He may be cold-blooded, but the new Senate Majority Leader may be exactly what the Senate needs.
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Mitch McConnell is refreshingly
candid about politics sometimes. While some politicians billow to make
their political moves seem high-minded, Sen. McConnell is blunt.
Senators who have worked with him (and those who have failed to do so)
describe a transactional clarity. You have not done this for me and so I will not do that for you and vice versa.
John Dickerson
It was in that spirit of transparency that the incoming majority
leader described his support for fellow Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's
presidential run on Wednesday morning. “Obviously I’m going to support
someone from my own state, everyone understands that.”
McConnell didn’t wax on about Paul’s fresh vision for America or his
penetrating ideas. He singled out that they are both from the same
state. Like nearly all senators who have been in that position before,
McConnell is standing by the hometown candidate, should he choose to
run. When asked to elaborate on the junior Kentucky senator, McConnell
highlighted Paul’s political outreach to blacks and younger voters,
which he sees as a way to grow the Republican Party. McConnell didn’t
endorse the efforts, but said, “… we’re all watching with great interest
to see if this is successful.” The somewhat arid endorsement might
result from the fact that Paul has very little of the executive or
legislative experience that McConnell has previously said was important
to be president, and which he believes makes Barack Obama self-evidently
unequipped for the top job.
In its current condition, McConnell’s endorsement isn’t likely to
carry much weight, but then McConnell knows that endorsements don’t
carry much weight anyway. Though that’s not exactly the way Paul’s
strategist Jesse Benton put it in 2013 when asked why he was working for
McConnell. Benton told a conservative Iowa activist that he was “sort
of holding my nose for two years because what we’re doing here is going
to be a big benefit to Rand in ’16, so that’s my long vision.” McConnell
understands that type of political pragmatism and may not even resent
Benton for saying it. He was speaking his language. Plus Benton, who had
helped Paul win his Senate seat in 2010, helped McConnell get past a
primary challenge and win the general election.
The thing to watch between McConnell and Paul is the favors the new
majority leader does for him in the Senate. We know he’s not inclined to
do favors for Paul’s likely opponent, Sen. Ted Cruz, who has promoted
himself at the expense of establishment Republican leaders in the
Senate. Cruz bucked McConnell on the strategy that led to the government
shutdown, which McConnell referred to Wednesday as “a foolish tactic
that had no chance for success.”
McConnell will be fascinating to watch as leader of the Senate
because of his brand of candor. It is in part why Vice President Joe
Biden has been able to work with him in crafting a variety of budget
deals. Perhaps that will help with negotiations on trade, tax reform,
and infrastructure, the areas of common interest that the White House
and Senate Republicans have both highlighted. Though McConnell expects
there to be differences even on those areas of possible agreement, they
might be hammered out after the president vetoes the first Republican
offering.
McConnell is both traditional and cold-blooded. When asked which
Senate majority leaders he would model himself on, he wouldn’t
pick favorites among Republicans, but praised Democratic Senate leader
Mike Mansfield, because he treated Republicans fairly—sometimes putting
Republican amendments ahead of Democratic ones. If he makes good on his
promise to allow open debate and more amendments than outgoing Majority
Leader Harry Reid, the deliberative body will be a more interesting
place. But it won’t be less partisan. McConnell also hopes to
reinvigorate the Congressional power of the purse as a weapon to roll
back the Obama agenda. He also praised Democratic leader George
Mitchell because “he was pretty skillful at sticking the knife in and
you hardly noticing it.”
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