Mitch McConnell
July 11, 2017 — John Hinderaker
The Wall Street Journal has an important editorial about what it calls the “Schumer blockade.” For a while, President Trump was slow in making executive branch appointments. But he has nearly caught up, and the problem now is Democratic obstructionism. As the Journal says: The Trump Presidency is well into its seventh month but the Trump Administration still barely exists. Senate Democrats are abusing Senate rules to undermine the executive
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May 11, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Democrats have persistently called for a special congressional investigation of all matters at the intersection of Russia and the 2016 presidential campaign. The firing of James Comey has renewed such calls and made them more vociferous. But has it created momentum for such an investigation? As of now, the answer appears to be: no. Don’t take my word for it. Amber Phillip of the Washington Post writes: President Trump just
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April 6, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Josh Holmes fills in the history leading to the imminent confirmation of Judge Gorsuch to the Supreme Court in the Politico Magazine column “McConnell is finishing what Schumer started.” Holmes’s column traces the judicial filibuster wars to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and pays tribute to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in playing his “long game” leading to what should be a happy ending tomorrow. This story has been out
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April 3, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared on both FOX News Sunday and Meet the Press yesterday, mostly to address the prospective confirmation of Judge Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Senator McConnell spoke “with the calm confidence of a Christian holding four aces” (to borrow Walter Blair’s misquotation of Mark Twain). He vowed that Judge Gorsuch would be confirmed and that Democrats would dictate the manner of his confirmation. McConnell noted
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February 8, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, in writing about the Senate’s rebuke and silencing of Elizabeth Warren for disparaging Jeff Sessions, I discussed the rule invoked by Mitch McConnell to accomplish this. Rule 19 provides that Senators are not allowed to “directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.” I suggested that Rule 19 is an anachronism. It
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February 7, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, trying to stake her claim as the left’s darling for purposes of the 2020 presidential race, was delivering a rant against her colleague, Sen. Jeff Sessions. Warren asserted that “to put Senator Sessions in charge of the Department of Justice is an insult to African-Americans.” To support this claim, roundly disputed by African-Americans who know Jeff Sessions, Warren resorted to quotes from 1986 when the Senate did
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May 20, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
The Lee Amendment to defund President Obama’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation failed in the Senate yesterday because not enough Republicans backed it. The Amendment was tabled by a vote of 60-37. Jeremy Carl aptly describes this vote as a defeat for conservatism, community control, and common sense. It is a victory, as Carl says, for turning the federal government into a National Zoning board, forcing high density housing
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September 9, 2015 — Scott Johnson
Andy McCarthy’s most recent column on the Iran deal is “How the GOP pretends not to authorize Obama’s agenda.” Andy’s argument with Paul Mirengoff is incidental to Andy’s analysis of what Corker-Cardin has wrought. Andy hypothesizes that the Iran review act (the Corker-Cardin bill) adopted by Congress represents Republican shadow boxing with the administration. In this context, I take it, he judges the act worse than nothing. Nevertheless, he draws
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July 30, 2015 — Steven Hayward
A great many readers were not happy with my analysis here the other day of the moving parts of Mitch McConnell allowing a vote on an amendment to the transportation bill that would revive the Export-Import Bank, after having apparently promised to Cruz and/or the GOP Senate caucus that he wouldn’t allow the Ex-Im Bank to come back to life. In a sentence, I sought to point out that McConnell
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July 28, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Last night I watched on C-SPAN the Senate roll-call vote on the transportation bill amendment to reinstate the Export-Import Bank, and it passed by a vote of 69-28. (McConnell voted no on the amendment.) So note that there is overwhelming support in the Senate for the Ex-Im Bank, at least on a recorded vote. It is remarkable that the opposition to this small piece of crony capitalism has succeeded in
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February 27, 2015 — John Hinderaker
It is almost unbelievable how badly Congressional Republicans have botched their opposition to President Obama’s illegal executive amnesty and the funding of the Department of Homeland Security. The House, under John Boehner’s direction, did the right thing: it passed a bill that fully funded DHS, but barred spending to implement the amnesty that has now been declared illegal by a federal court. The action then moved to the Senate, where
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February 11, 2015 — John Hinderaker
He actually put it a bit more profanely than that. But first, the context: as I noted yesterday, the House has passed a bill that fully funds the Department of Homeland Security, except for implementation of President Obama’s illegal executive orders on immigration. Mitch McConnell has brought the House measure to the Senate floor three times, but each time it has been filibustered by the Democrats. Now McConnell seems to
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February 10, 2015 — John Hinderaker
The House of Representatives has passed legislation that fully funds the Department of Homeland Security, except that it withholds funding to implement President Obama’s illegal and unconstitutional immigration fiats. Republican leadership in the Senate has tried to bring the House measure up for a vote three times, but each time the Democrats have filibustered it. The department is funded, I believe, through February 27. At that point the money begins
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March 14, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
This winter, polls have shown Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell running even against Democrat Alison Grimes. This has caused me to view the race as a toss-up. (I assume for purposes of discussion that McConnell will defeat his Tea Party opponent in the primary). However, the New York Times, in its preview of a new political analysis site called Upshot (if this is the successor to Nate Silver’s operation it
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