Kentucky's Mitch McConnell has risen to the highest minority office in the United States Senate. Having narrowly won re-election last year he is now busily working his leadership role to keep the republican agenda alive in a town now clearly dominated by democrats.
His latest battle however was seeking to amend a bill providing expanded health care for lower income children, also known as SCHIP. McConnell had his own ideas and wanted the Senate to adopt his amendment. In the end McConnell lost that battle by a more than two to one vote of 65-32.
McConnell has a tough time ahead. He fully understands the power of the presidency, and with another round of Senate elections coming up next year, many of his colleagues will be anxious to bring pork home to their states and will be tempted to curry favor with the democratic majority to get that done.
If Barack Obama's popularity continues McConnell will also have to fight battles with Senate republicans who would rather avoid direct run ins with a popular president as they seek re-election. And back at home McConnell has recently been accused of working in the background to sponsor a republican opponent for his own Junior Senator, Jim Bunning.
Bunning is the favorite to win any such primary and with his long and very well documented opposition to the failed financial policies of the United States Treasury coupled with his rock solid conservative principles, he should do very well in a state which clearly rejected Obama in the primary and went with McCain in the fall.
McConnell has enjoyed a reputation as a master of political maneuvering, but in a world where the only question that counts is "what have you done for me lately" his very narrow victory at home coupled with the perception that his loyalty to fellow republicans has been questioned, means that getting the votes he needs from within his own caucus may be increasingly more difficult for him, as the defeat of his own SCHIP amendment might suggest.
His vote on his pay raise did me in, and to think I voted for this scoundrel.
Posted by: bro43 | January 30, 2009 at 07:54 PM