Slate - What the Hell Has Happened to the Senate? (Answer: Mitch McConnell)

[TomCADem]

In his craven desire to pursue Republican rule, Mitch McConnell broke the Senate and helped pave the way to Donald Trump.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2017/07/what_republicans_have_done_to_the_senate.html

On Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence cast the tiebreaking vote for a motion to proceed to the debate on a repeal or partial repeal or replacement or really God-knows-what of Obamacare. Things became even more confusing once it leaked out before the vote that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appears to be planning for a so-called “skinny repeal,” which would get rid of the law’s individual mandate but keep other aspects of Obamacare intact.

To discuss McConnell’s strategy, and how unprecedented the bizarre process we just witnessed really is, I spoke by phone with Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the author, with Thomas E. Mann and E.J. Dionne, of the forthcoming One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported. Over the course of our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we discussed what people don’t understand about Mitch McConnell, the tribalism that has infected the Republican Congress, and how GOP legislators’ failure to stand up to their leaders does not bode well for their willingness to stand up to a demagogic president.

Isaac Chotiner: Has this procedure been unprecedented, and if so, why should we care?

Norman Ornstein: I first came to Washington in 1969, have watched this process for 48 years, and have never seen anything like this. I haven’t seen anything remotely like this. We have had procedural gimmicks, approaches, things that get people twisted into knots or get the process twisted into knots, and things that were pretty outrageous in the past. Take the three-hour vote in the middle of the night on the Medicare prescription drug bill, a vote that was supposed to last 15 minutes, or the quite remarkable way the Affordable Care Act was passed.

[dhol82]

1. So, what is McConnell 's point?

What does he want?
Is he the devil incarnate? Is he a tool of the Russian state?
I just don't get the innate evil that he seems to possess.

[brush]

2. He's not loyal to the country or the Constitution, just to the repug party and its rich paymasters.

[BigmanPigman]

6. Yes, he is the devil incarnate...pure, unadulterated evil through and through.

He is a snapping turtle. They can take your arm off in one bite and they don't let go.

I liked Jon Stewart's impressions of him but he wasn't vicious enough in my opinion.

[Honeycombe8]

7. He wanted a bill passed. Any bill. For political reasons only.

He didn't want the details to get out to the public, lest the public get to their Senators. Or give the Dems a chance to kill it in popularity. Or even interference with the body of the Republicans not on his little committee (of all white rich men). He didn't want input or amendments. Nothing.

He just wanted to declare a victory for himself, Trump, the Senate. No matter if it wasn't a victory.

McConnell is beholden to Trump. Trump just gave McConnell's wife some position. Ambassador to somewhere, I think. Or maybe Trump has something on McConnell. He's not up for re-election until 2020, so he probably isn't afraid of Trump for that reason (Trump can kill a career).

He needed to get the healthcare debacle done and out of the way, so Trump could have a signing celebration, and everyone could move on to tax cuts for the rich. The endgame.

He's definitely kissing Trump's rear....but why?

[dhol82]

10. Trump appointed McConnell's wife Secretary of Transportation

Elaine Chao.
Her father went to the slammer for cocaine smuggling.

[global1]

3. McConnell Better Hope Trump Doesn't Read This....

because Trump will begin to tweet that he's lost confidence Mitch & ask the Repug Senators to give him a new Majority Leader.

[thucythucy]

5. Trump doesn't read.

It'll have to be featured on Fox to make an impression in what passes for that mind of his.

[Honeycombe8]

8. A Republican was on tv a day or 2 ago & suggested just that. That McConnell should step down.

Whoa. That sounds like a coup forming. I didn't know the Senator who said that to know if he's a moderate or one of the Tea Party.

[AgadorSparticus]

4. I hope they get rid of him. He has had a devastating effect on American politics

Just a ruthless, cruel human being. I despise him so much.

[Rural_Progressive]

9. Worse than that

he gives turtles a bad name.