Associated Press
There's probably very little point to the flood of speeches and press releases out this morning, with various players making the case for what President Obama "should" say in his State of the Union address. I have a hunch the 11th-hour recommendations won't change so much as a syllable.
But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) spoke on the chamber floor this morning about his own expectations, and they struck me as rather interesting.
"...Republicans will be listening with great interest to see where the president plans to take the country over the coming year. Some media outlets are already reporting that we'll be subjected to another litany of left-wing proposals, with plenty of red meat for the president's base. I hope not. The campaign is over, and the fact is, if the president plans to accomplish anything good for the country in the coming months, he's going to have to go through a Republican-controlled House.
"So this morning I'd like to humbly suggest once again that it's time for the president to reach out to Congress, including Republicans, and make divided government work. That's how he'll actually address the issues Americans are most concerned about right now. It's the only way."
Now, I imagine Obama would love nothing more than to "make divided government work." It's why the president has pleaded with Republicans to work with him on, well, just about everything. The efforts have failed and Mitch McConnell knows why: he spent the president's first term saying that defeating Obama, not helping Americans, was his top "priority," and deliberately refusing to consider bipartisan proposals, even ones that he liked and approved of, in order to advance his larger partisan cause.
But it's this fear of "left-wing proposals" that strikes me as especially interesting. McConnell wasn't fielding reporters' questions at the time, but I'd love to know which of Obama's ideas the Minority Leader considers "left wing." Because, whether the Kentucky Republican likes it or not, the American mainstream sides with Obama -- and not the GOP -- on nearly every major issue of the day.
Perhaps McConnell thinks the public is made up of too many "left-wing voters," too?
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The campaign is over, and the fact is, if the president plans to accomplish anything good for the country in the coming months, he's going to have to go through a Republican-controlled House.
The campaign is over, and the fact is, Obama won. If the GOP plans to accomplish anything good for the country, they will have to digest and understand this fact.
Who cares what McConnell thinks. He is irrelevant.
That is, if Harry Reid has the balls to cut off McConnell's, and implement sweeping Senate rules reforms needed to eliminate the requirement of 60 vote majorities.
Sadly, Harry caved on filibuster reform. What is it going to take for Reid to get it? Maybe it is time for REID to go. What do you say Senate Democrats?
Does McConnel know he is on the way out? Harry Reid is out too if he can't stand up to these bullies.
Mitch McConnell - further proof we should have let the British keep the South in 1776. They'd have killed slavery earlier, and those colonies would not have been allowed to expand as they did.
And we know just how much good for the country going through the republican controlled House has done in the past. Why should it be any different now?
What Yertle is saying is that there is only a snowball's chance in hell that anything good for the country is going to get done because when it looks like something good is coming up, the repub House can be counted on to stamp it out.
Well that is not entirely true because Boehner's majority is slim enough that Pelosi can force House votes via discharge petition. If outside pressure can force enough GOP representatives in threatenned districts to sign the petition, then the bill goes to an up or down vote and Boehner is powerless to stop it.
Checkmate.
And thank heavens for that!!
McConnell is into what psychiatrists call "projection" big time. Some of us might even call it lying. He needs to go back to Kentucky where he can tuck his turtle head into his turtle shell and shut up.
I always want to ask him, "Mitch, are you making this up as you go along?"
Hey....TCinLA...
"Mitch McConnell - further proof we should have let the British keep the South in 1776."
KY isn't the South. Almost but not quite.
BTW and FYI.... of the 22 Repug "nays" in the Violence Against Women Act, only 5 are from the South.... but 13 from the West, Maybe we should have never bought all that land. Jus' sayin'..... demographics based on compass directions aren't what they used to be.
Here are the nay votes (Senate.gov)
Mountain
Midwest
South
Shorter McConnell:
"Now that he is a lame duck President, he should compromise, and do it my way."
Alternative: "I humbly suggest that it's time for the President to give up on the idea that Republicans care at all what the people voted for, and do it our way."
Redshift,
High time! We need to start using their tactics and say, "My way or the highway!"
And mean it.
India,
"My way or the highway!" oh - you mean "compromise" in TeaSpeak.
BO is not a lame duck president yet. He's got about 18 months to accomplish anything before he will find it difficult. I'm not surprised that everyone from the Pres on down is lame. The controlling interests in the country don't want ANY substantive change so nothing will get better, we'll only slide further into the abyss. We must remember the true goal is PROFIT!
AdamSelene, #2.3
Yes, that is T-party speak alright.
Isn't this the day we say, "Laisser le bonton rouler!" ?
If so, let the good times roll! (While they can; Lent starts tomorrow.)
India:
Nit picky, but it's "laissez le bon temps rouler".
Very very sad,
LOL I always wait for David to come correct me on this, but he must not be on today! Thanks. I knew it was wrong. Every year I get it wrong and then forget how it goes. All the French I had, too, it is a shame. Of course temps is times!
Maybe if I write it down!! Lightbulb just went off! I wrote it in my French dictionary.
Disclosure: I am Scottish. LOL
Now that the President is not running for re-election and Mr. McConnell is (in about 18 months), suddenly the senior Senator from Kentucky is interested in making divided government function.
Who knew?
There's a left wing actress stalking his nightmares.
And with tobacco and coal industries in decline, a state economy in decline as well.
Ranked 45th out of 51 (states and DC), and falling.
I wonder how many failing bridges there are in Kentucky...
There's still bourbon whisky. Or at least there is outside of the dry counties.
Maybe John Boehner can do something for them.
Very bad news on that point. Just read where Maker's Mark ( my favorite) is going to start diluting their product and that Jim Beam black label has already done so. So there goes the Ky. bourbon business too. ( of course , I am sure the price will not be diluted ! )
Just confirms my preference for single malt Scotch or Jack Daniel's -- if I can't get Jack, Bushmill's is OK.
There are many, many, small distillers in Kentucky. Take a trip to Louisville and visit the hotel bars in the nicest hotels in town (do-able, it is Louisville) and sample to your heart's content.
Then call up the distillers you like and arrange delivery.
Hey Mitch - you with us or against us? You know, you with us, the American people? Or, are you bunkered down in the Right Wing Echo Chamber?
Mitch, Oh Mitch
you got nothing, and
ain't that a bitch! -Kevo
For those character building times when the pin echoes a little bit to loudly against the distance .
Even those times where the congenital support of no closer companions than the darkest me , myself , and I , worn , threadbare company for the doughty leader of Kentucky's host , yea brave tyrtyl , should then take council as palliative , or take yet more arms against a sea of reason ?
To prattle or drive eyeless into a waiting wall of rising contempt ...
The "left-wing" proposals that McConnell and the House Repubicans are worried about are anything that deviates from the Americans for Prosperity agenda. Government regulation and protecting the environment, "left wing." Cutting subsidies for oil companies, "left wing," Instituting gun control, "left wing." So, anything that the Koch Brothers do not want to happen is "left wing." It's the new world of language usage that the "conservatives" have been so active in promulgating over the last three decades.
What's the excuse when the teapubs vote against their own bills because the dems and President likes them?
Have you ever heard of Red shift?
LOL, Sessions.
That Mitch McConnell has moved to a whole other spectrum when he votes against his own bill!
I honestly can't believe this guy; you have to start to laugh after a while, as he says such absurd things.
Can you believe they picked Rand Paul to rebut Obama? I mean, how low is THAT bar? (I'm thinking MD 2020).
I heard him on NPR this AM, He said, " They think it's she and I."
My hair caught on fire, spread to the cat, the cat caught on fire....whew...where did Dr. Paul educate his pup?
If the American people wanted things done the Republican way Mitch, they would have voted for the other guy. If I was President Obama, I'd tell you to go f#$^ yourself.
McTurtle must have dementia setting in - he doesn't remember how often the President cave-in and gave the GOTP "everything they wanted" (according to Bonehead)? Hell WE had our credit rating as a nation downgraded thanks to the GOTP obstruction & shenanigans!
McTurtle go home, just get out of the Congress - and take your fellow obstructionists with you for "THE GOOD OF THE NATION"! Besides your corporate pimps called, they're thinking about supporting the "other candidate".....
In the eyes of some of McConnell's base, the continued existence of the federal government is a kind of communist provocation.
And in the eyes of rational people McTurtle's "base" are moochers off of blue state money!
Aw, man, the title made me feel all warm and tingly inside...
He would be better served to stop talking and listen to the President. He just may learn something
As Hilary so eloquently said, (the Republicans) don't live in an evidence based world.
Somebody put a fork in Mitch, he is done.
I'm sorry but I'm REALLY tired of these bloviating jerkwads. 'Left wing proposals' and 'the President has no guts'...do they ACTUALLY think it makes them look like STATESMEN? Or twelve year olds?
You said it!
they are 12 year old divas in angry old white mens bodies.
Left WingStop.
I'm also hungry for Mitch to be impaled.
Trollop, I'd watch that.
Where's Vlad the Impaler when you need him?
Do none of these republicans have a conscience or any compassion. Rachel, I love your show and you have turned me into a political news junkie. Keep up the good work. We in Canada appreciate your knowledge and the way you keep us informed.
I agree. It would appear that McConnell was admitting that the electorate now is leaning Left and would appreciate hearing about at least a few new left wing proposals. Funny how those Freudian slips tell more about what a political leader is really thinking than what they publicly say.
This is exactly the point of the voter suppression tactics that the R's have been promoting.
It's a new day.
#18, Yeah, it's Mardi Gras! "Laisser le bonton rouler!"
The best new day will be April 21st. Spring. I am so tired of this bleak, grey, Winter landscape. I want to put me boots away.
Well, I know it's one of Rachel's favorite days, but in reality what happens tonight will be a teleprompter talkfest. I doubt that anything will change as a result of tonight's speeches by all THREE parties.
timezapper,
I honestly gave up all hope of any change when Reid wimped out on the filibuster. I saw Mitch licking his chops right after that, behind Reid's back.
This congress is pretty well gerrymandered in till 2020. too. They are impervious to national will.
Thank heaven for the 'fair' and 'just' left-wing agenda.
There are quite a few islands out there for sale. Why don't ALL of you, calling for secession & civil war, pack your bags and go. Believe me, you won't be missed. But when your asses are in need of a "safety-net", do not look to our government for assistance. Yes, I am angry! But I am also amazed (still) by the amount of ignorance and racism I read in people's comments. Lot's of "righties" like to say that the POTUS has been divisive, black vs white, rich vs poor when actually it's been there all along; his presence in the White House has only caused it to the surface.
He's from F*cKentucky...who cares what those uneducated hillbillies have to say?
For me Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will always be the scary preacher Henry Kane from poltergeist 2.
Is it any wonder that he is the most disliked member of congress?
#23 Any it is hard to decide which one a person dislikes most! I mean, there is Eric Cantor...Paul Ryan...so many.
Yeah, just like the country is looking forward to Filibuster Mitch obstructing any progress that our govenment may make...
Always remember Mitch made a deal with the Dems and he promised not to filibuster so much...from now on...lol
LOL! Did you see him laughing behind Reid"s back?
I submit that it's not a pro-left-wing country as much as it is an anti-fanatic-extremist country.