Mitch McConnell is Playing a Dangerous Game

I think he feels it’s the only thing he can do, though. You can only play with the cards you’re dealt.

When earlier reports surfaced that Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) supported impeachment, I was skeptical. None of the reports include any actual quotes from McConnell or his press team.

Read that carefully. It’s important.

There were no quotes whatsoever. No confirmations or denials.

This sounded like a deliberate leak as a trial balloon. Find out what the response is from within his party and his constituents. Notice, this is much smarter than what Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY-AL) did. She voiced her opinion loudly and voted to impeach. And is now paying the price.

But, you say, what about reports that he’s working with Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on how the trial will be run in the Senate and that he intends to “listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate”.

Again, you have to understand McConnell. You don’t get to the position he holds and hold it for so long without some intelligence. He is “misunderestimated” even more often than GWB was.

McConnell is trying desperately to work out a power sharing agreement in the Senate with Schumer and desperately wants to hold on to the “filibuster” as it is currently defined.

This means that he has to give Schumer something, both publicly and privately.

Despite the Constitutional ambiguities (to say the least), there will be a trial in the Senate.

I don’t believe that McConnell will vote to convict. He’s too smart for that. He will end up saying that while he disagrees with what Trump did and said, that it doesn’t rise to the level that impeachment requires and that he can’t vote to convict on that.

The only way McConnell votes to convict is if it is already a foregone conclusion that Trump will be convicted. Which won’t be the case.

This is high risk for McConnell. He is going to tick off some of the members of the Republican caucus in the Senate, and he’s going to tick off many of his constituents.  But the only thing that might make those happy would be to stand firm and fight it tooth and nail. In which case, he knows he can say goodbye to power sharing and goodbye to the filibuster, and the Democrats will just ram through whatever they want in the Senate.