Thread: McConnell: The most powerful Republican (reelected)

Mitch McConnell was reelected last night and will likely remain the GOP Senate minority leader. As the story below illustrates, he is not always the best on illegal immigration (note, he has a Career grade of C from Numbers, and a Recent grade of B-).

If you have the chance, please call his D.C. office at 202- 224-2541 or contact him online at http://mcconnell.senate.gov/contact.cfm to urge him to work with Senator Sessions and DeMint in fighting illegal immigration:

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Politico
McConnell: The most powerful Republican
By MARTIN KADY II | 11/5/08 6:45 AM EST


With his party in tatters, Mitch McConnell is now the most powerful Republican in the country — the lone GOP senator who can stand in the way of an unfettered liberal agenda in Washington, and a key go-to man to rehabilitate his party.

McConnell, a soft-spoken Washington insider from Kentucky with a canny understanding of Senate tactics, is an unlikely pick to be the GOP’s Stonewall Jackson. Yet by virtue of surviving a tight reelection for a fifth term and having no real challenger to his position as Senate minority leader, McConnell is positioned to be both the ultimate dealmaker and the Republican firewall against a leftward tilt in American government.

McConnell’s first task will be to figure out how to soothe a decimated Republican Senate caucus divided between conservative ideologues who want to stand athwart history and block every Democratic initiative, and a group of moderates who may want to cut deals to ensure their own political survival.

On the night of Barack Obama’s historic victory, McConnell was playing the part of gracious dealmaker. For now.

In his victory speech Tuesday night, McConnell would say only that “the time to legislate will come,â€

Good, the more republicans the better to pad that fillerbuster. The main fight now is free speech. If they take that away then any other fight is dead for us. We need to focus on keeping our freedom of speech as 1# of the next 4 years. If we lose that then the Amnesty fight will end.

Excellent suggestion, Populist. As you are aware I frequently write on the humanitarian angle in this whole issue. After all who would say "no" to a young mother on the brink of starvation? And, while the Media doesn't report it, many Americans are already responding to this issue in their own way.

But since I have been active in some major infrastructure development issues locally I have had to conclude that trying to be humanitarian by encouraging an open borders policy is totally stupid. I guess that's how CAP's got its name. Since labor is cheaper in Third World Countries the industrial or community development costs for everything are cheaper, too. A US dollar will generally go ten times as far overseas. And they are not hampered by bad weather as one would be in...let's say... Alaska, either.

Incidentally when I was at M. Gorbachev's State of the World Forum in 2000 much of the talk was about how the Third World would leapfrog the West eventually. Not completely true, but a valid point.

I think they need a different Republican leader, Jeff Sessions would be great.

Isn't McConnell married to a Chinese immigrant?

Thanks Captain & keep up your good work.

Bowman,
I would like Sen. Sessions as leader too, but doubt it will happen. So far now we have to deal with what we have. But I called Sen. McConnell's office, spoke with a staffer, and urged her boss to work with Senator Sessions and DeMint on illegal immigration.

Originally Posted by Bowman

I think they need a different Republican leader, Jeff Sessions would be great.

Isn't McConnell married to a Chinese immigrant?

I agree. Sessions would be great right now.

Isn't there some room for bargaining here? Between the two parties? I think the Republicans are really out to lunch in not jumping onto the train of alternative energy as a new US industry. Could they ease up their opposition to that in exchange for a stricter position on immigration from the Democrats? Or should they let a sleeping dog (amnesty) lie? With the present high rate of unemployment immigration is on the back burner, for both parties.

You know what they say about politics being the art of compromise.