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Mitch McConnell’s Bucket of Suck

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It’s worse than most people think. If the Freedom Caucus hadn’t stood in the way of triggering the three-bucket health care solution rightly tagged as “RINOcare,” and it had passed, we’d be on Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) “long game” train that would never reach its destination.

Many people have talked about the “third bucket” of the Republican’s health care plan as one that was particularly enticing. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) explained on “Face the Nation” that the third bucket was the “sucker’s bucket.” He said that everything in the third bucket was put there because there would be a need to have eight Democrats to vote for it, according to the way the Senate is run. Cruz said that phase three was never going to happen because, “You can’t get eight Senate Democrats to agree on saying good morning.”

Jim Geraghty at National Review also questioned phase three, noting that it would be quite a difficult road to get eight Democratic Senate seats to flip in 2018. He wrote, “Nuking the filibuster appears to be off the table, at least for now. So what’s the roadmap to get to 60 votes? And if there is no viable path to get 60 votes … how do the ideas in ‘Phase Three’ ever get enacted?”

So, why would “nuking the filibuster” be off the table in the first place?

I wrote a piece on Mitch McConnell’s recent memoir, “The Long Game” a while back, and I noted that the book is peppered from beginning to end of McConnell’s love for winning elections. It’s what keeps him going, and I recall him saying something like, “The best way to become a great senator, is to remain one.” He is very proud of the elections he, “wasn’t supposed to” win. But he also said plenty about how he believes in the Senate as an institution which must survive for our own good. It is because he believes in the institution over everything else and that he loves winning elections that we had a phase three.

The way the AHCA was set up, looking back, has McConnell’s fingerprints all over it for two reasons. One, the sucker’s bucket, as Cruz aptly termed it, promised all the goodies conservatives wanted yet took eight Democrats to enact. “Impossible!” said nearly everyone. But if you look at it from McConnell’s point of view, it makes sense. He will not change Senate procedure in his “precious institution” where he has sat for 32 years.

The second reason this reeks of McConnell-esque machinations is because a phase that can be put off for campaign purposes — as in spending all of 2018 campaigning on replacement that would take a filibuster-proof Senate when there will be 23 Democrats coming up for reelection — is a chance, as several sources have said, that Republicans can gain seats.

I’m sure we all remember leadership’s mantras in 2011, that they were only half of a third in 2013, that they needed the Senate in 2015, that they needed the White House in 2016, and now, apparently, Mitch McConnell is saying because of Senate rules he needs a filibuster proof majority in the elections of 2018. In every one of these arguments, the leadership continued to claim they would repeal, “if,” the people continued to elect more and more Republicans.

This is precisely why he recently said the following:

It’s pretty obvious we were not able in the House to pass a replacement … Our Democratic friends ought to be pretty happy about that because we have the existing law in place and I think we’re just going to have to see how that works out … We believe it will not work out well, but we’ll see. They have an opportunity now to have the status quo go forward, regretfully.

In other words, McConnell was able to cast blame on the House for a promise in the Senate that he had no intention of honoring UNLESS we elected a filibuster-proof Senate. Even then the law would still not be repealed.

It’s my guess McConnell is probably a little upset that all eyes aren’t on him in the Senate, which they would have been had the House passed RINOcare. He would have been able to command attention for the next two years, promising once again to do what he said he would do — once the voters gave him even more of a majority of course.

In reality, he’s the keeper of his precious institution that under his management is guaranteeing Obamacare will remain. (For more from the author of “Mitch McConnell’s Bucket of Suck” please click HERE)

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Mitch McConnell FINALLY Served a Purpose for GOP/Conservatives

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First, let me this out of the way straight away — this is not a joke.

I swear it.

I have to begin with that caveat because those of you who regularly listen to my show, or read my column, would likely believe I was engaging in grade A trolling had I not. Or you might suspect I’ve gone mad as a hatter. For what I’m about to say undeniably goes against my default setting where the senior senator from the commonwealth of Kentucky is concerned.

Yes, that would be Mitch McConnell R-Ky. (F, 40%). Or “Ditch” as I once coined him long ago for being the chief playwright of what became known as “failure theater.” The man whose relationship with conservatives has been, well, complicated, to be kind. But today is no time to dwell on the past. Today is a time for giving credit where credit is due.

So here it is, Mitch McConnell, and again, I mean this in all seriousness: thank you. (Editor’s note: we disagree. McConnell is a snake and, although he’ll occasionally throw us a bone, is absolutely unredeemable. You can bet your last dollar that anything McConnell does that is “conservative” either was already going to happen or helps advance his own crony-capitalist interests; he is despicable, largely responsible for the disastrous state our nation is in)

It was you who stood in the breach after President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to replace Antonin Scalia following his death last February. That left nearly a year before a new president would be sworn in. In fact, Garland’s name ultimately was entered into nomination for more than twice as long as any Supreme Court nominee that came before him.

“Obstruction,” the Democrats cried. And they continue to do so now as they prepare to torpedo President Trump’s nomination of Neil Gorsuch to replace Scalia.

But when the real obstruction has been decades upon decades of judicial usurpations of the legislative process, McConnell sat down at the high stakes poker table and played a stone-cold hand. He bet he would get just the jackpot he needed when that river card was flipped. A “Trump card” if you will.

So now here we are, with a chance to at least hold the line on the Supreme Court, and perhaps even set the stage for a return to something resembling the jurisprudence of our Founding Fathers. And now if you’re one of those applauding the Gorsuch appointment, you owe McConnell a doth of the cap as well.

That’s not to say McConnell and conservatives are suddenly bosom buddies. There’s still a lot of water under that bridge. Still, the importance of what the Senate Majority Leader did here cannot be understated, and had he not done it the possibility exists the ideological balance of the nation’s highest court could’ve been generationally impacted.

Ronald Reagan once famously had a plaque with the following words inscribed on it in the oval office: “It’s amazing what you can do when you don’t care who gets the credit for it.” In that spirit, if Ted Cruz, R-Texas (A, 97%) and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. (F, 30%) can stand shoulder-to-shoulder on MSNBC when they share common ground, we can thank McConnell for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with us here.

This time DC did listen to us, and we should acknowledge when that happens at least as much as we do when it doesn’t. Here’s to hoping this is the start of a trend.

Thanks again, Mitch. (For more from the author of “Mitch McConnell FINALLY Served a Purpose for GOP/Conservatives” please click HERE)

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McConnell Is Going to Hate This Latest Trump Hire

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Donald Trump just put a lump of coal in Mitch McConnell’s, R-Kentucky (F, 40%) Christmas stocking.

McConnell and Trump have been playing nice since the election. Will Trump’s selection of Jason Miller as White House director of communications fray that relationship? Miller was a certified thorn in McConnell’s side and helped to run the unsuccessful GOP primary campaign of then businessman Matt Bevin against McConnell in 2014. Ouch.

It’s not just Bevin that Miller has been involved with. He was also a senior advisor to the presidential campaign of Ted Cruz, R-Texas (A, 97%), McConnell’s least favorite senator. According to his biography on the Jamestown Associates website, Miller “served as Senior Communications Advisor on the presidential campaign of Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, overseeing the Communications Department and creating more than two dozen television and radio ads as part of the campaign’s advertising team.”

Miller has also worked with other anti-establishment conservatives including South Carolina representative Mark Sanford, R-S.C. (A, 90%).

Miller, and Jamestown’s work against Establishment Republican incumbents, got them blacklisted by both McConnell, and the House Republican’s campaign arm. To say McConnell held a grudge is an understatement. Here is how the Daily Caller described the blacklisting.

The damage done to the Republican ad firm Jamestown Associates as punishment for working for the controversial outside group Senate Conservatives Fund could be even more substantial than first thought. It was originally reported that the National Republican Senatorial Committee would blacklist the company. But that might be just the beginning.

Aside from the NRSC, Jamestown has, in the past, been awarded contracts to create independent expenditure ads for groups like the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the Chamber of Commerce.

McConnell’s grudge against Jamestown is so complete that he even targeted Ben Sasse, R-Kansas (A, 94%), during the now senator’s primary in 2014. Why? Because he had the temerity to use Jamestown associates. Here’s how Erick Erickson described it.

Ben Sasse, the conservative candidate in Nebraska on the most recent cover of National Review and who has the backing of the Senate Conservatives Fund, RedState, and others, suddenly finds Mitch McConnell and the NRSC holding fundraisers for his opponent. Sasse, it should be noted, is widely considered a brainiac opponent of Obamacare and healthcare policy expert.And just yesterday, the National Republican Congressional Committee blackballed Jamestown Associates from helping elect Republicans. The NRCC is joining the NRSC in attacking Jamestown. Why? Because Jamestown Associates has been working with conservative candidates the House and Senate GOP leadership opposes.

It is fair to say that Miller, and the company he is a partner in, are some of Mitch McConnell’s least favorite people. In fact that may be an understatement.

With Trump’s choice of Miller to run his White House communications team, he has not only chosen someone unafraid to fight against the “Washington Cartel,” but also defied McConnell’s blacklist. For conservatives, this is a very welcome Christmas present. (For more from the author of “McConnell Is Going to Hate This Latest Trump Hire” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

McConnell to Lead Senate GOP, Schumer New Democratic Leader

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Senate Republicans re-elected Mitch McConnell on Wednesday to be majority leader next year while Democrats picked Chuck Schumer to lead them, setting the chief actors as the chamber prepares for an agenda that will be dominated by Donald Trump and the GOP.

McConnell, 74, is a discreet but deadly master of the Senate’s legislative chess game. His role will be to steer GOP bills to the desk of a president whose name he barely spoke during a tumultuous campaign in which many Republicans viewed Trump and his incendiary comments on Muslims, veterans and others as political poison.

“It’s time to accept the results of the election, to lower the tone and to see what we can do together to make progress for the country,” McConnell, from Kentucky, told reporters Wednesday.

As Senate minority leader, Schumer will assume his weakened party’s most powerful remaining post as it struggles to define its role in a Republican-dominated government. (Read more from “McConnell to Lead Senate GOP, Schumer New Democratic Leader” HERE)

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In New Spending Bill, McConnell Sides With Liberals, Ignores Conservative Priorities

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After voting to proceed to a bill that didn’t exist earlier this week, the Senate has finally produced text of the continuing resolution, a short-term government spending bill.

The bill, written behind closed doors by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, was brought to the floor late Thursday afternoon, and for the majority of Senate Republicans, represented their first opportunity to see the text. According to McConnell, senators will have four days (two of them on a weekend) to review the bill before having to cast their votes next week.

As far as conservative priorities go, the bill is a failure. Among its many obvious flaws, it funds the government through Dec. 9—setting up a lame-duck session of Congress.

In the lame-duck session, which occurs after the election but before new lawmakers are sworn in, unaccountable legislators are likely to pass a bevy of backroom deals, to the detriment of representative democracy (and, we can assume, to the wallets of the taxpayer).

Even though it only funds the government for a scant 69 days, the McConnell continuing resolution manages to do it at the bloated Boehner-Obama spending levels that were jammed down the throats of conservatives in 2015.

In doing so, the continuing resolution sets up yet another spending cliff that will spawn a false panic in the lame-duck session, and lay the groundwork for more “must-pass” terrible deals. In other words, in December, lawmakers will once more have to pass yet another spending bill in order to ensure the government continues normal operations.

Worse still, this continuing resolution fundamentally grows government. The bill includes $500 million for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to address flooding in Louisiana—despite the $12 billion the agency already has.

Furthermore, it grants President Barack Obama vast new hiring authority, so he can bring in a bunch of bureaucrats to burrow into federal agencies right before he leaves office.

The most troubling elements of the McConnell continuing resolution, however, come down to policy. Conservative priorities are abandoned—or outright ignored—while liberal policies are given priority.

Conservatives in the House and Senate have long been focused on delaying the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) transition—the deal that will pass governance of the internet from the United States to a “multi-stakeholder community” that includes authoritarian countries like Russia, China, and Iran.

Despite a multitude of congressional hearings and engagement from key Senate Republicans, McConnell chose not to address the ICANN transition—and in doing so, will allow it to proceed as scheduled on Oct. 1.

Perhaps the biggest slap in the face to conservatives, however, is the bill’s treatment of emergency funding to address the Zika virus. Whether or not Planned Parenthood—America’s largest abortion provider—would receive access to the Zika funding was a key sticking point in negotiations of the continuing resolution, with Democrats insisting that Planned Parenthood be able to access Zika funding, and conservatives in the House and Senate demanding that they be barred from doing so.

In his final bill, McConnell chose to side with the Democrats over conservatives. Not only does this bill lack a prohibition on funding for Planned Parenthood, it actually creates the opportunity for Planned Parenthood to get a raise.

Yes, you read that right. Under the funding bill written by the Senate majority leader, Planned Parenthood can get a raise.

How? According to analysis by The Heritage Foundation’s Roger Severino, Planned Parenthood already receives over $500 million in taxpayer money every year (legally, this money must be spent on family planning services other than abortion).

In the McConnell continuing resolution, Planned Parenthood gets its normal half a billion dollars in taxpayer funding. However, because the continuing resolution also gives it access to Zika funds, Planned Parenthood can receive even more money.

This state of play was confirmed earlier this week in press reports of Democrats publicly gloating over their win. With McConnell’s office silent on the state of negotiations, the Democrat leader in waiting, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told Congressional Quarterly that the “Zika issue has been resolved” because GOP negotiators were “dropping all their riders.”

This short-term continuing resolution contains nothing for conservatives to be happy about. It hands Democrats victories while ignoring conservative priorities and growing government.

The fact that Senate leadership would put this type of bill forward now—before they have to face the voters in November—should raise serious concerns about what they intend to try and pass in the lame-duck session, when even fewer people will be watching. (For more from the author of “In New Spending Bill, McConnell Sides With Liberals, Ignores Conservative Priorities” HERE)

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McConnell’s Feckless ‘Leadership’ May Cost the GOP the Senate

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This week, Senate Republicans are preparing to wrap up their work and head back on the campaign trail — a full two weeks before they were scheduled to leave. Since returning from a seven-week August recess, the Senate has put in a grand total of three weeks of work. Now, Republicans plan to bust out of Washington to protect their Senate majority.

In their wake, they leave a year of pandering to K Street, funding Planned Parenthood, and largely failing to fight on any conservative priority. But this is primarily the fault of one man: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. (F, 42%).

As conservatives, we are repeatedly bashed over the head with the idea that we must sit down and shut up to “protect the Senate majority.” But what has this majority — led by Senator McConnell — won for conservatives?

The answer is a big, fat nothing.

McConnell’s legacy of leadership for conservatives is marked by combativeness, deception, and brute force — all in the name of “party unity.”

Just consider the major accomplishments of this Republican Senate. McConnell crows about passing the Keystone pipeline, a major transportation bill stuffed with earmarks, and a tax bill with blatant handouts to special interests. How about that $500 billion Medicare bailout? None of these are victories for conservatives. Not even close.

What happened to their priorities?

Well, let’s see. McConnell refused to fight President Obama’s executive amnesty. McConnell caved on conservative calls to end the Export-Import Bank. He negotiated away the biggest conservative spending accomplishment in decades, set up Republican amendment votes so that they would fail, considered ending the Senate filibuster, and, even worse, excoriated his own members for trying to have meaningful votes to repeal Obamacare.

Just last week, McConnell flat out ignored pleas from conservatives in the House and Senate to introduce a spending bill that will keep the government running into early 2017 — thereby avoiding passing significant and controversial legislation during the most unaccountable period of government.

As if to stick it to conservatives on the way out the door, McConnell dropped the fight to prevent federal Zika funds from going to Planned Parenthood clinics — a position that even Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. (F, 53%) has declared he cannot support.

Aside from barely standing for anything remotely Republican, it is clear that Mitch McConnell doesn’t care about conservatives.

Over the last year, conservatives have been told their ideas are too divisive and too controversial to be given any air time — much less an opportunity for a vote. All this, despite the fact that in the Senate every Senator has equal authority, and thus equal opportunity, to have their concerns heard. Instead of focusing on representing all factions of his party, McConnell has made it his special mission to shut down conservatives, relegating them to the back bench of “unfavorables” where they (not to mention their constituents) linger in obscurity.

When pressed, McConnell’s office stammers defensively, “but… but… we have a Democratic president, we could never pass their ideas! We have a Democratic minority that will block us!”

Somehow, the threat of disagreement from Democrats has become an acceptable excuse for not fighting at all.

So as the Senate hightails it out of town to “protect the majority” — pushing all their major work into the lame duck — it seems worth asking: what’s the point of having a majority if it refuses to fight for its principles?

It seems that conservatives aren’t the only ones asking this question. In a recent national poll conducted by Morning Consult, McConnell ranked dead last, with over half of the respondents responding negatively. That poll seems coincide with his Conservative Review score, a pathetic 42%.

It seems that it’s not just conservatives who are upset with McConnell’s failure to lead the Senate toward anything resembling a transparent process that draws a principled line in the sand against his Democratic counterpart. Voters are tired of not being able to distinguish between the parties. They’re tired of having politicians promise to repeal Obamacare root and branch, and then try to back out of it because it’s too hard.

McConnell’s fecklessness may indeed cost the Republicans its Senate majority. Sadly, the question must be percolating on the minds of most conservatives: What the point of having a Senate majority if it’s subject to the whims of only one man? A man who is nothing more than an aristocrat who silences conservatives within his own party; or too inept in his own obligations to fight on principle?

While the outcome of this election is uncertain, one thing is clear. Conservatives deserve far better than Mitch McConnell. (For more from the author of “McConnell’s Feckless ‘Leadership’ May Cost the GOP the Senate” HERE)

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McConnell’s Double Budget Betrayal Begins

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The annual budget is the most powerful tool given over to the party that controls Congress. It is a tool that can be used to express the priorities and worldview of that party, and can be used as a platform to present their case for a White House win.

In a sane world, Republicans would have immediately presented their budget this week, funded every agency and department (even the bad ones and functions like Obamacare that will have to wait for future leverage points), albeit prohibited funding for some of the most damaging and imminent problems facing this country. Obama’s refugee increase, the internet giveaway, and payments to Iran, to name a few. The bill would include emergency funding for Zika, but stipulate that leftover funds from Ebola must be used first and that no funding can go to Planned Parenthood.

Republicans could have spoken with moral clarity to the American people that Democrats, who refused to pass a budget when they controlled Congress, better not shut down the government in order to fund Iran, turn America into Europe’s security nightmare, and hand off America’s greatest invention to a tribunal influenced by Russia and China. If Democrats want to shut down the government and not fight Zika because they want funding for a private entity under criminal investigation for harvesting baby parts, let them have at it.

When you actually believe in something, especially regarding popular issues that resonate with voters, it’s not too hard to message it. But alas, these GOP leaders believe in nothing beyond pursuing the path to least resistance. Democrats embrace confrontation as a means of promoting their agenda, even when it’s unpopular; Republicans abjure confrontation even when it is politically advantageous for them.

In comes Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. (F, 42%). Instead of throwing a touchdown, he actually plans to toss an interception and use the GOP-control of the Senate to undermine conservatives in the House. Yes, this is another example of why it was actually worse to win back the Senate with RINOs in 2014 than to have Democrats control that body. McConnell is preemptively undermining House conservatives by openly calling for Harry Reid’s plan of a continuing resolution (CR) that fully funds Obama’s agenda with no significant expression of American priorities, much less conservative ones.

There are also late reports indicating that McConnell plans to capitulate and drop the prohibition on funding Planned Parenthood in the Zika bill, as suggested as suggested by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. (C, 77%) and Mark Kirk, R-Ill. (F 17%) earlier this week. This runs counter to the House bill passed earlier this year. It’s essentially a fight with Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats, and Obama on one side and House conservatives on another side. House leadership is pretending to fight for conservatives while allowing McConnell to orchestrate the sabotage for them.

What’s worse, McConnell is also siding with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. (D, 2%) against conservatives by demanding that the budget bill expire in December, during the lame duck session, instead of some time in 2017. If Republicans plan to surrender and not go for a touchdown by harnessing the budget leverage to force good policy, at the very least they should be prevented from tossing an interception and tacking on bad policy to the “must-pass” budget bill. By having this iteration of the CR expire during the lame duck session, history has shown that retiring members act out as political suicide bombers and use the must-pass vehicle as a conduit for extraneous liberal bills. All sorts of bad bill could potential hitch a ride on a budget bill in December.

This is why I believe there is no utility to conservatives rewarding liberal Republican senators by voting for them in November. It’s one thing to vote for a presidential candidate or a GOP House, even when the candidates in the general elections aren’t conservative because there is more at stake in preventing a bad Democrat agenda. But once Republicans have control of the House, there is no utility to having a “Republican” Senate with the current cast of characters. And in fact, they make matters worse by lending the GOP name to Democrat priorities and marginalizing House Republicans. The only difference they would make if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency (if Trump wins, on the other hand, it’s hard to see Republicans losing the Senate) is the ability to block judicial nominees. But if you think these people would block any Hillary nominee after having won the presidency you have not been paying attention.

Despite McConnell’s betrayal, the House Freedom Caucus must hold their ground and demand, at the very least, that A) any budget bill not expire during the lame duck session and B) Obama’s refugee program must be defunded (no gimmick provisions like the one the House passed last year). If they don’t stand firm and do so quickly, McConnell will have the ball in the wrong end-zone within days. (For more from the author of “McConnell’s Double Budget Betrayal Begins” please click HERE)

Watch a recent interview with the author below:

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McConnell Thinks Were Stupid? Here’s the Lesson He Still Hasn’t Learned

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. (F, 42%) is gloating. He and his team believe they have achieved a noble and worthy feat.

“GOP establishment trounces tea party in congressional elections,” a headline in Politico blared yesterday. The Washington Post published an explainer titled “Why Mitch McConnell’s Strategy to Quash the Tea Party is Working.”

Both stories focus on the fact that incumbent Senate Republicans, such as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. (C, 77%) and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. (F, 34%) staved off primary challenges this cycle. But that’s not notable. What’s notable is that the Senate Majority Leader views success as killing the grassroots—which is exactly the attitude that fueled the fury and fracture within the GOP that ultimately installed Donald Trump as its presidential nominee.

The stories do not talk about how the McConnell and his allied political operatives guided candidates to address voters’ concerns and message a principled, winning agenda. The pieces seek to snuff out reliably conservative fundraising operations such as the Senate Conservatives Fund and the Club for Growth—groups that are a “shell of their former selves,” if you believe the Washington Post.

The gruel they’re serving up, however, is pretty thin.

For example, the Washington Post piece detailed how McCain was able to fend off his primary challenger by labeling her “Chemtrail Kelli Ward,” tying her to a conspiracy theory about airplane exhaust.

“It wasn’t pretty, but McCain won and Republicans have their best chance at keeping the seat in the red column in November,” the Washington Post story read. “It is a different story at the top of the ticket, and many establishment Republicans look at these Senate races as the petri dish for how to get a more palatable candidate in the next presidential primary.”

(Never mind that McConnell, along with McCain and the rest of the GOP establishment, are openly backing a non-palatable, conspiracy-theory espousing candidate for president. Or that the Club for Growth, which they ridicule, was one of the first conservative organizations to run ads opposing Trump’s candidacy.)

McConnell and his crew want people to believe they’re some kind of grand master strategists because they helped the GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee McCain—who possesses an incredible donor network, name ID, and history in his state—beat a weak, loony challenger who wasn’t even supported by SCF and the like.

In other words, they think we’re stupid.

McConnell hasn’t learned his lesson and likely never will. He believes he will ultimately be able to use Trump to tar all future conservative threats. One problem: that involves losing the White House for the third straight presidential election.

McConnell titled his recently-released memoir “The Long Game.” That must be because there’s still no victory in sight.

Republicans have been boxed out of the White House for two terms. While the GOP has been in the wilderness, the only constant leadership figure in Washington has been McConnell, who offers nothing but false victories, embarrassing displays of political expediency, and disdain for the base.

McConnell is arguably the person in Washington most responsible for making Trump the GOP nominee, who is poised to lose to the most disliked and distrusted Democratic presidential candidate in history — potentially dragging down scores of GOP candidates down with him.

Had the party produced any meaningful leadership in Washington, any respected figure that instilled unity within the ranks, or delivered results for conservatives, Trump probably would not have had an opening to launch his candidacy.

Remember, it was McConnell openly loathed the Tea Party’s influence over GOP’s historic 2010 and 2014 midterm wins and infamously told the New York Times he would “crush them everywhere” in the future. And, that’s what he did, save Nebraska where Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb. (A, 94%) prevailed against establishment forces to win his seat in 2015. It should be no surprise to anyone that Sen. Sasse is proudly #NeverTrump.

In short, if McConnell wants credit for crushing the Tea Party, he should get credit for the way Trump is crushing the GOP, as well. One is directly related to the other.

McConnell’s reign in Washington has been defined by three things: no leadership, no unity, and no results. Those three things that created the perfect storm for Trump to rise.

That’s certainly not anything to brag about. (For more from the author of “McConnell Thinks Were Stupid? Here’s the Lesson He Still Hasn’t Learned” please click HERE)

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It’s Time for the GOP to Demand A “McCexit”

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The world has been transfixed with an anti-establishment frenzy against aristocratic politicians and governments that have failed to listen to the voice and will of their people.

That anti-establishment battle is currently underway in the United States, where a vitriolic populace has given rise to Donald Trump. Across the ocean, in the United Kingdom (UK), British citizens implemented “Brexit,” a referendum to return sovereignty, formerly given to the European Union (EU), back to Britain.

Temperaments among the American people are similar, but the statesmen-like reaction to the public unrest in the U.K. is starkly different than what America is experiencing with our own politicians here at home. The success of the controversial “Brexit” campaign led to U.K.’s Prime Minister, David Cameron (a strong advocate for staying in the EU), to accept the wishes of the nation; in doing so, he stepped down, paving the way for fresh leadership, saying:

“[the country needs] fresh leadership” and “I love this country and feel honored to have served it … the will of British people must be respected.”

Those who led the Brexit campaign, like London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, and United Kingdom Independence Party leader (UKIP), Nigel Farage, were both positioned to surge in popularity and power. Yet, they also stepped away from the podium. Johnson, assumed to become Prime Minister, took his name out of contention; Farage retired.

There are certainly some who feel those politicians abandoned their objective to see Brexit through to fruition. However, it is also remarkable to contemplate that true statesmen might put country before careers; tough choices before lucrative ones.

Imagine, for a moment, if Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. (F, 42%) surveyed the deteriorating landscape of the Republican party and determined that the GOP required fresh leadership.

According to Gallup polls, McConnell is far more unpopular than even President Obama. President Obama has a national favorability rating just under 50 percent. McConnell’s favorability rating, however, is only 11 percent nationally.

There also appears to be a strong correlation between the Republican Party’s general popularity and McConnell taking over the Senate. In May, Pew Research showed that the Republican Party was more unpopular than it had been in the past two decades.

Why does this matter? There is a tremendous amount at stake if Republicans lose the Senate. Perhaps nothing is more important than how the Senate decides to handle the Supreme Court vacancy left by the late Justice Antonin Scalia. If the Senate shifts to the Democrats in 2017, the Supreme Court (and our nation) will appoint a progressive to the bench, and the Court will, for the first time in 45 years, shift from conservative to liberal.

Among all the issues McConnell should seek to protect, the first is the Senate’s majority, and with it, the authority to confirm a new Supreme Court Justice, and protect the Court’s conservative majority. Yet, McConnell is the very person placing the Senate in jeopardy merely out of selfish desire for power and prestige.

McConnell is a liability to the Republican Party – and more and more people are beginning to realize this. (After all, he showed up to the GOPs largest event – the Republican National Convention – and was nearly booed off stage.)

McConnell’s colleagues are worried too. The Public Policy Polling organization concluded in a analysis of the Senate in May:

Mitch McConnell’s unpopularity continues to be a huge drag on the brand of Senate Republicans. Only 11 percent of voters nationally approve of the job he’s doing as Senate Majority Leader, to 61 who disapprove. Incumbents running for reelection across the country this year will be hurt by their association with him.

Whether you like McConnell or not, everyone can agree that the vulnerability in losing the Supreme Court will have an immense impact on all of our lives. McConnell has clearly become a burden on the party. A true statesman that cared for his constituency and country would step aside and allow new leadership to step in. But not McConnell.

The time has come for McConnell to exit. The time for America’s politicians to imitate British politicians is now; it’s time for the Republican Party to have a referendum on McConnell’s leadership. It’s time for America to have its “McCexit.” (For more from the author of “It’s Time for the GOP to Demand A “McCexit” please click HERE)

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McConnell Spoke, America Stopped Watching the Convention

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Tonight, to a mixed chorus of boos and cheers, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. (F, 42%) addressed the Republican convention. There was a part of me that was hoping to hear something prophetic; an admission of fault or failure from the GOP; an admission that the Republican Party that McConnell promised to defend had lost its way.

Perhaps predictably, McConnell spoke about none of those things. In fact, the first thing he mentioned upon taking the stage was… his own election.

The rest of McConnell’s message was nothing more than a staff written speech full of the typical talking points. It was full of grandiose “achievements”, empty promises, and rhetoric that even McConnell may struggle to believe. Ironically, he described Hillary Clinton as someone who will “say anything, do anything, and be anything” to achieve her own ends. Look in the mirror much, Mitch?

Perhaps McConnell’s speech confirms why we have lost trust in the Republican Party. As we’ve watched this convention unfold, we have the opportunity to measure his speech, as offered from the cautions of a teleprompter, versus those of Senators who stand for the people; Senators like Mike Lee, with emotion and passion, stood on the convention floor bellowing to be heard by the conveniently deaf politburo of the Republican Party.

Yet, McConnell presents narrative that is simply unbelievable. He extolls his achievements as the Republican leader over a Republican Senate that has literally accomplished nothing. He claims that his Senate is more effective than that run by Reid – but even in that humble-brag, he cannot be taken seriously.

Say what you will about Harry Reid, but he was effective for President Obama. Reid handed Obama victory after victory. He broke the longstanding rules of the Senate to satisfy his progressives, and that crushed Republicans; he helped President Obama pass Obamacare; he reversed spending cuts and helped raise taxes on the rich.

Seriously, take a moment to ask yourself what McConnell has truly achieved for conservatives?

McConnell promised conservatives a repeal of Obamacare. Instead, he protected it.

McConnell promised conservatives he would reduce the size of government. Instead, he expanded it with a $305 billion new highway bill; then he eliminated $2 trillion in austerity measures originally implemented by conservatives in Congress.

McConnell promised conservatives that a new majority would never sign off on a Homeland Security funding bill without outlawing Obama’s executive amnesty program. Instead, he immediately surrendered to Obama’s demands.

McConnell used the Senate to pass $630 billion in tax breaks for his lobbyist buddies; he used the rules of the senate to sink conservative policy while helping liberals advance their own agenda through amendments to legislation.

McConnell doesn’t represent the Republican Party, and he certainly doesn’t share the anti-establishment characteristics of the presumptive nominees in Trump/Pence. Instead, McConnell is a political hack that has made a career out of politics and the cronyism it has afforded him.

In his own book, he boasts of becoming a career politician; enthused at the mere idea of a lifetime in the seats of power. He stands before conservatives professing to be one of us, yet repeatedly writes, in his own memoir, how much he despises the Tea Party or anti-establishment members for fighting for small government; and instead, whines that they should simply accept that “in the Senate, we don’t get everything we want.”

Before you tonight was not a Senator, nor a majority leader, but a mascot that represents a party that has lost our trust; a party that chose a candidate that, frankly, it nominated in spite of McConnell and the establishment he seeks to protect. McConnell doesn’t represent us – and he shouldn’t represent the Republican Party. (For more from the author of “McConnell Spoke, America Stopped Watching the Convention” please click HERE)

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