He’s generally been a pretty terrible leader in the Senate. For a long time he complained that they needed the majority to do anything… then he complained that they needed the presidency to do anything.
Now he’s got both, and he’s still incapable of doing basically anything that he campaigned on for the past decade. The tax reform was a fairly big deal, so he’s got that… but legistlatively I think that he’s found that when it comes to controlling the Senate, the wanting is better than the having.
The GOP has been shown to be largely ineffective when it has come to governance. Their main platform was that government doesn’t work, and their own leadership seems to have been built around confirming that belief.
My apologies on being wrong about being able to impeach senators - admittedly I’m not American. I recalled that judges can be impeached so I assumed that the same thing could happen to senators and members of congress.
Still with all of his violation of norms and other dubious things he’s done - McConnell could be deserving of a consideration of expulsion or at least a strong censure for what he’s done to the Senate.
What is really annoying is that the things he did while in opposition he has prevened the Democrats from even trying to do for the most part - one set of rules for Republicans and another set for Democrats…
I think Tin is right. As a matter of principal McConnell and the Congress should be all over this to ensure that Justice Department’s oversight of the executive branch is as independent as possible.
On practical basis I don’t know if matters at all, and the politics may not make sense.
I’m not even sure if there are 60 votes to pass the Senate, today, given the large number of Republican who seem to be comfortable with Trump’s Republican party. I’m almost positive that there aren’t 2/3 majorities to over ride a presidential veto in both houses.
I’m concerned what kind of signal it will send Trump if the measure doesn’t even get 60 votes to pass the Senate. I fear there is a very good chance it would embolden Trump to fire Mueller if the Senate can’t even get 60 votes to pass the legislation. In this case, the threat of Congressional action if Trump fires Mueller is likely to be a more effective deterrent than trying but failing to pass legislation to protect him.
Someone jokingly asked about a McConnell-Russia connection and there is one. It’s called the NRA. Tens of millions of dollars are funneled through the NRA from Russian oligarchs, straight to Senate and House GOP members. McConnell has been a Top 10 recipient from them for what seems like forever.
Every cent that came from Russians went to the GOP.
Jill Stein was basically a Russian agent and it makes sense that Bernie would get funded by Russia for obvious reasons, but has there been any proof of Bernie et al explicitly taking money from them?
Jeff Sessions of all people. Credit to the little weasel when credit is due:
In a news release, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the defendants’ actions were immoral and illegal.
“Today’s verdict is a significant victory against domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” he said.
It’s so depressing when you compare the appointments with the Obama personnel. Department of Energy really gets me. Two PHDs in physics, one who personally worked on the nitty gritty nuclear details of the Iran nuclear deal, to Rick Perry.
My comment elsewhere to Orrin Hatch’s “What if there were 10 babies?” was “…then the average level of decorum and respect in the chamber would increase, and the average amount of shit pouring out of those present would decrease.”
If they don’t want babies on the floor of the Senate because they whine and cry and poop their pants all the time, then how is Mitch McConnell still allowed to be there?
