Did McConnell Put Warren Right Where He Wants Her?

[blueseas]

Senate GOP boss elevates left‘s hero, maybe because she‘s not strongest 2020 Democratic option

Sure, he’s a really buttoned-down guy working to prevent the Senate from getting totally bottled-up, but there are solid reasons to suspect Mitch McConnell wants a “Nevertheless, she persisted” hoodie as much as anyone.

The majority leader is obviously much more Brooks Brothers than Raygun. Still, he may well realize that his latest grandmaster move in the never-ending game of electoral chess requires ditching the rep stripe tie in favor of some printed-on-demand slogan swag.

After all, what would Machiavelli wear?
This is a counterintuitive view.

Conventional wisdom is the Kentucky Republican bungled things really badly this week, delivering an enormous public relations gift to the Democratic Party and one of its most prominent voices by having the Senate kick Elizabeth Warren out of the debate on confirming Jeff Sessions as attorney general.

[Warren Blocked From Speaking During Sessions Confirmation Debate]

This view was buttressed by McConnell’s mansplaining tone — “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted” — that spawned a thousand T-shirts and threatens to magnify a gender gap rooted in the view of GOP leaders as inherently sexist and out of touch with women voters.

More: http://www.rollcall.com/news/hawkings/mitch-mcconnell-elizabeth-warren-strategy?utm_content=bufferd6531&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer









More:http://www.rollcall.com/news/hawkings/mitch-mcconnell-elizabeth-warren-strategy?utm_content=bufferd6

[JHan]

1. The lil flaw in this theory is..

Warren is already seen as a leading Democrat. If he's pied pipering, folks already know the path and are familiar.

I also think she gets under his skin and he couldn't help himself.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

2. It didn't matter what Warren said, McConnell was going to "Rule 19" her

just to shut her down for the rest of the discussion. Why else would he pull such an arcane rule out of his hat? She could have said, "Senator Sessions has grey hair," and McConnell would have brought up Rule 19. The proof is that he didn't do the same thing when four men read the same letter into the record. It was the person and not the evidence he was silencing.