Mitch McConnell's Sacrificial Lamb: President Biden's Infrastructure Bill

[Celerity]

McConnell looks set to give President Biden a victory on his infrastructure bill. Why? Because McConnell has his eyes on a bigger prize.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/mitch-mcconnells-sacrificial-lamb



Last week, Mitch McConnell surprised veteran political observers, Democrats and Republicans alike with an about turn on President Biden’s infrastructure bill. Reported Politico:



McConnell, whose nicknames include "Grim Reaper" and "Dr. No", has spent months indicating he would do everything in his power to scupper Biden’s bill, no matter what was in it or whom it would benefit. This was to be expected given McConnell’s long track record of extreme obstructionism. He even indicated back in June that he would block a Biden Supreme Court pick in 2024. "It's highly unlikely. In fact, no, I don't think either party, if it were different from the president, would confirm a Supreme Court nominee in the middle of an election," McConnell told radio host Hugh Hewitt. For McConnell to suddenly turn around and give Biden a win that would give Democrats big bragging rights for next year’s midterms, the political calculus must have changed significantly. What exactly is going on?

McConnell the Arsonist

McConnell has never played politics for the betterment of his country. He is a power maximalist dedicated to ensuring his party wins at all costs, and that means in today’s political environment, a form of extreme nihilism. There is nothing to be gained from good policy from McConnell’s perspective — Republicans can leave all that to the Democrats. The GOP’s role in the political process for the better part of the past 60 years is simply to destroy everything. As the Banter’s Bob Cesca opined in his column this week:



When Democrats take power after Republican disasters, as they have done recently, Republicans steadfastly refused to help the clean up because they don’t have to. The base demands warfare and “owning the libs” so they can happily set fire to everything Biden does without consequence. The formula is simple: get into power and wreck everything, then blame Democrats when they try to clean it up. It works on enough voters to keep winning elections, so Republicans keep doing it. McConnell perfected this form of politics during the Obama years and continued hammering Democrats with it under Trump. There was however, one issue where McConnell has shown some flexibility and willingness to cooperate with Democrats on, and this gives us a clue to his current thinking.

The filibuster

While Republicans held the Senate under Trump, McConnell steadfastly refused to scupper the filibuster. Trump pleaded with McConnell to get rid of it, but McConnell would not help him get the votes. “I don’t think the legislative filibuster, which has been around for a long time, is a problem,” McConnell told Politico in June of 2018. “And it does, I think, generate on many occasions kind of a bipartisan solution, and I don’t think that’s always bad for the country. We do have some pretty big differences about a number of things, but there are a lot of things we do together.” While this may sound noble, McConnell then went on to divulge the real thinking behind his defence of the filibuster: “I think both sides, having been up and down a number of times, understand the advantages when you’re not in the majority,” McConnell continued. “What I remind the president of occasionally when we have this discussion is but for that we would have socialized medicine [and] right-to-work would have been eliminated across the country.” McConnell understands that the without the filibuster, Republicans would be powerless to stop legislation under Democratic leadership.

Voting rights reform must be blocked

The filibuster is the most potent weapon Republicans have given the entire premise of their politics is to obstruct and destroy, so McConnell has taken the long term view that it must be protected at all costs.................................

snip

With a popular bill passed, McConnell’s strategy will be to take a much credit for it as possible. He will then claim that bipartisanship is alive and well, and that there is no need to scrap or reform the filibuster. This should then give him enough political capital to sink voting rights reform and any other legislation he deems threatening to the GOP’s future.

[rso]

1. RSO

Only the trump cultists will agree with McTurtle that limited bipartisanship on an infrastructure bill is akin to no longer needing a voting rights bill.

[Celerity]

2. not the bills per se, he will say that binning the filibuster (even partially) is not needed

Manchin and Sinema and Feinstein (plus likely some others) already are in-line with that argument, McTurtle or no McTurtle.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Ds should take attitude that Voting Rights reform is top priority. Whatever it takes. . . . nt