Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell amassed incomprehensible power after claiming a Senate majority in the2014 midterm elections. The Republican Senate conference addednine new members in January 2015, essentially giving Leader McConnell veto power over any legislation the Obama administration proposed. And he used that power quite frequently.
In 2016, McConnell famouslyrefused to even hold hearings for President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee following the death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. McConnell’s lesser-known obstruction was leavingover 100 federal judgeships empty, which allowed President Trump toappoint more than 200 federal judges during his single term in office.
McConnell’s blatantobstructionism and norm breaking were the defining characteristics of his tenure as majority leader from 2015 to 2021. Had he retained his Senate majority following the 2020 elections, McConnell likely would have killed nearly all of President Biden’s proposals by the time they reached the Senate. But since Georgia elected two Democratic senators in January, the American Rescue Plan is now$1.3 trillion more than Senate Republicans proposed. Every single Biden cabinet nominee who has gone through the confirmation process so far, with the exception of Office of Management and Budget director nominee Neera Tanden, who withdrew, has beenapproved by the Senate, an accomplishment that would have been excruciatingly difficult with McConnell as majority leader.
President Biden was elected with the hopes that he would be able to work with Senate Republicans, as he did during his nearly four decades in the body. But the dynamics have changed dramatically since the 1970s. McConnell was able to effectively unify his caucus in opposition to the Obama agenda, and he would have done the same to President Biden. In his new memoir, Obama notes thatMcConnell’s “shamelessness” and “dispassionate pursuit of power” will not cease because his old Senate buddy now sits in the Oval Office.
“You must be under the mistaken impression that I care,”McConnell once told Biden when the then-vice president lobbied McConnell to pass a bill.
Mitch McConnell is no longer the majority leader. He can no longer unilaterally kill legislation on his Senate floor. But the Kentuckian’s period in exile may be shorter than many pundits expect. McConnell only needs a net gain of one seat in the 2022 midterms in order to take control again. His inability — or lack of interest — to work in a bipartisan way will make him the kingmaker of the Biden administration if he does become majority leader again.
His ability to hold Senate Republicans together, militant war against bipartisanship and procedural tricks make him more like a European prime minister than a caucus leader. He dictates like a parliamentary leader, holds his group together and exerts control like a premier and has the ability to become the most powerful man in Washington in two short years.
In order to retain Senate control, Biden needs to push for aggressive legislation that removes the shackles of inequality and motivates his base to turn out for Senate Democrats.
