Moscow Mitch McConnell is tempering some of the heat he's taking back home over his completely unprincipled collusion with Donald Trump on impeachment as he usually does—with bribes for voters. The Senate majority leader put a point on the fact that he has all the power by getting nearly $1 billion worth of tax cuts and federal spending for Kentucky.
He touted the achievement in a press conference in Louisville, The Hill reported, saying he gives Kentucky "an advantage to punch above its weight" by being one of the four people who make decisions on where the money goes. And he made it entirely about his reelection campaign. "I saw a commercial from my likely opponent indicating that I was all that was wrong with Washington," he said, referring to an ad put out by Democrat Amy McGrath. "So I have a question for her here as we go into the new year: In what way would Kentucky have been better off without any of these items that I put in the year-end spending bill?" Notice he doesn't talk about the $200 million from Russia he helped engineer for the state by lifting sanctions against the country. Maybe he doesn't want Kentucky remembering that he's greased the skids for Putin's pals to start taking over the state's economy.
It's also astoundingly cynical. He's betting that the state's voters will overlook the fact that he's not even pretending to take his job as a defender of the Constitution seriously. Maybe it will work, but maybe it won't. It is becoming an issue for him, even in Kentucky. Here's the title of an op-ed running Thursday in The Louisville Courier Journal: "Donald Trump has violated his oath. Mitch McConnell is about to violate 2."
"Like all U.S. senators, congressional representatives, state governors and judges, and other officials, Sen. Mitch McConnell took this oath when he took office," writes Kent Greenfield, whose byline under the piece describes him as "a sixth-generation Kentuckian" and professor of law." That's the first oath Greenfield says McConnell is breaching. The second is the oath senators will swear or affirm at the outset of the impeachment trial, because the framers of the Constitution "wanted to make sure the Senate would never take such a trial lightly—this oath requirement is over and above the oath each senator has already taken to support the Constitution."
"But we have already seen indications that McConnell has no intention of doing impartial justice," Greenfield points out. "He has said that he does not consider himself an 'impartial juror.' He is coordinating strategy with the White House," despite the fact that "his role as Senate leader makes his obligation even more important and crucial to the constitutional framework." That's the other side of the great power that he touts back home, the dark side he's using to undermine the Constitution and the republic on a daily basis.
"History is watching," says Greenfield, "and it will be a harsh judge." Let's hope that 2020 voters in Kentucky are as well.
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