Mitch McConnell's mixed legacy

Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor Wednesday morning and delivered the surprise of the Senate season to those gathered. Sen. McConnell told those gathered that he's stepping down as Senate Minority Leader this November, saying that it's time for a new generation of GOP leadership. McConnell's surprise announcement is the biggest surprise of the session.

CBS News is reporting "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced he's stepping down as the upper chamber's GOP leader after November's elections, ending a 17-year run that made him the longest-serving party leader in Senate history and often the most powerful Republican in Washington. 'I always imagined a moment when I have total clarity and peace about the sunset of my work. A moment when I'm certain I have helped preserve the ideals I so strongly believed. That day arrived today.'"

Sen. McConnell is right. Yesterday is the day that it finally arrived. The question now is this: what caused that day to finally arrive? Sean Davis thinks he knows. He wrote about it in this tweet:

This opening paragraph is powerful:
Senate insiders tell me McConnell’s surprise announcement is a desperate move to retain his grip on power, as his support within the conference is cratering following his disastrous attempt to rubber stamp Biden’s open borders amnesty policy. Rather than face a formal vote of removal, McConnell announced his plan to resign the leadership post in November. Career Senate staff tell me momentum was building within the Senate GOP to formally oust McConnell as leader.
To be fair with Sen. McConnell, he's the guy that held open the Supreme Court seat of Antonin Scalia, the late Supreme Court Justice, in the face of Barack Obama nominating Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. When Trump won his surprise victory, the Scalia open seat turned into Justice Gorsuch. After Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, Sen. McConnell got Amy Coney-Barrett confirmed, giving the Supreme Court 6 GOP-picked justices.

On the other hand, Sen. McConnell stuck a knife in House Republicans' back by agreeing to a $1.7T omnibus bill just after Republicans had won back the House Majority. Most Republican were calling for Sen. McConnell to agree to a temporary CR, then let House Republicans negotiate a better budget. This week, Sen. McConnell tried stabbing Speaker Johnson in the back, telling Johnson that the Senate Ukraine bill was the "only game in town." With Sen. McConnell now a lame duck leader, that's no longer true:

Sen. McConnell saw Ukraine funding as his highest priority. Spaker Johnson sees shutting the U.S.-Mexico Border as his highest priority. The American people are with Speaker Johnson. So are a growing number of GOP senators.

Sen. McConnell's main legacy is his record of getting federal judges and Supreme Court justices confirmed. That will outlast his lapses in judgment on spending issues.

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