WHAT DO HIS REPUBLICAN COLLEAGUES THINK OF MISS McCONNELL NOW?

The one on the right would like to be Minority Leader post-Bush

Robert Novak, a GOP propagandist, is a little circumspect about it, but Capitol Hill is seething with discontent over Kentucky's slimy senior senator, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. In this yesterday's Washington Post Novak reports that one of Bush's few allies on immigration-- Trent Lott, but he doesn't name him-- described McConnell's cowardly handling of the immigration bill like this:

"If this were a war, Sen. McConnell should be relieved of command for dereliction of duty."

Anyone familiar with the reason, hidden from the public but widely known in DC, that McConnell was kicked out of the Army after a week-- fondling a private's privates-- knows what a stinging rebuke Lott dealt him. As Novak points out, "Not only did the minority leader end up voting against an immigration bill that he said was better than the 2006 version he supported, he abandoned his post, staying off the floor during final stages of the debate."

McConnell's tenure as Minority Leader has been to bring the Senate and especially Senate Republicans into general disrepute for his grotesquely obstructionist tactics of virtually everything. He then turns around and publicly accuses the Democrats of being unable to get anything done. If he is defeated in 2008, the Senate will be a far better place-- for everyone but his business partners, the Chinese Communists.

It is unlikely that McConnell will be kicked out of his leadership role. The Republicans don't have the stomach for that kind of fight.and, as Novak points out, "McConnell's non-performance on immigration derived from general Republican malaise going well beyond a single issue." The Republicans are depressed, disheartened and aware that their minority status is on the verge of losing even the clout to effectively obstruct. Imperiled Republican senators include Norm Coleman (MN), Susan Collins (ME), John Sununu (NH), Gordon Smith (OR), Pete "Sneaky Pete" Domenici (NM), John Warner (AZ), Chuck Hagel (NE), Lindsey Graham (SC), Miss McConnell himself, and perhaps even Cornyn (TX) and Chamberpot (GA). Some have already been making subtle inquiries about jobs on K Street in 2009.