Instead of impeachment, let's talk about Mitch McConnell...

[kentuck]

You know him.

He's the Republican Leader of the US Senate. He has blocked everything coming out of the US House, which is run by the Democrats. His primary goal has been to approve as many conservative judges as possible.

He is in his own bubble. It could be argued that he has done more damage to our country than Donald Trump. He is not beyond doing little favors for his wife to further their own fortunes. If the people of Kentucky are smart, they will send him back to Alabama, the place he came from.

The "Turtle" does not operate in the interests of America - he operates in the interests of the Republican Party and his own lust for power. On a scale of low-lifes, he is about the lowest of them all.

[GoCubsGo]

1. Yes. He is far more dangerous to democracy than is Trump.

He is also the main reason many Dems are hesitant to impeach.

[onetexan]

41. agree. if we can get rid of Mitch the fool he's been enabling will fold.

[maxsolomon]

42. If McConnell is not re-elected, President Asshole won't be either.

But "we" won't get rid of the Senate Majority Leader until 2021.

Deal.

[lagomorph777]

50. KY is a sticky mess.

But recent polls indicate Turtle may be in trouble. This mess might get cleaned up soon.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/mitch_mcconnell_favorableunfavorable-6672.html

[maxsolomon]

51. the campaign hasn't even started.

but he's majority leader until 2021, regardless. lots of time to keep that boot on the neck of progress.

[certainot]

61. getting rid of mcconnel is easy. anyone in the world can put his most important political allies in

kentucky out of business. that would be kentucky's right wing talk radio stations.

they can be recorded and transcribed (easy and cheap now with artificial intelligence) and their advertisers can easily be listed with little listening required. the global warming denial and racism and sexism and immigrant hate and attack iran chickenhawking that intimidates and enables republicans and media in kentucky (and the country ) to side with mcconnel and trump can be directly associated with the advertisers that pay for it. many of them are being bundled onto those stations to save money, and so ad agencies can use those huge mega stations to reach all those ears without giving clients a choice.

rather than have their clients hassled and embarrassed the ad companies will have to start asking if they really support trump, mcconnel, etc. - that will cause a mass exodus unless the radio stations start offering balance or change programming. the ad agencies will encourage it. without that talk radio propaganda monopoly in rural states like kentucky the GOP and mcconnel will lose the only unique advantage they have.

and these two universities endorse mcconnel by broadcasting sports on 3 limbaugh stations and can be protested - Louisville 2, Kentucky 1 (from republiconradio.org: a list of 88 universities supporting 260 limbaugh stations)

[RKP5637]

2. IMO McTurdtle is worse than tRump! He's a co-conspirator against the US democracy IMO and wields

a lot of power with the senate not in the best interest of the US democracy.

[Butterflylady]

23. Why can't someone put billboards up

Letting the people of Kentucky know the amount of money he's gotten from a Russian oligarch? I would bet the majority of Kentucky's population have no idea.

[RKP5637]

25. Yep, it seems not enough is ever done to bring this to voters' attention. Instead, they often rely

on the propaganda, the latest TV ad and whatever.. I was reading something recently where they did a hypothetical poll of him versus the other candidates. He came out way on top. They apparently love this guy. It often makes one realize really how information limited and frankly how stupid much of the US population is. People tell me it's the same in other countries.

[CaptYossarian]

26. That Steyer guy could afford it.

[kennetha]

3. Nothing you can do about McConnell. Nothing.

As long as he is majority leader as long as Kentucky keeps electing him, you have to live with him. Doesn’t matter what anybody in California or New York think.

[kentuck]

5. He is not safe this time around, in my opinion.

Kentucky has a history of surprising politicians.

[irisblue]

10. Ok. Do tell, Amy McGrath looking that good to Kentucky?

[kentuck]

11. Matt Jones is very popular in the mountains...

..a usual stronghold for McConnell. Two or three people have been mentioned as an opponent for Mitch.

[FBaggins]

19. "The national party is all in on Amy McGrath" - Matt Jones

She would have to decline first... and I don't think Jones is a stronger candidate anyway.

I wouldn't put much money on defeating McConnel. His popularity may be weaker than previous cycles in KY, but Trump's isn't. I'm pretty sure it was the 5th reddest state in 2016 and Hillary was almost doubled-up. I can think of at least ten seats more likely to flip.

[mountain grammy]

15. Correction: as long as Kentucky keeps electing him, WE have to live with him..

Two Senators from each state.. the worst excuse for representation in our original document.

Let's be honest, our founders didn't set America up as a democracy.

[RKP5637]

28. Excellent point!!!!! n/t

[MarcA]

44. Yes, and it was designed to make changes difficult and even moreso now. n/t

[Farmer-Rick]

38. Most people I know in Kentucky don't like Mitch.

But there seems to be very little advertising or promoting another candidates. Or the other candidate is smeared well enough no one wants to vote for him. So, they vote for Mitch because they see his name over and over and the other guy has more bad press.

And they are use to voting for idiots.

[LiberalLovinLug]

57. Why not impeach McConnell?

Now that would throw things into the blender

[certainot]

62. disagree. anyone anywhere in the world can dump him fast.

most republican politicians are very dependent on democrats continuing to ignore talk radio, which is now VERY vulnerable to destruction thanks to artificial intelligence making it fast easy and cheap to digitize.

talk radio is the only unique advantage republicans have and democrats let them have it.

advertisers can be listed with little listening required. once it starts - and anyone anywhere can do it over the internet - the ad industry will have to start asking clients if they really want to support trump/mcconnel/global warming denial/racism/putin/war with iran/public school defunding etc. instead of being able to bundle them on at discounts just to reach all those ears waiting for traffic reports, weather, sports, news, etc. on those megastations.

they'll lose a lot of advertisers and the ad agencies will force many of those stations to offer balance or change programming.

without that talk radio advantage the trump GOP is fucked

see post above

[SallyHemmings]

4. He is smarter than Individual 1 and knows how to manipulate the rules

Winning the Senate in 2020 is critical.

[RKP5637]

29. He's a very smart and cunning individual. It's so sad he's the way he is. n/t

[Doitnow]

53. Absolutely. A Democratic Pres. will be stymied with a rethug Senate. Biden thinks he can work

with them. Surely Obama told him how and we know how that turned out! Aren't there supposed to be lots of Senate rethugs up for reelection this time? More attention has to be put on Dems winning those seats.

[DarthDem]

6. Yes. YES!!!!!!!!!!

Please talk about this, and keep talking about this, everyone. Good post.

You're right. He probably has done more damage. One person should not be able to stop the federal legislature from functioning.

[mopinko]

7. twitler is just the head of a very angry boil on this country.

we cannot forget this.

we need a blu tsunami to wash this shit off our country.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. The answer: fewer presidential candidates; more senatorial candidates. NT

[Hortensis]

9. So true. Their most immediate goal has become to appoint

as many judges as possible to serve Republicans and those they serve. It was always very high, of course, but taking control of the presidency and legislatures was and is on top so they could, among other things, keep appointing judges to effect a legal revolution and cement in their power.

Unfortunately for them, of course, the electorate's finally cluing in, so he's sped up constructing a legal redoubt to hold and advance their power from.

[dlk]

12. McConnell is Completely Dirty and Corrupt. So is His Wife, Transportation Secretary Chao

They are a RICO enterprise.

[Retrograde]

47. But his wife is such a sweet person!

I know, cause I read a LTTE in the NY Times yesterday that said so. It was in reply to an article stating that Elaine Chao may not be strictly above board in her activities at the Dept. of Transportation, and that she funnels contracts to herself and family. The writer - one Angela Chao - insisted that her family only profits a teensy little bit and there's no collusion with China...

[OliverQ]

13. I still don't understand how nothing he's done is able to result in

indictment. He's blatantly sabotaging national security and has taken money from Russian Oligarchs. He's also committing financial crimes with his wife.

[RKP5637]

31. It all is just damn unbelievable. I'm often surprised the US has lasted as long as it has. It seems

these guys seldom take a fall ... and the voters just keep voting them back in.

[zentrum]

14. He's made his funders

....very, very, very much richer through his cabinet member wife, Elaine Chao.

God only knows what invisble long-term, international power they are amassing.

[Bonhomme Richard]

16. Conspiracy against the United States.

In the 1924 case Hammerschmidt v. United States, the Supreme Court of the United States, in an opinion authored by Chief Justice William Howard Taft, held that "To conspire to defraud the United States means primarily to cheat the government out of property or money, but it also means to interfere with or obstruct one of its lawful governmental functions by deceit, craft or trickery, or at least by means that are dishonest."[3] from Wikipedia

I don't know why he isn't charged.
Well I do and that is another problem.

[Sentath]

18. Yes, yes that is another in a fairly short, but fairly dire list of problems.

A short list from a category view anyway, specific instances might depressingly lengthy.

[world wide wally]

17. He works for himself, the GOP, and whatever foreign country benefits his bankroll.

[ffr]

20. +1 You speak for me.

Kentuckians need to step up and make it known that McConnell is no longer welcome in the senate come next election.

[ChiTownDenny]

21. I logged in so I could Recommend!

Instead of blaming Democrats for not impeaching, the facts are we should blame McConnell for obstructing justice!

[Nasruddin]

22. The President is the handmaid of the Senate

McConnell rules the US - but any Republican senate majority leader would do likewise.
The key to life after 2020 is overthrow of the Republican majority in the senate. I think that is a very high hill to climb, and right now it seems like we have half the present Democratic senate membership thinking they are the next president of the USA.

(I don't think a Democratic senate majority leader would be capable of this kind of autocracy because of the difference in the character of the parties, & maybe some of that same egotism that's driving all of them to run for president.)

In the long run we have to follow John Dingell's advice about the Senate.

[Saviolo]

24. The danger that Mitch McConnell poses cannot be overstated:

I've said this before and I'll say it again:

Mitch McConnell is the gravedigger of democracy.

As long as he's getting what he wants, he's going to keep going. If Trump's voted out, he'll continue to obstruct as he did with Obama. He rushed dozens and dozens of judge nominations through when he knew he could get his friends from the Federalist Society on the bench, and withheld nominations for years under Obama until there was a shortage and a crisis. This is all in addition to his blatant theft of Merrick Garland's seat on the SCOTUS.

He's super rich, insanely powerful, completely out of touch with any constituency that doesn't include other extremely wealthy and powerful people like himself. He will actively harm the poor, women, POC, LGBTQ+, and immigrants, because none of those people even exist in any meaningful way for him. They're (we're) an abstraction. He will suppress votes, gerrymander, lie, cheat, block Senate votes, obstruct, whatever he thinks he needs to do to give his party the tiniest edge. Not even because he believes in the party, but because it will keep him in power.

Taking back the senate should be the Democratic Party's and the DNC's order of business #1. The GOP stranglehold on the Senate must be broken, and in the 2020 election, there are enough GOP candidates defending that it would be possible. That blue wave has to come back again and wash over the Senate.

[RKP5637]

33. K&R!!! Very well said!!! n/t

[MarcA]

45. +1,000 n/t

[lordsummerisle]

59. Excellent, should be a thread of it's own if it isn't already n/t

[JAD]

27. They don't call him Moscow Mitch for nothing!

Every time you post something about McConnell call him Moscow Mitch.

[TreasonousBastard]

30. I've been saying this for years...

He's been doing his best to screw things up since the Obama administration, and could be around long after Trump is just a bad memory.

We have a decent chance to get rid of him in 2020. Even better chance to swing the Senate, and if he's still around Schumer can tap dance on his fat ass.

[Eliot Rosewater]

32. Human dung

[marble falls]

34. The White House is ours, we aren't looking for the candidate that'll beat him ...

but the candidate who can bring out the most voters to take the few critical seats the GOP have on the ballot this cycle.

The battle field we need to plan for is Congress and especially the Senate. And any and all other offices down ticket.

[Mr.Bill]

49. Yes. If we become the majority party in the Senate,

the Turtle just becomes one vote out of a hundred.

[Perseus]

35. How about if we talk about Impeachments and Mitch McConnell?

Impeachments of:
1. The buffoon
2. Barr

Now, lets talk about McConnell...how do we get rid of that cancer in the Senate?

[Rene]

36. Who's going to arrest this guy and his wife for treason?

[Politicub]

37. If people cared enough to come out en masse, then we could form a human blockade

so he could not physically get to the Senate chambers.

That's what the protestors originally did in Hong Kong to block the the extradition bill. They clogged the streets so thoroughly that legislators could not get to the government buildings. It evolved into a larger movement that attracted more and more people.

I'm not sure if that would work in the U.S., and it may be a naive idea: First, you need a crowd...

[Farmer-Rick]

39. Seems to me Mitch is the only thing keeping Trump in office

Dems should be doing everything they can to get him out. Glad to see this post.

[Pepsidog]

40. McConnell is a scourge on the country

[Bluepinky]

43. Yep. Would love to see him impeached for treason.

[Retrograde]

46. Don't think you can impeach a senator

although one could be arrested and tried for treason if there was evidence.

[AncientGeezer]

54. He can't be impeached and we aren't in a declared war so no treason

[BlueJac]

48. K&R

I love the post!

[BigmanPigman]

55. If we got rid of Fux Ruse and the Turtle the world would be better off.

[BigmanPigman]

56. We need more Jon Stewarts to go on TV

and call him out BY NAME! Why didn't Stewart do that?

[drmeow]

58. Benedict McConnell is a fascist traitor

and I'd like to see him suffer the same fate as the people tried at Nuremberg.

[IronLionZion]

60. He's a completely fake opportunist who lies to the people of Kentucky

In his early years as a politician in Kentucky, McConnell was known as a pragmatist and a moderate Republican.[11][24] Over time, he veered sharply to the right.[11][24] According to ProPublica reporter Alex MacGillis's biography of McConnell, McConnell transformed "from a moderate Republican who supported abortion rights and public employee unions to the embodiment of partisan obstructionism and conservative orthodoxy on Capitol Hill."[24] MacGillis argues that McConnell's transformation was "driven less by a shift in ideological conviction than by a desire to win elections and stay in power at all costs."[24]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_McConnell

[MrsCoffee]

63. Let's talk about both.

[saidsimplesimon]

64. Kremlin Mitch came out of his shell the week.

Public appearances confirm he is about the ugliest American on the planet.

[friend of m and j]

66. I have believed for a long time before I joined DU..

That McConnell is the most dangerous man in Washington and can do more to destroy our democracy than anyone, including Donald Trump. The only way I think to get rid of him is to have Democratic mega donors to scour Kentucky looking for a good candidate and letting it be known that they will guarantee financing for the right candidate.

I am talking about bill boards, radio, and 30 minute TV infomercials. And those should be used to search the state for the right candidate. Mitch has enough dirt on him a campaign to find a candidate could start very simple. Billboards simply asking the question "Do you know the difference in right and wrong. Mitch McConnell doesn't. would you be willing to help save our democracy?" if you or someone you know would be good Senator that we would be proud of call this *** *** ****""

It is sad that money plays such a big role in our politics but the truth is that it can win elections. With enough money enough people can be hired to vet the gillion people that I think would respond to such a full blown aggressive movement to find a candidate who could beat Mitch if they had enough money behind them.