Mitch McConnell
January 13, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell delivered the following remarks yesterday on the Senate floor regarding President Biden’s speech in Atlanta the day before. In part, McConnell fact-checks Biden. In part, he criticizes the sense and sensibility of Biden’s remarks. I think McConnell’s speech is as good or better than any of the columns I have seen exposing the disgusting demagogy and outrageous falsehoods of Biden’s speech. McConnell’s staff emailed the
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January 12, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly has been urging Maryland governor Larry Hogan to run for the Senate. So far, according to this report, Hogan has pushed back against the urgings of McConnell and Sen. Rick Scott, head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. But McConnell isn’t giving up. He even enlisted his wife, Elaine Chao, to talk to Hogan’s wife, Yumi Hogan, about the matter. Could Hogan defeat Van
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October 11, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Last Thursday evening Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell rounded up the Republican support necessary to raise the debt limit until December. Senator McConnell’s assistance did not earn any gratitude from Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Schumer took to the Senate floor to excoriate Senate Republicans for creating a “risky drama.” What had been avoided, Schumer said, was “a first-ever, Republican-manufactured default on the national debt.” “Republicans played a dangerous and
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June 28, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The Democratic cheerleaders at Politico Playbook have McConnell anxiety. Playbook PM runs with the optimistic headline “McConnell plays skunk at infrastructure party.” The Politico team reports (emphases omitted): MCCONNELL’S NEXT MOVE: We’ve been waiting for Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL to play his next card on the infrastructure deal. He has encouraged the talks but hasn’t backed the agreement reached between the bipartisan group of 10 senators and the White
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April 12, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
On Saturday, Donald Trump spoke to a Republican National Committee event at Mar-a-Lago. From reports by some in attendance, it looks like the former president, in true Trumpian fashion, aired grievances and bitterly attacked former allies. Most notably, Trump went after Mitch McConnell. Reportedly, he called the Minority Leader a “dumb son of a bitch” and claimed that Chuck Schumer would never have allowed the 2020 presidential results to be
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March 17, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports that “momentum is stalling amid congressional efforts to swiftly investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.” Good. The Democrats want to use the riot for political purposes. They hope, with assistance from the always-obliging media, to present it as the tip of an insurrectionary iceberg spearheaded by hardcore Trump supporters. To this end, Nancy Pelosi favors a 9/11 style commission. She would like this
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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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