Joe Sonka December 28th, 2007

(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)

The Courier Journal's editorial this morning lays the righteous smack down on the Obstructionist-in-Chief, Mitch McConnell:

The Obstructer

In the press release with which he reviewed the first session of the 110th Congress (and, while using the first person plural cover, praised his own leadership of the Senate's Republican minority), Mitch McConnell made a case for historic levels of obstruction.

He said, "Again and again, we've insisted the minority be heard and, in the end, we were. We've shaped a lot of legislation this year to ensure that Republican priorities were addressed. And we're proud of it. We've also stopped a lot of things that we thought would undermine our security."

Just one day earlier, Sen. McConnell and his followers set a modern-day record for blocking action, by forcing a 62nd cloture vote. Among proposals they stopped with filibuster tactics were bills to end the occupation of Iraq, reduce the subsidies for profit-bloated oil companies and give District of Columbia citizens voting rights.

The Leader used obstructionist tactics not just to kill bills but to serve the interests of George W. Bush and their party's campaign-giver base. The Washington Post reported, "McConnell nearly brought down a major ethics and lobbying bill over GOP demands for a vote on granting the President virtual line-item veto authority. Later, he and other Republicans forced Democrats to accept tax breaks for small businesses as a condition for passing the minimum-wage bill."

Just a short while back, before Democrats took control, Sen. McConnell was outraged by procedural sandbagging. He threatened the "nuclear option" (changing the rule that allows a minority to block Senate action, unless the majority can come up with 60 votes) when Democrats would not confirm a few Bush judicial nominees.

President Bush was a full partner in this year's obstruction. He went more than six years without vetoing a bill, but once Democrats gained control of Congress he joined the McConnell wrecking crew. As of a few days ago, he had threatened to veto 86 bills and actually had vetoed six. He let a GOP Congress do his dirty work for years, but now he openly threatens to kill bills that would punish hate crimes, stop price-gouging at the gas pump and give millions more children health insurance under SCHIP.

The so-called "liberal mainstream media" has protected this obstructionism by behaving as if there's something unexceptional about Sen. McConnell's extraordinary success at throwing sand in the legislative wheels.

The final irony is that Sen. McConnell, having indulged in unprecedented levels of procedural maneuvering to stop the Democrats, has the nerve to try hanging a "Do Nothing" label on the Democratic majority.

"We can't seem to get the kind of bipartisan agreement that allows the minority to have some say," Sen. McConnell whined, presumably with a straight face, knowing full well he had conducted one of the great partisan slowdowns.

As Eric Lotke from the progressive advocacy group Campaign for America's Future said, "It's like mugging the postman and then complaining that the mail isn't delivered on time."

Not sure why they left out his 2 filibusters of the Webb Amendment to restore proper troop rotations between tours. But this is a welcome sight, nonetheless.

• Filibuster , Mitch McConnell
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