Free Republic

The Democrats are riding a wave of successes the past few weeks. Gas prices edging downward, passage of the improbably named Inflation Reduction Act, successful meddling in Republican primaries and improving poll numbers have combined to make Biden and his compatriots believe they can win control of the Senate, and optimism is rising about the House. But when you dig through the numbers, Democrats are getting ahead of themselves.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) issued a sharp warning from the Senate floor on Tuesday, warning of a “scorched-Earth Senate” in response to Democrats pressing to end the filibuster. “Does anyone really believe the American people were voting for an entirely new system of government by electing Joe Biden to the White House and a 50-50 Senate?” McConnell asked his colleagues, emphasizing the Senate is split and Democrats only have the edge due to the party occupying the White House.

Congress opened its second day under the government shutdown Sunday with a prayer from the chaplain labeling the entire thing a miscalculation and pleading for sanity to prevail. Barry Black, a former Navy admiral and longtime chaplain, warned Congress might “reap the whirlwind” from the shutdown if they don’t find a way to cooperate. “Discontinue the blame game,” he urged them. The partial shutdown hasn’t had a deep impact yet, with it taking effect over a weekend. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned that it will hit Monday, when the federal workforce would normally return to work.

Tonight Ed Rollins, the Reagan campaign director in 1984, said it was time for Mitch McConnell to step down as Majority leader. Ed Rollins: I thought it was pretty outrageous. He better look in the mirror.. As I said before was fairly good defensive person stopping things. He certainly isn’t very good at offense… It’s time for change. There are several other members of the he 52 who can step forward. I think he’s tired.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday shot down the idea of Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland getting a hearing. McConnell insisted in a floor speech that vacancy should be filled by the next president. ADVERTISEMENT “The next justice could fundamentally alter the direction of the Supreme Court and have a profound impact on our country, so of course the American people should have a say in the Court’s direction," he said.

WASHINGTON — More than a year before a difficult election cycle when he will be challenged to hold on to his hard-won Republican majority, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky may have already suffered his most significant loss — the pending departure of Speaker John A. Boehner. Over the past six years, the two Republican leaders have developed a bond of the type that has not always existed between House and Senate leaders of the same party, figures who are often pulled in opposite directions. More important, Mr. McConnell and Mr. Boehner agreed that engaging in the kind of brinkmanship that...

Wednesday Senator McConnell’s race against Democratic opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes looks a bit tighter than it did a few days ago, when we suggested that McConnell might begin measuring for drapes in the Majority Office. For one thing, the latest survey of the Kentucky contest finds McConnell and state Secretary of State Grimes virtually tied. The Bluegrass Poll puts McConnell at 44 percent, and Grimes at 43, with 5 percent for a third party candidate and 8 percent undecided. For another, the Democratic Party and the Grimes campaign are throwing money at ads in what looks like a last-month push...

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell challenged President Obama’s claim to support trillions in serious spending cuts as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling – cuts the president says show he’s ready to anger Democrats to get a deal. In a sharply worded speech on the Senate floor today, McConnell labeled the Obama cuts a sham. “We all saw how it worked,” he said. “The administration leaked to the media, without any details, the idea that it was willing to go along with trillions in spending cuts.”But the cuts are largely illusory, McConnell indicated. Obama hoped “the budget...