Finally the turtle retires
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.
His own health issues almost certainly played a factor there. He’s 82 and clearly having some issues. I’m surprised he’s even holding out until November.
He’s not just holding out till November, he’s holding out until his term expires in 2027!
That press conference where his brain rebooted mid sentence was crazy.
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!
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.
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.
Garland was a compromise pick by obama. He was the most centrist republican that obama could find to try and get him appointed. He just wasn’t a federalist society whack job.
Right. He put up a candidate the Republicans couldn’t possibly object to . . . and yet they did anyway. This is what you get for trying to play Republicans at their own game.
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.
They didn’t even have a chance to object to him, McConnell blocked him from having a hearing.
That’s the point. If they were being reasonable and honest they would have held a hearing for him, because he’s a candidate they could agree with. They were forced to make a choice to admit playing a cheap game or elect him and give up their possible future of absolute control of the SCOTUS. Sadly making them admit this seemed to not actually sway many peoples opinions, and they only went further if anything.
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.
scotus should be a 5-4 majority the other way right now.
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.
One of the most damaging traitors in this country’s history. I wish him the worst.
Good riddance. I’m sure his successor with be much worse, but I’ll welcome this news for now.
Worth noting that his successor will likely control the Senate come 2025, as Democrats have a snowball’s chance in hell of holding it after Manchin retires.
I agree they shouldn’t be downvoting you, the math is not good for senate Democrats. But it wasn’t good last time, either, and they gained a seat.
Anything can happen.
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).
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.
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.
This is a huge thing that a lot of people, especially young people (millennials included here), tend to miss.
I may not have narrowed it down to Gore specifically, but at some point between, say…1985 and 2000…the Democratic party really seemed to just take unions and blue collar workers for granted…people who’d been a historic pillar of the party.
I’m not sure why this happened, but I suspect deep pockets of donors in big business had a part in it. Regardless, that decision may have had its desired effect in the short term, but in the long term, it basically put the Rust Belt in play. PA, OH, IN, MI, WI, and MN could/should be solid bets to break blue in every national race, but now you have these states full of registered Democrats who have voted Republican in at least half of the last six elections.
I always thought that WV was more about coal, but the union angle makes a ton of sense as well, and through that lens, it makes perfect sense to include them as maybe “Rust Belt adjacent”.
I may not have narrowed it down to Gore specifically, but at some point between, say…1985 and 2000…the Democratic party really seemed to just take unions and blue collar workers for granted…people who’d been a historic pillar of the party.
They backed away from unions and started putting more emphasis on identity over that period, but for WV it was Gore attacking the coal industry that triggered the switch over. WV was only Democrat because of the unions and the largest union industry was the coal miners. It doesn’t matter if you pay lip service to supporting unions if you’re also expressing a dedication to shutting down the biggest union industry in the region.
I always thought that WV was more about coal, but the union angle makes a ton of sense as well,
The two are fundamentally linked. What do you think the biggest union in WV was? There was never a solid Democrat support of coal, but so long as they were pro-union and didn’t actively attack coal they were going to keep WV. Instead they went increasingly
Synema in AZ is the one I have no clue how it’s going to go. Nobody likes her.
Remember she’s technically an independent now, and the Democrats are running someone against her.
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!
Ding dong the Mitch is dead!
Not for another 9 months.
Unfortunately he isn’t from Alabama where a judge could rule that the announcement counts as quitting 9 months early.
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!”
Retiring as leader but still keeping his senate seat. Any day that man is still allowed in Congress is a bad day, no matter what chair he sits in.
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.
I’m pretty sure Kentucky passed a bill saying that the replacement must be of the same party.
Yeah, McConnell saw his own time drawing to a close and had his buddies in Kentucky pass some legislation vote-proofing his seat against a Democratic replacement:
Whoever replaces him will be ever 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.
Rot in hell.
Fuck you for everything, Mitch.
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.
He didn’t even really go against Trump. He voted for his acquittal. Twice! He just said Trump should be held accountable by someone else, and that was enough to be considered a slight against Trump.
‘Three Johns’ Top the List of Potential Successors to Mitch McConnell
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/31/us/mcconnell-successor-senate-leader.html
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…
Archive link: https://archive.is/Hol7d
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.
I 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.
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 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.
God I hope so, but I have a feeling it’s going to be another monster; just without the spectre of death looming over them like the rainbow after a storm.
It can be another cluster but I’m also hopeful that a younger person will tone it down. The senate tends to be more moderate too.
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.
