McConnell’s Long Game
As JJ talked about on Saturday, Moscow Mitch voted along with 42 other Republicans to acquit Trump, which was expected. What wasn’t expected was that after the vote, he got up in front of national television and then excoriated Trump for his incitement of the crowd to insurrection and even said that he could be prosecuted by state and federal authorities. He also said that it was unconstitutional for the Senate to try him, since he’s already out of office. Never mind that history, precedent, and over 200 legal scholars disagreed, this was the tree he hid behind to excuse his immoral vote to acquit.
We also have to keep in mind that McConnell always plays the long game, always focused on his own position and power. He was never going to vote to convict because doing so would start a loud mutiny and he’d be ridden out of his minority leader spot in a nanosecond. Also, politics comes first; everything else comes second. Everything. McConnell’s strategy is to create a political dilemma for Biden. McConnell always had control of the process here. He now says it was unconstitutional to try Trump after he was out of office, but HE’S the one who refused to take the case before the election. He created the problem he says in unfixable. That’s classic McConnell. Second, he says that the criminal justice system should prosecute Trump – and guess who’s shoulders that falls on? None other than Biden, who has already nominated Merrick Garland as AG. The moment Garland would dare move against Trump, McConnell would rush to the microphone to decry “criminalizing politics” and “Biden “politicizing the DOJ,” which, by the way, Trump had already done.
It’s the long game. It’s always the long game.
Yep. Reknit the raveled Republican Party by giving all shades of opinion Democrats to hate.
I say to Biden: call his bluff. Indict trump. You have the country with you.
1So, Merrick Garland becomes AG, then shortly thereafter announces “Donald J. Trump is being indicted for inciting an insurrection. Thanks to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, this action has bipartisan support” or some such statement tying McTurtle to the indictment.
2I think you want to change acquit to convict in the second paragraph as McConnell did in fact vote to acquit.
3Mitch McConnell is, and always has been, about power. He’s a dishonest, devious, disgusting excuse for a human being. I suspect he’s a smarter version of Trump, no matter what he says.
4McConnell spent the past several weeks playing fast and loose with the Constitution. Yeah, I know. So what else is new?
Yes, he set up the situation he suddenly “found himself in.” And he doesn’t care that we all know exactly what he did since he did it right out here in front of God and everybody.
He also declared that convicting Trump after he was out of office was unconstitutional WHILE AT THE SAME TIME publicly toying with the idea of convicting him while taking the temperature of his caucus.
IOW, if his caucus had leaned toward conviction, he would have taken an action he had just declared unconstitutional. Wait, what?
iow – – – “So long as it is politically expedient, I will commit an act which I have just declared to be a crime.”
But, of course, we already knew he would do that if it suited him.
5I have a moot question. The Senate voted on whether they could try Donald Trump and it passed with a strong majority. To me McConnell is denying a legitimate Senate vote that the trial was constitutional. It’s like, “This is a dead parrot!”…”No it’s not. It’s just resting.”
6I expect Lindsey Graham would take the lead on screaming “political persecution” about any indictments of the Trump crime family. Moscow Mitch stays out of the spotlight – and does his dirty deeds behind the scenes.
7The dead and injured will never leave you alone or let you rest.They will be with you… always.
Headline: ’Hated by absolutely everyone’: Kentucky columnist delivers brutal take down of GOP’s Mitch McConnell
Edit: ”The history books will be clear about those who coddled and engendered Trump’s madness in the name of political power. And in the end, he made sure that Trump would face no penalty or justice for whipping up a storm.”
8It’s all about mitch maintaining his power in the senate, though diminished. His hypocritical words and actions were designed to give any repugnantican senator cover no matter how they voted, including himself. While it would be totally justified to indict, prosecute and punish Trumpf for what he did, for now, let the other legal matters overwhelm Trumpf including in Georgia and NY (and Scotland). His family will also be on trial in some of those cases.
9For now, hopefully Biden can move forward on his agenda, but expect mitch to try and obstruct as much as possible, starting with Covid legislation and the approval of Merrick Garland as AG. Vintage mcconnel.
Yeah, Jefe, mconul is nothing if not long game. He’s one of the most ruthlessly, cutthroat-effective Senate leaders ever IMHO. Knowing now that he’s the product of the leadership institute, everything he’s done about the impeachment makes total sense. One of the first things they probably pounded into his head is how much he could utilize them for strategy. Options. Endless contingencies that evolve constantly, updated hourly. He may very well be a villain who’s actually genius level worthy of how roger stone dresses. More probably, he’s an above average intelligence guy who’s willing to go down in history as the fighter willing to do ANYTHING to push their agenda, taking credit for it all.
10As it stands now, it’s win/win for repugnantcans, regarding trump in the Senate. If Garland goes after him, the outrage machine will kick in to block every. single. thing Democrats do.
If Garland doesn’t he’ll just “prove” the impeachment was craven political theater instead of actual justice and patriots need to VOTE REPUGNANTCAN!!!
And all that was probably something mconul probably read off his phone while scratching his ass waiting for breakfast one morning around Jan. 7th
OT, but all the state gop’s, the parties of cults, continue to censure repugnanticans that actually finally did the right thing. I repeat, finally for most of them. I hope in a year or so these censures become a badge of honor. Probably not.
11megasoid,
12’Hated by absolutely everyone’ yet he still gets elected. Is it the abysmal education (#44 or 45 or thereabouts) of KY?
All in the family ~ but not the FEC…
13Headline: Trump’s Campaign Gave MILLIONS To Organizers Of January 6th Rally
*****************************************
Edit: The former president’s son-in-law and White House advisor, Jared Kushner, reportedly helped create the limited-liability company and his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, reportedly sat on its board.
“We also have to keep in mind that McConnell always plays the long game, always focused on his own position and power.”
Agreed.
“McConnell’s strategy is to create a political dilemma for Biden.”
Also agreed, but there’s far more to McConnell‘s plan, as George Will points out in the Washington Post:
“Trump’s potential problems, legal and financial, might shrink his stature in the eyes of his still-mesmerized supporters. McConnell knows, however, that the heavy lifting involved in shrinking Trump’s influence must be done by politics.
“He has his eyes on the prize: 2022, perhaps the most crucial nonpresidential election year in U.S. history. It might determine whether the Republican Party can be a plausible participant in the healthy oscillations of a temperate two-party system.”
You might detest George Will almost as much as McConnell, but the man has a point. The longer that Trump remains a potent political factor, the riskier the 2022 midterm general election will be for the Republican federal candidates.
14lazrgrl, @13
Edit: Hours after a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s re-election campaign tweeted a photo of a mock cemetery. One of the tombstones reads “R.I.P. Amy McGrath, November 3, 2020.”
15To clarify from @10, the trump/Garland situation is just one thing mconul will use to block every. single. thing Democrats try to do. Being the Minority Leader isn’t much of a disadvantage to someone who has the resources mconul does to engineer new and improved methods of subverting Senate rules, and public opinion (in collision with the propaganda wing of the party, right wing media).
16I still think there were some shady goings-on around the vote in KY. Look at the statistics for Breathill County if you doubt me.
17How can he be called the Minority Leader while he is merely the follower of gelding45?
18McConnell, using the dodge of “it is not Constitutional” to impeach and convict a private citizen, ignores
191. the practice of the English parliament and several colonies
2. the obvious opinion of some of those at the Convention (Adams, thinking he could be indicted YEARS after his time in office),
3. at least a couple of precedents by previous Senates, who continued to try someone who resigned. 1 acquitted, 2 others who resigned mid-trial and the Senate or the House had to take formal action to end the trial
4. explicit guidance of the Supreme Court on other matters, saying the Senate got to set its rules for impeachment processes.
5. a majority vote of the Senate, setting the rule it WAS appropriate to have a trial of an impeached President after his term. [on this one, I’m wondering what other decisions, passed by a majority of the Senate, can be individually reversed.]
Wow! There goes Mitch again, screwing himself into the ground!
20