WASHINGTON – Pity poor Mitch McConnell.
No, really.
The Republican National Convention gets underway in Cleveland next week and McConnell, the Senate Republican leader from Louisville, is one of the “happy few,’’ as Shakespeare put it, willing to address the sea of white faces that constitute his party.
McConnell’s task is not an enviable one. He is beholden to convince the revelers, and those viewing the proceedings from home, that they should place their faith in a man, one Donald J. Trump, that he fully understands is not worthy of serving as president of the United States of America.
At various times over the past few weeks, McConnell has sheepishly acknowledged that Trump, who has proved to be everything from a bigot to a bully to a misogynist, stopping at numerous destinations in between, “doesn’t know a lot about the issues.’’ He topped that assessment later by acknowledging on a New York cable television show that the Manhattan businessman isn’t a “credible’’ candidate, although he added – desperately — that he is inching toward becoming one.
“So my hope is that he is beginning to pivot and become what I would call a more serious and credible candidate for the highest office in the land,” McConnell told Geoff Bennett of NY1/Time Warner Cable News.
Yes, and Honey Boo Boo is pivoting to become a more serious and credible candidate to head the theoretical physics department at MIT.
Word is that the Trump team experienced difficulties filling the speakers’ roster at the Cleveland convention, with dozens of Republican lawmakers like Sen. Jeff Flake, of Arizona, and Ben Sasse, of Nebraska, deciding they needed to stay home to worm their dogs rather than appear at the coronation of the most unqualified presidential candidate in the nation’s 240-year history.
But Mitch will be there, mouthing platitudes about an individual he must realize could do great harm to the country he is sworn to protect and defend, somehow secure in the knowledge that when push comes to shove he, Addison Mitchell McConnell of Louisville, KY, will somehow prove capable of stopping the train from falling off the rails.
To McConnell, the upcoming election is all about Republicans retaining control of the Senate, thus reauthorizing him to serve as leader of the upper chamber for another two years, a job he has coveted from time immemorial. By actions alone, one can tell that McConnell doesn’t just want the job – he needs it. And if that means pulling a malevolent, know-nothing of a buffoon across the finish line, rewarding him with the world’s highest office, then that’s the dirty chore that must be done.
McConnell is not the world’s most dynamic speaker and the dubious task of defending the indefensible nomination of Donald Trump is unlikely to result in riveting viewing, leading the television networks, no doubt, to forage for an interview with whatever sort of B-list celebrity who might wish to attend the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on a summer’s night. The pickings are liable to be slim.
But best guess is McConnell will give an obligatory nod toward the man who would be president but he will spend most of his allotted time pleading with GOP voters to faithfully head to the November polls to keep the Senate Republican, no doubt emphasizing that the chamber will have a say in determining the successor to the late Justice Antonin Scalia whether Trump takes the Oval Office or not.
McConnell realizes that a doomsday for Trump at the polls, with Republicans and sympathetic independents either opting to stay home or, heavens to Murgatroyd, vote for the infidel, Democrat Hillary Clinton, could cost him the majority. Republicans currently hold 54 seats in the 100-member chamber and must now defend 24 of the 34 seats up for grabs. A five-member swing – and several GOP lawmakers find themselves vulnerable – would place Mitch on the outside looking in. An avalanche that buries Trump could very well cover Senate Republicans as well.
Anyone of those incidents should, in polite society, disqualify an individual from aspiring to become president of the U.S. But there’s Donald J. Trump, with a puncher’s chance at the job, and there’s Addison Mitchell McConnell, propping him up like a scarecrow.
But he may be swimming upstream. Trump is almost certain to win Kentucky, which may mean very little – President Obama, a Democrat, received a paltry 41.1 percent of the Bluegrass vote in 2008 and just 37.8 percent in 2012 but that didn’t stop him from moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Regardless, from those totals it’s reasonable to surmise that Kentucky will back Trump with overwhelming force in 2016. But a Cofounder Pulse Poll conducted July 5 to July 7, shows Trump with only a meager five-point lead. A survey conducted from June 18 through June 21 by PPP, admittedly a Democratic firm, actually gave Clinton a three-point advantage.
Which launches the question: If Trump can’t build up an overwhelming edge in Kentucky, how’s he going to bring them out to the polls elsewhere? And how might this affect the GOP advantage in the Senate?
Through all this there exists a legitimate question Mitch McConnell should be called on to answer: Is placing party over country, installing an egomaniacal boob in the White House in hopes of maintaining a Senate majority, a philosophically defensible position?
McConnell, as previously noted, acknowledges that Trump doesn’t know a political issue from a handsaw, that he has uttered disturbingly racist comments about a judge presiding over a civil lawsuit he’s embroiled in, rendered embarrassing and bigoted comments about Muslims and Mexicans and generally acted like the drunken ex-boyfriend at a wedding reception taking a swing at the groom.
Anyone of those incidents should, in polite society, disqualify an individual from aspiring to become president of the U.S. But there’s Donald J. Trump, with a puncher’s chance at the job, and there’s Addison Mitchell McConnell, propping him up like a scarecrow.
To all this, McConnell basically responds that Trump might want to consider toning down the racist rhetoric and dogmatically stick to a script provided by his more level-headed handlers to enhance his chances. In other words, to the Senate Republican leaders, what the GOP presidential candidate says publicly is infinitely more important then what he really believes in what passes for his heart.
To McConnell, Trump’s racist rants constitute “unfortunate public utterances.’’ He has failed, or refused, to come to grips with the possibility that the candidate he is plugging for president might just be rendering such utterances because he is, well, a racist.
Apparently Mitch McConnell can live with that.
Washington correspondent Bill Straub served 11 years as the Frankfort Bureau chief for The Kentucky Post. He also is the former White House/political correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service. A member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, he currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and writes frequently about the federal government and politics. Email him at williamgstraub@gmail.com.
Several months ago I opined that McConnell and other Republican power brokers and donors would never allow Trump to be nominated. Time is running out on that one and McConnell has chosen to put his Majority Leader job above everything else. How sad. I still think however, that there is a very good chance the Senate will flip and his influence will be washed away with the November tides.
It was Newt Gingrich that started the Party-over-Country movement. Mitch has just taken the idea and run with it. I still don’t understand how he keeps getting re-elected to office.