{"id":16302,"date":"2024-03-02T00:47:49","date_gmt":"2024-03-02T00:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/02\/powerless-over-power-after-shifts-in-gop-landscape-mcconnells-leadership-draws-to-a-close\/"},"modified":"2024-03-02T00:47:49","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T00:47:49","slug":"powerless-over-power-after-shifts-in-gop-landscape-mcconnells-leadership-draws-to-a-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/02\/powerless-over-power-after-shifts-in-gop-landscape-mcconnells-leadership-draws-to-a-close\/","title":{"rendered":"Powerless over power: After shifts in GOP landscape, McConnell\u2019s leadership draws to a close"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

I asked a learned lawmaker a few years ago about what they thought would happen to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Former President Trump was in office and starting to take digs at the Kentucky Republican. McConnell was then the Majority Leader. Trump began lobbing verbal brickbats at McConnell, imploring him to shred the legislative filibuster in the Senate.<\/p>\n

The lawmaker knew McConnell well. But doubted that Trump could lay a hand on McConnell.<\/p>\n

\u2018Mitch craves power,\u2019 said the lawmaker. \u2018He\u2019ll never leave. They\u2019ll have to take him out of here in a pine box.\u2019<\/p>\n

Addison Mitchell McConnell isn\u2019t leaving the Senate. Yet. The prophesy from the political soothsayer may yet come true. McConnell plans to remain in the Senate through at least January, 2027 \u2014 the end of his term.<\/p>\n

Anyone who aspires to a senior Congressional leadership position certainly craves power to some degree.<\/p>\n

But political power is mutable. Protean. It fluctuates. And those who have power today are certainly not guaranteed to wield it tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Especially on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not known where McConnell stands on the congressional scale measuring the quest for power in Washington. McConnell procured power as the longest-serving Senate leader of either party, besting stalwarts like late Senate Majority Leaders Mike Mansfield, D-Mont., Joseph Robinson, D-Ark., Robert Byrd, D-W.V., and Alben Barkley, D-Ky.<\/p>\n

But like the others, McConnell had only power \u2014 not superpowers.<\/p>\n

And everyone lacks power over maintaining power.<\/p>\n

\u2018I turned 82 last week. The end of my contributions are closer than I\u2019d prefer,\u2019 said McConnell. \u2018Father Time remains undefeated.\u2019<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t so much that time caught up to McConnell. It\u2019s just that so much time passed. That made it more challenging to preserve that power. Factors began multiplying. All working against McConnell.<\/p>\n

Time and age began toiling against McConnell. There was his health. A bad fall last year kept McConnell out of the Senate for six weeks. McConnell then suffered several episodes where he froze in public \u2013 seemingly unable to speak.<\/p>\n

Whispers began around the Senate corridors that McConnell\u2019s time as Republican Leader was nearly up \u2014 even though McConnell secretly decided he would step aside from his post at the end of this Congress.<\/p>\n

Former President Trump resumed his verbal assaults on McConnell, pushing for a new GOP Leader \u2014 especially if the former President returns to the White House.<\/p>\n

But the rhetorical cartridge shells from the former president weren\u2019t what drove McConnell out. They were a symptom. The Republican Party shifted over time. As the grains of sand slipped through the hourglass, so did the granules of McConnell\u2019s power. Slowly. Methodically. But, surely.<\/p>\n

McConnell said he arrived on Capitol Hill at the beginning of President Ronald Reagan\u2019s second term. Unfamiliar with the new senator from the Bluegrass State, McConnell said the Gipper called him Mitch \u2018O\u2019Donnell.\u2019 Now McConnell departs with former President Trump calling him an \u2018Old Crow.\u2019<\/p>\n

McConnell embraced the avian moniker. Like McConnell, Henry Clay is one of Kentucky\u2019s other great statesmen, formerly a House speaker and senator. And as McConnell likes to tell it, Old Crow was Clay\u2019s favorite bourbon. So McConnell said he was honored that Trump would liken him to Clay.<\/p>\n

But a new \u2018MAGA\u2019 breed of senator arrived on Capitol Hill in recent years. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Rand Paul, R-Ky., Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., Rick Scott, R-Fla., JD Vance, R-Ohio and Eric Schmitt, R-Mo. They\u2019re not aligned with McConnell. In fact, a senior Senate Republican leadership source told Fox that some GOP senators are tired of what\u2019s called the \u2018MAGA show\u2019 at the weekly party conference lunches each Tuesday.<\/p>\n

And therein lies the problem for McConnell as his power eroded.<\/p>\n

Like all things on Capitol Hill, it\u2019s about the math.<\/p>\n

There was no better metric in recent years to measure McConnell\u2019s dwindling power than the exercise over the international aid package, which then became the international aid package with a border security plan. And then reverted back to an international aid bill.<\/p>\n

McConnell wanted to advance the foreign money program \u2014 especially for Ukraine. But McConnell calculated that a robust border security package would sweeten the plan and satisfy members of his conference. That turned out to be a misjudgment. Support for a border plan diluted. And the bill went back to just international security.<\/p>\n

McConnell hoped to get a majority of Republican senators to support the final product. That would be 25 out of 49 Republican senators. McConnell scored 22.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not because McConnell stumbled. It\u2019s because the Republican Party moved from where it would have been a few years ago. The political tectonic plates shifted. And the vote on the international aid bill served as a barometer reading of McConnell\u2019s power.<\/p>\n

McConnell grasped the political transference. His power may be dissipating. McConnel\u2019s greatest power was his understanding of power. That never left him.<\/p>\n

\u2018Believe me, I know the politics within my party at this particular moment in time,\u2019 said McConnell on the Senate floor. \u2018I have many faults, misunderstanding \u00a0politics is not one of them.\u2019<\/p>\n

Who will succeed McConnell?<\/p>\n

It is almost too early to divine where another power center will emerge to dictate who might succeed McConnell as the Senate\u2019s top Republican. That political universe doesn\u2019t even exist yet. Yes, for now, look at the three Johns: Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., former Whip John Cornyn, R-Tex., and Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo. Even someone like Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., could be in play. A source tells Fox that Cotton is interested in a race.<\/p>\n

But we don\u2019t understand much else.<\/p>\n

We must first know who wins the presidential election. And if 2024 is anything like 2020, that might take a while. A delay in figuring out the winner could postpone the internal secret leadership election which Senate Republicans will take in mid to late November. But the winner of the presidential election will define who the GOP wants \u2013 especially if former President Trump prevails and has something to say about it.<\/p>\n

Another factor: which party has control of the Senate \u2014 and by how many seats. Keep in mind we didn\u2019t know which party would control the Senate after the 2020 election until January of 2021.<\/p>\n

This is why other figures may emerge. Especially dark horses.<\/p>\n

As I have written before, leadership elections in Congress are not \u2018partisan politics\u2019 They are \u2018particle politics.\u2019 Factors which determine who is propelled into leadership are decided at the subatomic political level. Thus, it is hard to see who might prevail. Consider how former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, won in an upset to become House Majority Leader in 2006. Or how former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., got his job \u2014 despite saying he wasn\u2019t interested. And who could have predicted what was in store for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., say back in September?<\/p>\n

A dark horse could emerge.<\/p>\n

Imagine Republicans prevail with a substantial majority in November. In that case, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., may be a possibility. Daines leads the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the GOP\u2019s campaign arm. Daines has made many of the right moves so far in pending political contests. If Republicans win the Senate by a good margin, some members (especially the new ones), might give Daines a look.<\/p>\n

It will be someone\u2019s time this fall. We just don\u2019t know who.<\/p>\n

It has been McConnell\u2019s time for more than 17 years on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

And now it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

Father Time is undefeated.<\/p>\n

And power is elusive. Always deteriorating.<\/p>\n

Political leaders are powerful. But powerless over their power.<\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I asked a learned lawmaker a few years ago about what they thought would happen to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Former President Trump was in office and starting to take digs at the Kentucky Republican. McConnell was then the Majority Leader. Trump began lobbing verbal brickbats at McConnell, imploring him to shred the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":16303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}