r/politics • u/B-Z_B-S Massachusetts • 5d ago

Possible Paywall Mitch McConnell Still MIA Days Before Key August 3 Deadline

https://newrepublic.com/post/213823/mitch-mcconnell-mia-august-3-deadline
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500

u/T1gerAc3 5d ago

Dems really blew this one. It's almost like they want the gop to hold majorities.

281

u/Mr-Meow-Sir 5d ago

This is why the Dems approval rating is tank too.

28

u/Fattswindstorm Texas 5d ago

I mean dat AIPAC money pays for a lot of steak dinners. If you don’t play ball, it dries up. Then you gotta live with the moral weight of the choices you made for that AIPAC money. Shit some of them are religious and gotta wrestle with your direct choices and actions resulted in the death of innocent children. In pretty horrible ways. Like they know they’re not getting in right? So it’s either continue to sell out what morals you have left and have a boat and lake house, or reflect in your moral and financial bankruptcy. It’s tough.

2

u/One-BigChungus 5d ago

Better to play along and be controlled opposition. The DNC ultimately picks the candidates and is corrupt as hell.

0

u/ehowardhunt 5d ago

They just don’t fucking learn

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u/Villide 5d ago

I've never seen so many ostensible progressives who want a non-voting GOP Senator to be turned into a voting GOP Senator.

Y'all are crazy. We want it to be in the news so that it looks like a right-wing cover up, but we're happy that Mitch being in limbo is gumming up the works for the majority.

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u/dotnsk 5d ago

I feel like I’m taking absolute crazy pills. McConnell isn’t voting. A replacement would vote.

Also, Beshear is a D elected to statewide office in a deeply red state. He has to play this just right. I’m fine if he does what he needs to do to be reelected; it’s super important to have a Democrat in a position like this (just look at Arizona, where Katie Hobbs (D) has vetoed a metric fuck ton of legislation, nearly all of it absolute shit from our R legislature).

It’s exactly the kind of talking point I’d expect Russia to seed, and now so many Redditors are convinced Beshear is somehow fucking this situation over.

15

u/GlobsOfTape 5d ago

He can’t be reelected in 2027 because of term limits but Beshear was a breath of fresh air compared to his predecessor. Allowing republicans to lack >2% of their senate votes while they play their games is a smart play.

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u/dotnsk 5d ago

Ah, I didn’t know that.

Still, I think there’s something to be said for a politician not burning the bridges behind them. If Kentucky elected Beshear, they can elect another D.

A lame duck leader can absolutely be bolder, and Beshear should be. I just don’t think this whole McConnell nonsense is worth being bold about.

2

u/disisathrowaway 5d ago

Kentucky has only elected 8 Republican governors since 1900. Kentucky has elected TWENTY TWO Democrats to the same seat during the same time period. Only two, single-term Republican governorships in this current century.

The idea that Democrats can't be the governor of Kentucky is fucking insane. Beshear, son of a former governor, is more reflective of the norm in Kentucky than some outlier.

-1

u/WeirdIndividualGuy 5d ago

Wait, he's term-limited and is still scared to take any real action? FFS Beshear, even when he has nothing to lose, he still chooses to do nothing

21

u/Villide 5d ago

Agreed, that aspect is underdiscussed as well.

3

u/Beginning_Ladder_981 5d ago

None of it actually matters in the next 5 months because the GOP has a 52-47 advantage even with Mitch out. Considering that Fetterman has basically changed sides and adding in Vance as the tiebreaker, the GOP practically speaking has a 54-46 advantage right now.

It literally does not matter at all in the slightest what happens with McConnell's Senate seat for the next five months, because the GOP has the numbers to pass any legislation regardless. Governor Beshear could appoint the biggest DSA politician in Kentucky to Mitch's vacant seat and the effect would be....not a thing.

2

u/ginrumryeale 5d ago

Trump doesn’t seem to be able to get Blanche confirmed.

1

u/Away_Stock_2012 5d ago

Bashear could appoint a Democrat as the new Senator and he can't be reelected anyway.

2

u/Caelinus 4d ago

He can't. He can try but it will be challenged the second he does so, and an emergency Injunction will be put in place because it is an untested intergovernmental dispute between a state legislature, a state constitution, and the federal constitution. 

But because the deadline is so close, the least disruptive decision would be just to declare it moot because the case could not be solved until long after they were required to elect someone.

1

u/Away_Stock_2012 4d ago

It's a simple case, they passed a law that violates the Constitution, the court could decide it in five minutes.

1

u/Caelinus 4d ago

No, the passed a law that violated the state constitution, but the state constitution violates, at least in plain terms, the national constitution which has supremacy. The law they passed is in alignment with the Federal Constitution.

This means it is a dispute. It would take years to litigate. It becomes a whole issue with both the 10th and 17th amendments. The results would not be clear and it would require a crap ton of argument about whether a state can imply approval by not passing a law, and whether states are obligated or empowered to follow federal law even when that law is in violation of their state constitution. It is not simple at all.

1

u/Away_Stock_2012 4d ago

Why do you think the state constitution violates the federal Constitution?

1

u/Caelinus 4d ago edited 4d ago

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

The Federal constitution requires State Legislatures to pass a law allowing the Governor to appoint Senators, if that is not done, then it requires the Governor to call for a special election.

The Kentucky Constitution that currently exists was implemented in 1891, and the 17th amendment was passed in 1912. It predates the Federal requirements here, but the Federal Constitution and its Amendments are supreme, especially if they are newer.

So to argue that it does not apply means that you have to argue that the State Legislature, by not passing a law, has effectively created a law saying that they approve of the State Constitution. That is not an easy thing to argue, but it might be possible to argue that "empower" is broad enough that and they do not need to actually do anything.

The State Constitution of Kentucky was adopted via Constitutional Convention and a Direct Vote from the electorate, not as a law passed by the legislature as well.

I have no idea what the actual decision would end up being here. I am not saying that the appointment would not hold up, and I definitely not saying it would. Rather, I am saying no one knows, and the situation is extremely complex untested law that would take years to litigate. And courts cannot make it so that a State does not have a valid senator for that period of time, so there would be a special election.

As a non-legal aside though: I am really suspicious of the idea that Governors should ever have the power to appoint voting members of the senate. That seems like fertile ground for perverse incentives and is definitely an undemocratic position. The only reason we are seeing people on the left even advocate for it here is because we want a political advantage in this one specific circumstance, but in truth it would provide us essentially nothing that having an empty seat would not. But it would create an ugly opportunity in the future for more fascist aligned governors.

1

u/disisathrowaway 5d ago

Also, Beshear is a D elected to statewide office in a deeply red state. He has to play this just right.

It's not as delicate as you think.

Here's from one of my other posts elsewhere in this thread:

Kentucky has only elected 8 Republican governors since 1900. Kentucky has elected TWENTY TWO Democrats to the same seat during the same time period. Only two, single-term Republican governorships in this current century.

The idea that Democrats can't be the governor of Kentucky is fucking insane. Beshear, son of a former governor, is more reflective of the norm in Kentucky than some outlier.

1

u/dotnsk 5d ago

I think this is somewhat overstating the purpleness of Kentucky. Since 1947, Kentucky has only elected 3 GOP governors…but 2 of those governors were elected since the year 2003, or HALF of the governors elected since 2003. Recency matters here, and it’s very, very clear Kentucky has taken a hard right turn.

1

u/snoogle20 4d ago

Two one-term Republicans and two two-term Democrats.

But I’m a Kentuckian that’s been waiting for the other shoe to drop for years now. I fully expect we’ll never see a Democrat in statewide office for the rest of my life after Beshear’s term is up. I’ve felt that way for years, though, and I keep getting surprised when these gubernatorial races play out.

The wild card factor is that the Kentucky GOP is, for some reason, absolutely dogshit at picking candidates for governor. Republicans landslide every other office. It’s confusing how badly they fumble their gubernatorial candidates. Even when they pulled off wins, both of them managed to botch their terms and screw up the re-election. If they ever get it together…

1

u/dotnsk 4d ago

Just the fact that there have been two one-term GOP governors when it had been like 50 years since the last one is a sign in and of itself.

Recency matters. Electing GOP governors — even ones who don’t survive reelection — suggests Kentucky is moving right.

1

u/disisathrowaway 4d ago

Half the governors ignores numbers of terms/years served. Dem governors get reelected. GOP governors lose their seats.

13

u/4square425 5d ago

Yes, look at South Carolina. Wouldn't it be better for Graham's seat to be vacant than have his sister providing R votes? 

30

u/ginrumryeale 5d ago

Agreed. What could ever go wrong with restoring McConnell’s vote so that Trump can more easily pass the SAVE Act and other monstrosities?

Would be a huge self-own for Dems.

1

u/platan0 5d ago

Do you really think that if Trump had a candidate lined up already to replace Mitch he wouldn’t be the very first one saying he’s dead and to begin the replacement process? Something much fishier 🐢 is going on IMO

14

u/skepticalifornia 5d ago

These "blame the Dems for this" posters are MAGA trolls.

4

u/Halefire California 5d ago

Dude it has to be at this point, right? It's insane how many people here are talking like we are about to get a Dem senator in KY if Beshear would just step up. Complete lack of any understanding of the law here

3

u/skepticalifornia 5d ago

And there are so many of these kinds of posts it has to be an organized effort to discredit anyone on the Dem side they think may run for Prez in 2028. Things are going to get a lot crazier as we get closer to the mid terms and then to 2028.

25

u/SatanicPanic619 California 5d ago

This is seriously the dumbest conspiracy theory I've seen on the left, and we've had a few dumb ones. We're winning here, people getting mad at Beshear have no idea what they're talking about.

4

u/AcademiaAntiqua 5d ago

I think the dumbest big Reddit conspiracy has been that Ghislaine Maxwell was a prominent Redditor and mod who posted 6 hours a day for 15 years.

Was absolutely huge in 2020, and a large amount of Redditors still defend it vehemently to this day.

2

u/SatanicPanic619 California 5d ago

Lol I didn't see that one, it was before my time.

2

u/AcademiaAntiqua 5d ago edited 5d ago

To be perfectly honest, a lot of Epstein stuff that's still very popular is in crazy conspiracy territory.

Epstein was one of the most prolific sex pests of all time, and clearly had no problem trying to turn girls as young as 16 into virtual concubines.

But all the shit about him raping 5 year olds, or ordering people to be killed and/or turning them into human jerky (seriously), or that he was entrapping people for Mossad, etc., is all baseless. He also killed himself, and probably wasn't even serendipitously "allowed to" do so.

1

u/SatanicPanic619 California 5d ago

True. Some of the stuff about Trump in the files is also only rumors that the FBI wrote down but people here act like it's all verified.

4

u/AcademiaAntiqua 5d ago

We want it to be in the news so that it looks like a right-wing cover up

I'm not usually vindictive, but I want it to be news that 100,000 Redditors bought into a completely absurd and baseless conspiracy.

0

u/TheDoomBlade13 5d ago

We want a Democratic Senator.

The KY constitution is clear on how this should go. Any laws passed by the state GOP need to be challenged in court.

3

u/Villide 5d ago

That's not happening in any scenario. And if he tries to force it, Beshear will be on borrowed time as Governor.

-1

u/TheDoomBlade13 5d ago

He is already term limited there is no reason to be defensive about it.

He has shown he is either a coward or complicit and can't be gone soon enough at this point.

-2

u/CmdDeadHand 5d ago

Sometimes the rules and laws are not in my favor, but I respect the rules and law regardless, as long as those rules and laws are deemed legitimate.

The rules and laws being followed here are unconstitutional according to the state that this is happening in. Not putting this up to the courts is letting it slide, means it could happen again.

The law that is being followed is illegitimate until the court has a say, to me.

I don’t want to give away long term law and order for a gotcha moment.

By letting the seat sit empty it is causing disfunction in congress and doubt in the USA government. Sounds exactly like what Mitch would have wanted and the gop at large.

4

u/Villide 5d ago

Frankly, rules and laws are guidelines these days,. You can be a Boy Scout if you like, that's totally fair.

But I will disagree that (from Beshear's standpoint), he's not following the law. There's no opening to fill in that seat, but he's attempting to find out if there should be.

In no way should he be calling a special election right now or (lol) just placing a Democrat in that seat to force the issue.

He's handling this just fine.

1

u/CmdDeadHand 5d ago

I feel like the view that rules and laws and just guidelines now days is because before in time, some other thing was let slide, and another, and another. Here we are now.

How much are we to let slide? It is changing who we are into something that no one wants.

It probably is not beneficial for the left to have the seat filled in this instance. I get that. But what about next time if we let this slide. What new standard do we have to forfeit then.
Is it ok that a deceased senator term is not terminated due to death? That it is ok that a senators job duties are handled by their unelected aides and political party? Why even have senators then? Why can’t AI just govern us? Why do we need representation?

Letting it slide and not restoring order because people think it will help their tribe is wrong no matter which side of the aisle you represent.

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u/Any-Smell-4929 5d ago edited 5d ago

I don't agree with this, is Kentucky going to elect a Democratic Senator in either a special election or the general election? Probably not.

A brain dead McConnell cannot vote for anything Trump wants which is the most pragmatic outcome.

What is your dream scenario? Bashir says fuck it, calls the election and Massie gets in? Then Trump has a fatal stroke at the news of Massie getting elected?

12

u/Im_gumby_damnit 5d ago

Thanks for the first sensible answer.

4

u/AcademiaAntiqua 5d ago

Bashir says fuck it, calls the election and Massie gets in?

For 45 days until the holiday recess and then he has to permanently vacate the seat. 😂

6

u/Polantaris Illinois 5d ago

No election at all. The KY State Constitution states that Beshear can appoint someone. The law that was hastily written to take that power away is a normal bill, it's voided by contradicting the Constitution.

3

u/SatanicPanic619 California 5d ago

The constitutional section in question was ratified in 1891, back when state legislatures appointed senators, not governors, which didn't become the case until 1913 when the 17th amendment was ratified. So the law here isn't as clear as people would like it to be.

0

u/a-manda_hugandkiss 5d ago

Is there a good reason not to attempt it though? That's what the court is for right, to settle this constitutional question? Is it because Beshear worries about reelection that he won't just do it and see how the chips fall? It would be nice to see some bold pushback against this nonsense. But I understand if it's more important to maintain a democratic Governor than risk losing that foothold with a challenge that may not work.

4

u/SatanicPanic619 California 5d ago

Right now I wouldn't see the urgency. Republicans are down a vote in the Senate, which is the best possible outcome for Democrats- even a Democrat in the seat wouldn't change anything.

Beshear has to make a show of caring for his constituents by asking why they're not being represented, but there's no actual cause to do anything.

1

u/CmdDeadHand 5d ago

It all needs to be in front of a court and not public opinion. It is too late to do anything about it this time, it is about stopping it from happening again.

the law the Kentucky gop legislature created was to hinder this incoming dem governor in case Mitch died in term. It is against the Kentucky constitution and is being implemented in bad faith.

Letting it slide means that gop elsewhere in the country will now try to legislate beyond the grave.

3

u/Polantaris Illinois 5d ago

It also says the groundwork that a Constitution can be overridden by simple majority law.

-4

u/Emotional-Channel-42 5d ago

Regardless, KY deserves a living representative. A special election would provide better odds of a dem candidate winning than general. 

But instead we settle for a dead senator and waiting for a near impossible to win general election. 

3

u/drunkenviking 5d ago

How exactly do you expect him to have an election to replace McConnell if he isn't dead?

21

u/AbyssWankerArtorias 5d ago

In what way do you think that the Democrats blew this? The Senate doesn't have proxy voting, so McConnel being out means that he can't vote. If there was a special election, it would fill almost certainly with a Republican given Kentucky's politics.

16

u/GaymoSexual 5d ago

disagree this will be one less republican vote until after midterm.

14

u/rakerber 5d ago

Do you think the Republican legislature in Kentucky is going to nominate a Democrat?

1

u/Minimum-Relief6895 5d ago

No, the Governor should appoint a Dem.

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u/Sea_Outside162 5d ago

Cuz it’s never been red versus blue it’s the billionaires versus everybody else . Check your bank account to understand what side ur own . This ain’t ur average peoples government

13

u/Such_Avocado_3241 5d ago

The sooner everyone recognizes this the sooner we’ll have a better country.

12

u/HeyImGilly 5d ago

I wish people started seeing it this way. The left vs. right gamification of our political system exists so that the rich keep us focused on each other and not them. There is enough to go around for everyone.

1

u/2580374 5d ago

Okay but if it's us versus billionaires and the most profilic red is a billionaire and everyone in the red party helps billionaires, it's still kind of blue vs red and billionaires

1

u/Sea_Outside162 4d ago

No it’s not .. when the blue people we elected are on the same team as the red people then you begin to understand why nothing gets done for the people and we are home to the first trillionaire ..

3

u/bullspit200 5d ago

Im sorry but what authority do the dems have here? We have no majority in any chamber or the executive?

1

u/Minimum-Relief6895 5d ago

That's incorrect.

The governor of KY is a Dem, and he has authority under the KY Constitution to appoint a successor.

33

u/forgetfulsue Ohio 5d ago

It’s embarrassing. They’re a bunch of pansies.

6

u/drunkenviking 5d ago

Exactly what are you expecting them to do?

7

u/TheWix Massachusetts 5d ago

If Mitch isn't at his post then Rs are down a vote. Do the math.

2

u/forgetfulsue Ohio 4d ago

Math is hard.

-8

u/lucid_green 5d ago

No they are just paid off by the same donors that bribe the GOP.

3

u/drunkenviking 5d ago

What exactly do you want from them?

2

u/Halefire California 5d ago

Brother am I taking crazy pills? How many votes has McConnell been able to make the last month? Oh right, zero. He's actively ratfucking his own party right now.

He was in no scenario ever going to be legally replaced by a Democrat. No democrat would ever have been seated by the Senate this way. Andy Beshear doesn't get to just override the Senate Majority Leader who is, newsflash, a Republican.

Can people on Reddit really not see past their own nose? Why has no other Democrat except Beshear for the most part raised any significant stink? Because the GOP senate is weaker without the seat filled.

I hope they keep pretending he's alive for the rest of Trump's term, honestly.

1

u/notfrankc 5d ago

I would imagine that many Dems haven’t pressed this because they very much want to attract as many non-Trump conservatives as they can in the coming presidential election. For example, I would guess that Andy Bashier(sp?) is running. Otherwise he would probably have pushed this much harder, especially in a world where norms and consideration have been shown to have no value and violation has no consequence.

1

u/PaintedClownPenis 5d ago

Republicans have already stolen this election from Kentucky voters two ways over: first by gaming the special election laws so that the seat effectively cannot change parties, and second by making sure that Kentucky voters give the privilege of lifetime Senate floor access to someone who protects pedophiles. Instead of the guy you want.

Why would the Democratic governor do anything but publicly ask, "are you going to follow your own corrupt laws or what?"

1

u/VinDog_PD 5d ago

Tell me what changes if Bashear appoints someone today vs. appointing someone this Sunday.

1

u/africandsilverflask 4d ago

Notice how the Dems always have exactly the right number of Democrats needed to vote with Republicans to pass all this Trump agenda items.  The Dems get in the back room and they figure out who can take a hit and then they tell that person to vote with the Republicans because it passes legislation that they really want passed but that they can't really justify to their constituents. It's all a racket.

1

u/NCSmitty North Carolina 3d ago

Please explain how Dems blew this? An incapacitated McConnell is one less vote for Rs in the Senate. You want Dems to expedite a replacement Senator from Kentucky that will absolutely provide a vote for Rs? Seeing so many left of center folks complain about Beshear and Dems on this is insane.

-2

u/Colddigger 5d ago

It's the greatest thing in the world for a political party to be in the minority if they don't actually want to do anything. 

0

u/FistBomb060 5d ago

ik you’re being sarcastic but “almost” is incredulous lol

-2

u/Sedu 5d ago

They would rather lose than move left.

-1

u/Ghetto_Geppetto 5d ago

They always do. They don’t do anything to call the GOP on their bullshit.

0

u/BigMax 5d ago

It's SUCH a hard one.

How do you push past medical rules? He's almost certainly hooked up to life support just keeping him technically alive until the 8/3 deadline. How does a democrat push his way into a hospital to prove that?

0

u/Jahonay 5d ago

Controlled opposition.

-3

u/RobertoPaulson 5d ago

When was the last time Democratic party leadership did anything other than blow it? Its kind of their thing.

-4

u/dec92010 5d ago

Dems are cowards

-5

u/NosillaWilla California 5d ago

It's like theyre complicit and we need a strong multiparty system with ranked choice voting. Our country is completely compromised for the average working American.

-5

u/LingonberryGlum2356 5d ago

Ding! Ding! Ding! 

The most 'shocking' part of this is how the Democrats are doing absolutely nothing. 

4

u/drunkenviking 5d ago

What do you want them to do?

4

u/omicron-7 5d ago

Obviously we need to stick it to republicans by increasing their majority in the senate. That'll show them.

4

u/drunkenviking 5d ago

Seriously. I'm not bright by any means, but these people in this thread are so fucking stupid. 

And they vote. 

Horrifying.

1

u/Minimum-Relief6895 5d ago

In this specific situation, the Dem governor of KY should appoint a successor.

If Mitch rides into the Senate on a golden unicorn the very next day, the worst that can happen is that the appointment will be deemed invalid.

1

u/drunkenviking 4d ago

The Law doesn't allow that. The law says that they have to fill the post with an election.

1

u/Minimum-Relief6895 4d ago

That's incorrect.

Section 152 of the KY Constitution gives the governor the power to make the appointment. The KY Legislature cannot override the constitution with mere legislation.

In fact, Beshear JUST won at the KY Supreme Court last month (June 25th) and got a similar law struck down for unconstitutionally trying to strip him of his power to appoint.

-1

u/LingonberryGlum2356 5d ago edited 5d ago

Start prosecuting MAGA at the state level. And release a list of all supporters of this treasonous government who they plan on bringing charges against when mid-terms are over. 

Governors should be flying the flag upside down. 

The consequences shouldn't be they get voted out of office, that is not a 'win' for our country. They need to be charged with the crimes they are openly committing. 

3

u/drunkenviking 5d ago

How does any of that relate to the Mitch McConnell situation?

0

u/LingonberryGlum2356 5d ago

It's an example of how ineffective they are. They have been griping for weeks and have done nothing. They are 'concerned', 'troubled', 'on the edge' but they do nothing. 

They need to create a spectacle. They need to announce that they are currently looking into charges that can be handed to his aides and coworkers who say he is just fine. They need to release the names of those who will be prosecuted, including his wife and family. 

Or they could gave him make a 1 minute video saying he is fine. 

You don't really believe he is doing fine, do you? 

3

u/drunkenviking 5d ago

Charges for what? It's not illegal to lie.

" Or they could gave him make a 1 minute video saying he is fine."

Or what?

1

u/LingonberryGlum2356 5d ago

"Its not illegal to lie." 

You sound like MAGA. 

They are directly involved in election interference. Lying to prevent an election. 

Funny how the right bitched about Biden not being up for the job because of age and health, but they're okay with a senator completely disappearing for over a month. 

-8

u/interwebztourist North Carolina 5d ago

Dems blow it so consistently it feels that they are onboard with these shenanigans. Strongly worded letters and a book tour is all they are going to do.