“You can primary Murkowski and Collins ‘til your blue in the face. They’ll coast to victory and pay it no mind.”
—
Not worried for now about them since not till 2020 and 2022 so why bring them up?
“So the Senate remains RINO infested, whatever Bannon does, at least for the foreseeable future,”
— Really? Two are already out before we’ve really even started primary season (Strange and Corker). So you really think Wicker, Flake, Heller maybe even Fishcher, Barrasso and Hatch are completely safe in this environment? McConnell is meeting with Trump today. He wouldn’t be doing that just for manners.
“although Bannon could take down a few vulnerable Democrats. That would sure be nice, and wouldn’t involve internecine blood letting, either.”
—Agreed. If not Kid Rock in MI then Lena Epstein is strong there as well. Love to see Heitkamp and Tester as well. Such liars they are. Classic mountain west democrats. Talk the good game back home then vote with Pelosi and Schumer in D.C.
“RINOs become irrelevant once you have a big enough majority.”
-At what level of majority? Even if we had the mighty 60 seats (then McConnell would just say we needed to have 70 for “strong consensus/bipartisanship and all that BS”) it still may not be enough. Think about it — let’s pretend we replaced 8 democrats next year with 8 hard core conservatives but none of the current RINO’s were replaced (leave Corker in there for purposes of this exercise). So now let’s subtract from that pretend number of 60 the number of RINO’s who could still scuttle MAGA bills coming out of their chamber:
Richard Shelby, Murkowski, Sullivan, McCain, Flake, John Boozman, Cory Gardner, Rubio, Isakson, Crapo, Collins, Cochran, Wicker, Blunt, maybe Steve Daines, maybe Fischer, Sasse, Heller, Tillis, Hoeven, Portman, maybe Toomey, Graham, Thune, Alexander, Cornyn, and Capito (won’t count WY Barrasso and Enzi becauce 50/50 on them). Then add on McConnell who’s the leader of it all so not counting the maybes that’s still 25 rino’s that could easily derail MAGA even with a solid 60 seat majority.
So no must disagree that having a large enough majority will neutralize the rino’s. The rino’s must be purged from the Senate/gop even if it means internecine warfare as unpleasant as that may seem.
The question isn’t, who isn’t a solidly pro-Trump senator. It’s who actually scuttled repeal and replace. And that’s McConnel with his feckless “leadership,” McCain, Murkowski and Collins. And for the time being, their presence will continue. That’s why I bring them up. So far, none of the distinguished gentlemen you mention have actively harmed MAGA, except for McCain, Collins and Murkowski, and McConnel. The rest voted for it, so shouldn’t get the guillotine for thinking anti-MAGA thoughts. Fratricide in the face of the enemy should not be done lightly. If we have the magic 60, McConnel might still be in the Senate, but he will not be the majority leader any longer, and the rest of them will not have their committee chairmanship, so they won’t be calling for a 70 majority any time soon.
And therein lies the answer to your question. McConnel wants to stay on as majority leader, and he knows that the conservative base is furious with him, so he’s begging Trump to pwease pwetty pwease wet him have one mowe chance. That’s also why he removed road blocks to judicial nominations going forward, as a peace offering.
If I were Trump I’d say, OK. You won’t get primaried in ‘20, but this is too little, too late. I’m throwing the issue of your continued leadership up to the caucus, and if the MAGA wolves rip you to shreds, it’ll be a good lesson to the rest of you RINOs, not that I’m taking sides, mind you. Have fun.