Bill Straub: McConnell doesn’t even have the good sense to be embarrassed by his uncouth behavior

WASHINGTON – After 35 years of stonewalling legislation and plotting like Iago to move up the congressional food chain, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has finally cited an accomplishment that just makes him bust his buttons.

During the political speaking portion of the annual St. Jerome Fancy Farm Picnic last week, the Louisville Republican made it clear to those assembled that one of his “proudest moments’’ came earlier this year “when I looked Barack Obama in the eye and I said, ‘Mr. President, you will not fill the Supreme Court vacancy.'”

Is it any wonder that a great and glorious man like Mitch McConnell should take pride in refusing to fulfill his rather obvious obligations to the republic, rudely failing to even consider or meet with a fully competent and well-qualified nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, Merrick Garland, the chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and act like an ass about the whole thing because the selection was made by a president who has outmaneuvered the great McConnell and made him look like a patsy at nearly every turn?

McConnell’s declaration recalls other momentous events that describe similar examples of pride talking. There was the time Mrs. O’Leary appeared before the Chicago City Council to declare how proud she was that her cow kicked over that lantern. And, of course, the memorable moment when Rick Pitino glowed with self-gratification for failing to defend the in-bounds pass in that 1992 Regional Final game against Duke, a decision that turned out oh so well.

Sorry about that last one, folks, but you get the picture.

What can now be stated flatly without fear of contradiction is that Sen. Addison Mitchell McConnell, R-KY, is a hack. In fact, he is a hack of the worst sort – the sort of hack who takes pleasure and pride in being a hack. In fact, in deference to all those good people who dutifully perform their daily tasks without complaint, boast or brag who are saddled with the last name Hack, the word used to describe a flunky should hereinafter be referred to as a mcconnell.

Think about it a moment – one of McConnell’s self-described “proudest moments’’ as a legislator comes from him acting in an uncouth, unprofessional manner regarding a nominee for the nation’s highest court. He doesn’t even have to good sense to be embarrassed.

Of course, McConnell may be reduced to claiming pride over the Garland affair simply because he has little else to show for 35 years in Washington. The tobacco and coal industries hit the skids under his watch – not his fault, it’s fair to say, but his promised revivals appear, shall we say, elusive. And can anyone cite a single major piece of legislation he managed to guide through the Senate? Is there a McConnell Law that anyone can cite?

The only thing McConnell really fought for during his early congressional career was a campaign finance system that has only gotten worse over the years, much to his delight. Otherwise his entire raison d’etre has been to obstruct other lawmakers’ legislative initiatives, which, of course, makes him perfectly suited to serve as leader of the Senate Republicans.

Examples of his hackery – mcconnellry if you prefer — are legion.

Concern over the spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which already has hit parts of Florida and Texas, are understandably growing. There is no medication or vaccine to prevent Zika, which can spread from a pregnant woman to her fetus, causing micocephaly, severe brain malformations, and other birth defects. In the worst adult cases, those suffering may contract Guillain-Barre syndrome.

The Obama administration desperately sought funding to address the spread through medical research, asking for $1.9 billion way back in February. McConnell and the Republicans bartered that request down to $1.1 billion, insisting that some of the money could come from other sources. The White House and Senate Democrats decided to go along.

Of course when this must-pass legislation finally hit the upper chamber floor it was far from clean. McConnell and the GOP loaded it down with poison pills – unrelated initiatives Democrats could not abide. In addition to the Zika funding, it sought to restrict Planned Parenthood from providing contraceptive services related to fighting the Zika virus, which can be transmitted sexually.

It also sought to cut $540 million in financing the Affordable Care Act and reallocated funds intended to fight another public health threat – the Ebola virus.

Democrats refused to consider the bill with the poison pills attached. No action was taken before the chamber’s summer recess and the administration is scrambling to come up with money to address the outbreak.

McConnell and the Senate could pass the bill yesterday if it was restricted to the $1.1 billion funding — as it should be. McConnell has refused to back off and cynically claimed the dispute was all the fault of Democrats.

“We have a public health crisis descending on our country,” McConnell said. “Pregnant women all across America are looking at this with dismay, utter dismay, as we sit here in a partisan gridlock manufactured by the other side.”

And what, pray tell, is he doing about it? The only manufacturing was done by McConnell and the Republicans, who knocked the request down from $1.9 billion and then tried to make hay while the sun shines by adding terrible and unnecessary amendments that simply couldn’t stand.

Obviously Democrats can’t trust McConnell – with good reason. Appointments to the Federal Communications Commission are usually done in tandem – Republican and Democratic nominees are approved simultaneously. In December 2014, before Republicans reclaimed the Senate majority, McConnell approached Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid about breaking with tradition and approving the GOP nominee, Mike O’Reilly, separately.

In a nod toward comity, Reid agreed, as long as McConnell committed to bringing up the Democratic nominee, Jessica Rosenworcel, when the chamber reconvened under Republican control in January 2015.

Almost 20 months later Reid and Rosenworcel are still waiting. Some members of the GOP caucus are apparently opposed to the nomination. Rosenworcel, already serving on the commission, is ineligible to continue after the end of the year without Senate action.

McConnell, Reid said, “broke his word to me.’’

“Because of the dysfunction in his caucus, it’s difficult — I’m told and as we see — for him to get things done,” Reid said. “But that’s no excuse for someone not keeping their word.”

And of course there now is McConnell’s infamous handling of the United Mine Workers of America Health and Retirement Funds, an effort that has drawn bipartisan support.

The union’s pension fund supports about 120,000 former miners and their families nationwide — including about 10,000 in Kentucky – who receive an average of $530 a month. The account balances are sinking quickly for several reasons – effects of the 2008 financial meltdown, a declining number of UMWA dues paying members and the bankruptcy of firms that support the funds, like Peabody Energy.

The bottom line is the program is underfunded by about $2 billion and it could run dry by spring.

Lawmakers, led by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV, developed a plan titled the Miners Protection Act. It would transfer excess funds from the Abandoned Land Mine Fund to the pension plan. Some retirees who face the loss of health benefits because their former employer went bankrupt would be permitted to join a different multi-employer health plan under the proposal. The package would not cost taxpayers a dime.

The only thing standing between the plan receiving the blessing of the upper chamber is that old, alleged best friend of coal, Addison Mitchell McConnell, who blocked efforts to include the measure in a must-pass spending bill last December and has refused to commit to considering it before the end of the year.

Several theories have been advanced about the source of McConnell’s opposition, the most frequent being the obvious – he detests the UMWA. The union supported his Democratic opponent, Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, to the tune of about $300,000 in 2014. The effort failed and McConnell is extracting his pound of flesh.

Regardless, it will be interesting to see how this scenario plays out. The UMWA political action committee, in a break with tradition, has opted to endorse a Republican, incumbent Sen. Rob Portman, R-OH, over his Democratic opponent, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland. Portman, a good guy in all ways and a hard worker, has never been considered pro-labor, although he supports the Manchin plan. Strickland heretofore has always been a union guy and, if elected, would support the bail out as well.

But McConnell wants to retain his majority leader’s post and backing Portman, thought to be in a tight race, could gain the UMWA some consideration.

So McConnell is showing his true colors. It’s actually not so much that he puts party before country. He puts himself before country.

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.