A great summary of the scam Mitch McConnell ran on media establishment stooges:
His failure to log even a single major achievement is without precedent in recent American history. It’s not like he hasn’t had the opportunity: Not only has McConnell enjoyed 250 days of unified Republican control in 2017, he also led a GOP majority in the Senate for the previous two years, paired with a solid Republican majority in the House. But under McConnell’s leadership, even bills backed by strong bipartisan support, tagged as likely to pass by seasoned Hill observers and likely to be signed by Obama, languished.
[….]So where does the Myth of McConnell come from?
The Myth is manufactured out of a deeply cynical but highly effective public relations insight that McConnell exploited to maximum effect: If he simply labeled everything Obama and Democrats tried to do as “partisan,” regardless of the merits, then invented institutionalist-sounding reasons for his opposition, and conveyed those reasons in polished speeches delivered from the Senate floor in his rolling Kentucky drawl, the news media and the commentators would eat it up. He realized that he didn’t have to be a bipartisanship-seeking institutionalist—he could just play one on TV, giving him cover to push partisanship to the hilt in private.
All that said, at least we don’t have to hear about his piercing blue eyes and P90X workouts all the damn time.
O. Felix Culpa
Then the Queen left off, quite out of breath, and said to Alice, “Have you seen the Mock Turtle yet?”
“No,” said Alice. “I don’t even know what a Mock Turtle is.”
“It’s the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from”, said the Queen.
— Alice in Wonderland, chapter 9
Mike J
Someone needs to stick that turtle on a post.
Elizabelle
They’re all Potemkin politicians. Speaking of the GOP side.
The media is developing balls only because they finally sense blood in the water.
zhena gogolia
@O. Felix Culpa:
Don’t tell me you just watched “The Love-ins” too! Susan Oliver’s Alice-themed bad trip was so great.
Matt McIrvin
If you oppose everything the other party does, then everything the other party does is automatically partisan, and you can be non-partisan by allowing nothing at all to happen.
Neat trick, and I think that it is in a sense a legislative accomplishment–it’s just a negative one, the successful blocking of any activity whatsoever in order to hamstring the other party. Blocking Garland was just the cherry on top.
The only trouble is, it no longer looks good when your guy is President.
Major Major Major Major
And thank god for small miracles.
Hunter Gathers
Can’t wait to hear about supremely disappointed David Brooks will be with President Gillibrand when she is unable to receive a single Republican vote in the Senate for her Anti-Nazi bill.
jl
I don’t see how the corporate media needs McConnell to do that. During the roll out of the first Senate health care scam bill this summer, I heard TV news actors pestering Democrats about why they were not working on bipartisan legislation with the GOP (on what?) at the very time Trump and the Congressional GOP made it very clear than the Democrats were completely shut out of the talks. DemocRATS were not allowed in the big boy’s clubhouse. Trump and the GOP made a sign and everything and nailed it to the wall next to the locked clubhouse door.
Edt” “NO Grilzz NO DemacRATZ Inside. This meenz U!”
Major Major Major Major
@Hunter Gathers: “I mean, Schumer didn’t even ask them to take off their hoods. What happened to comity?”
rikyrah
The Turtle is a loathsome human being ??
efgoldman
All the time he was “nononononononononononononononononno….” for every appointment and bill submitted by Obama, he was made to be a legislative genius, a 21st century Daniel Webster.
Yet Harry Reid, who almost always had just a minority to lead, at Yertle McTurtle’s lunch every single time.
ArchTeryx
He ran a scam on the Villagers, but at least he didn’t manage to scam the population that he was threatening to take away the health insurance of. A whole lot of people were just not fooled, and they metaphorically stormed the Bastille.
On the one hand, I’m not at all sorry that the zombie got buried yet again, FSM willing, for the last time for a while. On the other, I’m also a bit sorry that he didn’t hold the vote and lose publicly again. Might have finally been enough to finish his leadership as well as the bill.
But just a bit. Having a vote on Graham-Cassidy would have been incredibly dangerous. Far better that it just be buried for realz.
O. Felix Culpa
@zhena gogolia: Actually, no, I hadn’t watched it, but now that you mention it, I will!
Steeplejack (phone)
@zhena gogolia:
Mmm, Susan Oliver. She was just on Perry Mason or 77 Sunset Strip last week. Can’t remember which one.
Hunter Gathers
@Major Major Major Major: Gillibrand’s upcoming failure to make common cause with White Supremacists will be why we will need the strong and steady leadership of George P. Bush. The center will demand it.
jl
OT, but I would like to hear from David Anderson or an informed commener whether the health care wars are really over this year.
The CHIP renewal that had people’s attention before G-C has not been resolved, along with some other health care programs.
Krugman also had a blog post that I found a little confusing earlier today. It seemed to say that the GOP scam tax proposal had some health care expenditure cuts hidden in it. But I may have misunderstood Krugman’s post.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
Why are the RWNJs so hostile to McConnell these days? Is it just that they blame him for failures?
Major Major Major Major
@Hunter Gathers: I assume his middle name is Prescott, like his ancestor–now there was somebody who knew how to deal with Nazis!
Major Major Major Major
@jl: reconciliation instructions for ‘something involving healthcare’ expire on Sunday.
Jeffro
@Matt McIrvin:
True, true, and so very true. All McConnell did – and it was HUGE, from the GOP’s perspective – was put a major check on anything Obama wanted. As in, 60-vote threshold on everything? Check. No progressive or even centrist replacement for Scalia? Check.
He may not have passed anything, but he sure as hell kept Obama from doing nearly as much as he would have liked.
Furthermore, by obstructing any revelation of Russian meddling before the election, he was yet another contributor to President Disaster’s being elected.
Why am I wasting time typing? Where is my bucket of tar and pillow case full of feathers? Where’s my bat?
HumboldtBlue
President Trump’s road trip had some folks out on a sunny day.
Jeffro
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
They think he was great while opposing Obama, and technically he did deliver in many ways there. But yes, you’re right: they do blame him for “repeal & replace”s failure, because to look at the real reasons would mean admitting to themselves and the public that they were full of shit for 7 years.
debbie
@efgoldman:
Law of the Universe #1: You get back what you put out.
efgoldman
@ArchTeryx:
To what end? Someone even more inept?
Duane
I don’t recall McConnell being subtle at all. Whatever Obama was for,he was against.
Despite that,the wingnuts have turned on him with a vengeance. I cant think of a more deserving shitwad.
MomSense
@jl:
I called King’s office and sent a fax and got an email from him today. He sounded so frustrated (in senate speak of course). They have two days to reauthorize CHIP. It’s barely getting any mention. The other problem is that DHS has severely cut the budget for navigators and limited the enrollment period. These fucking assholes swore to faithfully execute the laws. I’ts almost like they thought that meant kill the laws.
We are going to have to do some kind of indivisible/resistance trainings to become volunteer navigators.
debbie
@jl:
My company releases information about the health care choices for 2018. I’m afraid to guess how much the deductibles will increase.
efgoldman
@efgoldman:
Speaking of leadership: Steve Scalise came back today after recovering from being shot. Big, weepy scene in the well of the house.
Scalies, of course, is a leader of the white bloc in the house, just won’t support Nazis or the Klan.He weepilly acknowledged the two capitol police who, wounded themselves, saved his ass: A black guy and an Asian woman.
Adam L Silverman
@Matt McIrvin: It also does you no good when you have no one and nothing left to oppose. This is a problem with those who undertake low intensity warfare, regardless of whether it is revolution or rebellion or insurgency. And what the Congressional GOP under Senator McConnell’s leadership did during the Obama Administration was an insurgency, just not a physically violent one. But as is the case with most insurgents, rebels, and revolutionaries, McConnell has nothing to offer now that he’s won the war. Almost every successful revolution or insurgency or rebellion winds up backsliding. And most of those fail ultimately setting the conditions for subsequent ones. And this holds regardless of violent or non-violent. None of the color revolutions were successful. Anywhere. All of them led to backsliding and a need for redo or backslid into complete failure. It is why revolutionaries and insurgents make very bad statesmen and politicians. Very, very different skillsets.
SFAW
Turtle was not a complete failure.
Two words:
Neil “I’m Gonna Impartially (wink, wink) Rule on a Case Aimed at Destroying Unions, But First Let Me Hang Out With The Group Trying to Do Just That” Gorsuch
OK, a little more than two words. So sue me.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: They’re going to try to roll back some of the ACA taxes in the “tax reform” legislation they’re cooking up.
Adam L Silverman
@HumboldtBlue: They guy on his knee is a veteran.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
I eagerly await his modernized version of “Theodoric of York, Modern Racist.”
efgoldman
@SFAW:
Wall, at least Scalise is aware enough not to act and speak outwardly in positive terms of the Nazis and klan.
Mary G
@MomSense: I’ve been bugging Issa for weeks about CHIP, with barely any responses. How stupid are they? When the desperately ill children start showing up on the news with the weeping parents, maybe they’ll get around to it? More terrible optics are a good thing. Kamala and DiFi have been squawking about it for weeks, but you’d never know it by the media, who have been preoccupied with NFL tweets.
Mike in NC
We just finished watching the final episode of Ken Burns’s “The Vietnam War” on PBS. Feeling emotionally exhausted and brutalized and fearful of the deranged bloated imbecile now sitting in the White House who keeps threatening North Korea and Iraq with nuclear extinction. How the fuck did we get to this point?
Major Major Major Major
@Mike in NC:
White people? Just spitballing here.
randy khan
There are a lot of people who are very good at one thing, but not at much else. That’s McConnell. And the one thing he was good at was not that difficult, while what he’s trying to now is quite difficult. It really gives you an appreciation of how good Harry Reid was.
Major Major Major Major
@randy khan: the thing he was good at is not difficult at all. It’s completely unremarkable.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: To be fair, if it weren’t for non-whites, whites wouldn’t have any need to elect racists.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: damn, it really is the minorities’ fault.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: It always is.
Fair Economist
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
The Republican agenda is fundamentally impossible. If they could pass it the backlash would take us to real social democracy. So they never pass it, and so they always need somebody in power to blame. Obama is gone and Trump is too much of a dream monster for them, and Ryan successfully passed an empty shell on healthcare, so McConnell gets the blame.
efgoldman
@Major Major Major Major:
More specifically, Obama’s fault
MomSense
@Mary G:
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. This is such an important program and it’s being ignored. There are going to be sooo many demoralized and upset parents especially in the Medicaid non-expansion states. These parents earn just too much for really good Medicaid coverage and not enough to qualify for subsidies. You hear them say all the time how grateful they are that at least their kids are covered by CHIP. What are they supposed to do now???
This is just obscene that these poor families are forgotten while Price charters private jets to have lunch with his son in Nashville.
I’m back to furious.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack (phone):
In this film she’s fab. She’s supposed to be a hippie in Haight-Ashbury, but she has perfect Kennedy-girl hair and kicky outfits where the stockings match the turtlenecks. I lurved it.
Regnad Kcin
@debbie: boy, you got to carry that weight … [ibid] … a long time :)
randy khan
@Major Major Major Major:
Oh, I agree.
Steeplejack (phone)
@zhena gogolia:
Cool.
I recognized her name because I’ve been on a jag lately of looking up the IMDB bios of the actors on these old shows in real time as I watch them. Fascinating trivia.
Okay, “fascinating” is a bit strong.
clay
@Adam L Silverman: Interesting analysis. Never thought of McConnell as an insurgent before, but that makes perfect sense.
Lemme ask you this… would folks like Washington or de Gaulle be considered exceptions to your conclusion, or do they not fit the criteria somehow?
SFAW
@MomSense:
I may be heading up to Oxford County (no, not the Casino) in the next week or two. Want me to bring up some beer? What do you like?
(You’ve told me approximately where you are — which of course I’ve forgotten — and I’m pretty sure it’s not Oxford area, but unless you’re in T3R9 area, you’re reachable.
SFAW
@MomSense:
So I had a
wicked goodmediocre response to you’re “I’m back to furious” comment, but I foolishly included a forbidden word (Hint: there’s one of them in Oxford, on the east side of Thompson Lake)Anyway, the nub of my gist was: what kind of beer do you want me to bring up?
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
If people of colour didn’t exist, white people would have had to designate some “other” group within their own kind to despise and discriminate against.
NorthLeft12
Lemmee see, McConnell is an old white guy who has served in the Senate a long time and has an R behind his name. That automatically makes him a wise statesman in most of the MSM’s eyes.
Hell, they would hang on Louie Gohmert’s every word if he was a Senator.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
In the immortal words of Tom Lehrer:
“Oh the Catholics hate the Protestants,
And the Protestants hate the Catholics,
And the Hindus hate the Moslems,
And everybody hates the Jews”
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@randy khan: “You’re not clever, you’re just an unbelievably colossal piece of shit.”
NorthLeft12
@Amir Khalid: They did. Just ask the Irish for starters. I’m sure there are many other “white” nationalities that have been discriminated against over the centuries. I may be biased, but the Irish may have one of the better cases to make.
Anne Laurie
@NorthLeft12:
Even though my grandparents were Irish, I admit the Jews probably have pride of place in the most-discriminated-against-the-longest category. But the Armenians, the Southern Italians, the Basques, and even the mostly-blue-eyed Poles all have their own claims in that area — and that’s just restricting it to Europe!
MattF
McConnell sees the media as his mortal enemy, sees any Democrat as his mortal enemy. Unlike some, he’s learned not to make public threats, he doesn’t appear regularly on Fox– so there’s nothing for the media to report. But his views are not a secret, just not an issue.