He will soon be Gone
Mitch McConnell Ready to Step Down
Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has announced
that he will be stepping down from his
leadership role in November. He said in
a prepared statement, "One of life's
most underappreciated talents is to know
when it's time to move on to life's next
chapter" So I stand before you today to
say that this will be my last term as
Republican leader of the Senate."
He
continued: "As I have been thinking
about when I would deliver some news to
the Senate, I always imagined a moment
when I had total clarity and peace about
the sunset of my work. A moment when I
am certain I have helped preserve the
ideals I so strongly believe. It arrived
today."
"I love the Senate. It has
been my life. There may be more
distinguished members of this body
throughout our history, but I doubt
there are any with more admiration for
it, he added. "Father Time remains
undefeated. I am no longer the young man
sitting in the back, hoping colleagues
would remember my name. It is time for
the next generation of leadership."
Liberty Nation News
What Happens Now
Some will remember
fondly how the 82-year-old grizzled
veteran of political wars and
longest-serving Senate leader in
American history ushered an assembly
line of conservative judges and Supreme
Court Justices nominated by Donald Trump
through the gauntlet of Congress upper
chamber. He was a crucial component in
transforming the high court into a
constitutional bulwark against the worst
excesses of the hard left, increasingly
defined as the Democratic Party. Ol
Mitch was famously passionate about the
judiciary and intent on making an
indelible mark on American
jurisprudence. His staid some would
say robotic disposition, forged
through a childhood battle with polio,
and his deep understanding of Senate
rules and protocol made him ideally
suited for such a role.
Unfortunately, that is the lone rose
among the thorns of McConnell's many
years as leader of Senate Republicans,
at least in the view of not just the
left, but most conservatives and Trump
loyalists as well. For all of them, left
to right, McConnell was never to be
trusted. In the short term, his
transparent hatred of Trump and, in the
longer term, his firm commitment to
maintaining the status quo represents
everything Trump was and may soon be
again seeking to overturn. In fact,
his name is usually the first to arise
when discussing the entrenched
Washington establishment. He has long
been the face of the Swamp. But no
longer.
The Downward Spiral of Mitch
McConnell
The handwriting
appeared to be on the wall when the
octogenarian froze while answering a
reporter's question on two occasions in
2023. Widespread speculation about the
cause of his lapses centered around a
concussion caused by an ugly spill in
March of 23. But at the very least,
those episodes likely contributed to his
decision that now is the time for him to
step aside from leadership, though he
will continue to hold his Senate seat
until his term expires in January of
2027. He has finally admitted what so
many have urged him to embrace for
years, that it is time for the next
generation of leadership
Senior
Political Analyst Tim Donner 1But there
is another compelling element to
consider about the decision by
McConnell. Did he quit, at least in
part, due to the prospect of another
Trump presidency, which for him in many
ways presents more trouble than having
Biden in the White House? He never
cottoned to Trump's temperament and talk
of draining the Swamp, but the
relationship was severed likely for
good after January 5, 2021, when
McConnell blamed Trump for losing
control of the Senate, because the
outgoing president told Georgia voters
that the two senate races to determine
control of the upper chamber, like his,
would be rigged. The next day was
January 6 and game over for Trump and
McConnell.
Then there were
McConnell's remarks about "candidate
quality" during the 2022 midterms, a
none-too-transparent broadside at the
45th president and the MAGA-friendly
candidates he endorsed who went on to
lose, most prominently Herschel Walker
in Georgia. He blamed Trump for
supporting unelectable candidates. Trump
in turn blamed McConnell for refusing to
use his considerable fundraising
abilities to support those MAGA-friendly
party nominees. It is a classic chicken
and egg argument.
A new Senate
Republican leader will not be in place
for many months, leading some in Trump's
orbit to fear that with McConnell now a
lame duck, he might use his influence to
undermine Trump during the presidential
campaign. We don't yet know how
influential McConnell will be in
selecting his successor, but it's a sure
bet he will push for someone who, like
him, will protect the status quo and
tread lightly with Donald Trump if the
45th president succeeds in becoming the
47th. Among the senators expected to
seek the leadership position are John
Thune of South Dakota, currently the
second-ranking Republican; John Barrasso
of Wyoming; and John Cornyn of Texas
all considered conservative
establishment figures. And then there is
Trump ally Rick Scott of Florida, whose
previous bid to unseat McConnell came up
well short.
Did Mitch McConnell Like
Being the Grim Reaper?
Conservatives have tried to edge
McConnell out for years. But on the
other side of the aisle, leftists
believe much damage has been done by
McConnell's drive to promote judges and
justices who seek to reduce the power of
the administrative state. Indeed, though
most on the right see him as the leader
of the uniparty establishment elite,
the view is quite the opposite on the
left. As NBC's longtime liberal
journalist Howard Fineman wrote of
McConnell, "early in his Senate career,
he adopted as guiding goal the
destruction of the social-welfare state
as erected by the Roosevelts, Truman,
Kennedy, and Johnson. His bleak sense of
realism told him he could not get
elected president to do that. Instead,
he would do it from the Senate by
dismantling the federal judiciary that
had sanctioned and enabled the liberal
state."
Part of Mitch McConnell's
political epitaph will be his standing
as the single most unpopular political
figure in the country over multiple
polling cycles, finishing below Trump,
Biden, Pelosi, George Soros and all the
other familiar national names. And all
along, one got the sense that he either
didn't care that he was so disliked or
that he actually embraced his status as
the Grim Reaper. One way or another, his
tenure in leadership will long be
debated by those who credit him with
transforming the federal judiciary for a
generation and those who view him as
little more than the guardian of a
corrupt ruling class.