Image 01 Image 03

Mitch McConnell Tag

Oh this will help bring in the young voters! Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to introduce a bill to raise the smoking and vaping age to 21. We obviously need the government to look out for us because education alone hasn't taught us the harm that comes with smoking cigarettes.

Much focus the past week has been on the anti-Semitic accusations of dual and disloyalty from Democrat Representative Ilhan Omar, backed by the progressive wing of the party, particularly Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Democrats not only have been unable to deal with it, they connived to water down a planned resolution condemning the recent anti-Semitic outbursts of Omar. This Corbynization of the Democrat Party got all the attention, but but there was other news mostly under the media radar: Republicans in the Senate continued to confirm judicial nominees over Democrat protests, and the pace may pick up.

It looks like the Senate may introduce its own resolution to condemn anti-Semitism as the House of Representatives drafts its own resolution in response to the latest anti-Semitic remarks from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). The Washington Examiner reported that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell found the rise in anti-Semitism "disturbing" and has concerns about it.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) is not happy about Majority Leader McConnell's decision to bring the Green New Deal up for a vote. Markey co-authored the Green New Deal, which was introduced last week. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is the House sponsor of the "bill." Via his official Twitter account, Markey accused Republicans of "sabotaging" the "movement" he's working to build by rushing a vote on the legislation.

I'm so old, I remember when Republicans were ramming judicial nominations through the Senate, and Democrats were squealing like stuck pigs about it. Then came Jeff Flake's attempt to disrupt the process unless a bill were passed protecting Mueller, and then the congressional term ran out with Democrats refusing to carry over the nominations. That left 13 nominees for appeals courts and 60 nominees for District and other lower courts hung out to dry.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) finally decided to pick up the criminal justice reform bill, the FIRST STEP Act, that has the approval of President Donald Trump. From The Washington Examiner:
“At the request of the president and following improvements to the legislation that have been secured by several members, the Senate will take up the recently-revised criminal justice bill this month,” McConnell said in a Senate floor speech. “I intend to turn to the new text as early as the end of this week.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been harassed and confronted by anti-Trump and anti-Kavanaugh protesters, including outside a restaurant, at the airport, and on the street after a Georgetown University event. This fits a pattern of attempts to intimidate Republican lawmakers and figures at the urging of Democrats such as Maxine Waters.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been on a roll. Together Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, McConnell has sheparded through Democrat obstruction a total as of today of 84 Trump judicial nominees, including 15 last week in addition to Brett Kavanaugh. Included in that group are two Supreme Court justices, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, and 29 Courts of Appeals judges.

Fresh off his victory in confirming Brett Kavanaugh, Mitch McConnell forced stalling Democrats to agree to 15 more federal judicial confirmations in exchange for putting the Senate in recess so vulnerable Democrats could return home to campaign.

Mitch McConnell dropped a political nuclear bomb on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. In discussing Senate confirmation of Supreme Court nominees, McConnell discussed how he did not allow Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to go forward. He contrasted the Republican position with Democrats' attacks on Brett Kavanaugh by pointing out that Republicans didn't try to destroy Garland, they simply followed Senate tradition of not voting on a nominee in a presidential election year.

Hours after the death of Senator John McCain (R-AZ) was announced, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) proposed renaming the Russell Senate office building the McCain Building.  Soon-to-be former Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) quickly added his name to the proposal. The idea, however, has been met with push back from other Senators, including McCain's good friend Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and from the GOP base.  The idea is a bad one for a number of reasons, but if the goal was to unify the Senate GOP, it's working quite well.