A humiliated Mitch McConnell was all threats and bluster on the Senate floor Tuesday after his capitulation to Democrats over the filibuster. McConnell has been blocking the new Senate majority—and much of President Biden's Cabinet from forming—so that he could preserve his ability to block absolute everything. Boy, is he a sore loser (and massive liar) or what?
He lobbed a lot of threats while waxing poetic about "minority rights," including a "guarantee" to make life sheer hell for Democrats (and the nation) "if Democrats ever attack the key Senate rules." Meaning, letting the minority rule through the filibuster. One of the things he threatened was tying the floor up in quorum calls, noting that "a quorum is 51 Senators and the Vice President does not count." He made a point of that: "The majority cannot even produce a quorum on their own and one could be demanded by any Senator at almost any time." So he's saying he'd put a Republican senator on the floor at all times to bring everything to a stop by demanding a quorum call, in which every senator would have to show up. He also warned that "committees need quorums to function as well, and will also be evenly split."
"If this majority went scorched-earth, this body would grind to a halt like we've never seen," he said, flamethrower in hand. Then he tweeted his threats again, just to make everyone understand how gargantuan of an asshole he is. Like that committee threat? Republican Lindsey Graham totally threw committee quorum rules out the window last fall to jam Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court nomination to the floor. Because rules and bipartisanship and comity mean so much to them.
The thing is, McConnell has to be prepared to make good on these threats. He has to make sure that if he starts things like forcing quorum calls, he can make good on them and have every one of his senators available to show up at his whim. The floor quorum is a constitutional requirement that cuts both ways. There would be consequences for Republicans if they they tried to get too cute on quorums. Senators have been dragged to the floor feet-first by the Sergeant at Arms staff for trying to play quorum games. If McConnell is going to try that tactic, he has to make sure he has every Republican there to respond—even Rand Paul, even Ted Cruz, who have shown a disdain for being at McConnell's beck and call in the past.
Tuesday's performance from him was just so much sour grapes, proving again that he doesn't give a fig about the institution of the Senate and never has. The loss of the filibuster is peanuts to what McConnell is threatening to do to blow the place up, all because the majority of voters in America thwarted his will by voting for Democrats. He remains intent on trying to fix it so that can't happen again.
Meanwhile, he's apparently still dragging his heels in negotiating the power-sharing agreement that will finally allow Democrats to take control of the committees. There is no indication yet on when the Senate will be voting on it.