The wheels fell of Mitch McConnell's claims of a new, effective Senate in the early hours of Saturday morning when a majority of senators refused to be bullied into supporting his plan for a simple Patriot Act extension. That's left Democrats and Republicans alike
wondering what in the hell McConnell was thinking in his entire strategy.
On Wednesday afternoon, senior Republicans said there's no clear way out of the mess even as they were generally hopeful about a resolution by the time lawmakers return to Washington. Privately, though, some of McConnell's allies believe the only escape hatch would be to let the [House-passed] USA Freedom Act pass the Senate. […]
"Sen. McConnell genuinely wants the Senate to work. And right now it clearly isn't," Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), one of a handful of Democrats to meet one-on-one with McConnell this year, said Wednesday. "I genuinely do not understand Majority Leader McConnell's strategy and views on this issue. He has departed from Speaker [John] Boehner, many in his own caucus and my caucus."
The episode has sparked a round of recriminations between House and Senate Republicans—and raised questions about what McConnell, regarded as a seasoned tactician by nearly everyone on Capitol Hill, was thinking.
The man McConnell replaced at the head of the Senate, who never had a strategy blow up as catastrophically as this one, diagnoses McConnell's problem.
"He defiantly said we're going to do all this. [But] things happen," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in an interview last week about McConnell's plans to finish the surveillance law before adjourning for recess. "You just never know; you can't be defiant."
As of now, it's not clear whether McConnell has learned that or not. Lobbyists working the issue
tell Bloomberg news negotiations in the Senate have stalled. What's more, a House Republican leadership aide
told Roll Call on Tuesday that there were no negotiations happening between House and Senate leadership to come to agreement. As of now, House leadership is insisting the only option is for the Senate to pass their bill.
So they're coming back for a rare Sunday session, needing to pass something by 8:00 p.m., the administration says, to preserve the three provisions of the Patriot Act that are expiring: dragnet surveillance; a program to track "lone wolf" terrorists not affiliated with known organizations; and roving wiretaps of individuals rather than devices, to track people using multiple devices. Right now it looks like McConnell might still be relying on his already failed strategy—a hope that panic over the real, hard expiration of these programs will scare lawmakers enough into giving him his way. So far, that doesn't seem to be working.