A 42-year-old McConnell may have won his first Senate race at the height of the Reagan years, but by the time he won the mantle of minority leader, those days were gone.
More than anything, Mitch McConnell was a Bush Republican.
How hollow would it ring to hear the honest truth, that those Republican elites clashing so violently with the new right represent the Bush wing of the GOP so publicly rejected by their own voters? Few Americans of either party hold much nostalgia about the George W. Bush presidency, and former Rep. Liz Cheney's headlong charge into obscurity doesn't quite inspire imitators.
"It's the end of the Reagan era," an anonymous Senate staffer told The Hill.
Mitch McConnell won leadership of the Senate GOP in 2006 - just off three years of controlling the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives, which they used to tinker on business-friendly reforms, while failing to achieve a lasting effect.
Within the Senate, McConnell often operated as a sort of third party.
It's priorities like these - and men like him and other Bush Republicans - who opened the door for the new right's rebellion within the ranks.
https://thefederalist.com/2024/03/04/mcconnells-retirement-marks-the-end-of-the-disastrous-bush-era/
No comments:
Post a Comment