Mitch McConnell

GOP’s Embrace Of Trump And “The Big Lie” Makes Perfect Sense

May 22, 2021 By John DeProspo 6 Comments

Politics can be a dirty business. For many officials, the number one priority once elected is to be re-elected, not policy or doing what’s best for the people who voted them in. This especially holds true for today’s Republicans.

Following the January 6 insurrection, both Republican leaders, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, harshly condemned Donald Trump for his role in fomenting the violent attack on the Capitol. McConnell said Trump is “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day, no question about it.” McCarthy joined in the condemnation by saying “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”

What both McConnell and McCarthy soon discovered after their very honest assessment of the situation was that such candor did not sit well with a very important group… their voting base!

So they did what any politician would do whose number one goal is to remain in power … they pulled a huey.

The calculus for today’s Republicans is very simple … do you embrace the truth and loss the support of your base, thereby surely being kicked out of office or do you embrace Trump and “The Big Lie” and have a chance at remaining in power? If your goal is to remain in office, a chance beats no chance every day.

So enough of this Republicans are too cowardly to stand up to Trump nonsense. They’ve made a political choice that makes the most sense at the moment … the country, the Constitution and our democracy be damned.

With a riled-up base and voter suppression tactics on steroids, along with electoral history being on their side, Republicans believe they have a good chance of retaking the House in 2022, making Kevin McCarthy Speaker of the House.

It is pathetic, and sad, that today’s Republicans believe hitching their fortunes to a twice impeached, pathological liar gives them their best chance of remaining in power rather than repudiating him and trying to deprogram their cultish base… but that is the dirty business of politics.

In a way, Republicans have simply chosen the “the lesser of two evils” when it comes to their best chance of remaining in power.

Personally, I think they are going to be losers no matter what. Republicans are really in an impossible situation. Yet we know the truth eventually wins out. So, putting all political calculations aside, for my money, it is better to go down as a patriot rather than as a traitor. But that’s just me!

Photo | politico.com

Maybe What Democrats Need Is A Mitch McConnell?

February 14, 2021 By John DeProspo 6 Comments

I can’t stand the guy. Yet, I’m in awe of his genius … his evil genius. Machiavelli has nothing on old Mitch McConnell.

There he was yesterday accusing Donald Trump of being guilty as sin just moments after voting to acquit him of what Liz Cheney called the greatest “betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”

In a devastating takedown rivaling the closing arguments made by the House impeachment managers, McConnell tore into Trump for his “disgraceful dereliction of duty” saying, “There is no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.”

So how could McConnell not vote to convict Trump?

Here is where the evil mastermind’s cleverness comes in. Mitch voted to acquit Trump because he didn’t believe the Senate had the power to convict a president out of office. Of course, we all know that scenario came about only because McConnell refused to hold the Senate impeachment trial while Trump was still in office. Sheer brilliance!

McConnell knew that the only way his Republican colleagues could vote against convicting Trump was on technical grounds, no matter how phony, as the facts of the January 6 Capitol riot were never really in dispute. So, McConnell provided the cover … and 42 of his fellow Republican comrades, voting to give Trump a pass, wrapped themselves in the warm blanket of Mitch’s duplicity.

But McConnell’s speech after the Senate’s acquittal vote showed even more of his shrewdness.

It has been reported that McConnell wants Trump gone and out of the way. But he could not let his fellow Republicans do the job for fear of angering Trump’s loyal base.

“President Trump is still liable for everything he did while in office,” McConnell said. “He didn’t get away with anything yet. We have a criminal justice system in this country.”

There you have it. Let someone else (state attorneys general, the Justice Dept) do the dirty work!

While Trump might be the most corrupt president in U.S. history, can there be any doubt Mitch McConnell is among the more cunning, devious political leaders ever to hold public office?

Photo | AP Photo/Susan Walsh/dcist.com

Mitch McConnell – The Master Of Obstruction

February 2, 2020 By John DeProspo 4 Comments

In a perverse way, you’ve got to hand it to Old Mitch. He is the Leonardo Da Vinci of Gridlock. Has any other Senate Majority Leader done more to make sure nothing gets done?

McConnell’s skillful navigation of the choppy waters during Trump’s impeachment “trial” is just the latest coup for the man who proudly calls himself the” Grim Reaper.”

We should have known he’d be the High Priest of Hindrance the moment he announced that making Barack Obama a one-term president was his number one priority. Republicans were not going to cooperate with Obama’s legislative agenda, no way, no how. True to his word, it didn’t matter if Obama proposed ideas previously championed by Republicans, the President had to be stopped at every turn.

When it came to approving Obama’s nominees for federal judgeships, McConnell slowed the Senate confirmation process to a crawl. But it was Mitch’s blockade of Judge Merrick Garland from filling the Supreme Court seat vacated by Antonin Scalia that many are labeling his greatest moment of obstruction.

Mitch even boasted about it.

“One of my proudest moments was when I looked at Barack Obama in the eye and I said, ‘Mr. President, you will not fill this Supreme Court vacancy,’” McConnell said in 2016 to cheers at an annual Fancy Farm Picnic.

No other Leader of the Senate would even dream of attempting what Old Mitch pulled off. He’s a veritable Rembrandt of Resistance!

And now McConnell’s masterful blocking of witnesses during Trump’s impeachment “trial” may rival his Merrick Garland feat. It’s certainly as consequential, if not more.

Mitch McConnell, the five-term senator from Kentucky will no doubt go down in history as the greatest obstructionist leader of the Senate … and the man who may have singlehandedly killed the rule of law, the Constitution and American democracy.

Now that’s some legacy for the virtuoso stonewaller!

Photo | businessinsider.com

Mitch McConnell Ditches John Roberts In Favor Of New Presiding Judge

January 19, 2020 By John DeProspo 2 Comments

Reprint from moronmajority.com

In a last-minute move that surprised no one, Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, has relieved Chief Justice John Roberts of his role as presiding judge at the Trump impeachment trial in favor of Captain Kangaroo.

McConnell’s desperate maneuver has confirmed what many had feared … he has turned the solemn Congressional responsibility of conducting a fair impeachment trial into a Kangaroo court.

But in a totally unexpected turn that has stunned McConnell, Judge Kangaroo has stated that “a trial without witnesses or documents is a sham trial … a fake trial. My court will not countenance such a clear disregard of its legal and ethical obligations.”

So now, look for the Democrats to get their wish list of potential witnesses … John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney, Lev Parnas, Stormy Daniels, the two Michaels … Cohen and Moore and Chrissy Teigen.

Photo | cbs.com

McConnell Hates “Moscow Mitch” Nickname … Perhaps One Of These Would Be Preferable?

September 3, 2019 By John DeProspo 1 Comment

A few months ago, MSNBC’S Joe Scarborough came up with the nickname, “Moscow Mitch,” for the Senate Majority Leader’s refusal to take legislative action against continuing Russian election interference.

Scarborough said on his show, “How can Moscow Mitch so willingly turn a blind eye not only this year to what his Republican chairman of the Intel committee is saying, to what Robert Mueller is saying, what the FBI director is saying, to what the DNI (Director of National Intelligence) is saying, to what the CIA is saying, to what the United States military Intel community is saying.”

Mitch is not happy with his new, very Trumpian nickname.

He has said it’s an “over the top” effort to “smear” him.

“It’s modern-day McCarthyism,” McConnell said during a radio interview on the “Hugh Hewitt Show” when asked about the nickname he received after blocking Democrats’ efforts to pass bipartisan election security bills. “Unbelievable for a Cold Warrior like me who spent a career standing up to the Russians to be given a moniker like that.”

Fair enough, Mitch. How about one of these monikers?

“Traitorous Toady””
“Seditious Stooge”
“Mutinous Mitch”
“Deceitful Douche”
“Cravenness Creep”
“Corporate Comrade”
“Court-Packing Putz”
“Gun Lobby Lapdog”
“Power-Hungry Henchman”
“Worst Majority Leader Ever”

Considering all the other nicknames that could fit you so well, “Moscow Mitch” ain’t so bad, right … Yertle the Turtle?

Photo | slate.com

For Trump, And Republicans, Not All “Invasions” Are Of Equal Concern

August 8, 2019 By John DeProspo 2 Comments

The word “invasion” has been much bandied about lately. For Trump and his allies, it refers to the hordes of brown-skinned people seeking to illegally enter our country. For our intelligence community, it’s about Russia’s attack on our country’s 2016 presidential election, and its continuing efforts to do so in 2020.

The thing about all this “invasion” talk is that one is 100% real; the other is 100% made up.

Russia did attack our country in order to help elect Trump. The crisis along our southern border is not one of forced entry but one of desperate people fleeing for their lives hoping to find asylum and safety in the U.S.

But even if you buy the Republican talking point that we have an “invasion” of dangerous people along our Mexican border, it seems not all “invasions” are created equally.

For Trump and his Republican lackeys, the two “invasions” are being treated entirely differently. For one, you do all you can to build a wall; for the other, you graciously open the front door.

There is no doubt Russia attempted, and succeeded I would say, to get Donald Trump elected president. But Republicans in Congress are just peachy keen with all that … so much so that they are, in effect, welcoming a repeat performance in 2020.

Mitch McConnell, aka “Moscow Mitch,” who, as leader of the Senate, has the power to do something about preventing a second assault on our elections, is refusing to even bring up bipartisan election security bills.

Heck, Donald Trump has had the chutzpah to publicly state he would welcome foreign interference in our next presidential election!

So where have Trump and his Republican handmaidens focused their “invasion” efforts? On the real or the fake?

Yep, they’ve been focused on building a costly, and useless, wall along our southern border; on throwing destitute asylum seekers into cages; on discouraging other migrants, desperate enough to make the 2000-mile journey from Central America to the U.S., by separating families at the border.

Yes we have an “invasion” problem in our country. But it’s not coming from our Mexican border. It’s coming 5000 miles away from the land of Putin.

Photo | salon.com

For Republicans, It’s “Just Win, Baby!”

July 27, 2019 By John DeProspo 2 Comments

It’s no secret Republicans play dirty when it comes to elections. They’re smart enough to know it’s the only way they can win and hold on to the power they so desperately crave.

Literally within hours of the Supreme Court striking down key provisions of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act, several Republican-controlled states passed voter suppression laws. As soon as Republicans got the chance to do so, they gerrymandered districts guaranteeing minority votes (which tend to tilt Democratic) would be diluted.

And now, just a few days after Robert Mueller testified Russians manipulated our 2016 elections and “they’re doing it as I sit here … and they expect to do it during the next campaign,” Mitch McConnell blocks election security bills from coming to a vote.

McConnell’s reasoning didn’t even try to hide his corrupt motive. Said McConnell, Democrats are trying to give themselves a “political benefit.”

Wow, now securing open and fair elections, free of foreign interference, is a partisan issue?

But the old “Grim Reaper” is absolutely right … secure and open elections would elect more Democrats.

House Democrats need to start formal impeachment hearings without delay! No, not against Trump (although that is also necessary) but against the openly traitorous, democracy-hating leader of the Senate, “Moscow Mitch.”

Photo | Eric Thayer/ Reuters

Sorry Michelle But That Whole “When They Go Low We Go High” Thing Is A Recipe For Losers

October 7, 2018 By John DeProspo 2 Comments

For a clear snapshot of what is wrong with the Democratic Party, all one had to do was watch this Thursday’s press conference given by Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein after the FBI issued its Kavanaugh report.

For those who missed it, click this link.

After what many labeled a sham and a whitewash of an investigative report, all the soft-spoken and staid Feinstein (85) could muster was to call the report “a product of an incomplete investigation.”

The milksop and mealy-mouthed Schumer added, “ We had many fears that this was a very limited process that would constrain the FBI from getting the facts … those fears have been realized.”

They left the press conference without taking questions.

At a time when the two senior Democratic leaders should have been blowing a gasket, we saw measured restraint. When they needed to do what Lindsey Graham did during the Senate confirmation hearing (give an impassioned screed), we got polite criticism.

Yes, the Republicans had the votes no matter what histrionics the couple could have engaged in. But that is not the point. At a critical moment in our history, the Democrats lacked passion and failed to show the rightful indignation the situation called for.

The future of the Democratic Party looks dim with leaders like Schumer and Feinstein.

In a tweet later in the week, the 78-year-old House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi added: “Today is a profoundly heart-breaking day.”

How profoundly inadequate, Nancy!

Democrats need to learn to fight fire with fire. Going into a battle holding a knife while the other side has a gun is not only dangerous but also stupid.

What will it take for Democrats to learn?

No, Michelle, “going high when they go low” is not a way to defeat a ruthless opponent.

Yes, your advice might get you brownie points in the afterlife, but it will do nothing to stop the evil in this human realm.

Photo | gq.com

Don’t Expect A Divorce Anytime Soon

August 23, 2018 By John DeProspo 2 Comments

Even with testimony, under oath, by Trump’s former personal lawyer, that Donald Trump directed him to engage in a crime, Congressional Republicans are standing by their man. Like the proverbial good Christian spouse who takes the marriage vow seriously, there is no scenario, no malfeasance, which will cause the breakup of the family.

For Mitch and his coterie, they made their bed and they will sleep in it. Like good sailors, they are prepared to go down with the ship.

In a way, you have to admire such unflinching loyalty.

Photo | latimes.com

Democrats Don’t Understand The “McConnell Rule”

June 28, 2018 By John DeProspo 4 Comments

Now that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has announced his retirement, Democrats are insisting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell abide by the same rationale he used to thwart President Obama from naming his own replacement to the Court in 2016. Namely, the Senate will not consider a Supreme Court nominee during an election year.

This unprecedented move by the Senate leader has come to be known as the “McConnell Rule.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has called on McConnell to play by his own rule now that a vacancy will soon be taking place on the high court because of Kennedy’s departure. After all, 2018 is also an election year.

To do otherwise, said Schumer, would be the “height of hypocrisy.”

What Schumer and the rest of his fellow Democrats don’t understand is that there is only one true McConnell rule. It’s called, “I win, you lose.” McConnell has proven time and again he will do whatever it takes to win.

Democrats think they can shame McConnell into doing the right thing? They believe they can convince the evil genius to play fairly?

Without wasting a moment after Kennedy’s announcement, McConnell declared, “The Senate stands ready to fulfill its constitutional role by offering advice and consent on President Trump’s nominee to fill this vacancy. We will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy’s successor this fall.”

Good luck Chuck!

Dems just don’t get it. They are dealing with pure ruthlessness. Trying to use the “fair play” card with McConnell is as useless as pushing water uphill with a rake.

The best Democrats can hope for is that enough moderate Republicans block any extreme right-wing jurist Donald Trump is sure to nominate.

If history is any guide, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

As the front page of the NY Daily News aptly stated, “We’re F*#%’D.”

Barack Obama was right … “Elections have consequences.”

Photo | gazette.com