Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) defends the legislative filibuster in the New York Times:

“A Democratic assault on the legislative filibuster would make the nomination fights look like child’s play… The legislative filibuster is directly downstream from our founding tradition. If that tradition frustrates the whims of those on the far left, it is their half-baked proposals and not the centuries-old wisdom that need retooling.”

“My Republican colleagues and I have not and will not vandalize this core tradition for short-term gain. We recognize what everyone should recognize — there are no permanent victories in politics… If future Democrats shortsightedly decide to reduce the Senate to majority rule, we’ll have lost a key safeguard of American government. And — stop me if you’ve heard this one — they’d regret it a lot sooner than they think.”

“A conservative group is increasing pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to put election security legislation up for a vote in the Senate by airing ads that target the Kentucky Republican and four other Republican senators in their home states,” McClatchy reports.

“Republicans for the Rule of Law is unveiling new spots that urge Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and James Lankford (R-OK), to push McConnell for a vote, urging them ‘don’t let Mitch McConnell stand in your way.’ The group is also re-airing a 60-second ad that calls on McConnell to act.”

Harry Reid: “I am not an expert on all of government, but I do know something about the United States Senate. As the former majority leader, I know how tough it is to get anything through the chamber, which was designed to serve as the slower, more deliberative body of the United States Congress.”

“But what is happening today is a far cry from what the framers intended. They created the Senate as a majority-rule body, where both sides could have their say at length — but at the end of the day, bills would pass or fail on a simple majority vote. In their vision, debate was supposed to inform and enrich the process, not be exploited as a mechanism to grind it to a halt.”

“The Senate today, after years of abusing an arcane procedural rule known as the filibuster, has become an unworkable legislative graveyard.”

“A Republican senator held up the confirmation of a White House budget official this week in an attempt to obtain sensitive information about border wall contracts he has been trying to steer to a major donor,” according to emails obtained by the Washington Post.

“The emails show Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) blasting the ‘arrogance’ of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after senior military officials told him the contracts contained sensitive, proprietary information provided by the companies that could not be shared.”

“It’s like there’s constant chaos.”

— Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), quoted by Politico, when asked to sum up the summer.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “is usually impervious to criticism, even celebrating the nasty nicknames that have been bestowed on him by critics,” the New York Times reports.

“But Mr. McConnell is incensed with his new moniker, ‘Moscow Mitch,’ and even more miffed that he has been called a ‘Russian asset’ by critics who accuse him of single-handedly blocking stronger election security measures after Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.”

In naming Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) to be Director of National Intelligence, President Trump ignored a warning from Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), the chairman of the intelligence committee, Time reports.

“Burr told the White House last week that the move would inject more partisan politics into the work of the intelligence agencies.”

“In a sign of how dysfunctional President Trump’s relationship with the intelligence community has become already, some senior spies and analysts say having a political ally as DNI may not make much of a difference at this point. Trump pays only sporadic attention to his daily briefings, routinely ignores analysis that contradicts his own views, and in many cases pursues policies that analysts have concluded are fruitless or misguided.”

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) on Monday introduced a resolution condemning socialism, taking to the Senate floor to blast Democratic policies he said would lead to “complete government control,” The Hill reports.

Said Daines: “A radical, socialist, far-left movement is growing across this country. And it has taken root as the new voice of the Democratic Party … Today we make a choice. Freedom or Socialism. I choose freedom.”

The Senate lost a bid to override President Trump’s veto and block arms sales to Saudi Arabia to punish the kingdom for the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi, Bloomberg reports.