Mitch McConnell
February 15, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell did a fine job of filling federal court of appeals judgeships. They left very little on the table for Joe Biden. However, if one looks at federal district courts, a different picture emerges. Trump and Senate Republicans left more than 50 district court judgeships unfilled at the end of Trump’s term. Some of these slots have been vacant for four years or more. These were
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January 14, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Mitch McConnell remains the Senate Majority Leader until the new administration takes office next week. Following the impeachment of President Trump yesterday, Senator McConnell issued the following statement regarding the Senate schedule: The House of Representatives has voted to impeach the President. The Senate process will now begin at our first regular meeting following receipt of the article from the House. Given the rules, procedures, and Senate precedents that govern
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November 9, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Claiming that the nation “can’t afford two years of gridlock,” the Washington Post’s editors call on Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell, and Nancy Pelosi to work together. I call on McConnell to be exactly as willing to work with the Biden administration as Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were to work with the Trump administration. McConnell will chart his own course. However, I’m betting it will be closer to the one I’m
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November 5, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
It seems clear that Joe Biden will be the next president. The make-up of the Senate is less certain. It looks like there will be two run-off elections in Georgia and that the Dems will have to win both to get to 50 seats. Odds are they won’t accomplish this. (I will post about this later today.) Assuming GOP control of the Senate, will Biden be able to have his
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October 26, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Judge Amy Coney Barrett is to be confirmed as an associate justice of the Supreme Court later today. We support her confirmation. We think she will make a great contribution to the Court. President Trump himself has made a great contribution to the federal judiciary with the quality of his nominations to the bench. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — I would like to say our beloved Cocaine Mitch —
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October 20, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The Hill reports that Senate Republicans are eyeing a final vote to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Monday, October 26 — less than a week from today. That timeline isn’t locked down, but Republicans are planning a rare weekend session that would set up a final vote early next week. My initial take was that Barrett probably wouldn’t be confirmed before the election (and probably
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March 23, 2020 — Scott Johnson
It’s hard to tell when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gets angry — perhaps because it doesn’t happen very often, perhaps because he is a supremely self-disciplined man. He was visibly angry last night when the pending relief package failed on the floor of the Senate. He has tweeted out the video of his remarks below. We can only can hope that the Democrats’ misconduct is not rewarded. It will
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March 5, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Senate Majority Leader McConnell took to the floor of the Senate this morning to make a statement on Chuck Schumer’s threats and prevarications regarding his threats on Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. Here is an excerpt as forwarded to us by Senator McConnell’s staff: Less than three years ago, of course, an unhinged and unstable left-wing activist attempted a mass murder of congressional Republicans at a baseball field across the river.
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January 22, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The impeachment of President Trump has never been about actually removing him from office. The Democrats have always known they would fall 15 to 20 Senate votes short of accomplishing that. The impeachment is, and always has been, about the 2020 election. Thus, there is now precedent for impeaching a president to gain advantage in an upcoming election. This won’t be the last time it happens. The Democrats hoped through
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January 7, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is ready to proceed with an impeachment proceeding as soon as Nancy Pelosi decides to refer the impeachment articles to the Senate. McConnell’s plan is to proceed in stages. First, the prosecution and the defense will make their presentations. Then, they will answer written questions from Senators. After that, if a party wants to call witnesses, the Senate will vote on whether to allow it.
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December 25, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
2019 was a banner year for confirming federal judges — an accomplishment that will reverberate long after many of the leading stories of the year, including impeachment, have been largely forgotten. Let’s start with federal district court judges. These positions didn’t used to be considered politically charged. Confirmation of district court nominees once was routine. That’s no longer true. District judges are actively participating in the anti-Trump resistance. They are
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August 8, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Twitter temporarily suspended the campaign account of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for posting a video of the invitations to violence against him by Louisville Black Lives Matter leader Chanelle Helm. To be specific, the video captured Helm’s comments at what is euphemistically termed a “protest” outside Senator McConnell’s Louisville home on Monday night. Helm asserted that instead of falling and injuring his shoulder over the weekend, McConnell “should have
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July 30, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took to the floor of the Senate to respond to Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank’s libel that he declared him a “Russian asset.” Milbank is a clown, but a clown of the influential variety whose clowning is aped by his media colleagues as the height of sophistication and wisdom. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough has also gotten in on the act and apparently contributed “Moscow Mitch” to
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May 10, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
I’m not saying our politics are weird, but that’s a conclusion one might easily draw from, among other things, this report that Sen. Mitch McConnell’s re-election campaign is selling “Cocaine Mitch” T-shirts. The T-shirts feature a faceless illustration of the Senate Majority Leader on the front alongside the image of a fine white powdery substance. The back of the shirt reads: “Team Mitch Cartel Member.” The reference is to the
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March 13, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
For many months, we (along with many other conservatives) have been urging Senate Republicans to reduce the number of hours permitted to debate nominees. This step is necessary because Senate Democrats have used the 30 hours now permitted to stall nominees. The result is an unacceptable backlog of qualified, confirmable nominees. Consequently, judgeships and key administration jobs remain vacant. Now it finally looks like Majority McConnell will pull the trigger.
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December 11, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said today that he will bring First Step — i.e., leniency legislation for federal felons — to the Senate floor. It has more than enough votes to pass. McConnell’s move follows some concessions to the bill’s critics. Although the concessions don’t come close to curing the legislation, they were enough, combined with pressure from the White House and from wealthy Republican donors, to move some GOP
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December 3, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Last month, President Trump announced his support for FIRST STEP. This legislation provides leniency for federal drug felons by shortening some sentences at the front end, and leniency for federal felons of many stripes at the back end by enabling early release from prison. It wasn’t clear why Trump made this decision, which is inconsistent with his promise to get tougher with fentanyl dealers. Perhaps it was constant pestering from
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