I'm getting really tired of this "second kick of a mule" nonsense from Mitch McConnell, but even more so, I'm getting really tired of the way this guy views his priorities as Majority Leader in the United States Senate. The media's narrative is that every time Republicans and President Obama disagree on a budget priority, Republicans are "trying to shut down the government".
We all know that's how the media's going to play. That doesn't mean the titular leader of the Republicans has accept that narrative lock, stock and barrel. But he does, because he's a creature of Washington and if this is the way everyone in Washington thinks, he's not about to challenge the conventional wisdom.
So when a media type asks McConnell if the Republicans are going to shut down the government to try to de-fund Planned Parenthood, he could have said, "That question makes no sense. The United States Congress has to approve any funding priority of the federal government, and if we choose not to fund that particular item, we're simply exercising our prerogative. If President Obama wants it funded, he can come and tell us that and we can negotiate, but the mere decision of the Congress not to fund something in no way constitutes 'trying to shut down the government' unless the White House decides to engage in brinkmanship by refusing to sign a spending measure over that one issue. Because if I take your question to its logical conclusion, it would mean that any decision to say no to the president about anything he wants would mean we 'tried to shut down the government,' and if that's the case then the Congress no longer has any role in budgeting other than to rubber-stamp everything the president wants. If that's what you think, then you don't understand how the Constitution lays out the workings of the federal government."
That's what he should have said. Instead, he said this:
By giving this answer, McConnell meekly concedes any role for the Senate in deciding what gets funded by the federal government. Oh sure, it may have a role per the Constitution, but McConnell has no intention of exercising that discretion because he knows Obama will play hardball and he believes Republicans have no chance of winning the media narrative. So the way he sees it, calling Obama's bluff and letting the government shut down resulted in the PR hit he sees as the kick of a mule, and that should have served as a lesson learned.
And what's the lesson? Apparently it's to never take on Obama over a budget matter. He even throws in, for good measure, the other media narrative that Republicans "threatened to default on the national debt." They did no such thing. They agreed to raise the debt ceiling on certain conditions. Obama didn't like the conditions and was willing to forgo the increase in the debt ceiling rather than agree to them. Even if Republicans had not caved (which of course they always do with McConnell making the decisions) and the debt ceiling had not been raised, it wouldn't have meant default on the debt because the government would have had enough money to make the interest payments from current tax revenue. But no matter. McConnell completely signs off on the media narrative that Republicans threatened to default on the debt in the course of promising not to do it "again".
At this point I'm having a hard time seeing how we're better off with McConnell running the Senate than we were when Harry Reid was running it. Reid gleefully gave Obama whatever he wanted. McConnell does the same thing out of fear and weakness. He's so busy reassuring the media he will never do anything that bothers them, he has no capacity left to stand up to Obama on any matter whatsoever - not that he seems interested in doing that anyway.
There's nothing wrong with launching an investigation of Planned Parenthood, but what's the point if the Justice Department won't prosecute for any crimes and Congress will keep bankrolling the criminals? We'll all know about the horrors that are going on, and no one will do anything about it. Sounds like Mitch McConnell-style leadership for sure.
