All is not well in the Republican Party. That might come as a surprise to some, with headlines like - this one, from the Daily Beast: “Biden’s State of the Union Speech Only Highlighted Democrats’ Divisions.” The traditional media, as usual, can’t get enough of “Dems in Disarray” and the “tough road ahead” for the party in this year’s midterms.
Meanwhile, there’s an ongoing hot civil war in the Republican party. Here’s Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a blistering attack on Florida Republican Rick Scott, the guy who has been tapped to head the National Republican Senate Committee, the arm of the RNC that recruits and funds Senate candidates. Reporters asked McConnell about the radical, extreme agenda Scott released last week.
“Senator Scott is behind me, and he can address the issue of his particular measure,” McConnell said. He didn’t see Scott cutting and running right after he talked. “If we’re fortunate enough to have the majority next year, I’ll be the majority leader. I’ll decide in consultation with my members what to put on the floor.”
“We will not have as part of our agenda a bill that raises taxes on half the American people and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years. That will not be part of the Republican Senate Majority Agenda.” That’s in front of cameras, so imagine what McConnell said to Scott in the closed-door luncheon meeting that preceded this statement.
Scott himself has been trying desperately to backpedal from his own plan, insisting that when he said in it that “All Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount,” he wasn’t really talking about all Americans. Clearly, not even his fellow Republicans believe that one.
McConnell has been strenuously avoiding putting any kind of agenda out there for the midterms. He wants this election to be a referendum on President Joe Biden and nothing else, and doing his damnedest to keep inflation high. That includes maintaining a blockade against Biden’s nominees to the Federal Reserve.
McConnell’s fighting a persistent Trumpism from Scott, from the actual goddamned Republican National Committee, and from a persistent band of Big Lie proponents in the Republican Senate conference.
Now Russia—in the middle of its brutal war against Ukraine—is getting in on the act, too.
[Note: the video of the Russia ambassador to the UN’s remarks has been deleted from the twitter account that posted it because of a bad translation.]
The only real ally McConnell seems to have right now is erstwhile Democrat Joe Manchin. That doesn't say a lot for either of them.
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