Oh Dear, it’s all so confusing.
That lovely man , Mitch McConnell just ‘can’t get no satisfaction’. Seems like legislating is just not his thing. Unfortunately he’s not very articulate either.
Or wait! While it’s certainly true that Mitch deserves the nickname “Mumbles”, as far as legislating goes, maybe he’s pretty good at it, but cleverly disguises it by pretending to be woefully inept.
Did Mitch and the boys (and girls) really want to “repeal and replace” the awful and grotesque Obamacare, as they promised to, over and over for 7 long years?
If so, a trained chimpanzee would have handled the attempt better, and more artfully.
But, of course, even Mitch couldn’t pull this con off all by himself. But, I gotta believe with all his glaring faults , one thing Mitch is, is a standup guy. He’s willing to look, before the entire country, like a buffoonish cartoon character in order to cover for his pretentious, cowardly, equally deceitful colleagues.
A good illustration of this is the way in which Mitch finally and mercifully put this pitiful “repeal and replace” effort out of its misery.
By not putting it to a vote, good old Mitch was employing the standard tactic of not putting it to a vote so that few or no senators would be singled out for failing to fulfill their promises to voters.
Near as I can tell, that seems to be Mitch’s strategy, conceding that three of the faithless culprits are well known and more than willing to accept their disgrace (they’ve been doing that for a long time), having provided cover for their colleagues whose treachery could remain unproven.
That would be the ‘nasally-challenged’ Susan Collins, perhaps the senate’s most deceitful member, the ” war hero”, John McCain who can always be depended on to not be dependable, and Rand Paul, the libertarian’s libertarian, who richly deserves the title of self-proclaimed father of “single payer, socialized medicine” (Of course Bernie will demand a paternity test).
Where it gets confusing, though, is, a) The bill would fail, we know, but it also would show not one Democrat vote…which would expose those so-called “vulnerable” Democratic senators who are up for reelection next year, and, b) would enable people like the sanctimonious Ted Cruz and others to be able to vote for it knowing it would not pass and then claim to have “kept their promises on Obamacare”. Admittedly that would be a bit of a stretch for Cruz to make such a claim credible…but, what the heck, it might have fooled some conservatives.
At any rate, gotta keep an eye on that crafty Mitch and his fellow establishment sidekick, “Private” Ryan. (Never can be sure who is “saving” whom. It would be hard though to be “saving Private McConnell).)
Oh yes, one more note:
Great thing happened Tuesday in Alabama. I don’t really think that Trump had his heart in stumping for Luther “the gentle’ Savage. If so, it was at most, a minor mistake which should actually further strengthen the president’s commitment to his original agenda. I have big doubts if a McConnell protege like Savage would have done anything to help advance the Trump promises.
Finally, the best observation on the outcome of the Alabama primary was:”It dramatically underscored the fact that ‘Trumpism’ is alive and well whether Trump is still into it or not!”
Now we can sit back and watch Mitch and Paul work their magic on how to completely bungle tax reform. If successful, Adios GOP!
DLH
