BREAKING: GOP Senators Now Believe They Have The Votes To Block Witnesses

The Gateway Pundit ^ | January 29, 2020 | Eric A. Blair

[conservativepoet]

There’s a reason Mitch McConnell has been Senate Majority Leader for the past 13 years: He gets the job done.

And the biggest part of that job is keeping the GOP caucus, however necessary. At this point, he appears to have pulled off the feat once again.

[Syncro]

Wishy washy?

Fighting against strong conservative candidates and lobbying for dems and republicans to vote for eGOP Swamp critters?

And working to get dems elected instead of strong cknsertives6.

I was on the ground in the deep South working for strong conservative candidates and seeing them lose because of McConnell.

Yeah he has helped get judges placed but could have gotten a lot more appointed if he really supported Trump better.

[Syncro]

Troll LOL.

TrolLOLOL!

See my previous reply.

[FRinCanada2]

I don’t understand why the Trump Team doesn’t just push the narrative to the fact that the House managers need to go back to their committees of jurisdiction and have more hearings with witnesses from BOTH sides. The most devastating fact to this whole process is that Schiff and Nadler both refused to allow a minority witness day as part of the committee’s investigation process. In doing so they have no credible argument to force the Senate to do their job and try and turn a trial into an investigation.

Deposing witnesses in a House committee IS the proper venue not trying to turn the US Senste into a investigation committee.

[trebb]

I stopped “critiquing” Mitch during the Kavanaugh debacle...between then and now, he hasn’t done anything to get me back to slamming him...especially as he’s been churning out Judges on a regular basis.

[BuckeyeGOP]

Nice to see Nancy’s prayers have been answered

[a little elbow grease]

"She is drinking heavily, as usual..."

___________

And he ..............

…. one of Mitch’s bigger smiles

;-)

[Dave W]

It’s because the process in the House is over. Done, as in finished.

[gbaker]

Yep heard them over and over

[Alberta's Child]

I don’t understand why the Trump Team doesn’t just push the narrative to the fact that the House managers need to go back to their committees of jurisdiction and have more hearings with witnesses from BOTH sides

Why would a defense attorney tell the prosecution how to make a stronger case? The best approach is to get the acquittal and go home ... and tell the House managers to screw themselves.

[chesley]

Ah, yes. But dreams, including nightmares don’t have to take these details into account. I used to have nightmares about being eaten alive by piranhas as a child. Even then I knew it was unlikely that I’d ever even see a piranha. Although, of course by now I have.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

McConnell plays the averages. He won't play if he thinks the odds are low, and too often the Republicans convince themselves that the odds are lower than they really are based on MSM coverage and Democrat manipulations.

I don't believe that is true. I think McConnell knows the odds better than anyone. And it is not based on MSM coverage and Democrat manipulations, but on direct conversations with Republican Senators who are going to be casting those votes.

This was a perfect example of that. On Monday, he deliberately lets it leak that he may not have the votes so as to put pressure on the fence-sitting Republican Senators. Wednesday morning, he has a long, private meeting with Murkowski. After that meeting, it leaks that the GOP now does have the votes.

What do you suppose he and Murkowski talked about in that meeting?

Mitch wins so many close votes because he knows exactly how each of them is going to vote, and because of intense personal diplomacy, gets the caucus as close as it possible to the results he wants.

Now, if he does all that and he knows he's short votes based on all those conversations, he won't push for a vote he knows he's going to lose. And I think that's why some conservatives get mad at him -- because they want those losing votes just to get the RINO's on the record.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

McConnell also doesn't support moderate GOP challengers to conservative incumbents. So it's not the moderate/conservative part that matters -- it's the fact that he isn't going to work against incumbents because that would alienate a bunch of his caucus, and make it much harder to whip their votes on critical issues.

He's also very savvy politically, and isn't going to support a GOP Senate primary candidate that he believes can't win the seat in the general election.

IN which specific Senate races did he support a Democrat over the Republican?

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

I don’t understand why the Trump Team doesn’t just push the narrative to the fact that the House managers need to go back to their committees of jurisdiction and have more hearings with witnesses from BOTH sides.

Because that would just prolong the entire process, and basically amount to an endorsement of the House impeaching him again. The President and GOP rightly want this whole thing to be over, not encourage it to be prolonged with more hearings in the House.

And even if it did go back, and even if the Dems did technically permit the Republicans to call witnesses, the Dem committee chairs likely would halt questioning they didn't see as "relevant", etc.. It would just be more screen time for the left to air their smears to the viewing public.

[Political Junkie Too]

It's fine with me if we differ in opinion on that point.

I think McConnell is sometimes afraid to let things play out some more and take the chance that events will help his side sway the opinions and votes of his members.

Some people assume the worst case, and then make decisions based on that worst case. I don't think the worst case is ever the final case unless one makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy and contributes to making the worst case possible -- like compromising to early in the negotiations.

-PJ

[Engedi]

Guaranteed this won’t be last impeachment attempt. They will not stop. There are still in place and employed in deep state that will be listening and sharing with Dems everything the President says and there are those will accuse him without evidence. More third party hearsay whistle blowers to come.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks a little elbow grease.

[frank ballenger]

Comedian Robert Klein (1970s) had a routine where he described the college marching band playing “I Think I’m Going Out of My Head”, and then forming a giant head on the field and proceeding to go out of it.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

Fair enough.

I think McConnell's logic is this:

There are times when he is going to ask his members to make votes that are politically very difficult for them. That's particularly true for people like Collins who are from a blue state. If he pushes them hard in a losing cause, they're going to resent it, and it is going to be harder for him to get their vote the next time around. In some cases, like Collins', enough votes like that may result in her being replaced by a Democrat whose votes McConnell will never get.

So, he uses his power as Majority Leader as strategically as he can. If he pushes Collins hard on a vote that he really needs, then maybe he lets her go against him on another, non-critical vote. His way of doing things builds loyalty to him among the caucus, because they know he won't hang them out to dry. If they're going to take a political beating, it'll be for a winning cause.

I think that's one reason he was so furious at McCain on ObamaCare. He had pushed all the RINOs really hard for their vote, and got their commitment to support the repeal based on McCain also being in the majority. But when all those other Senators had cast that politically risky vote, and then McCain walked up there and went the other way despite his promise to McConnell, that left a bunch of GOP Senators out to dry because McConnell had promised them a win. He despised McCain after that.

I can see people disagreeing with the idea that McConnell's approach is the best way to win critical votes. I just don't like it when he gets attacked as some kind of traitor or RINO himself. He's playing odds as strategically as he can, and if he's wrong, it's an honest error in strategy.

[Cinnamontea]

Cory Gardner, who Im not sure was one of those “on the fence” has come out and said he is AGAINST more witnesses

Thanks. I thought I'd heard this, but I wasn't sure.

[Political Junkie Too]

Again, generally I agree with what you said.

Where I differ is in the suggestion that Susan Collins is at risk in Maine, and therefore she must be coddled. That's the kind of stuff that I'm talking about.

The problem is that Maine is not a frequently polled place. RealClearPolitics has the most recent Collins poll from last June, which shows Collins +14 over her competitors in a 3-way race, and +16 over the Democrat in a 2-way race.

A DDG search brings up two more Collins polls, an AARP-sponsored poll from July of likely voters showing Collins +17 over the Democrat, and a Public Policy Polling poll from October showing Collins -3 against an unnamed generic Democrat.

So, it's a mixed bag. I know that the media is pressing the big drop in generic polling, probably to scare Collins. I don't know enough to say if it's true or not, if it's just an outlier poll in an otherwise poll-less state, or if she should be rightly concerned. The consideration for Collins is that there are virtually no other candidates to run against her, which is why she's so far ahead when paired to a known person rather than the PPP generic Democrat.

I'm assuming that McConnell and Collins are taking this as a worst case scenario, that Collins has fallen from +17 to -3 because of impeachment. I'd rather think that people are more likely to vent to pollsters when it's an unnamed opponent, but will still go with the person they know when the time comes to vote.

But then, I'm not running the Senate and I'm not running in Maine.

-PJ