Even before the first shots were fired in the Ukraine invasion, I have been highly complimentary on the way that Biden has run rings around Putin. He lectured him, he warned him, and he declassified classified documents to show the world every bogus excuse Putin wanted to use to go into Ukraine.
And since the Democrats took over the Senate on the tightest possible margin, I have been equally complimentary of Biden, as well as Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, for running rings around Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Schumer got off on the right foot immediately. McConnell refused to turn over the Senate committee chairs to the Democrats until he extracted concessions. Schumer gleefully went on Rachel Maddow’s show, explained the situation, and laughed in McConnell’s face on national television. It’s only gone downhill from there for McConnell.
And now McConnell is taking one more stab at replaying his greatest hits. Think of it like 3 Dog Night going back on tour. Just another geriatric oldster sick and tired of sitting at home.
I wrote a few days ago about how Biden and Pelosi were going to cut McConnell off at the knees by combining the Covid relief bill and the Ukraine assistance bill to keep McConnell from trying to attach an amendment to the Covid forcing an up and down vote to codify Trump’s racist Title 42Â on the southern border.
And McConnell is having a pissy fit. In a presser from the Hill today, while avoiding the subject of Roe v Wade like an oncoming freight train, McConnell made his great threat; Look, we all support Ukraine. And the quickest and easiest way to get that $33 billion Ukraine relief package through is to separate it from the Covid relief bill. The Covid relief bill isn’t going anywhere in the Senate until we get a straight up or down vote on Title 42. So the sooner the Democrats separate those two bills, the sooner we can get Ukraine the help it needs.
My Patron Saint, Jon of Stewart is fond of saying If you smell bullshit, then call bullshit. And I call Bullshit, Bullshit, Bullshit! Right now, on the fallout of the leak of the first draft of the Alito decision, the GOP looks like a bunch of people coming up out of a storm cellar to finally see firsthand the devastating damage that the tornado did to their town and houses. And the Democrats can’t talk about anything else when they get in front of a camera and microphone.
The GOP is already hip deep in the fallout from the abortion draft release, the last thing they need is to wade in any deeper. And right now, as Ukraine is busy kicking Russia’s ass all the way back to WWI days, Ukraine is more popular in the United States than French fries. The GOP can’t strategically afford to pile on themselves like that.
And remember, Moscow Mitch burned his last favor with his caucus when he begged them to do him a personal favor and vote against the non partisan 1/6 commission. He’s fresh out of chips to call in. And with Ukraine’s popularity, if McConnell actually tries to filibuster the combined bill, there may well be enough vulnerable GOP Senators to provide a 60 cloture vote.
Please Mr. President, and Majority Leader Schumer, if he actually tries to filibuster the combined bill, call his bluff, bring it to the floor. If it passes cloture, then McConnell’s ploy has failed. And if the GOP Senate actually filibusters the bill, then the Democrats can slam the GOP for being anti Ukraine. It’s a win-win.
