McConnell will step down as the Senate Republican leader in November after a record run in the job
3 years ago by jordanlund to c/politics
That and denying a Supreme Court nominee a hearing. He's totally OK violating the Constitution.
"he (the President) shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for"
Although given how Garland turned out at DOJ, we may have dodged a bullet there.
They didn't even have a chance to object to him, McConnell blocked him from having a hearing.
Yup, they literally had no objections to him but blocked him anyway. It was probably a reasonable attempt by Obama to minimize damage, since Garland certainly would have upheld Roe and moderated other conservatives on the Court.
But in retrospect, since it didn't work, I think we all would have liked to know what a "swing for the fences" pick plus a media shame blitz on McConnell would have accomplished.
But that was Obama - a politician that was good objectively, but didn't really take any risks or press any advantages out of fear of being labeled extreme, so also squandered a depressing number of opportunities to improve the country.
He also stacked the SCOTUS by contradictory practices, denying Obama a pick in the last year of his presidency but giving one to Trump. That has had grave consequences for recent rulings since Trump only nominated extreme conservatives.
If you count the elections where it should have gone the other way based on the popular vote, more like 6-3 liberal majority, and arguably even 8-1 with Thomas being the sole holdout.
Trump's 2016 "win" gave them three justices. Bush didn't get any nominations his first term (which he only won via the electoral college), and then went on to get two his second term (where he did get the popular vote). So it depends on if you expect Republicans to win the popular vote in 2004 or not if they didn't already have the office.
Fuck this asshole. Few people have done as much damage as he has and the worst part is we’re only going to get someone worse.
It can't get worse. He found the bottom and decided to go deeper. Nobody can replace his level of destruction of the United States. It will take a genuine master class asshole to come close.
I think that you are correct here. He comes from an old school way of looking at the world, pre-Boomer, which was really a lot of "I get mine and it's ok if I take yours to get it". These people built out the country to exclude minorities and take away power from women. His replacement will certainly be much younger and have a completely different viewpoint on the world.
It most certainly can though I agree it would take someone with exceptional skill and complete moral bankruptcy. Every time I think the 'pubs can't sink any lower, they betray my expectations.
I don't think we'll get someone that's both as evil AND as effective as him.
What has made him the big bad for so long is that he's really good at what he does. He's a perfect mixture of professional competence and evil. Trump is a cartoon villain, but what enabled Trump was the terrible machine that Mitch built.
I don't know if the US has ever had a politician who has had a more harmful impact. Without Mitch we'd be in a much better place even if the GOP held all branches of government.
Maybe Woodrow Wilson.
I haven’t voiced this before, but after seeing him and his actions for the last 10-15 years… I’ve grown to literally hate him. That smug turtle faced prick. I hate him so much. He’s done so much damage to America. He stalled us on decades of progress. He’s a piece of shit that deserves his shitty health and to rot in hell.
I’m sorry if that’s harsh to say about another human being, but, he is one who truly does not care about anyone but himself and to ‘stick it’ to everyone else who isn’t on his side. He’s truly an evil man.
I feel similarly but this guy’s face will never be as punchable as Matt Gaetz. I would pay lots of money to see him get kicked in the nuts.
It's ok. Politicians are not people, they are symbols. You can hate a symbol all you like. You can also hate someone who would become that symbol. It doesn't make you a bad person to point out that someone else is causing the world harm.
It is a harsh thing to say about another human being. It's also being kinder than he deserves.
He must be on deaths door bc there ain’t now way otherwise he’d ever do this
He says that the recent death of a close family member caused him to re-evaluate priorities, I can get on board with that.
That press conference where his brain rebooted mid sentence was crazy.
Believe it or not, McConnell's home state of Kentucky currently has a Democratic governor, so if McConnell vacated his seat, the governor would appoint a Democrat to fill it until a special election could be held. No way in hell a guy like Mitch would allow something like that to happen while he's still drawing breath.
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Goodbye you cowardly worthless skin sack full of excrement! May you stub the same toe on every corner.
No not the same toe. You'd get used to that. I want it to be a different toe every time. Also give him hang nails.
I've got one ever better. Hopefully he has to place a nail under his toenail and kick a wall
This guy was great in Pans Labyrinth!
I'd like him to also resign from being alive. Unfortunately, the damage is already done, so him dying really has a negligible effect other than not having to hear from him anymore, which is a grace I think this planet has earned.
I'm not one to bet however I would be willing to bet my first born and the farm, on the basis that McConnell is a lich.
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I would devote a year of full time work to exercise and training if I knew I'd get one chance to punch him right in the face
The only good outcome from Trump getting elected was seeing Mitch McConnell squirm for 4 years.
Mother fucker still played the game though.
Mitch McConnell, on the other hand, is a coward who sold his own soul and his own country for wealth and power, and ultimately the holder of his notes has ended up being Vladimir Putin.
Shockingly, Mitch has been one of the few Republicans to support giving weapons and money to Ukraine.
Yea of late the House had been so crazy that Mitch supporting Ukraine and the boarder deal makes him seem moderate. Which is a horrid sign of where things are. I equally wouldn’t be shocked if he said he was stepping because of the party’s shift. Also a horrid sign since he as a massive factor in making it crazy.
Kissinger wasn't a traitor for foreign pay against his adopted homeland.
We're going to have to agree to disagree on that one. Henry Kissinger is uniquely responsible for the modern quagmire of a relationship that exists between the United States and Israel.
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I agree with all of the things you said. However, Henry Kissinger was essentially the father of modern neo-conservative foreign policy, and those policies are largely what led to the manipulation of the United States government by AIPAC and the Israeli government. There are a multitude of other factors as you suggest, but don't act for one second like Henry Kissinger wasn't Jewish first and American second.
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Does he know he's stepping down? Has anybody told his nurse to give him the message?
.
I haven't actually looked at the Senate races this year, but let's take a look!
20 Democrats, 11 Republican
And one of those Democrat seats is WV. While Democrats like to complain about Joe Manchin, he is probably the only Democrat who could win any statewide office in WV. His decision to not run makes keeping his seat nearly impossible for Democrats. And the 11 Republican seats are all quite safe. Rick Scott in FL and Ted Cruz in TX are the only ones Democrats have any shot at all at.
The best Democrats can hope for is to keep the rest of their seats, which will leave the Senate at 50/50 (leaving control up to whoever the VP is).
Synema in AZ is the one I have no clue how it's going to go. Nobody likes her.
And one of those Democrat seats is WV. While Democrats like to complain about Joe Manchin, he is probably the only Democrat who could win any statewide office in WV.
Yeah. I've voted for him every general election, and usually against him in the primary but people really need to understand this - your choices are Manchin or a Republican, not Manchin or a different Democrat.
WV was a safe blue state until 2000. But it was a blue state because of the unions. And Gore was the one who really started pushing hard against the largest union industries in the state, which is why the state flipped so hard and so suddenly.
I wish his time left in this life is full of heartache and despair. Fuck You Mitch.
TWICE!
Favorite quote from his speech:
"I turned 82 last week. The end of my contributions is closer than I would prefer."
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like!
And less than half of you half as well as you deserve!
Don't let the door hit your shell on the way out.
Whoever replaces him will be even more of a Trump enabler.
That's one of the more depressing aspects. Whenever I see people say, "I can't wait for McConnell to die" I'm like, "It's not like Kentucky is suddenly going to vote in someone who isn't horrible to replace him." Just trading out one shitty politician for a younger one.
Thank you for your service in completely fucking up this country, Mitch.
This guy looks like one of those weird little things in Ursula’s garden from The Little Mermaid. Who’d he sell his soul to?
No sorry. That's clearly that thing from Pan's Labyrinth
I used to hear that he looked like Dana Carvey's turtle dude in that movie "Master of Disguise".
McConnell should be seen as a superhero for the republicans. He got more done for the party than pretty much any past republican senate leader. He fucking got them 2 supreme court justices by his fuckery. He played senate democrats like a fiddle and got SO MUCH compromise out of them while pretty much never returning the favor. For fucks sake, I think Biden STILL views McConnell as a friend.
Yet he went against god king trump so now they hate him. Republicans are dumb as shit.
I think his term ends in '26. Lets hope he doesnt run for reelection.
Definitely can't be favorable, especially since him surviving is in itself unfavorable.
If only the good die young he will live forever
I very much look forward to reading his obituary.
Lol I had just made this comment yesterday:
The problem with McConnell wasn't just that he was evil. It was that he was competently evil, and had his entire party in line.
There are a lot of MAGA idiots who are pure evil, but as Johnson is finding out, and McCarthy before him, it actually takes skills to accomplish sustained evil.
That's what I thought as I saw "Breaking News" and his headshot as I was walking back to my office. "Oh, shit! Here we go!"
I be he is sad about losing his bet with the Koch brothers that he could successfully complete the portal opening sequence to the gates of hell while he was Senate Majority Leader.
Will they carry him out on their shoulders? In a pine box? I mean, he died months ago, didn't he?
He still has time until November to drop dead before.
This is strange. I don't dare to hope that McConnell is stepping down for his health, I'm certain that all the human misery he has caused innervates him in a way no drug could. This could speak to a larger internal power struggle. McConnell fucking sucks, but he hasn't been the greatest ally to the MAGAts recently. I know Trump recently infected all of the RNC leadership, I wonder if McConnell is getting muscled down to make way for a crazier, more pro-Trump Republican leader.
We're getting duplicate posts so I'm going to sticky this one.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in history who maintained his power in the face of dramatic convulsions in the Republican Party for almost two decades, will step down from that position in November.
McConnell, who turned 82 last week, was set to announce his decision Wednesday in the well of the Senate, a place where he looked in awe from its back benches in 1985 when he arrived and where he grew increasingly comfortable in the front row seat afforded the party leaders.
His decision punctuates a powerful ideological transition underway in the Republican Party, from Ronald Reagan’s brand of traditional conservatism and strong international alliances, to the fiery, often isolationist populism of former President Donald Trump.
McConnell gave no specific reason for the timing of his decision, which he has been contemplating for months, but he cited the recent death of his wife’s youngest sister as a moment that prompted introspection.
Trump has pulled the party hard to the ideological right, questioning longtime military alliances such as NATO, international trade agreements and pushing for a severe crackdown on immigration, all the while clinging to the falsehood that the election was stolen from him in 2020.
After seeing the potential peril of a rising Tea Party, he also established a super political action committee, The Senate Leadership Fund, which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in support of Republican candidates.
The original article contains 1,154 words, the summary contains 235 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Wow, Associated Press, "a record run in the job" that's what you came up with huh? Well, fuck you.
"He spoke at times haltingly"
Good, he's a dinosaur anyways and we need to extinct them so to speak. They are ruining life for everyone.
I wonder which complete GOP MAGA psychopath is going to get the turtle's seat? I'm betting they try and force Tuberville on us.
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Tommy blocked those promotions because he's an idiot and literally didn't realize that the positions would go empty if he didn't let them through. Someone had to explain to him that keeping the military from working is a bad thing. That's how dumb he is. I am convinced that he would just make the GOP looks as bad as McCarthy and Johnson.
‘Three Johns’ Top the List of Potential Successors to Mitch McConnell
Yup, this will lead the discussion for months. Talking about that with my wife... who could replace him?
Ted Cruz? Nah, everbody hates Ted Cruz.
Rand Paul? Can't get out of his neighborhood without somebody punching him in the nose.
Chuck Grassley? Most senior Senator... but he's NINETY!
John Kennedy? He's dumb enough...
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McConnell's entire legacy can be summed up in one cowardly act: After Donald Trump whipped up a mob to attack our Capitol, threatening to kill the Speaker of the House and the Vice President, in an attempt to overturn a presidential election, he condemned Trump.
“Former President Trump’s actions that preceded the riot were a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty,” McConnell said. “Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.”
But McConnell voted to acquit him of insurrection, allowing him to run for president again.
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