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McConnell’s health complicates looming government funding crisis [1]
['Daily Kos Staff']
Date: 2023-07-28
The state of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s health has been one of the mostly closely guarded secrets in the Senate. But the wall of silence fellow Republicans have built around him is finally showing some cracks after he froze up at the microphone for nearly 20 seconds during a Wednesday press conference.
That’s as good an indication of his fragile condition as we’re going to get, because McConnell isn’t going to say anything. He continues to stonewall questions about his health, just like he did after the fall last March that put him out of commission for weeks, and after the other falls he’s had recently.
His press office tweeted out a photo of him meeting with constituents Thursday in what looked like a “nothing to see here” effort. His office also offered a terse update with the slightest hint of a warning: “Leader McConnell appreciates the continued support of his colleagues, and plans to serve his full term in the job they overwhelmingly elected him to do.”
His colleagues, however supportive they might be, are now openly speculating about his future. That’s a significant change from last spring, after the serious fall in which he broke a rib and suffered a concussion, when his colleagues were quick to say he was “in the swing of things” and “anxious” to be back at work after a week in the hospital and a stint in a rehab center. He was sidelined for weeks with that injury. His Republican colleagues went out of their way to stress that McConnell was fine, talking to them regularly, and still in charge.
Now, however, the cracks are showing. Puck News reporter Abby Livingston revealed, “Over the past month, a startling number of my conversations with Republicans on the Hill have taken an unsolicited turn toward the question of Mitch McConnell’s potential retirement.” That also came up in NBC News interviews with Republican senators.
One senator who is close to McConnell and only spoke to NBC on the condition of anonymity said “I kind of do” think he should step down, and that the “murmurings” about McConnell’s leadership capacity are inevitable. “I’d hate to see it forced on him. You can do these things with dignity, or it becomes less dignified. And I hope he does it in a dignified way—for his own legacy and reputation.”
Others said things like, “People think that he’s not hearing well,” adding, “I think that he is just not processing.” The same senator says that while he is “intellectually sharp” and “bright on a whole host of issues, including baseball,” he is lately “not the go-to guy for ‘How are things going?’ … It’s been noticeable in the last few weeks.”
McConnell is “definitely slower with his gait,” said another Republican senator, adding that he “doesn’t address” issues of his health in closed-door meetings with colleagues.
Even close McConnell ally Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is expressing some uncertainty. Back in March, he told reporters that McConnell was "champing at the bit" to get back to work. After this episode, he expressed less confidence. “I don’t know how much longer he will want to serve, but I support him as long as he wants the job,” Cornyn said. A gruff Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa didn’t even bother with the thoughts and prayers most of his colleagues gave lip service to, saying he wants to know "what went wrong" with McConnell in this episode.
All of which suggests that McConnell’s grasp on his conference is slipping. But you don’t necessarily need anonymous quotes from gossipy senators to see there’s something of a leadership vacuum in the Republican conference. Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s ongoing and politically damaging hold on military promotions is a good indicator. Tuberville, who is a freshman senator, has created a legitimate military readiness crisis and a black eye for Senate Republicans. If the ongoing obstruction affected anything but the military, McConnell might be relishing that. But it is the military and it has blown up into a damaging political story. A fully functioning McConnell would probably have shut Tuberville down weeks ago.
That’s one reason why McConnell’s abilities and leadership intentions matter beyond the palace intrigue and gossip. Here’s another: The last four months of the year are going to be fraught for Congress as lawmakers try to resolve funding issues. Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s House is completely dysfunctional, and the Senate needs to be working at full capacity. Senate Republicans need to be in a position to stamp down their House colleagues and not be tied up in internal machinations over a succession fight.
Right now the odds of a government shutdown are very high, and to avoid that the nation needs at least half of Congress to be functioning. It’s already hard enough to achieve that in the Senate, where Democrats have a tenuous one-seat majority. The absence of a single senator can derail the Senate for days. A rudderless Senate GOP makes it even more complicated.
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