The Shamelessness of Mitch McConnell
Not to mention impotence.

So, the former leader of Senate Republicans continues his brazen shamelessness, this time in a piece written for Foreign Affairs, The Price of American Retreat: Why Washington Must Reject Isolationism and Embrace Primacy. In many ways, it is what would have once passed as standard Republican boilerplate on defense and foreign policy, as it downplays and criticizes Democratic administrations while making it sound like we need to spend more money on defense. The phrase “hard power” (as if the US has gone soft) is deployed throughout. We need more weapons, dontcha know.
On that point, I will note this:
And each year, a larger portion of the defense budget pays for things other than weapons; nearly 45 percent of it now goes toward pay and benefits.
This is where it seems important to note that “pay and benefits” means “people.” You can use the weapons without, you know, people. The armed forces are made of people.
I will add that I find the notion put forward in the piece that the last four years have been a period of “weakness” and that we need “strength” to be partisan pablum.
But, of course, that’s not the shameless part.
The shameless part is that McConnell helped keep Trump in politics and supported his bid for election. Now is a little late to worry about what a second Trump presidency means. Moreover, it comes across as a sad joke that McConnell now thinks that giving interviews and allowing his name to be placed on Foreign Affairs articles means a tinker’s damn at this point. One of the ironies here, and maybe some amount of justice, is that McConnell was clearly motivated by his desire to maintain power and influence, and so was unwilling to spend the needed capital to stop Trump right after January 6th. And yet, here he stands, impotent and unimportant, trying to show that he is a Serious Person and a Leader in the GOP.
Too late, Mitch.
Far too late.
If you wanted history to remember you fondly, you should have done everything in your power to see that Trump was convicted in his second impeachment trial and barred from further political office. And yes, I think that if McConnell had come out against Trump, it would have given permission, and courage, in that moment for enough of his co-partisans to follow suit. I absolutely see McConnell as a key architect of our present moment.
I will not go through the entire piece. As noted, it is not especially remarkable. But let me note a few items
First, this was an absolutely infuriating line: “And these three U.S. adversaries [China, Russia, and Iran], along with North Korea, are now working together more closely than ever to undermine the U.S.-led order that has underpinned Western peace and prosperity for nearly a century.”
It is infuriating because the president-elect is clearly hellbent on “undermine[ing] the U.S.-led order that has underpinned Western peace and prosperity for nearly a century.”
Trump does not respect NATO, is actively insulting allies like Canada, and is threatening trade wars that will undermine the very basis of the global economy. Forget what damage Russia, China, and Iran want to foment, the danger is soon to be coming from inside the White House.
Not to mention the glaring sidenote that Trump admires Xi and has a crush on Putin. In regards to Russia, specifically, I expect that he will end up being instrumental, in some way, to affirming, if not outright blessing, Russia’s aggressive seizure of land from Ukraine. That alone would undermine the peace and prosperity McConnell is allegedly worried about.
Second, this passage was nice and galling:
But Trump sometimes undermined these tough policies through his words and deeds. He courted Putin, he treated allies and alliance commitments erratically and sometimes with hostility, and in 2019 he withheld $400 million in security assistance to Ukraine. These public episodes raised doubts about whether the United States was committed to standing up to Russian aggression, even when it actually did so.
So, let’s not forget that Trump held up that assistance in an attempt to force Ukraine into digging up dirt on Hunter Biden, and that attempt to use public funds for personal political gain led to his first impeachment. This was not simply him being erratic, or even hostile.
It was him being corrupt.
McConnell owns the Trump administration and all of its neo-isolationism. If McConnell wants to prevent what is coming, he needs to go back in time and tell himself to grow a spine and use all that power and influence he clearly values for something useful. If McConnell had voted to convict, it would have only required nine more Republicans to have barred Trump from future office.
But, sure, writing Foreign Affairs articles after he has been reelected should do the trick! No doubt Trump has read it (*snicker*) and finds himself duly convinced!
I was in Sen McConnells office for a meeting with one of his Staffers not long ago—he happened to walk through the waiting room on his way to his office. Quite a beautiful office, I might add—however— I was struck by how visibly frail and elderly he looked in person. We exchanged greetings and he disappeared behind closed doors. No way that guy should still be working a full-time job
I suspect that he is merely a fundraising and Party figure head—which means his only objective is staying in power and keeping the Party in power above all else. He has very knowledgable staffers that handle the governance part.
Had he taken the Liz Cheney route—he would have been steamrolled, primaried, and probably lost re-election.
@Jim Brown 32:
It is worth noting that he had just won re-election in 2020, so would have been safe in that regard for some time.
Indeed, given his re-election in 2020, his age, and his position, he was arguably at the zenith of his power and influence in 2021.
And, I think that if he had stood up at the moment, the trajectory of the party would have been altered enough that it wouldn’t have been an issue and people like Liz Cheney would probably still be in Congress.
I’ve been furious with McConnell’s Machiavellian nonsense for years. His “ends justifying the means” nonsense is why we are even talking about isolationist policies and making polio vaccines opt-in–to put a small light on just two of the issues he’s decided to poke his shameless head out on recently.
Hubris, thy name is McConnell. You break it, you buy it, Mitch. Have fun with this sh!tshow, you’ve earned every miserable minute of trying to keep this flaming garbage heap in check. Good luck! (not really, though, I’ll be sitting over here deep in the Schadenfreude.)
Trump OWES Mitch McConnell BIG TIME.
I believe that Trump is again the president-elect solely because Mitch McConnell did not aggressively pursue conviction following the second impeachment.
I also believe that McConnell, through a combination of dilatory and expediting tactics, enabled Trump to turn the Supreme Court into what it is perceived as today – Trump’s Court.
McConnell will probably be remembered as one of the most powerful, unprincipled Machiavellian senators of the post-WW2 era.
McConnell was incredibly effective at what he was doing. He should get most fo the credit for the Supreme Court shift and all of the federal judges denied to Obama and placed for Trump, giving us all time greats like Cannon. However, at all times he placed party above country. I guess being spineless made that easier.
Steve
@Jen:
As per age, and @Jim Brown 32‘s observation, his remaining minutes are few.
As Taylor’s piece bears out, it is not that he does not care about his legacy, it is that he is as evil as Weekend Update’s running joke makes him seem.
@al Ameda:
FTFY
Establishment Republicans are in denial. They desperately want Trump to be a (somewhat) normal president. You see the same thing with the usual suspects in the comment section over here.
I would not be surprised if this is McConnell primarily trying to convince himself that everything is A-OK.
Perhaps there will even be a gesture along the lines of the Marburg speech in his future: something far too little, far too late, and, of course, completely ineffectual.
Absolutely! Sadly, this architect’s design team includes almost every Republican in the Senate. Even the 7 GOPers who voted to convict have been weak-kneed since then.
@Jim Brown 32: Had he taken the Liz Cheney route—he would have been steamrolled, primaried, and probably lost re-election.
But he could be proud that he had done the right thing, and acted in the best interests of the country and…
Sorry, my bad, I forgot we’re talking about Mitch McConnell here. For some reason I thought it was a person who actually had a soul.
@drj:
I fear the attitude of Establishment Republicans is still what Grover Norquist said.
They’d rather have someone more couth. But what they need is a Reagan, or W, or Trump that has enough weird working class charisma to get elected, and is dumb enough to believe the nonsense he has to say. They’d like to have someone who makes it possible for conservatives to believe conservatives are our best people, but as long as they get their tax cuts and deregulation, they’ll be good with Trump. Again.
You can get away with a lot when your assumptions work out.
I bet Mitch assumed that 1) el felon wouldn’t be the candidate either because 1) he’d be in prison, or 2) he’d lose the primary against just about anyone. He must also have assumed Biden would beat him in the general election (I wonder if Mitch needed a reboot after the debate).
He really puts the ass in assumptions.
@Kathy: Classic collective action problem. They all want him gone. None of them want to be the guy who stands up to do anything about it. They see what happened to Cheney.
We can make this simple.
All Republicans are liars.
There are no exceptions.
This is because their platform consists of socially unacceptable bigotry so they have to invent all sorts of lies to conceal it.
@Kurtz:
I just hope he lives long enough to see us name a polio outbreak after him.
Beth wins the internet today.
Steve
Weep not when the Devil’s minion whines.
You know, I get why y’all are angry with him.
Really. I just shake my head at this stuff.
AND, I would like him to be successful with what he’s trying to do now. Which is to rally Republicans and conservatives to oppose their guess as to Trump’s direction in foreign policy.
He says things the way he says them because it’s more likely to make an impact. In his judgement. I generally think that McConnell’s political judgement is pretty good, even though his decision about how to vote in the second impeachment vote appears to have been strategically lacking.
@Jay L Gischer:
Oh, his political judgment is stellar, absolutely top notch. The problem is 1. he is absolutely evil, and 2. has absolutely zero conscience.
The world will become profoundly better the moment he dies. I hope it’s slow, tortuous, and he retains his mind through his rotting failure.