I agree with Bill Scher’s observation in a piece at RealClearPolitics that the compromise bill is, in fact, the way Washington is supposed to work. I wish I were as optimistic as he that Mitch McConnell will actually be willing to work with the incoming Biden Administration:
The Senate majority leader was known for obstructing Barack Obama’s agenda as much as he could, and many observers assume he’ll pursue the same strategy during Biden’s presidency if he keeps control of the upper chamber. But McConnell seems to be aware that being known as a relentless obstructionist is not a great look. Last week, in giving tribute to his retiring friend Sen. Lamar Alexander, McConnell said, “Lamar’s career has also confirmed that ‘conservative governance’ is not a contradiction in terms. There are genuine public goods it is the government’s job to secure: public roads, public lands, public education, certain aspects of public health.â€
McConnell will always be a tough nut to crack. In Barack Obama’s new memoir, he recalls Biden trying to convince McConnell to support a bill on the merits, and hearing back, “You must be under the mistaken impression that I care.†But to the extent McConnell is driven by partisanship, he can be moved to compromise when he perceives that obstruction hurts his party. Case in point: The Kentucky senator has never been one for government shutdowns.
Whether a bipartisan, moderate “gang†can exert enough pressure on him to set aside conservative opposition and bring compromise legislation to the Senate floor remains to be seen. The moderates should not assume that all it will take is their mere presence. Not everyone automatically assumes that just because a proposed solution is bipartisan means that it is sufficient to the task at hand. They will need to vocally build a case that their ideas occupy the reasonable center, so any resistance can be painted as unreasonable.
The senators in the “gang” have either just been re-elected or don’t need to worry about running for a while but the House members will undoubtedly face stiff primary challenges.
The question is whether Mitch McConnell will be purely obstructionist or whether, as Mr. Scher suggests, he is persuadable? The other alternative is that the Republicans will lose the Senate races in Georgia and Sen. McConnell will be relegated to minority leader and, consequently, largely irrelevant.
My prediction has been that there is a 50% chance Democrats will have a Senate Majority at some point in the next 2 years.
One note through, a Senate majority leader is not a House Speaker.
i.e. even if Democrats have a 50-50 senate; any legislation is subject to a filibuster, and that requires up to 7 additional Republican senators plus Romney, Collins, Murkowski. Checking a partisan index; the 8th least partisan such Republican Senator in the next Congress is Dan Sullivan of Alaska. Such legislation has to appeal to the broad middle of the Republican caucus.
McConnell being majority leader wouldn’t change any of that. Even if he scheduled legislation Democrats want for a vote; it would get filibustered if it doesn’t appeal to the middle of the Republican caucus.
Only a de-jure or de-facto repeal of the legislative filibuster (e.g. a norm breaking use of reconciliation) would change that.
Being in control of the Senate would let Democrats control the nomination process through. And personnel is policy.
The power of both House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader resides in controlling what comes to the floor of their respective houses of Congress. The power of the filibuster cannot force issues to the floor.
I think its odd that the media gives so much play to this anecdote when McConnell was blocking a bill Senator Biden sponsored. Like Senator Obama had never seen or been involved with a legislative leader blocking bills that they don’t want a vote on. Did he ever complain about it when he was in Illinois?
But mainly a President has negotiating leverage and horse-trading options that a minority legislator does not have.
Yeah, people complaining about McConnell generally never mention Reid, who never allowed anything from a GoP Congress to come up for a vote. Personally I hate the practice of preventing votes or consideration of legislation regardless of which side is doing it.
I’ve said it before, watch hearings on C SPAN, the partisan hate is real. I understand most don’t have the time or interest, but it’s become personal on the hill.
I’m not sure that gridlock’s undesirable. Government legislative action was not meant to move molehills.
As I’ve pointed out multiple times, since appropriations bills must start in the House, the House passed its version of COVID-19 relief, then the Senate passed its version. That was the Senate’s counter-offer. There it ended, blocked from moving forward by Nancy Pelosi’s intransigence. And yet it’s billed as entirely due to Mitch McConnell.