 Listen to Iris Dement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYqDpL0YCvI Now that our Dear Leader is back on his meds, the United States is in the hands of Mitch McConnell.
Yikes. This was the conclusion in the past day as we realized the world was not in smoldering ruins, not yet, from an impulsive drive-by shooting ordered by the Dear Leader. The twitchy fingers of Twitter America have produced a theory that somebody had fed him doggie downers or whatever it took to leave Donald Trump slurring as he mechanically tried to read what his handlers had written for him. Not a pretty sight, but better than more rabid postures he takes. Meantime, the nation is back in the hands of the same friendly feller who kidnapped the Supreme Court candidacy of Judge Merrick B. Garland and committed other acts of contempt toward democracy. I don’t need to go through the scenarios of the impeachment frolics. We’ve got time to talk about it while Nancy Pelosi – the smartest person in the room – is making the Dear Leader twist. But I, who lived in Kentucky as a Times reporter for a few years and returned often, have my own take on Mitch. I have told this story before. Short version: I covered a statewide election in Kentucky and the winning candidate – I have no memory which one or which party – celebrated that night at headquarters by proclaiming: “They’ve had their turn at the trough; now it’s our turn.” Ever since then, I retain the image of one porker or another making the most of his chance – no concern for others. Millions of Americans would not have health care, however imperfect, if John McCain had not pointed his thumb downward on that historic midnight. Mitch would be fine with disregarding the needs of the poor in the cities and hollers of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He also shows his contempt for others by championing the dying industry of coal mining, which I covered years ago. He doesn’t care how badly King Coal pollutes the land and the air – or that it is is only a sliver of Kentucky’s economy. His turn at the trough. McConnell’s posture is even more negative considering that he broke into politics as an aide to Sen. John Sherman Cooper, a Republican – I guess you’d say an old-style Republican. Cooper was worldly and collegial. I covered his announcement that he would not run again in 1972. Maybe I met McConnell that day; I do remember the gravitas of John Sherman Cooper. I think of Cooper and others these days during the scrimmage for the House-to-Senate impeachment. I remember when Democrats like Sam Ervin and Republicans like Howard Baker were able to work together in the Watergate scandal that doomed Richard M. Nixon. It seems clear to me – from the impulsive assassination ordered by Trump to the lies from Trump’s toadies, angering even a Republican stalwart like Mike Lee of Utah – that the United States needs Trump dismissed. Mitch McConnell is trying to block it. I don’t know what McConnell gains from a defective president like Trump. But it’s still Mitch’s turn at the trough, and that may be all that matters to him. * * * Here is Gail Collins today, on McConnell. (I have delayed my pleasure in reading Collins until after I file my little screed, which was already in the works.) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/opinion/mitch-mcconnell-trump.html
john mcdermott
1/9/2020 10:02:46 am
Yertle the Senator. A man of no discernible humanity, motivated only by the retention of his own position of power and privilege. The chief enabler of a President unqualified for the job, a self-serving narcissist absolutely devoid of empathy or interest in anything that does not personally benefit him.
Hansen Alexander
1/9/2020 11:27:12 am
Good piece, George, and thanks for including the quote with the operative word "trough" to illustrate what McConnell is all about. He has admitted that his obsession with destroying campaign contribution limits from the oligarchs that lead to that dreadful Supreme Court, Citizens United, was the fact that he couldn't win state wide election in Kentucky "without buying it."
bruce
1/9/2020 12:00:29 pm
george,
Ed Martin
1/9/2020 06:15:44 pm
It is difficult to add any value to what you, George, Hanson and BRUCE have said. Here is a minicosm. Folks at a local golf club, most educated at the college level, support trump, indifferent to any faults. They are wealthy enough to appreciate tax cuts, the market is up. They are not interested,in food or shelter for others, not even interested in the weakening of environmental rules that protect the water and air, or national wildlife, parks etc. (They might feel there are too many regulations). Some became wealthy working in industries favored by trump. In short, they, like Mitch are feeding at the trough. (interestingly, our local Republican leaders here are overweight, prompting me to refer people to Animal Farm for parallels.
George Vecsey
1/9/2020 06:49:07 pm
Iris Dement wrote this in 1996:Rings true to me:
Ed Martin
1/9/2020 07:25:42 pm
Thumbs up!
bruce
1/9/2020 07:28:39 pm
george,
Randolph
1/9/2020 09:49:22 pm
George,
bruce
1/9/2020 10:03:18 pm
randolph,
Andy Tansey
1/19/2020 10:43:03 am
Never much for politics, I have wondered about disavowing my decision to register as a republican at the time the only primaries that mattered when I bought a home in Nassau County were for that party. Now, perhaps, it will come in handy. I'll write all the republican senators. This is a time when we need to find our voices, and I am grateful for the opportunity that George provides, though I fear that I preach to the choir. Comments are closed.
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