Posted on 03/17/2021 7:39:45 PM PDT by RandFan
The Kentucky legislature has passed a bill that would require a governor to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat with a member of the departed senator’s party in a move sure to spark the political rumor mill around Frankfort.
The bill would require a sitting governor to choose a replacement for a vacant Senate seat from a list of three candidates chosen by the top leadership of the former senator’s political party.
Both houses of Kentucky’s legislature are controlled by Republican supermajorities. They likely have the votes to override a veto that Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, could issue.
Kentucky’s two U.S. Senate seats are held by Republicans, both of whom have had health challenges in the last few years — but both of whom say they aren’t going anywhere any time soon.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), 79, suffered a fractured shoulder in a fall in 2019. He had triple bypass surgery in 2003. In 2020, he was photographed with bruised and bandaged hands, which he has declined to explain.
“I can just tell you that I’m just fine. And I can’t believe y’all have played with that all week long,” McConnell told The Washington Post in October.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), 58, was assaulted by a neighbor in 2017, an attack that left him with five broken ribs. Part of Paul’s lung was removed in 2019 as a consequence of the attack.
Both senators intend to stick around.
“This bill improves how vacancies are currently filled and guarantees Kentucky would not go without representation in the U.S. Senate for an extended period of time,” McConnell said in a statement. “It would also ensure Kentucky voters have the ability to choose who they think will best represent them in a timely manner, as opposed to leaving that decision to the governor, regardless of party.”
Stephanie Penn, McConnell’s spokeswoman, said the minority leader is not leaving.
“Dr. Paul fully intends to serve out the remainder of this term and the next one too,” said Kelsey Cooper, Paul’s spokeswoman.
In comments to The Associated Press last week, Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers (R) acknowledged that the bill had fueled speculation about McConnell’s health. Stivers said he raised the prospect with McConnell.
“Let me make this definitive statement: He is not sick, he is not leaving — maybe to some people’s chagrin — but he plans to be there,” Stivers told the AP.
Paul’s seat comes up for election in 2022. McConnell won reelection to a seventh term in 2020, with 58 percent of the vote.
Kentucky would be the seventh state to require a governor to choose a member of the former senator’s political party, following Arizona, Hawaii, Maryland, North Carolina, Utah and Wyoming.
It’s only right. Now if only McConnell would quit.
A Ditch-B-Gone Bill?
Hear, Hear!
I ready to embrace some change.
Both of the Senators from Kentucky are rotten-to-the-core. McConnell is the most repugnant GOPee figure since McCain was around. And Paul has revealed himself to be just another GOPee scumbag since he voted for The Big Steal. I won’t vote for either of them. GOPee Delenda Est!
I think you’ll find it was the state legislatures that sent the delegates not Rand. He felt he had to affirm it. Your beef should be with the legislatures.
Someone can correct me if I’m wrong
Rand Paul is not the problem.
“just another GOPee scumbag since he voted for The Big Steal.”
You keep repeating this in a number of my threads and it’s NOT TRUE.
He voted to certify the delegates sent by the State Legislatures just like every other senator.
Your problem is with the State Legislatures - many GOP controlled - that sent Biden delegates.
Rand explained that he did not believe it is his role to reject delegates sent by a State Legislature as it would END the Electoral College as we knew it and set a terrible precedent i.e. Congress picking the president.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong and do it with facts..
Speaking of RAT governors are Newsome and Cuomo still governors?
GOP governor lost in a very close election.
KY has a history of electing Dems to state-wide office, although they’re a dying breed.
Dude! You must party with Harry Reid!
Here is what Rand said about certifying the delegates.
Amendment10 please read the thread and weigh in.
What is the correct constitutional position? Recognizing the State delegates or voting them down and Congress picking delegates ??
Rand Paul:
“The vote today is not a protest; the vote today is literally to overturn the election! Voting to overturn state-certified elections would be the opposite of what states’ rights Republicans have always advocated for. This would doom the electoral college forever. It was never intended by our founders that Congress have the power to overturn state-certified elections. My oath to the Constitution doesn’t allow me to disobey the law. I cannot vote to overturn the verdict of the states.”
DrP’s problem is with the states - GOP controlled - that sent the Biden delegates.
“...both of whom have had health challenges....” who writes this crap? When lunatics keep trying to kill you that’s a “health challenge”?
I hate moronic “reporters.” Yes there is a GOP supermajority in Kentucky. No, it doesn’t matter. A simple majority can override a governor’s veto in Kentucky.
“Every bill which shall have passed the two Houses shall be presented to the Governor. If he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to the House in which it originated, which shall enter the objections in full upon its journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, a majority of all the members elected to that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be considered, and if approved by a majority of all the members elected to that House, it shall be a law; but in such case the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the members voting for and against the bill shall be entered upon the journal of each House respectively.”
You won’t hear facts from that pathetic Democrat Soros sucking moron who
simply parrots a slogan as if it is some magical incantation.
He’s a complete utter moron and completely powerless.
“How can a state with republican super-majorities in both houses elect a RAT governor?”
It does seem bizarre until you know that every news outlet, TV, news paper, is virulently liberal and did everything they could to demonize the former Republican Gov and hold up then KY Atty Gen. Beshear. While Atty Gen, Beshear used his office to attack and undo everything Gov Bevins did. All of this took its toll on the Kentucky people and then the Teachers Unions jumped in and you’d have thought that Gov Bevins was the devil incarnate. Sounds a lot like what was done to President Trump.
Probably fighting off Pee-lousy over at the House of Fools.
Rand Paul is an idiot. His father always knew better.
If the state delegates that were fraudulently certified and sent to Congress were the result of a fraudulent electoral process there is no Constitutional requirement to accept them. If I am knowingly in possession of stolen goods wy acceptance of them makes me an accessory to the crime, not an innocent party. I have no legitimate claim to the stolen goods and must relinquish them. Pence and Paul and all the other quisling traitors in the GOPee who voted to accept The Big Steal are craven cowards and stupid fools, not honorable heroes. Their arguments justifying their failure to defend the Constitution are rank bullschitt. The fraudulent delegates should have been refused and remanded back to the state legislatures to put them right or to have the state legislatures vote for delegates themselves. Every one of the GOPee quisling traitors who voted to accept The Big Steal should rot in hell because they killed the 245 year old Constitutional Republic that was the greatest political gift to mankind in the history of the planet. That Republic is now over, likely for all time. Eff Rand Paul! GOPee Delenda Est!
Because of Rand Paul’s failure to uphold the Constitution and his subsequent mendacity in trying to defend his indefensible failure, Rand Paul is a prevaricotor and a hypocrite cross-dressing as a libertarian. Eff Rand Paul! GOPee Delenda Est!
Amen, take Romney, Collins, Murkowski too.
Your argument fails because it was the legislatures (GOP ones) that sent the delegates and they weren’t going to change them. Also, they couldn’t refuse them as they didn’t have the numbers in the House and to do so would have gutted the Electoral college. It cuts both ways.
The Big Steal happened in a handful of counties where there were fraudulent voting in some states and were accepted by the GOP legislatures in MI, PA, WI, GA. Your beef SHOULD be with them, not with the few decent members of Congress and trolling my friggin threads with your constant lies and smears.
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