Mitch McCONnell Is Only As Infallible As Democrats Allow Him To Be

Mitch McCONnell has one goal--and only one--in life.  

It's not to serve the interests of the people of Kentucky.  It's not to serve the interests of the American people.  It's not even to serve the interests of the institution in which he has served as both the majority and the minority leader, the United States Senate, or his colleagues in that body, on either side of the aisle.  If, in fact, he cared at all about any of that, to even the tiniest degree, he would not have prostituted rhetoric and logic, as well as the traditions of the Senate, to ensure a Supreme Court majority that delivers everything for billionaires and precious little for the rest of us.  He would not routinely used the extra-constitutional filibuster rule, allegedly a tool to promote consensus, as a stumbling block to any legislation to improve the lives of those who cannot afford to write checks to him.  Most of all, he would not now be threatening to hold hostage the full faith and credit of the United States Government solely because the people who can afford to write those checks are offended by the idea that the voters elected a Democrat to the White House.

No, Mitch McCONnell is all about one thing.  And one thing only.  And that is proving, on a daily basis, without exception, the political infallibility of Mitch McCONnell.  And he is aided in this process by a Washington press corps that, neutered by (a) a combination of hectoring by cowards on the right about its allegedly "liberal" bias and (b) corporate ownership that has historically and currently kept its thumb on what gets published and broadcast, has been reduced to focusing on the ups and downs of parties and personalities, and not on its responsibilities to serve as a check on the powerful, the responsibilities that motivated the framers of the Constitution to protect them with the First Amendment's guarantee of press freedom.

The DC media doesn't care about how McCONnell's game-playing pollutes our air, impoverishes our children, discriminates against women and people of color, extends the power of a deadly pandemic, and allows the planet to routinely catch on fire.  Perhaps some of the reporters do, but the people who employ them care about money.  And, as long as promoting McCONnell's infallibility helps them to make money, they'll do so.  And that's fine with McCONnell, because, again, that's his only goal.

And, so far, it's worked out for him.  But could that be coming to an end?

The results of California's gubernatorial recall election, in which the voters endorsed keeping Democrat Gavin Newsom in office by nearly a 2-to-1 margin, suggest that possibility.

Newsom, in many respects, has been his own worst enemy as Governor, struggling to advance his priorities as well as to communicate with people, and struggling during the early days of the pandemic to lead, shooting himself in the foot by appearing maskless in public after endorsing the wearing of masks.  This gave his opponents the opening they needed to launch the recall effort, and, as recently as last month, polls suggested that they might succeed.

And then, a funny thing happened.  Newsom decided that it was time for Californians to stop talking about him, and start talking about Donald Trump.  He was aided in this process by the fact that, out of the 40-plus people running against him, the only one who attracted significant support was a right-wing talk show host named Larry Elder, who went out of his way to attach himself to Trump in campaigning to unseat Newsom.

It didn't work.

And that ought to concern McCONnell, who had a political bromance of convenience with Trump for four years, during which time Mr. Infallibility got to shower tax breaks on his donors and pack the federal court system with a record number of conservative sycophants.  He didn't care about whether any of this benefited Trump.  He only valued Trump for the suppleness displayed by the now thankfully former President in doing whatever McCONnell needed to do in order to demonstrate his infallibility.  

We now have tangible proof of the extent to which that was true, thanks to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.  In their latest book, "Peril," which completes a trilogy of books by Woodward and Costa about the Trump presidency, the authors found McCONnell to be quite chatty on the subject of his former partner in political crime.  More specifically, they quote him as saying that Trump was "a fading brand," and that there was no future in "[s]ucking up" to him.  Clearly, no matter how useful Trump was to McCONnell in the short run, he understands the unique toxicity that came with the usefulness, and wants to cut his losses.

But, as the linked article above shows, Trump isn't prepared to let him do that.  And, much more importantly, Trump's followers aren't prepared to let him do that.  And therein lies the challenge that may, at long last, define the limits of McCONnell's infallibility.

The minority leader of the Senate wants very much to once again become the majority leader, so that he can continue the project of court-packing and tax-cutting that profits both him and his corporate supporters.  And he needs the votes of Trump's supporters to reach that promised land.  But Trump's supporters aren't loyal to McCONnell, or his supporters.  They're loyal to Trump.  And they reject anyone who isn't as blindly loyal to Trump as they are.

And, when they hear what McCONnell had to say to Woodward and Costa about Trump, their worst suspicions about congressional Republicans are confirmed.  And that leads them to support Trump's efforts to primary McCONnell's preferred Senators and Senate candidates.  Which makes McCONnell's project of retaking the Senate a wee bit more problematic.  Which goes a long way toward explaining why McCONnell is prepared to hold a lighted match to the ability of our government to meet its obligations, the obligations that McCONnell and his cronies ran up to record levels in order to pay for the tax-cut goodies.

At this point, the only thing standing in the way of fiscal and national catastrophe is the Democratic Party, and its members in Congress.  Will they blink?

They shouldn't.  They should follow Newsom's example.  I'm not the only one that feels that way.  Example No. 1.  Example No. 2.  Example No. 3.  And, from a Republican, Example No. 4.

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post, linked about, gets the last word here.

Heed it, Democrats.  McCONnell isn't infallible.  Trump makes that impossible.  Stand strong, and stand up for all of us.