Mitch McConnell is trying to extort Dems into unilateral disarmament.

[Nevilledog]

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Greg Sargent
@ThePlumLineGS
Mitch McConnell is trying to extort Dems into unilateral disarmament. He claims the filibuster facilitates bipartisan cooperation. The reality is the opposite: He cynically weaponizes it to *deny* bipartisan cooperation. The history is clear. New piece:

Opinion | Mitch McConnell’s latest sabotage effort is a scam. He already showed us how.
McConnell is exploiting a convention in political reporting that rewards his bad faith.
washingtonpost.com
9:01 AM · Jan 25, 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/25/mitch-mcconnell-filibuster-biden-bipartisanship/

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is refusing to allow Democrats to take control of the Senate; in so doing, the minority leader is banking on a twisted convention of political reporting that he knows will play to his advantage.

Specifically, McConnell has calculated that the press will place the onus of achieving bipartisan cooperation on President Biden, while allowing Republicans to cast their own withholding of bipartisan cooperation as proof of Biden’s failure to achieve it.

We know this because we have already seen McConnell operate from this playbook. He has been quite open about how it works. And this fact should shift the way the entire public discussion about McConnell’s strategy proceeds.

McConnell is employing a simple but deceptive scam that has hoodwinked a lot of people for a long time. The central ruse is that McConnell piously holds up the filibuster as a tool for securing bipartisan cooperation.

In reality, however, McConnell himself uses the filibuster in precisely the opposite way: to facilitate the partisan withholding of cooperation to an extraordinary extent, for largely instrumental ends.

*snip*

[exboyfil]

1. What can we offer Murkowski to get her to caucus with the Democrats?

Alternatively what can job can we offer Toomey? I still wish we had tried luring him with Commerce.

[exboyfil]

2. Also you know we will be browbeaten to not get Supreme Court

justices as partisan in the other direction that Trump got with his three. That was one reason why Garland was made AG. His age and being a bit more moderate would have the Republicans saying, "You whined about Garland for four years. Now is your chance".


They have there way it will be a bunch of 60 year old moderates to replace Breyer and any other replacements that might come up.

[gohuskies]

3. Schumer must not concede to Moscow Mitch's filibuster request

This was the fatal flaw in 2009 that cost the Dems control of the agenda that set the stage for the 2010 mid-term losses that put McTurdle back into the majority in Congress. We need to use simple majority votes rather than any concession to a 60 vote super majority. It would be a stupid and catastrophic move that takes us right back to the climate of corrupt GOP governance. Chuck needs to be steadfast in telling Mitch to go pound sand on this situation.

[Alpeduez21]

5. Or much, more realistically, he could just bring

to the floor a vote to end the filibuster. ANY form of a filibuster will prevent anything from being enacted upon. Bipartisanship is something only Dems feel is important. Repukes claim a 50.1% majority for them means 100% control. That kind of thinking is impossible to reason with so push through your agenda and sell it to America. Dems just have to get better at messaging and stop reacting to repuke messaging. America is being held back from being great b/c repukes don't care about people.

[DAngelo136]

4. I Would Agree With That Assessment

I believe that McConnell is playing a cynical game of trying to force the Democrats to negotiate against themselves.
He offers nothing and in return the Dems offer more. It's never benefited them. But he's running the risk of overplaying
his already weak hand. As explained here:

" McConnell’s trying to do something else, too. A fight over the filibuster is coming, no matter what, but McConnell would prefer not to defend it when popular, necessary legislation is at stake—say, a new Voting Rights Act, or an expansion of health care. Instead, he’d rather wage this battle over an obscure procedural agreement—and box Democrats into reaffirming the GOP’s “right” to obstruct any part of Joe Biden’s agenda that it can."

But here's where he goes wrong; he's counting on peeling off Democrats like Joe Manchin of W.V. who doesn't want to see the filibuster end, to put pressure on Schumer to take McConnell's deal. But as it turns out, Manchin isn't on board with McConnell:

Manchin expressed unequivocal support for Schumer’s refusal to cave. “Chuck has the right to do what he's doing,” he said. “He has the right to use that to leverage in whatever he wants to do.” Why would Manchin, who in the very same remarks reaffirmed his belief in preserving the filibuster, stand up for Schumer’s rejection of McConnell’s demands?

It’s right there in his very words, twice over: He believes Schumer simply has certain rights as majority leader, a prerogative to run the chamber as he sees fit. And already, the absence of an agreement has undermined those prerogatives. The Senate is largely still operating under the arrangement that governed it for the last two years, meaning that the GOP still has majority on every committee and that, crucially, Republicans are still chairing those committees, even though Democrats ought to be."

See, Manchin is waiting for his chairman seat on the Natural Resources Committee which is presently held by Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. So, depending on how long McTurtle tries his patience, he could very well force Manchin to finally say "F*ck it. Blow it up!" and then McConnell will have nothing. So he's better off accepting the power sharing plan that Daschle and Lott agreed to 20 years ago when the Senate was then equally split. "Better half a loaf than none".
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/1/21/2011037/-Mitch-McConnell-s-making-a-big-mistake-on-the-filibuster-Here-s-how-it-could-come-back-to-bite-him?pm_source=story_sidebar&pm_medium=web&pm_campaign=recommended

[2naSalit]

7. +1

[Baked Potato]

6. Democrats better go big. Americans want to see bold, unwavering leadership. Now.