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Josh Hawley's challenge to McConnell reflects MAGA ascendancy and Trump's dominance [1]
['Daily Kos Staff']
Date: 2023-11-03
MAGA Republicans are really feeling their oats. Donald Trump is dominating the 2024 Republican field. They installed a Bible-thumping democracy subverter as speaker of the House. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama is single-handedly blocking more than 370 military promotions over his distinctly minority view that U.S. troops shouldn't have abortion access.
What better time than now for a MAGA hanger-on to take a pipsqueak potshot at the leader of the Republican conference in the upper chamber?
"Why do we even elect leaders if they're not going to actually resolve differences within the conference?" Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, addressing Tuberville’s hold, told a gaggle of reporters Thursday.
CNN's Manu Raju had the temerity to follow up for specifics. "What should Republican leaders do?" Raju asked.
"Uh, like, actually get a solution," Hawley responded, drawing on years of experience throwing peanuts from the cheap seats. "I mean, what are they good for? What's Mitch McConnell doing?"
x Top Senate Rs making clear they are not supporting Tommy Tuberville's blockade
Thune backs Tuberville's goal "but I think how you go about that matters"
Cornyn says Tubs is "right on merits" but "we have a pressing" need to confirm nominees
But Hawley takes a shot at McConnell pic.twitter.com/VcUZ4SJjds — Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 2, 2023
To be clear, Hawley has no articulable ideas about how to resolve Tuberville's ideologically driven crusade against the Pentagon. But he did have an idea about how to remind Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that MAGA's waiting for him.
Hawley's a lightweight, but his threat carries the punch of a MAGA movement in ascendance. In the House, MAGA nihilists just held the GOP caucus hostage until the so-called moderates couldn't take it anymore and acquiesced to putting “MAGA Mike” Johnson third in line to the presidency.
For Hawley, who's surely green with envy over Rep. Matt Gaetz's wild success at ousting Kevin McCarthy, it's only a matter of time before McConnell and his allies suffer the same fate in the Senate.
It's not a question of numbers, it's a matter of will, as the MAGA takeover of the speakership demonstrated.
Now a similar drama is playing out in the Senate with a MAGA nihilist happily threatening the safety of the entire country over abortion. Will the relatively sane Senate Republicans—who currently outnumber the MAGA faction—muster the votes to join Democrats in passing a resolution to end Tuberville’s hold?
It may sound simple, but Senate Republicans, under the stewardship of McConnell, failed mightily when they had a chance to convict Donald Trump in 2021 and quash the MAGA movement. Instead, they took the path of least resistance.
One has to wonder if Senate Republicans finally get that the only way to defeat MAGA is to take it head on—even if they suffer some short-term losses on the way to cleansing the party. Probably not, but it’s worth wondering aloud since they haven’t quite caught on yet.
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[1] Url:
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