No time like the present to do absolutely nothing, eh? Literally. Nothing’s even on the schedule until May 5 because GOP senators are so busy explaining to voters back home why they couldn’t possibly take a vote on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. Hey—it takes time, energy, and a lot of imagination to defend the indefensible. But that’s not the only part of the job Mitch McConnell’s chamber isn’t doing, reports Lauren Fox.
In a presidential election year with party conventions hitting in July and the battle to preserve the fragile Republican majority on in the Senate, lawmakers will spend more time away from Washington this year than any other time since 1956, according to a report in Politico. The news outlet reports that right now the Senate is on track to work just 124 days this year.
As Politico points out, it's not uncommon for lawmakers to spend time campaigning back home in an election year, but McConnell promised to make his tenure about getting the Senate back on a rigorous work schedule including a spike in Friday work days. So far, as Politico writes, the Senate has had just three of those this year, with no votes scheduled.
Three “work” Fridays with no votes? Nice “work” if you can get it.
Maybe Mitch has just been using Merrick Garland as a red herring to direct attention away from all the other work his caucus isn’t doing. If all goes as planned, he’ll be able to claim fewer Senate work days than any Majority Leader in 60 years. Pretty slick, Mitch, pretty slick.
Let’s retire Mitch’s “leadership”—please donate $3 to turn the Senate blue. The future of the Supreme Court depends on it.