AN EXAMINATION OF THE ETHICS OF MITCH MCCONNELL
On December 8th, 2010, at the Heritage foundation, then Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said his #1 priority was to make President Obama a one term president. An admission of intent to use his powers as Senate Minority leader to obstruct the works of the United States Government.
True to at least these words, since he has been Senate Majority leader, he has helped to set the records for lowest productivity Congresses, most filibusters, usurped the powers of the Presidency to appoint the Judiciary, obstruction of government activities purely for political gain, a form of bribery, engaged in theft of honest government services,conspiracy to defraud the United States,and may have taken actual monetary bribes for his devotion to illegal action, or perhaps inaction is more accurate. His role as full on Obstructionist is the greatest in living memory and probably of all time- only Newt Gingrich may deserve more credit, and as we see later, the Newt Congresses were the only rivals for futility of Congress- hardly the most functional of bodies before these two infamous individuals.
The only point of principle, worthy of mention, is he doesn’t take the Congressional Obamacare fee waiver.
MCCONNELL’S MONEY
McConnell’s average wealth of $22.8 million puts him well above the Senate average. Oddly, however, before 2008 McConnell was well below the Senate average. In 2004, his average net worth was $3.1 million, compared to a Senate average of $14.5 million.
That’s almost a seven fold increase in 10 years. McConnell has quadrupled his net worth since 2007, when it was $7.8 million.
So what happened in 2008? His financial disclosure form tells the story—suddenly there appeared a tax-exempt money market fund, valued at between $5 million and $25 million, listed as a “gift from a filer’s relative.” (Look at Line 2 and then Line 3.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2014/05/22/how-did-mitch-mcconnells-net-worth-soar/?utm_term=.51671e1bdc3c
Filibusters
Element removed
What is happening here- 50 sounds like too many filibusters. 307 is civil war without the pistols. The asterisk shows that 307 does not include Obama’s final 3 years in office, meaning it is not a full picture- though the Democrats lost the Senate in year 4.
Judiciary Nominees
- 68 individual nominees blocked in the history of the Senate
79 individual court nominees blocked under Obama
According to Politifact 68 individual nominees blocked prior to Obama taking office and 79 (so far) during Obama’s term, for a total of 147.”
This does not to my knowledge include the Blue Slip process, officially, but should be.
Garland Nomination and the Obstruction of Governmental Processes for Political Advantage
The shall language in Article II Section 2 Paragraph 2 is very important
The pronoun “he” refers to the any current serving president at the time that a vacancy occurs on the US Supreme Court.
He shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court,”
makes the job of advising and consenting to Judges of the Supreme Court mandatory when a vacancy occurs under a sitting president. The US Senate is not given and does not have the right to refuse hearings and refuse an up or down vote of a quorum of the Senate on whether the sitting president’s choice of a nominee, in this case President Obama’s choice of Merrick Garland, can be obstructed by refusing to have hearings and an up or down vote of a quorum of Senators.
The “shall nominate” and “shall appoint” language make at least a floor vote on the nominee Merrick Garland mandatory as a duty all Senators when a quorum of Senators can be convened.
powerfulconstitutionalrights.org/...