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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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INSIDER MEMO: Ex-Hill Staffer Takes on Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell

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To: Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker Paul Ryan
From: Rachel Bovard, former policy director, U.S. Senate Steering Committee
Subject: Conservatives are right, eliminate the lame duck

Dear Leader McConnell & Speaker Ryan,

Do you ever feel like you’re having the same conversation over and over again when it comes to Congressional spending? It’s because you are.

Here we are, again, talking about the need to pass a Continuing Resolution (CR).

Despite all the lip service paid to “regular order,” “passing individual spending bills” and “getting back to work,” you and Senator McConnell, R-Ky. (F, 44%) have not been able to send a single appropriations bill to the President’s desk.

With one week to go before a two-month election year recess, moving forward with appropriations bills is not only futile, it’s actually wasting time that could be spent on other Republican priorities – like protecting religious liberty, instituting regulatory reform, combating the zika virus or, I don’t know, repealing Obamacare?

As always, the issue comes down to one of timing and of length. How long should the CR be extended? To the end of the year? Or into the new one?

Conservatives like Congressmen Dave Brat, R-Va. (A, 100%) and Mark Meadows, R-N.C. (A, 93%) are focused on extending this year’s spending levels into the March or April of next year, saving the spending decisions for the new Congress, and the new president. Such an extension also protects the CR from becoming an end-of-the-year grab bag of parochial projects, various extensions of unauthorized programs and higher spending.

It also effectively eliminates the “lame duck” session of Congress – the period of time after the election, when a bunch of members who have been defeated or decided to retire – can come back and make all kinds of spending decisions over which they’ll never face any accountability, all the while encouraged by a president who is also on his way out the door.

However, the House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky. (F, 34%) prefers a CR that extends to December, and loves lame duck sessions. Lame ducks provide Rogers and his appropriator colleagues maximum leverage to extract concessions out of their membership, and the opportunity to squeeze conservatives who demand lower spending levels or other policy changes. You may recall this as the annual December dance in Congress – members want to go home, and so do the staff, and because of that, they’ll pretty much vote for anything and bully anyone who stands between them and Christmas dinner. (Remember, there’s a reason that Obamacare was passed on Christmas Eve.)

The conservatives are right on this issue. The CR should be passed into the middle of next year, or beyond. This isn’t simply a matter of avoiding further spending increases, it’s a matter of good governance. It’s removing the ability of Members of Congress (and the president) who are leaving the Congress from making significant decisions over the nation’s fiscal future – one in which they will no longer play a part.

You wouldn’t let your ex come in and manage your bank account, right?

Then why would you let a Member of Congress who has just lost an election come back and extract all he can from the taxpayers till?

Stop trying to pass pointless appropriations bills, and instead direct your committee chairs to start crafting a CR that goes well into the new year. Even better, have it lower spending.

Doing so will make you the first House Speaker in a very long while who doesn’t cave to special interests, to the desire of departing Members to line their pockets, and who finally stands up for the taxpayer by effectively eliminating the lame duck session of Congress.

(For more from the author of “INSIDER MEMO: Ex-Hill Staffer Takes on Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell” please click HERE)

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Mitch McConnell Faces One Question on Trump That He Won’t Answer

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On ABC’s This Week Sunday, host George Stephanopoulos asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell whether Republican candidate Donald Trump is qualified to be president of the United States.

“Well look, I think there’s no question that he’s made a number of mistakes over the last few weeks,” McConnell said. “I think they’re beginning to right the ship. It’s a long time until November, and the burden obviously will be on him to convince people that he can handle this job.”

Stephanopoulous, who was communications director for President Bill Clinton, the husband of Trump’s Democratic opponent, pressed the senator about the issue, saying, “I didn’t hear you say whether you thought he was qualified.”

McConnell answered, “Look, that’ll be up to the American people to decide.”

“You know, he won the Republican nomination fair and square. He got more votes than anybody else against a whole lot of well-qualified candidates,” he said. “And so our primary voters have made their decision as to who they want to be the nominee.”

In a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, 64 percent of the respondents said they didn’t think Trump was qualified to be president.

“I think a good step in the right direction was the changes he made in the campaign,” McConnell said. “He’s beginning to use a prepared script more often, which I think is absolutely appropriate for any candidate, whether you’re a longtime politician like Hillary Clinton or whether you’re new to the game like Donald Trump.”

The Trump campaign is working to raise money in order to compete with Democratic rival Clinton, who has a much larger war chest. McConnell’s closing statements acknowledged that Trump would not be able to win if he was unable to raise more money.

“He needs to be able to compete financially,” the majority leader said. “Where the money comes from, whether it comes out of his own pocket or from others, it doesn’t really make all that much difference. But he’s going to have to have way more than he has now in order to run the kind of campaign he needs to win.” (For more from the author of “Mitch McConnell Faces One Question on Trump That He Won’t Answer” please click HERE)

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McConnell Can’t Follow His Own Guidelines for Fighting and Winning

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-K.Y., (F, 44%) represents the worst attitude of D.C. politics. His recent book encapsulates all that is wrong with Washington and his attitude is one of elitism, putting his ascent to power and his control of detractors ahead of the people.

But putting aside all of his obtuse treatment of the American citizen, there is a point in his book where McConnell reveals a powerful truth that conservatives should not only embrace, but patent, mass produce, package, and market.

As McConnell winds about his book, describing the great things he has done which basically center on getting reelected, he throws in a lightening rod of truth.

While describing his growth of influence as a second term senator backbencher, he recalled how his elementary school principal would keep boxing gloves for when boys would have disputes and tell them to don the gloves and fight it out. McConnell noted that it wasn’t the one who swung the most, but the one who stood the firmest that typically won those fights. He said that he applied that concept to his strategy in the Senate, as well as to learning the rules of the Senate, holding solid principles of the Constitution, and making tough decisions your friends don’t like.

Now, unlike conservatives, McConnell fakes an adherence to constitutional principles if he thinks he can label the other guy with being worse on these principles than he is. Also, unlike conservatives, the decisions his friends don’t like are described as tough because his friends are in the D.C. Cesspool Club and any friction might mean his growth to power might be hindered. However, the strategy of whoever stands the firmest the longest wins, understanding the rules of engagement, standing for the constitution at every turn, and making decisions the powers that be do not like, are the winning applications for conservatives, and upon engagement of the strategy, will show how people like McConnell are complete frauds.

McConnell’s memoir was written because he finally attained his lifetime goal of Senate Majority Leader. He proudly announces that the best way to become a great senator is to remain one. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I have never heard a solitary American who is stifled under an oppressive, obese federal government scream out for great senators. Instead, we prefer to champion and reward men who will take on the federal leviathan in any capacity and turn it on its ear.

With the goal of shutting down the influence of government in our lives, conservatives ought to remember to stand firm, because McConnell is not wrong when it comes to who ultimately wins. Even though his life was wasted standing firm against limited government, you cannot claim his strategy has not worked beautifully.

Understanding the rules of the body conservatives serve in is imperative, and though Senator Ted Cruz has understood them completely, and worked within them to defund Obamacare, McConnell continues to claim that the strategy promised more than could be achieved, after he voted in favor of cloture, no less. It would seem that understanding how to use the public ignorance of the rules is really what McConnell is more inclined to do.

Standing for the Constitution is a no-brainer, however, giving lip-service to it like McConnell does will get increasingly difficult to do once more than just a handful of constitutional conservatives reintroduce its brilliance. The 30-plus years of standing firm for the status quo that McConnell wants to be praised for will be forgotten soon enough, but the decisions conservatives make to threaten centralized power and return the power taken by McConnell and his Cesspool Club back to the industrious, ingenious, creative and talented hands of the American citizen will be worth it. (For more from the author of “McConnell Can’t Follow His Own Guidelines for Fighting and Winning” please click HERE)

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How McConnell Botched the Senate’s Response to Orlando

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Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s, R-K.Y. (F, 44%) handling of the fallout from the Orlando terrorist attack in recent weeks has been an unprecedented disaster. Here’s why.

The floor of each chamber can be a powerful tool, just ask Senators Rand Paul, R-K.Y. (A, 95%) and Ted Cruz, R-K.Y. (A, 97%) who through epic speeches captivated the attention of the country. Just last week Democrat Senator Chris Murphy, D-C.T. (F, 8%) was able to draw the attention of the national media to his cause of gun control by commanding the Senate floor in a 15-hour-long filibuster.

The goal of competent Republican Senate leadership after the Orlando attack should have been to respond by controlling the debate and defining the narrative on its terms. After all, Republicans control the Senate floor and thus the agenda.

The preferred way of Republicans defining the narrative on their terms would have been for McConnell to announce that because of the threat of radical Islamic terrorism in the United States the Senate would immediately move to consideration of the appropriations bill that funds the Department of Defense. A bill that literally funds the troops who will take the fight to radical jihadists.

Doing so would have unified Republicans and split Democrats. Democrats would have been left with the choice between funding our nation’s troops or filibuster their funding in an effort to push forward a radical gun control agenda — an agenda that would have done absolutely nothing to stop the Orlando attack. Instead, McConnell divided Republicans on the issue of guns and allowed Democrats to have the upper hand in controlling the narrative and legislative agenda.

If Republicans had successfully moved the Department of Defense funding bill, they would have been able to offer a series of amendments that deal directly with radical Islamic terrorism and would have defined the debate on their terms. Media coverage would be about amendments intended to address ISIS, domestic terrorism, and an immigration system that is arguably one of our nation’s biggest national security threats, instead of the gun control theatrics we’re seeing today.

As a byproduct of moving to the Department of Defense funding bill, Rule XVI in the Senate would have precluded Democrats from bringing up any of the gun control amendments, which Republicans are currently being forced to vote on. Thereby protecting any vulnerable GOP members in tough general election races.

Instead, to show that Republicans can “govern” McConnell opted to stay on the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) funding bill. A huge tactical blunder.

Because spending bills must originate in the House, the House version of the CJS funding bill is used to determine what amendments can be offered in the Senate. And the House CJS funding bill has provisions that have allowed Democrats to successfully achieve their goal of gun control votes and pushing their message of more gun control.

Committed to his course of seeing through the CJS funding bill to prove Republicans can “govern,” McConnell on Monday agreed to allow two votes on Democrat gun control proposals, along with two Republican side-by-sides. Significantly, these side-by-sides are not pro-gun designed to highlight the GOP standing up for Second Amendment rights. Rather, they are gun control lite proposals.

But Thursday, things got even worse as McConnell stumbled into his biggest blunder yet, forcing a vote on a motion to kill the latest gun control proposal from fellow Republican Senator Susan Collins, R-M.E. (F, 12%).

Collins’ gun control proposal survived the motion as 54 senators voted to keep the proposal alive, but the vote also demonstrated Collins proposal did not have the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

Therefore, not having 51 votes to table the proposal or 60 votes to pass the Collins proposal, the Senate is effectively stuck.

And stuck on a debate of gun control, not terrorism, or protecting the Second Amendment, but gun control. The exact topic and terrain that Democrats want to discuss. The result? A divided Republican party in the Senate and forcing vulnerable Senators in general election races to take high profile gun control votes. Meanwhile the media runs with the preferred Democrat narrative that their proposal has bipartisan support.

The overall narrative on display to the Republican base plays into the critique and reality that Washington Republicans are not principled, they will do anything to show they can “govern”, and absolutely incapable of standing on principle.

The sad truth is that this entire scenario was absolutely avoidable if Republicans in the Senate had competent leadership. (For more from the author of “How McConnell Botched the Senate’s Response to Orlando” please click HERE)

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McConnell Waves White Flag, Steers GOP Away From ObamaCare Fights

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Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has urged GOP colleagues in private to avoid distracting political fights, yielding a surprising ceasefire on labor and health issues, two of the bloodiest battlegrounds in Congress.

For the first time in seven years, the Senate Appropriations Committee last week passed a bipartisan bill funding the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services. It’s the largest spending bill after the one for the Defense Department and a perennial source of partisan strife.

The bill is not likely to go anywhere because the House has slim chance of passing a Labor-HHS spending bill, but the drama-free passage was an important victory for McConnell, who has staked the Senate Republican majority on the argument that Republicans know how to govern.

“We went eight years in the minority and during that time we didn’t pass these bills and then the public’s outraged,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.). “Behind the closed doors of the conference, he emphasizes over and over again that he wants to keep the extraneous things off and do what people expect us to do.”

The full Senate is now poised to act on the Labor HHS bill, which hasn’t passed the chamber as a stand-alone measure since 2007. (Read more from “McConnell Steers Republicans Away From ObamaCare Fights” HERE)

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PATHETIC: McConnell May Rescind Trump Endorsement

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By Betsy Fischer Martin, Tammy Haddad and Steven T. Dennis. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that Donald Trump needs to pick an experienced running mate because “he doesn’t know a lot about the issues” and strongly urged him to change course on his rhetoric.

In an extraordinarily frank interview with Bloomberg Politics’ Masters in Politics podcast, McConnell, who is on a book tour touting his autobiography The Long Game, also expressed broader concerns about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

“He needs someone highly experienced and very knowledgeable because it’s pretty obvious he doesn’t know a lot about the issues,” McConnell said. “You see that in the debates in which he’s participated. It’s why I have argued to him publicly and privately that he ought to use a script more often—there is nothing wrong with having prepared texts.”

The Kentucky Republican’s frustration with Trump has been clear, especially this week after Trump’s tarring of Judge Gonzalo Curiel as biased against him because the Indiana-born former prosecutor is “Mexican.” Still, McConnell said he remains “comfortable” backing Trump. (Read more from “PATHETIC: McConnell May Rescind Trump Endorsement” HERE)

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McConnell: Trump ‘Doesn’t Know a Lot About the Issues’

By Newsmax. …McConnell, perhaps the most careful and strategic politician in Washington, rarely goes off script himself, and has been sending Trump the same message for weeks in hopes he’ll pivot to the general election.

McConnell said staying on script “indicates a level of seriousness that I think is important to convey to American people about the job you are seeking.”

“I think he’d have a much better chance of winning if he would quit making so many unfortunate public utterances and stick to the script,” he said.

McConnell said he delivered that message in person when the two were in the green room together at the recent National Rifle Association convention in Louisville. (Read more from “McConnell: Trump ‘Doesn’t Know a Lot About the Issues'” HERE)

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What McConnell’s Surrender on Women’s Draft Shows About GOP Leadership

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has apparently given up on another battle front: Stopping America’s young women from being forced into military combat.

That isn’t exactly what he said this week when asked his views on whether women should be made to register for the draft, but it’s the logical outcome of his position. The question arose because the National Defense Authorization Act, likely to come to the Senate floor next week, contains language to draft women.

Here is what McConnell said, according to the New York Times:

First of all, I don’t anticipate going back to the draft. The professional voluntary Army has been very successful. We’re talking here about registration for Selective Service, should we ever go back to a draft. And given where we are today, with women in the military performing virtually all kinds of functions, I personally think it would be appropriate for them to register just like men do.

That is a very good example of a politician trying to have it both ways—kind of a “I’m for something because it won’t happen but if it does happen I support it.”

Welcome to what leadership looks like in Washington in the year 2016.

In reality, the debate over the draft is an outcome of a larger debate we never had—whether America’s daughters should be forced into military combat.

As McConnell himself admitted, it’s because all roles in the military, including combat, are now open to women that it only seems fair to force women to be part of any future draft.

The debate over whether women in combat is good for them, for the military, or for society at large never occurred because that would have meant taking on the Obama administration. And as anyone who has followed past political skirmishes between GOP congressional leadership and the Obama White House might predict, this was another hill the GOP just wasn’t willing to charge.

Late last year, the Obama administration handed down another “we know better than anyone else, including experts” mandate declaring all military combat positions must be open to women.

This was done despite studies conducted by branches of our own military that raised serious red flags about the performance of co-ed units. And oh, the American people had had no say, either.

Yet it was done with little to no objection by Republicans in Congress.

This is what happens when social experiments, political agendas, and being scared of your own shadow becomes more important than standing up and doing what is best for the country.

The mission of our armed forces must be the standard for determining who plays what roles in them.

And evidence evaluating the effectiveness of putting women in direct combat should not be ignored. A study conducted over 9 months in 2013 by the Marine Corps’ Gender Integration Force evaluated 134 ground combat tasks. The results? All-male units outperformed co-ed units in 69 percent of the tasks. Female training course completion rates lagged well behind men and the injury rate among women was much higher.

These realities drive up casualties and costs and they reduce our military’s effectiveness. That is not only a threat to women and men wearing our country’s uniform, but also a threat to all of us they are sworn to protect.

Congress should prohibit any measure that would force women to register for the draft and be forced into combat roles. You can’t be for one and not be for the other and lawmakers such as McConnell shouldn’t pretend otherwise. If you’re for women being drafted, you’re for women in combat. (For more from the author of “What McConnell’s Surrender on Women’s Draft Shows About GOP Leadership” please click HERE)

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