution enough to know when his time is up (not all Senators have that gift. See: Sen. Feinstein). The Senate is more significant than any one person. That his colleagues aren’t rushing to replace him should tell you a lot. They’re not afraid to push leaders out. He’s not accountable to me or, unless you live in Kentucky, you.
And conservatives clamoring for McConnell to resign - even leave the Senate - forget that Kentucky’s incumbent governor is a Democrat. Despite the legislature adopting a law requiring the governor to appoint a Senate successor from the same party as the person who vacated, Gov. Andy Beshear won’t commit to following that 2021 law, which he tried to veto and considers “unconstitutional” (other states have a similar law).
Hopefully, Beshear will be unseated by GOP Attorney General Daniel Cameron in November’s election. Most recent polling has Beshear slightly ahead, but it’s close.
Republicans and conservatives should stop being led by shiny objects into circular firing squads by the Democratic left. Focus on those with apparent infirmities who serve in positions where it matters. Ask the Gold Star families who lost loved ones to the Kabul Abby Gate suicide bomber. A president is accountable to many more people than a Senate (or House) minority leader, and his or her senior moments are way more consequential.
Is it time for a debate over a return to mandatory retirement age for certain positions? Maybe. Some states still have them (Pennsylvania requires their Supreme Court and other judges to leave by age 75, just recently upped from 70). It would probably take a Constitutional amendment to apply to all three branches of government. Good luck with that.
But I’m open to that debate more because of Joe Biden than Mitch McConnell. McConnell’s political demise has been predicted and promoted in several election campaigns, especially his past two against heavily feted Democratic women such as Alison Lundergan Grimes and Amy McGrath, whose political fortunes lie side by side in the same graveyard.
They’ve all been proven wrong by double digits. McConnell is the best Republican Senate leader in my memory, and he’s got three US Supreme Court justices where they are, thanks to his deft and courageous leadership. And until he proves otherwise, I’m not betting against him. Neither should you
.