Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, in what thus far has been a year of political discontent, seems to be picking up intra-party foes like a Dominican shortstop fielding groundballs.
Effortlessly.
There have been times during his 15-year tenure atop the GOP in the upper chamber that some dissent has emerged, like the time Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, called him a liar. But, for the most part, publicly at least, the Louisville lawmaker has managed to ride the ups and downs associated with the job like a champion surfer, maintaining strict control of the caucus along the way.
Not anymore.
Over the past year, McConnell has feuded with his supposed pal, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green, over a judicial appointment, and Sen. Rick Scott, R-FL, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, over strategy and finances heading into the Nov. 8 election.
It doesn’t end there. The Alaska Republican Party voted to censure McConnell this week for supporting the re-election of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK.
McConnell’s political action committee, the Senate Leadership Fund, recently spent $5 million on ads attacking another Republican in the race, Kelly Tshibaka, who carries the official endorsement of the state’s GOP organization.
For what it’s worth, Tshibaka, an acolyte of former President Donald J. Trump, has announced that, should her campaign succeed, she will not vote to give McConnell another two-year term as the chamber’s Republican leader. Murkowski, a moderate and McConnell ally, attracted the wrath of the state organization as a result of growing crossways with Trump, a circumstance McConnell obviously knows a little something about himself.
“The millions of dollars Mitch McConnell is spending on lies about me could be put to better use in other states where a Republican has a chance to beat a Democrat,” Tshibaka said Monday, according to The Washington Post. “And the Alaska Republican Party has just told him to butt out of our state.”
Alaska wasn’t the first place where McConnell’s own party censured him. In July, the Republican Party of Jessamine County – yes, that Jessamine County — cracked the whip after he endorsed the Safer Communities Act, a bipartisan measure that purports to address gun safety.
“Senator Mitch McConnell was the only Republican member of Kentucky’s congressional delegation to support this dangerous and unconstitutional gun control,” the resolution said. “There is no excuse for any elected Republican to work with Democrats to undermine our constitutional rights.”
Republican Party organizations in Boone and Hart counties followed suit, joining Jessamine in adopting censure resolutions in response to the gun safety measure. Boone County called for his resignation, Hart County “no longer recognizes Mitch McConnell as a Republican and ceases and separates this committee of any support of him…”
On top of all this, of course, is McConnell’s relationship with Trump, which, it’s fair to say, has seen better days. Trump, who has been attacking McConnell incessantly since Mitch scorched him over the Jan. 6 insurrection, recently opined that McConnell has “a death wish” after supporting a spending resolution to keep the government operating into December. Trump used the opportunity to take another racist stab at McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao.
Add to all that rumbling from within the party about the quality of some of this year’s Senate candidates and McConnell finds himself trying to stomp out a lot of fires with gasoline-soaked Nikes.
Meanwhile, an even more substantial problem might be brewing.
Republicans appear on the verge of taking control of the House. Sabato’s Crystal Ball, run out of the University of Virginia, announced on Thursday that it now rates 218 House seats — the magic number for winning a majority — as at least Leans Republican on the upcoming election.
If it holds, it means McConnell will likely be forced to deal with Rep. Kenneth McCarthy, R-CA, as the next speaker of the House. And there is no reason to believe that will end well.
McConnell, for all his negative attributes, is at least smart and few can match his experience. McCarthy, on the other hand, will never be mistaken for Stephen Hawking. And he called off a previous campaign to become speaker – the job went to Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin – because he couldn’t accumulate sufficient support.
McCarthy, to put it politely, is a Trump stooge. He can be counted on to do whatever the Master of Mar-a-Lago says, essentially transforming the former president of the United States into the speaker of the House in absentia.
It’s well established that McCarthy is not only willing but eager to prostrate himself in front of Trump to gain the Orange Ogre’s favor, acting like a little dog to gain a treat. He is, first and foremost, an election denier, still claiming that Trump actually won re-election, besting President Biden on 2020 despite all evidence to the contrary that showed him being outpolled by 7 million votes.
“President Trump won this election, so everyone who’s listening, do not be quiet. We cannot allow this to happen before our very eyes,” he once said on FOX News. McCarthy supported a Texas lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to intervene in the election and objected to the certification of Biden electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Anyone with that background is sure to run aground with McConnell at some point, whether McConnell is serving as leader of the Senate majority or minority. Trump has called for Mitch’s removal and will obviously pressure McCarthy to make our boy’s life hell.
It’s already started. McCarthy, in an interview with Punchbowl News earlier this month, indicated that a Republican House majority might seek to change the status of America’s support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
“I think people are going to be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine,” he said.
McConnell, on the other hand, is solidly behind Ukraine and is in no mood to call off the dogs. In fact, he’s seeking additional aid for the beleaguered nation.
“For our part, the United States Congress has funded and approved ongoing aid on an overwhelming bipartisan basis,” McConnell said in a press release. “It is not enough for the Biden Administration to slowly, eventually get around to providing it. It must be expedited. A Republican majority in the Senate will focus its oversight on ensuring timely delivery of needed weapons and greater allied assistance to Ukraine, rebuilding and modernizing our military capabilities, standing up to terrorist states like Iran, and shoring up our defenses in Asia to deter Chinese aggression.”
Potential disputes don’t end there. There are, for instance, any number of pitfalls involving the federal budget. In late September, the Senate, with McConnell’s blessing, passed a stop-gap spending package that will keep the federal government running through mid-December. McCarthy opposed the measure, as did almost every House Republican, hoping to force majority Democrats to accede to some of their budget demands. That issue will come up again after the election.
McConnell maintains a pretty good chance of re-achieving his ultimate goal – majority leader of the U.S. Senate. The problem is he thinks he’ll be seeing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy greeting him with open arms. It’s just a mirage. The orange figure will be one Donald J. Trump, and who knows what he intends to do with those open arms.