Posted on 12/11/2010 2:06:06 PM PST by re_tail20
Nearly 200 cartoons hang on Sen. Mitch McConnell's office wall, each lampooning him for backing big money politics, vexing his foes and getting slammed through a basketball hoop by an airborne President Barack Obama.
At the halftime of Obama's first term, McConnell is the one soaring. Last month's elections that gave Republicans control of the House, more seats in the Senate and blew the Democrats into glum disarray gave McConnell, R-Ky., almost as much power over the government's direction as the president himself.
The looming expiration of tax cuts provided an early opportunity to exploit that clout. The White House came to McConnell for a deal. Quietly, McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden, colleagues in the Senate for decades, hashed out an agreement balanced with big victories, tough concessions — and heartburn for all concerned.
"We have the deal," McConnell told Biden.
"We are on," Biden responded.
No player benefited more than McConnell.
Whatever its fate, the agreement moved the 68-year-old Senate minority leader beyond the agenda-blocking role that defined him the past two years. There's now a fragile nexus between the Obama White House and congressional Republicans where there had been scant communication, a precedent for making policy together rather than standoffs.
The "Obama-McConnell" deal, as Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., derided it, put McConnell at the table with the president he has vowed to turn from office.
If the relationship holds, the Obama White House will be dealing with the Republicans' most agile negotiator, stone-faced, governed by discipline and swathed in Southern gentility. McConnell is a conservative ideologue at heart who operates as leader with cold pragmatism and a lawyerly approach to persuasion.
"I don't want the president to fail. I want him to change," McConnell says in almost every public forum.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Not really. He's still the minority leader.
Who will benefit from the influx of new GOP senators next year. Dingy Harry has lost his filibuster-proof super majority. The Democrats will need GOP votes to get anything done of consequence done next year. That gives McConnell a lot of power.
No kidding. Talk about hyperbole!
“McConnell is a conservative ideologue at heart”
I don’t think so! He gave up way too much on this POS deal and the dems are loading it with pork.
My thoughts EXACTLY. But I believe this is journalistic allowance to say such nonsense. Perhaps they are just trying to make McConnell look stupid not knowing his is in the exact position next year as this year.
Senator Reid as not had super majority in a very long time. In fact, he only had it a few months at most.
Okay, if I may speak without repercussion from those who are important, just where do "WE THE PEOPLE" fit in with this tossing around of power talk???
He had it for about a year
Stop disrupting the voice of the GOP.
It's the only conservative voice we have available politically!
(If the GOP politicians have their way)
Wonder how McConnell feels since Susan Collins de-nutted him on the DADT vote.
change from commie to socialist?
“”I don’t want the president to fail. I want him to change,” McConnell says in almost every public forum.”
Hey Mitch we don’t want him to change, we want you to perform you sworn duty and expose this commie traitor for what he is and run his a$$ out of town!!
Thanks. It was a year too long. :)
Well, I'm not prepared to defend him yet, I've been disappointed too often in the past. But lets see how he handles it. Just because the Dems are stuffing it with pork doesn't mean he has to agree to it. Let's see if he manages to get a decent deal, or agrees to kill it and do it over again in January.
Let's also see if he uses his newfound POWER to keep the Maine sisters in line. That will be a real leadership test.
Nothing wrong with power if it is used for the public good, and not for self agrandizement. Indeed, the typical problem with RINOs is that they have been too damned weak and spineless.
I completely agree. This provided another opportunity to place home state earmarks in the bill, increase the debt all the while having it appear as just a huge tax cut for the “rich”.
If the bill passes with all the pork then all the work to elect republicans and “conservatives” was wasted. Theyvfail on the first test with the power we provided them.
What a crock!
No, we haven’t taken control of the House or added to the senate yet. McConnel did this deal so he could get it done before the change in power.
He couldn’t get the 60th vote for cloture on an energy bill that would have drilled in ANWR back in 2005.
Norm Coleman just said
No.
Mitch shrugged.
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