Be careful what you wish for.
Here's a story about the trouble the new Senate Majority Leader is
about to find himself in.
The New Cruzians Are Ready to Make Life Hell for Mitch McConnell
Now that's a title. It's also almost certainly true (cc
PolitiFact) because the dynamics of the new Senate will be pitting long timers like Mitch McConnell, who has been making promises about not shutting down the government again and whatnot, against all of Santa's craziest reindeer.
McConnell’s difficult job will be made enormously more complicated by the makeup of his incoming three-seat majority. It includes at least three senators eyeing a run for president (Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul), and 11 new Republican members, three of whom have been pegged by grassroots activists as the conservative cavalry riding in as reinforcements for the Cruz wing of the party.
Those three would be the the car wreck in waiting Joni Ernst, Senator Tom "ISIS" Cotton, and Ben Sasse, whose "grassroots" claim to fame is, apparently, not being able to get along with Mitch McConnell. Neither of them has any particular interest in making the Senate work, for any value of "work" that a Senate longtimer like McConnell would plan on. They were elected to set fires and burn things down. Conservatives are expecting them to work with Ted Cruz to turn the stuffy Senate into the more conspiracy-minded and twitchy House.
In a theoretically rational world, these "New Cruzians" would be balanced by the three senators looking at presidential bids, all of whom have about a year to prove they're Serious Leaders capable of governing in order to convince voters they could handle the top job. Don't count on it. It is true that to be considered a Serious Leader in past days you had to prove yourself capable of governing, but there's no particular evidence that that is still true in today's Republican party. One of the presidential contenders is Ted Cruz himself, so he's right out as a voice of reason; he'll be campaigning on how badly he's damaged the government, not how well he's made the gears turn. Marco Rubio's leadership consists of walking back everything reasonable he's ever said about immigration, lest he get crossways with a base that wasn't having any of it, so there's not likely to be much new help from that quarter. And Rand Paul is, like Cruz, a brand built on stubborn opposition and contrarianism. Of the three, Rubio is the only one not actively hated by party leadership, which is likely the slogan he'll be putting on his 2016 bumper stickers.
The net result here is that you've got a new Senate majority made up of people who all need to prove to their bases that they're against whatever Obama is for, whether that be in immigration reform, budgetary matters, or breathing. All of them would be heavily damaged by agreeing to any compromise with Obama on anything. Mitch McConnell now has to help keep the country running with a three-vote majority of people like that.
And you thought John Boehner cried a lot.