Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “is building the case that this Senate is much more productive than the last one,” The Hill reports.
“The Kentucky Republican, who ascended to majority leader after repeatedly ripping the Democratic-led Senate as ‘dysfunctional,’ has to show that the GOP can govern. If he falls short of that goal, Democrats will likely win back Senate control in 2016.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “introduced a bill Tuesday night to extend through 2020 a controversial surveillance authority under the Patriot Act,” the Washington Post reports.
The move comes as a bipartisan group of lawmakers in both chambers is preparing legislation to scale back the government’s spying powers under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. It puts McConnell and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the bill’s co-sponsor, squarely on the side of advocates of the National Security Agency’s continued ability to collect millions of Americans’ phone records each day in the hunt for clues of terrorist activity.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Republicans have a chance to maintain control of the Senate in the 2016 election, when two dozen GOP seats will be contested, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Of the 24 Republicans up for re-election next year, Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana is retiring and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida announced on Monday that he will run instead to be the GOP’s White House nominee. GOP Sen. David Vitter, also up for re-election in 2016, is running this year for governor of Louisiana.”
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “has dug in on Loretta Lynch’s nomination to be attorney general, highlighting his willingness to play hard ball with the Democratic minority,” The Hill reports.
“His maneuvers on Lynch shed light on how he will lead the upper chamber in this Congress, but the strategy has some risks — especially with a fragile majority. McConnell has for weeks refused to allow senators to leapfrog over a stalled anti-human trafficking bill to move to Lynch’s nomination. In fact, the GOP leader has linked the two issues, telling Democrats they will only get a vote on Lynch if they compromise with Republicans on the trafficking bill, which has been held up by a fight over abortion.”
“When he became majority leader, propelled by sweeping Republican victories last year, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky vowed to run a more productive and traditional Senate than his Democratic predecessor, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada,” the New York Times reports.
“In some ways, that has come to pass. Democrats have been given greater opportunity to amend bills than Republicans had when Mr. Reid had a majority. Mr. McConnell promised there would be no government shutdown, and he averted one over funding the Department of Homeland Security. And, occasionally, senators now have to work on Fridays. But when it comes to the central role of a Senate leader — getting things done — Mr. McConnell has been impeded by internal struggles in his party and the hostility that awaits him across the aisle.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “has begun an aggressive campaign to block President Obama’s climate change agenda in statehouses and courtrooms across the country, arenas far beyond Mr. McConnell’s official reach and authority,” the New York Times reports.
“The campaign of Mr. McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is aimed at stopping a set of Environmental Protection Agency regulations requiring states to reduce carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants, the nation’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN said he plans to hold up attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch’s confirmation until the Senate passes a now-controversial human trafficking bill.
Said McConnell: “This will have an impact on the timing of considering a new attorney general. I had hoped to turn to her next week, but if we can’t finish the trafficking bill, she will be put off again.”
“Democrats are now holding up the trafficking bill, which glided through the judiciary committee, after they noticed an abortion provision embedded in the bill that would prevent victims of human trafficking from using restitution funds to pay for an abortion.”
“When Rand Paul first ran for the Senate, he faced a powerful home-state antagonist in Sen. Mitch McConnell . Now, as Mr. Paul prepares to run for president, a five-year effort to bury the hatchet has forged an odd-couple partnership that is an unseen force in both the 2016 presidential campaign and the U.S. Senate,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Paul used his clout among conservatives to help Mr. McConnell, his fellow Kentucky Republican, win re-election last year and fulfill a long-held goal of becoming Senate majority leader.”
“Now Mr. McConnell is helping to advance Mr. Paul’s presidential campaign, and contributed to an important victory for him Saturday. The state GOP’s executive committee endorsed Mr. Paul’s request, backed by Mr. McConnell, to establish a presidential caucus, despite concerns about financial and political costs. This would allow Mr. Paul to circumvent state law that bars him from appearing on the primary ballot both for the White House and re-election to the Senate.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell endorsed Sen. Rand Paul’s “push for a Republican presidential caucus in Kentucky, lending heavy weight Tuesday to a proposal that had raised concerns among some members of the state GOP’s executive committee,” the Lexington Herald Leader reports.
“Paul’s push for a caucus in early 2016 would allow him to run for two offices in the same year despite a Kentucky law that prohibits a candidate from appearing on the same ballot twice.”
“In an extraordinary sequence, Mitch McConnell offered Democrats Tuesday exactly what they have been asking for — ‘clean’ full-year funding for the Department of Homeland Security. And Harry Reid said no — or at least, not yet,” Roll Call reports.
“Majority Leader McConnell’s offer of passing a clean full-year Homeland Security bill through the Senate shorn of immigration provisions — which he said could happen very quickly with Democratic cooperation — was put on hold by Minority Leader Reid, who told reporters he was waiting to hear Speaker John A. Boehner agree to pass it through the House first.”
Said Reid: “We have to make sure that we get a bill to the president. Unless Boehner’s in on the deal, it won’t happen.”
Roll Call: “Just days from a shutdown, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has begun to pivot toward a new strategy to separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security from the GOP’s plan to roll back President Obama’s immigration actions.”
“At some point you have to start asking whether Matt Bevin should be medicated. The guy has no grasp on reality whatsoever and his delusions of grandeur are simply breathtaking.”
— GOP strategist Josh Holmes, quoted by the Lexington Herald Leader, on Matt Bevin’s (R) claim he would have won last year’s Senate election “more handily” than Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
House Speaker John Boehner said that he was “prepared to allow funding for the Department of Homeland Security to lapse, raising the possibility that one of the government’s largest and most vital agencies could be shut down at the end of the month,” the New York Times reports.
“Coming just two months after Republicans gained full control of Congress, a shutdown would be a major political problem as the party tries to honor a vow to govern responsibly and cooperatively.”
“It would contradict a pledge from Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, who said the day after his party won decisively at the polls in November, ‘There will be no government shutdowns.’ And it would exacerbate a rift that has been growing between Republicans in the House and the Senate.”
In a speech over the weekend, Sen. Mitch McConnell “acknowledged that he faced challenges from both the left and right in running the Senate, noting that Senator Ted Cruz of Texas had said he was willing to throw himself in front of a train to repeal the new health care law,” the New York Times reports.
Said McConnell: “That idea has some merit to it.”
“What I would also remind everybody and mentioned to our House friends at our joint retreat: How would you like to have to get 261 votes on almost everything you do? I hope that some day we will have a supermajority in the Senate, but for 100 years we haven’t, and there are some obvious limitations.”
— Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by Politico, telling House GOP colleagues there are limits to what the Senate can do.
“My first thought was it sounded like he was running for a third term.”
— Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by The Hill, on President Obama saying during his State of the Union address: “I have no more campaigns to run. I know because I won both of them.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered a reality check to House Republicans, the Washington Examiner reports.
“House bills aren’t guaranteed to pass the Senate just because Republicans now control the chamber with 54 seats… McConnell cautioned the House GOP that the new Senate majority is limited in what it can accomplish by the filibuster. Almost any legislation that clears the Senate must garner 60 votes, meaning Democratic support will be required to move most bills. Republicans face an early test of this challenge with a Feb. 27 deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security.”
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is now counselor to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Washington Examiner reports.
“The Utah Republican is steering committee chairman, a post that often comes with a seat in leadership. But McConnell wasn’t obligated to bring Lee into the fold last week, when he appointed him as one of four counsellors to the Republican leadership. The Kentuckian never extended a similar offer to Jim DeMint when he led steering. Lee and McConnell hardly have a chummy history, although the majority leader shrewdly keeps potential enemies close.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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