Mitch McConnell, 'Mr. Fix It,' is not in the shutdown picture -- (Lexington Herald Leader)

[kentuck]

https://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/article223924750.html#storylink=latest_side

<snip>
Yet Democrats and even some Republicans have fretted that McConnell has kept his distance during the shutdown, insisting that the Senate will only vote for a spending bill that Trump will sign, while excoriating Democrats for refusing to give Trump any money for a wall at the border with Mexico.

“My friends across the aisle understand these ground rules perfectly well,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “They know that a solution will need to be palatable to House Democrats and Senate Republicans alike. They know that making laws takes a presidential signature. We all learned that in grade school.”

McConnell on Thursday rejected suggestions that he’d been sidelined, insisting there was no role for him to play, as there had been when he was in charge of delivering Republican votes to a Democratic president.

“Now the role is reversed and ultimately the solution to this is a deal between the President and Nancy and Chuck because we need some of Chuck’s votes and obviously we need Nancy’s support,” he said, citing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Democrats have been able to hit back hard.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. piss on moscow Mitch

He's a traitorous, lying GOPer. (Yeah, redundant).

[Cha]

3. +Millions!

[Hermit-The-Prog]

8. hey Cha! found something for you

In a thread by muriel_volestrangler
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211626589
there is this fine tweet:

Renato Mariotti
✔
@renato_mariotti

Today Trump claimed he will seize large swaths of land from private citizens at gunpoint and declare a “state of emergency” to build a wall without Congressional approval.

In the face of tyranny, Republicans are outraged ... by a freshman Member of Congress using profanity.

[Cha]

10. republicons are trying to distract

from the "face of tyranny". Any shiny object will do!

Did he really say he would "take their land at gun point"?

Thanks, Hermit

[Hermit-The-Prog]

12. that's how he thinks eminent domain works

Remember, he's amazingly ignorant.

[Cha]

13. Oh I could never forget

trump is ignorant and stupid as a bag of .. well actually rocks are smarter!

[beachbum bob]

2. this is tactical by trump as his only and last move he can make, extort democrats and Mitch

is fine with that as its a benefit for him to

My take is, shut the govt down, close the airports, stop all govt spending and we see how the markets respond and all the wealthy GOP donors wil like the losses. Trump wants to club congress? Congress can shut off funds...

if its a matter of stopping a tyrant like trump, then we al must be willing to do our part

[kentuck]

4. You may be right?

Pelosi is the type of Speaker that understands it is Congress that spends the money. The Congress could make it very tough on the Executive Branch, in more ways than one.

[beachbum bob]

5. if this is a battle, then we all have to be resilient...the pain is still coming but no choice when

dealing with a tyrant, Lets call trump out for what he is.

Watching the GOP crash and burn is the upside

[kentuck]

14. He is attempting to blackmail the Congress...

...and Mitch McConnell is in the process of helping him do it.

Trump will spend what he wants to spend, not what the Congress appropriates and allocates by law.

It is up to the Congress to analyze the problem, if there is one, and appropriate the money needed to fix it.

Trump is a misguided fool and McConnell has to decide whether he is going to be the leader of the United States Senate or a stooge for The trump?

[beachbum bob]

17. specifically, he is trying to blackmail the democratic House, and they MUST NOT

give in period.

Let trump and GOP take it on the chin. The sooner the hearings start, the better as Pelosi can argue that Trump is trying to circumvent the constitution

[NanceGreggs]

6. It's McConnell who doesn't understand the ground rules.

The ground rules have always been that those who collude with an adversarial foreign power in order to undermine American democracy are traitors.

We all learned that in grade school - but apparently Mitch was absent for that part of the curriculum.

[Achilleaze]

7. Did Putin order McConnell to stand down?

Itchy Mitchy (R) allegedly had his hand out for laundered russian moneybucks. Is he now just another whimpy, whiney republican puppet who has been ordered by his financiers to go SUPER SUBMISSIVE to the KGOP republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief, Comrade Dirty Donny?

[Cartoonist]

9. Then Mitch needs to go back to grade school

It was in 7th grade I learned that Congress can override a veto.

[UCmeNdc]

11. Why is Mitch McConnell getting a pass? Isn't he partly responsible for the government shut down?

Why can't he influence the president?

[localroger]

18. It's worse than that

If there were enough Republicans on board with the wall-less CR to override a veto, they could pass it without Trump. But if McConnell won't allow a floor vote he eliminates that possibility. In that sense it is just as much if not more on Mitch as it is on Two Scoops.

[Vinca]

15. Mitch should represent the people. Trump isn't his lone constituent.

Maybe he should be impeached, too.

[DeminPennswoods]

16. Actually, a bill does not need a Presidential

signature to become law. If a bill sits for 10 days (excluding Sundays) with no action by the President, it becomes law. That makes it an easy out for Trump and Senate Rs. They only need to pass a bill, Trump's staff can not give it to him, Trump can say he didn't sign it (which will be true) and it will become law.