Why McConnell seems hell-bent on bringing back the Senate to a contagious environment

[Zorro]

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) decision to require senators, staff and building employees to descend on the Capitol on Monday — overriding the anti-coronavirus health and safety orders of the executives of the three jurisdictions of the national capital region, is an irresponsible act of partisan selfishness.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), based upon guidance received from attending Capitol physician Brian Monahan, announced that House lawmakers will not return to Washington next week. “We had no choice,” Pelosi told reporters Tuesday. “If the Capitol physician recommends that we not come back, then we have to take that guidance.”

But McConnell’s office wouldn’t say whether he even bothered to consult with Monahan. What matters most to the majority leader is getting Senate Republicans back in town so he can ram through more of President Trump’s judicial nominees, including 37-year-old Justin Walker.

A Kentucky native and McConnell protege, Walker was confirmed for a federal judgeship in western Kentucky in a party-line vote only last October, despite having been judged “not qualified” by the American Bar Association, which cited his insufficient legal experience. Undeterred, Trump then nominated Walker to the second-most powerful court in the land, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. McConnell’s mission is to make it happen.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mcconnell-bringing-the-senate-back-is-an-irresponsible-act-of-partisan-selfishness/2020/05/01/35ba6cca-8b0c-11ea-8ac1-bfb250876b7a_story.html

[Thomas Hurt]

1. Yep, fascist judges and socialism for the rich...

[Harker]

2. If McConnell is for it, I'm against it.

To him, bipartisanship is Ds doing whatever he wants.

He deserves no accommodation. On anything.

[KS Toronado]

3. When Biden is in the WH and Dems control the senate,

we need a new law which states The American Bar Association has to put judges through a yearly vetting process, thus getting rid of deplorable judges. IMHO

[Bayard]

4. Why can't the right people catch Covid-19?

Is wrapping yourself in evil some kind of protection?

[heckles65]

5. If any of you are familiar with military evaluations-

"Not qualified" is the equivalent of the military's "Unsatisfactory." It not only means "bad," it means "he really worked at it bad."

[JudyM]

6. It's stunning that there is no standard that judges have to meet.

[Harry Walpurgisnacht]

7. From Across the Pond: Mitch McConnell could yet pay price for 'tone deaf' coronavirus response

The Senate majority leader oversaw a huge handout to big business and drew bipartisan ire for suggesting struggling states should go bankrupt
By David Smith, The Guardian

It was, New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo observed, “one of the really dumb ideas of all time”. Larry Hogan, his counterpart in Maryland, called it “complete nonsense”. Congressman Pete King of New York said it was the work of the “Marie Antoinette of the Senate”.

It would be an understatement to say Mitch McConnell’s suggestion that state and local governments should declare bankruptcy rather than seek more federal funding went down like a lead balloon. It was a rare instance of the Senate majority leader overplaying his hand.

McConnell’s role in the pandemic drama has been criticised. On 12 March, just before Trump declared a national emergency, the senator flew back to Kentucky for a celebration for Justin Walker, a young rightwing judge nominated to America’s second highest court. The ill-timed absence was noted. “#WheresMitch?” trended on Twitter.

“I think Mitch McConnell is the guy to be watching and focusing on in terms of what’s going on,” said Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. “His messaging around the coronavirus has been tone deaf. “It’s not just the fact that McConnell was remarkably brutal in pairing Americans into red and blue states at a time of national crisis – that is pretty shameless – but I think it was also politically inept because he’s got his colleagues in tough races in blue states.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/04/mitch-mcconnell-coronavirus-response-trump

Awww, Moscow Mitch could be endangering GOP control of the Senate? Why, the heart positively bleeds!

[lagomorph777]

8. It's total BS that the Capitol Physician doesn't have enough tests.

McConnell is trying to frighten away the Dem Senators. He's probably secretly testing his minions. I hope they all catch COVFEFE-19 and die.