“McConnell wouldn’t dare try to oust him from the Senate”
Can the Senate leadership oust a duly elected member?
“Each House [of Congress] may determine the Rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member.”
That’s the only way.
“Can the Senate leadership oust a duly elected member?”
theoretically. but since founded in 1789, the U.S. Senate has expelled only 15 members, but 14 of those expulsions were for supporting the Confederacy, which means only one member has been expelled in the entire history of the U.S. Senate for reasons unrelated to the Civil War. Interestingly enough, the Senate was even unable to expel the only four Senators who were actually convicted of crimes.
https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Expulsion_Censure.htm
It’s all bluster about actually expelling Moore (or anyone else for that matter). At most, they might insert a demerit certificate (censure) in his “permanent record”, but I seriously doubt there’s enough actual evidence to actually do even that. Besides, Moore has already been expelled from the Alabama Supreme Court TWICE, so I suspect being censured by the Senate would be seen as a badge of honor by him and his constituency.
Not directly, no, but McConnell controls legislative calendar and see to it that the vote is taken.
That said, why would Mitch McConnell wait for "the coming weeks" for Franken to take his time about resigning? CNN is reporting that 32 Democrat Senators are calling for Al Franken to resign, so Franken's expulsion is a sure thing.
McConnell could have forced the expulsion vote on Franken last week; he doesn't have to wait for the outcome of the Alabama election. But McConnell didn't do it. He will wait until it best fits HIS needs, instead of controlling the media news cycle for Republicans.
And McConnell's need is to have leverage to force Moore out after he wins in Alabama. Therefore, McConnell will wait until then for Franken to resign, so he can demand a "bipartisan" purge in the Senate. If Franken went last week, the pressure would have been reduced on Moore after he wins. If McConnell ties Moore's expulsion vote to Franken's vote and schedules them for the same day, that will put enormous pressure on the other Republican Senators to vote for Moore's ouster after Franken's.
That's how Senate leadership can manipulate the ouster of a member.
-PJ