McConnell stepping down from post in November but not quitting the Senate
McConnell is 82 years old and a great many people on the right think he should have done this a long time ago. But here’s the announcement:
“One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” he said in his floor speech. “So I stand before you today… to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.”
The dramatic decision, which will set up a leadership election in the GOP conference with several likely candidates, comes as Republicans have expressed increasing discontent with McConnell’s handling of the bipartisan border bill and national security supplemental package that included aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
I would have thought it was long past time to move on. At any rate, he’s doing so now. McConnell is the longest-serving party leader the Senate has ever had.
Apparently he is planning to stay as one of Kentucky’s senators to serve out his term, which expires January of 2027.
I’m not going to recap my views on McConnell; here are my many posts about him, although I will mention that he did a good job holding the line on SCOTUS. My questions at this point are: (a) who will replace him?; and (b) will it be as majority or minority leader?
I don’t know the answers. But the idea that change is afoot may energize more voters on the right to vote for Republicans for the Senate. So many conservative have been fed up with the GOP in the Senate for a long time.
Those losers put up with him.
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Some revised rules all four party caucuses might adopt.
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1. The positions of Speaker of the House and President pro tem of the Senate are removed from the Presidential Succession Law, and like other officers of the chamber, are selected from outside the chamber’s membership and expected to be impartial.
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2. No person may serve as an officer of the chamber, as a floor leader, as a whip, as a committee chairman, or as a ranking minority member of a committee if they have passed their 80th birthday or will do so during the coming Congress.
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3. If you’ve held one of the foregoing positions for 11 of the last 12 years or will hit that wall during the coming Congress, you must stand down: Speaker of the House, President pro tem of the Senate, some other officer of the chamber (e.g. parliamentarian or doorkeeper), floor leader, whip, or member of a particular committee not serving ex officio.
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4. All officers of the chamber will be elected by the whole membership. “None-of-the-Above” will always be an option in such balloting. A candidate who loses to ‘None-of-the-Above’ cannot compete in future ballots undertaken for said office during a given Congress. Elections with more than two options will be conducted by ranked-choice voting.
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5. Within a caucus, the floor leader, the whip, the principal on the Budget Committee, and the principal on the Appropriations Committee will be elected by the caucus in a confidential ballot conducted in a like manner to that for the officers of the chamber. Again, all four offices would be subject to the rotation-in-office rule delineated above. Note, the rotation-in-office rule so stated does not distinguish between your years in the minority and your years in the majority. Both count toward the numerical limit. The floor leaders shall be, respectively, the chairman and ranking minority member of the Rules Committee; the whips shall each receive a seat on that committee ex officio.
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6. With each caucus, open committee seats are distributed by lottery. Returning members have a franchise to retain their seats unless they are afoul of the rotation-in-office rule and unless the number with a franchise to retain their seats exceeds the number of available slots at the beginning of a given Congress.
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7. The ratio of the majority members to minority members on each committee should be approximately the same for all committees. The total membership on each committee should be an odd number and should vary little from committee to committee.
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8. All members of the House are guaranteed two committee seats, all in the Senate four committee seats. A pool of extra seats will be distributed among the majority caucus so that it might have a majority on all committees. The number of extra seats distributed will be the minimum necessary to accomplish this. Cadging an extra seat will be common in the majority caucus of the Senate, odd in the House.
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9. No one may be stripped of a committee seat bar by a vote of the majority of elected members in their own caucus (in a confidential ballot) or by the votes of at least 243 members in the whole chamber (in a public roll call vote).
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10. In order to distribute the positions of chairman and ranking minority member of committees other than Budget, Appropriations, and Rules, each member of Congress who is not yet 80 years of age, who will not reach the age of 80 during the coming Congress, and who is not under a specific disciplinary interdict will be asked to submit a preference card rank ordering his choices among the committees of which he is a member (with’ none-of-the-above’ as an option as well). In each caucus, the cards are ordered according to seniority. The most senior member gets his 1st choice, the next most senior gets his 1st choice unless it is already taken (in which case he gets his 2d choice) and so on.
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11. Posit that if one serves in a given Congress from beginning to end, one receives 730 days of seniority, 29 February not counting. If one enters after 3 January or leaves before 3 January, one is docked. If one is elected to Congress de novo (or returned to Congress after an absence) in November and sworn in before 3 January, one acquires no more seniority than someone sworn in on 3 January, unless in the span of days in question there was a successful quorum call of the outgoing Congress, in which case the member in question is granted for those days he was a member between this quorum call and final adjournment. Posit also that an appointed Senator not be granted seniority during the interval between the recess of Congress pending an election and the following 3 January unless he is a member of the Senate at the time of a successful lame-duck quorum call). Posit also that seniority accumulates over the whole of one’s life and is not lost if one leaves Congress for a period of years.
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12. In the Senate and the House, the Ethics Committee will be replaced by ad hoc committees selected by lot, 3 or 4 from the majority caucus, 2 or 3 from the minority caucus. In the Senate, certain appointments requiring confirmation hearings will receive them not from the standing committee with jurisdiction but from an ad hoc committee selected by lot. These would be: the ordinary run of federal judges, U.S. Attorneys, ambassadors, and the ordinary run of flag rank military. These aside, confirmation hearings would be deemed required only for (1) presidential appointments outside the executive branch, (2) cabinet secretaries, (3) inspectors-general, (4) subdepartmental line bureau chiefs, (5) assistant secretaries and undersecretaries in the chain of command between the bureau chiefs and the department secretary, and (6) bureau chiefs, boards, and commissions among the independent agencies.
McConnell’s continued longevity is proof positive that the GOPe is still in control. So it shall be a case of; “new boss same as the old boss”.
Which by the way is clearly the situation in the House. Speaker Johnson’s refusal to put forward single issue bills demonstrates a reluctance to make full use of the leverage that the power of the purse provides.
Now after meeting with Biden… he announced that the House will not allow the government to shut down, so in a showdown with Biden over funding for Ukraine being contingent upon closing the border… he blinked. Demonstrating that in the House as in the Senate, its business as usual.
Story head at Ace’s place
“Senate Sources Tell Sean Davis: Mitch McConnell Isn’t Really Stepping Down. There’s a Revolt Brewing and He’ll Likely Be Removed from Leadership, So He’s Saying He’s “Stepping Down” To Stop the Vote to Remove Him.”
I’d like to think that was true. Mr. Johnson is certainly an improvement on all Republican speakers post Gingrich, so maybe the Senate Republican caucus can pull it off – install someone who is not a corporate bagman, full stop.
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While we’re at it, does anyone know just when fundraising was added to the floor leader’s portfolio of functions? Seems arbitrary.
West Virginia is a likely pick-up for the Republicans. Ohio and Montana are also possible. Some of the other Democrats are weak as well. That would give Republicans control of the Senate.
So far there aren’t any likely Democrat pick-ups, but with ballot harvesting who knows? Tester and Brown have built up big war chests, as have other Democrat incumbents, and that will have a big effect.
I would like to see someone younger, more dynamic, less a part of the DC swamp, but people like that don’t usually get elected to Senate leadership positions. Probably Thune or Barasso will just move up to the top job.
Yes, good thoughts, Geoffrey – my thoughts too.
Chased Eagle says “There’s a Revolt Brewing….” Pushing McConnell out? Which implies there is a leader in waiting.
Could it be Utah Sen. Mike Lee?
The Daily Mail has an opinion of who’s going to replace R Senate leader McCONNELL. And it’s none of mine:
—There are three Johns – John Thune, John Barrasso and John Cornyn – that would likely take over from McConnell
—A source familiar says Senator Tom Cotton will run for Senate leadership
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13138085/mitch-mcconnell-steps-republican-senator-replace.html
John Thune is 62 and has spent nearly his entire adult work life employed in political jobs of one sort or another. He’s Trent Lott all over again. John Cornyn (age 71) was last employed in the private sector around age 33. One thing I like about the Republican Party is that its office-holders are usually people who’ve had an occupational life outside of politics and its voters are those who resist the gleichschaltung. Who do we get as legislative floor-leaders? Precise analogues to the schmucks thrown up by the Democratic Party of Crime.
Re budget negotiations (emphasis mine):
McConnell has made advancing GOP priorities… nearly impossible by siding once again with his Democratic counterpart Chuck Schumer and President Joe Biden. If the government does shut down, it will be because McConnell has, at almost every turn, sown discord and disunity throughout the GOP by undermining Republican priorities. In the past six months, the Senate GOP leader’s own conference has rebuffed his commands, particularly when it comes to government spending and Ukraine aid. From this position of weakness, McConnell repeatedly doubled down and dangled campaign funding from Senate leadership over the heads of GOP senators like the sword of Damocles.
Ultimately, the weakness lies with a critical mass of Kentucky voters. Shame on them.