New: McConnell responds to Republicans blaming him for border debacle
“I’ve had a small group of persistent critics the whole time I’ve been in this job. They had their shot … The reason we’ve been talking about the border is because they wanted to"https://t.co/VRG6ZtrAPe
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) February 7, 2024
To highlight a powerful statement from Adam’s Ukraine update, last Sunday:
McConnell broke the Senate in order to accumulate the power to achieve a very specific set of political objectives: 1) to cut taxes for the wealthy, 2) to remove as many regulations on the wealthy and on businesses as possible, 3) to remove as many campaign finance regulations as possible to ensure it was legal for the wealthy to shovel obscene amounts of money at him and his caucus members making them wealthy beyond their dreams, and 4) to pack the courts with Federalist Society apparatchiks who would both do through the judicial process what he could not accomplish legislatively and, perhaps more importantly, ensure that none of this could ever be reversed by Democratic presidents working with Democratic majority Congresses.
What McConnell did not foresee that in doing so he was hollowing out the Republican Party and the conservative movement – including the white traditionalist Catholic and white evangelical churches – that sustain it. The result of McConnell’s labors is that instead of one Republican Party and one conservative movement, we now have dozens. The one the Kochs fund, the one the Mercers fund, the one the Uhliens fund, the one Art Pope funds in NC, the one the DeVos/Prince clan funds, etc, etc, etc. In some cases these ultra-high net worth individuals just buy their own Republican officials. Peter Thiel owns JD Vance. A multi-millionaire in Miami created the political career of Marco Rubio. And it was into this hollow shell of a party and a movement that Donald Trump, ever looking for his next set of marks and preternaturally capable of identifying them, recognized that he could just waddle right in and execute a hostile takeover for pennies on the dollar. And, in fact, get others to provide the pennies for him to do so.
Now that McConnell wants something else from his caucus, as well as their counterparts in the House for his “legacy”… he’s not going to get it.
But never forget who the architect of the current moment is. Sure he had accomplices like Leonard Leo and Don McGahn and a host of others you’ve never heard of, but we are where we are because McConnell had four objectives and he was willing to and did break every rule, norm, and tradition to achieve them.
Could not happen to a more deserving elderly villain.
From the Politico story — “Behind the border mess: Open GOP rebellion against McConnell”:
… McConnell, now nearing his 82nd birthday, is determined to fund the Ukrainian war effort, a push his allies have depicted as legacy-defining. But now that his party is set on Wednesday to reject a bipartisan trade of tougher border policies for war funding, his far-right critics are speaking out more loudly: Several held a press conference Tuesday where they denounced his handling of the border talks, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) calling on McConnell to step down.
Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Mitch McConnell, the Lyin’ in WinterPost + Comments (98)