McCONNELL2 SEN

new 3/15

sEe MCCONNOL 3 719

tag mcconn 12/16

staffer mafia

capt 4/18 bak

619 capt

===

congrats you evil feck 10/16: furies?

---

he forgot cu

an 7 26

On Friday, a prominent Republican declared Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “one of the greatest villains across America’s 250-year history.” His legacy, it was asserted, will be tied to his role in breaking the Senate’s ability to function.

This is according to Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt, a longtime GOP insider who has served as a political strategist for the likes of George W. Bush and John McCain. Amid rumors and speculation about the condition of McConnell’s health — who has reportedly been in the hospital for some weeks after being discovered unconscious and receiving CPR, with some saying he may be “brain dead” — Schmidt argues, “The American people are owed candor when one of the most powerful elected officials in the country suffers a grave medical emergency.”

According to Schmidt, Americans cannot trust “carefully curated assurances from political allies whose first instinct is to protect an institution, a party, or a reputation — particularly when those assurances come from people who have no credibility whatsoever. Scott Jennings doesn’t have credibility, and neither do Senate Majority Leader John Thune and his number two John Barrasso from Wyoming,” the three of whom claimed to have spoken with hospitalized McConnell for “20 minutes.”

As Schmidt explains, not only is it highly unlikely that McConnell was capable of having such a conversation, noting that “an 84-year-old who had CPR performed on him before being put in an ambulance has a roughly six percent chance of ever walking out of a hospital,” but Americans have no reason to believe leaders who are unwilling to give a straight answer to who won the 2020 election.

And in this context, writes Schmidt, “the historical verdict on Mitch McConnell’s career is already taking shape. The high court of history is convening. The judgement will be appropriately brutal for service so unpatriotic and selfish. He’s one of the greatest villains across America’s 250-year history. Mitch McConnell destroyed the functioning and integrity of the US Senate, which was once known as the world’s greatest deliberative body. Today, it’s a joke.”

According to Schmidt, “Mitch McConnell was precisely the type of man George Washington warned about in his farewell. He’s done incredible damage to the American republic. He lived his life as a partisan cancer, and here at the end, he’s earned his looming two-word obituary: good riddance. He leaves behind a Senate that’s become a battlefield where power eclipses principle, and procedural warfare has replaced persuasion.”

The turning point, writes Schmidt, came with McConnell’s “refusal to allow Merrick Garland’s nomination even to receive a hearing ... Four years later, his determination to confirm Amy Coney Barrett weeks before a presidential election established a second rule that directly contradicted the first. Many Americans concluded that there were no rules at all. Only power.”

And what’s more, argues Schmidt, “The damage extended beyond the Senate chamber. Public confidence in the Supreme Court suffered enormously as millions came to see the institution not as an independent branch of government, but as another arena for raw political combat. History will remember that, and so will history remember his relationship with Donald Trump. No Republican leader understood Trump’s character more clearly. Few warned more eloquently about it. Yet when confronted with the defining challenge of his political life, Mitch McConnell repeatedly chose accommodation over confrontation.”

“That cowardice will be his epithet, and when he meets the supreme judge of the universe the grace he will need is something he didn’t practice in this life,” Schmidt concludes. “McConnell leaves behind a Senate that is weaker than the one he inherited, a judiciary viewed by millions with deeper suspicion than before, and a political culture in which power too often became an end unto itself. He lived his life as a constitutional vandal who lifted a fascist he despised into a position to wreck the institutions McConnell professed to revere, but really didn’t.”

---

Timeline of Senator Mitch McConnell’s Hypocrisy on Corporate America’s Role in Politics - End Citizens United | We the People, Not "We the Wealthy"

Timeline of Senator Mitch McConnell’s Hypocrisy on Corporate America’s Role in Politics

Apr 06, 2021

It’s no secret that Senator Mitch McConnell loves corporations. Whether it’s cutting corporate taxes at the expense of middle and working class families or holding COVID relief hostage because of the lack of corporate carve outs, McConnell has been corporate America’s biggest cheerleader. He’s made it his life work to grant corporations unfettered access and influence over our democracy in return for their financial support. But now, with some corporations opposing Republican efforts to erect barriers to voting, McConnell is having a sudden change of heart about their ability to speak out on public matters.

“After decades of advocating for corporate personhood and speech, Senator McConnell now wants corporations silenced if they’re critical of his party. He knows corporations are not people—that’s why he’s so quick to silence them,”said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “He only considers them ‘people’ when cashing their checks and watching their dark money ads in support of his campaign of voter suppression and gridlock.”

Below is a timeline of McConnell’s comments on corporate speech over the last 25 years:

“In fact, our country is a seething cauldron of special interests. It is entirely American. It is entirely appropriate. It is exactly what Americans should do, is to ban together to oppose those they don’t like, to support those they do. All of that, of course, should be disclosed and the public should make its own decision.” Roll Call campaign finance reform forum, 16:55, [1/9/97]

“The terms of art bandied about in the reform debate – spending limits, PAC limits, independent expenditure limits, issue advocacy regulations, soft money – are all euphemisms for speech and participation. These are the means by which Americans participate in our democracy.” Campaign finance reform opposition press conference, 6:16, [3/14/97]

“With private interests pushed to the sidelines, the only voices lawmakers could be expected to respond to would be the self-appointed tribunes of the public interest. Private interests would end up with minimal influence on the direction of public policy, and the odds of people running toward public sector solutions would increase dramatically.” Office of Sen. Mitch McConnell, [6/15/12]

“All these efforts are for the purpose of limiting the ability of those engaged in private enterprises – or certain disfavored private groups or associations – to influence the direction of our country by participating in the electoral process. The goal is to hermetically seal off Congress from anyone engaged in the private economy or in certain kinds of advocacy, for that matter, outside the public sector.” Office of Sen. Mitch McConnell, [6/15/12]

“Now, it’s important to remember that one of the things that makes effective the harassment and intimidation tactics I’ve described is their selectivity. There aren’t exactly a lot of folks running to the ramparts to defend oil company executives and hedge fund managers. But we all need to understand something: the minute we allow ourselves to be convinced that some people stand outside the protections of the First Amendment, we’re all in trouble.” Office of Sen. Mitch McConnell, [6/15/12]

“But there’s another element to these efforts that’s less widely understood, but that I believe is essential to understanding why it is that liberals have been working so hard to regulate political speech over the past four decades. It involves the great assumption behind all of their campaign finance efforts: that the collision of private interests with politics is somehow inherently corrupting.” Office of Sen. Mitch McConnell, [6/15/12]

“So all Citizens United did was to level the playing field for corporate speech…We now have, I think, the most free and open system we’ve had in modern times.” The Nation, [8/26/14]

huh? woke corps 2021

:{:{“Our private sector must stop taking cues from the Outrage-Industrial Complex. Americans do not need or want big business to amplify disinformation or react to every manufactured controversy with frantic left-wing signaling…From election law to environmentalism to radical social agendas to the Second Amendment, parts of the private sector keep dabbling in behaving like a woke parallel government. Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order. Businesses must not use economic blackmail to spread disinformation and push bad ideas that citizens reject at the ballot box.” Office of Sen. Mitch McConnell, [04/05/21]}:

---

https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/heres-why-the-moscowmitch-nickname-is-so-devastating-for-mitch-mcconnell/

https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/new-study-finds-states-need-more-funding-to-protect-elections-%e2%81%a0-funding-mcconnell-wont-allow/

New study finds states need more funding to protect elections ?— funding McConnell won’t allow

Written by Joan McCarter / Daily Kos July 22, 2019

A report released last week from the Brennan Center for Justice, the R Street Institute, the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security, and the Alliance for Securing Democracy sounds an alarm about the urgent need for federal funding to secure state elections systems ahead of the 2020 election.

Choosing Alabama, Arizona, Illinois, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania as key states representing different regions, with varied population sizes to extrapolate from, the authors find that federal intervention is critical. “Elections are the pillar of American democracy, and, as we saw in 2016 and 2018, foreign governments will continue to target them,” the authors write. “States cannot counter these adversaries alone, nor should they have to. But at a time when free and fair elections are increasingly under attack, they can, with additional federal funding, safeguard them.” They say that while they “have limited their review to a sampling of six states, it is clear that the other 44 states and the District of Columbia have similar unfunded needs.”

Four of the states said they need funding to replace old equipment that’s vulnerable to cyber attacks, while several others require funds for training election officials in cybersecurity. Oklahoma needs funding for post-election audits to make sure their tallies are correct, and Pennsylvania identified a need for regular assessments of the security of its counties’ systems.

In 2018, Congress passed $380 million in grants through Help America Vote Act funding specifically for election security. The Elections Assistance Commission has estimated that 85% of these funds will be spent ahead of the 2020 election “to strengthen election cybersecurity, purchase new voting equipment, and improve postelection audits,” but this study’s authors find that it’s not stretching to the full need just in the six states they surveyed.

“Unfortunately, given the myriad security challenges faced by these states, the $380 million is not enough to address the needs of state and local offices,” they write, and “many have substantial election security needs that likely will not be met absent additional federal support.” That federal support is only going to happen if Mitch McConnell lets it. He’s blocked a very significant elections protection bill this year, and has made it clear that he won’t let one through.

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/07/mcconnell-raised-millionsfrom-outside-kentucky/

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell raised a healthy $3 million for his 2020 re-election campaign from April through June and has a whopping $7.9 million in the bank. But just 9 percent of his campaign cash from large individual donors came from his home state of Kentucky.

Instead, most of his money came from out-of-state donors, reflecting the Kentucky Republican’s strong influence on the Senate agenda and national interest in the race as the GOP strives to keep the Senate in its control.

The lack of home state dollars could give potential challengers an opening to criticize McConnell as out of step with the state, while McConnell has emerged as a top Democratic target and national groups looking to oust him are already raising millions.

Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot who narrowly lost a Kentucky congressional election last year, reported raising $2.5 million in the first 24 hours of her campaign and has drawn widespread national interest. She entered the race on July 9. The latest reports cover a period that ended June 30.

In addition to raising money for his own Senate campaign, McConnell drew more than $610,000 from four committees that partner with fellow Republican senators facing reelection. The committees raise massive sums from fundraisers backed primarily by wealthy executives and corporate PACs. Less than $20,000 came from Kentucky donors.

McConnell raised the third most money among Senate candidates in the second quarter. But the Kentucky Democratic Party mocked the haul as “mediocre” and singled out the lack of dollars from Kentucky as “not a great showing for America’s most unpopular senator.”

McConnell raised nearly $182,000 from Kentucky donors who gave more than $200, representing less than one-tenth of his big-dollar haul.Donors from New York ($281,000) and Texas ($216,000) gave more.

The lack of campaign cash from Kentucky isn’t new or unusual. Thirty-one states gave more money to all federal candidate committees in the 2018 midterms than the Bluegrass state, which accounted for just over $18 million in contributions.

In her losing campaign against Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) in 2018, McGrath raised $8.5 million, but three-quarters of her large-dollar contributions came from outside Kentucky.

McConnell’s campaign made it clear Tuesday that it would counter questions about his out-of-state fundraising by pointing to his opponents’ supporters. Noting that actresses Alyssa Milano and Bette Midler tweeted in support of McGrath, McConnell campaign manager Kevin Golden said McGrath’s campaign is “funded by a who’s who of left wing celebrities in Hollywood” and that the campaign would be “thrilled” to revisit the issue when McGrath’s reports become public later this year.

Ditch Mitch, a national group formed to counter McConnell, also raised only a small fraction of its money from Kentucky.

One of the short-lived joint fundraising committees, a partnership between McConnell and Sens. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina and Martha McSally, R-Arizona, raised over $405,000 from seven individual donors. McConnell took more than $75,000 for himself.

In Kentucky, McConnell has played a big part in reshaping the state’s political landscape, turning the state House and Senate red in 2017 after decades of Democratic power. Even as McConnell focuses on his own race and boosting Republican ranks on the federal level, he’s also focused on state party building, with his cash-rich political action committees routinely contributing to nearly every Republican state office holder.

Despite his role as a zealous defender of President Donald Trump, McConnell hasn’t tapped into the small donor base that has catapulted Trump and some of his allies in Congress to massive fundraising numbers.

McConnell raised $340,000 from donors giving less than $200 from April through June. That figure is far less than the small-donor hauls from some of Trump’s top allies in Congress, including Reps. Jim Jordan ($411,000) and Devin Nunes ($1 million).

Instead, McConnell draws from major corporations’ political action committees and their executives hailing from outside of the Bluegrass state.

He’s already received six figure contributions from affiliates of New York City investment firm Blackstone Group, along with over $88,000 from Georgia-based United Parcel Service, nearly $66,000 from Indiana-based pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co and $50,000 from affiliates of Florida’s GEO Group, the private prison contractor that runs several federal immigration detention facilities.

Of senators up for reelection in 2020, only endangered Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) has collected more money from PACs than McConnell in 2019. Gardner collected $1.32 million compared to McConnell’s $1.25 million.

McConnell’s reliance on corporate PACs, along with his support for unlimited independent political spending ushered in by the Supreme Court’s 2010 *Citizens United* decision, has made him a top target of left-leaning groups advocating for campaign finance reform. Chief among them is End Citizens United, which has pushed Democratic candidates to reject contributions from corporate PACs.

McGrath, who won’t file her numbers with the Federal Election Commission until October, got off to a hot start. But her campaign was swiftly plagued by a series of early blunders, including retracting a statement that she would have supported Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, despite allegations of sexual assault.

The McConnell campaign was well prepared for a McGrath announcement, branding the Democrat as “too liberal” for Kentucky in an online attack launched the same day McGrath kicked off her campaign.

Despite his low approval ratings, which he has maintained for more than a decade, McConnell hasn’t come close to losing his seat, which he first won in 1984.

In 2014, McConnell raised and spent more than $30 million against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, who raised nearly $19 million but lost to McConnell by 15 points.

He also faced a primary challenge that year, but soundly defeated now-Gov. Matt Bevin by more than 20 points. This time, McConnell has sought to shore up his right flank, aligning himself closely with Trump and making the confirmation of Trump judicial nominations a top priority.

One election cycle earlier, McConnell spent more than $21 million, including a $2 million personal loan, to beat Democrat Bruce Lunsford, who put nearly $8.6 million of his own money into the race.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/how-mitch-mcconnell-is-turning-democracy-upside-down-to-entrench-right-wing-minority-rule/

no lnx

How Mitch McConnell is turning democracy upside down to entrench right-wing minority rule

written by Nancy LeTourneau / Washington Monthly July 15, 2019

When Barack Obama issued executive orders, especially during his last two years in office, Republicans responded with words like “tyranny.” The 44th president clearly stated that he would employ his “pen and phone” strategy to accomplish things that Congress had refused to take up, primarily because the Republican approach had been to obstruct anything he and the Democrats attempted to do.

The Republicans, of course, changed their tune when Donald Trump was elected. Since the first days of his presidency, when he issued a travel ban on Muslims, this president has governed primarily through the use of executive orders, even when his party controlled both houses of Congress.

For a while now, the Trump administration has been insisting that Congress change the rules for how the government responds to claims of asylum. Because those changes are part of this administration’s xenophobic approach to refugees, Congress has not acted on any of them. On Monday, Trump issued yet another executive order that basically ends asylum protections.

The Trump administration on Monday moved to end asylum protections for most Central American migrants in a major escalation of the president’s battle to tamp down the number of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

According to a new rule published in the Federal Register, asylum seekers who pass through another country first will be ineligible for asylum at the U.S. southern border. The rule, expected to go into effect Tuesday, also applies to children who have crossed the border alone…

But the move by President Donald Trump’s administration was meant to essentially end asylum protections as they now are on the southern border.

Just as with most of Obama’s and Trump’s executive orders, this one will be challenged in court the minute it goes into effect on Tuesday. What we are witnessing is a pattern beginning to emerge that substitutes the judiciary for the legislative branch of government.

The Supreme Court recently announced that they will take up the challenge to DACA when they reconvene in October. President Obama issued that executive order to protect Dreamers from deportation after Congress failed to pass both comprehensive immigration reform and the Dream Act. Trump ended the program via an executive order and, for months, tried to use the Dreamers as hostages to pass his xenophobic asylum reforms. It is his attempt to end the program that will be heard by the Supreme Court. So ultimately, the fate of the Dreamers will be in the hands of nine justices.

Similarly, the fate of health insurance for millions of Americans will likely find its way into the hands of Supreme Court Justices once again, after the Republican-controlled Congress failed to repeal Obamacare. Also winding their way through the courts are numerous executive orders issued by Trump to undo the progress the Obama administration made on curbing climate change.

Other than passing massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, Majority Leader McConnell has been clear that he is not interested in passing legislation. He spent the eight years of the Obama administration obstructing everything Democrats tried to do and now embraces the title “Grim Reaper” when it comes to stopping bills that have passed the House. McConnell had to be cajoled by Jared Kushner to allow criminal justice reform to reach the Senate floor—so he’s not even interested in passing anything on Trump’s agenda.

Instead, as we’ve seen, the majority leader is focused solely on confirming conservative justices to federal courts. That’s why he referred to his decision to block Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, as his most consequential political accomplishment.

McConnell knows that the GOP is destined to become a minority party in the coming years. If they maintain their slight majority in the Senate, they have the power to obstruct anything a Democratic president tries to accomplish. Even if they lose their majority, they can still obstruct as long as the filibuster rules remain in place.

Ultimately, minorities and majorities are meaningless if McConnell can stack the federal courts with extremist judges and use them to bypass both Congress and the president. That is precisely why he had that little smirk on his face when responding to the question about whether the Senate would confirm a Trump-nominated Supreme Court nominee in 2020.

Embedded video

Nancy LeTourneau

@Smartypants60

Mitch McConnell doesn’t care that you think he’s a hypocrite.

Mitch McConnell is perfectly happy to completely neuter Congress, stack the federal courts with extremist judges, and allow them to legislate from the bench while the GOP slips into minority status. And no, he doesn’t give a damn if you think that Republicans are hypocrites after all the years they have accused Democrats of legislating from the bench. What voters think doesn’t matter when the courts—the only unelected branch of government—hold all of the power.

Political Ploy by Mitch McConnell Blocks Attempt to Stop War With Iran

Alex Emmons, Jon Schwarz

family owned 14 slaves AN

McConnell Blocks Election Security, Takes Checks From Voting Machine Lobbyists

https://truthout.org/articles/mcconnell-blocks-election-security-takes-checks-from-voting-machine-lobbyists/

In 2016, Russian hackers targeted voting systems in 21 states and, according to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, breached systems in Illinois and two counties in Florida, gaining access to information on millions of registered voters. In his report, Mueller described the Russian government’s interference in the 2016 elections as “sweeping and systematic.”

Three years later, security experts warn that not enough has been done to address vulnerabilities in the U.S. election system. The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations recently told Congress that “the threats just keep escalating,” adding that he viewed the 2018 midterms as a “dress rehearsal for the big show in 2020.”

In fourteen states, some 2018 midterm voters submitted their votes on touchscreens that did not produce paper trails necessary to verify their votes or audit election outcomes. If votes had been inaccurately processed in these precincts — whether through equipment errors or foreign hacking operations — election officials wouldn’t have been able to find or correct the problems.

Several Democratic and Republican members of Congress have submitted legislation to shore up election security. Proposals from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) include replacing paperless electronic voting machines with hand-marked paper ballots and optical scanners, subjecting voting equipment vendors to rigorous cybersecurity standards, and requiring vendors to report cybersecurity incidents.

But all the bills have hit a roadblock. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has reportedly told his colleagues that he will not allow the Senate to vote on election security legislation this session.

“At this point I don’t see any likelihood that those bills would get to the floor if we mark them up,” Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said recently when asked by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) whether the Rules Committee, which Blunt chairs, would mark up any election security bills. The Hill asked McConnell’s office about Blunt’s comments regarding election security and was referred to the majority leader’s verdict on the Mueller report: “case closed.”

Senator Wyden told Sludge he thinks McConnell does not want to make elections more secure.

“The only logical conclusion is that Senator McConnell wants American elections to be vulnerable to hackers and foreign interference,” Wyden said. “It is unconscionable for Republicans to stick their heads in the sand and do nothing after what happened in 2016. If Congress doesn’t act, it’s only a matter of time before hackers successfully interfere again.”

The two largest voting machine vendors in the U.S., Election Systems & Software (ES&S) and Dominion Voting Systems, together supply more than 80% of the nation’s voting machines. The companies have operated extensive lobbying operations in states for years, and both companies recently hired new lobbyists to represent them at the federal level.

ES&S hired lobbying firm Peck Madigan Jones in Oct. 2018 and paid it a combined $150,000 to lobbythe U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019. ES&S did not employ any federal lobbyists in 2017, and when they reported lobbying in previous years it was at a much lower level, spending just $10,000 in many quarters.Dominion Voting Systems, which was recently acquired by New York-based hedge fund Staple Street Capital, signed its first-ever federal lobbying contract in January 2019 with Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck and has paid the company at least $30,000 so far to lobby Congress.

Several of the lobbyists working for ES&S and Dominion Voting Systems have recently made contributions to McConnell’s campaign and joint fundraising committee.

Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck lobbyist David Cohen, who lobbies for Dominion Voting Systems on issues related to election security and monitors federal legislation for the company, gave McConnell $2,000 on March 31: $1,000 to his campaign committee and $1,000 to his joint fundraising committee. Lobbyist Brain Wild, who works alongside Cohen on the Dominion contract, gave McConnell $1,000 on the same day.

Emily Kirlin, a lobbyist for Peck Madigan Jones who lobbies for ES&S on election security and H.R. 1, gave McConnell’s campaign committee $1,000 on February 19, and her colleague who works with her on the contract, Jen Olson, gave McConnell $1,000 on March 4.

“It’s not surprising to me that Mitch McConnell is receiving these campaign contributions,” the Brennan Center for Justice’s Lawrence Noren told Sludge. “He seems single-handedly to be standing in the way of anything passing in Congress around election security, and that includes things that the vendors might want, like money for the states to replace antiquated equipment.”

“Mitch McConnell’s conflicts of interest in blocking any and all election security legislation is not only shameful, it is placing our democracy at risk,” Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen, told Sludge. “The conflicts of interest arise from more than the campaign contributions he is receiving from voting machine vendors — contributions which certainly appear to be a reward from the industry for letting them off the hook — but it is also a self-serving act for strictly partisan purposes.

“McConnell believes this foreign interference in our democratic process will again favor the GOP, and so he is doing everything possible to make sure that window stays wide open for those who seek to do harm to our political system,” Holman said.

McConnell’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Voting machine vendors like ES&S and Dominion Voting Systems are not currently subject to any specific regulations or mandatory security standards.

“In contrast to other sectors, particularly those that the federal government has designated ‘critical infrastructure,’ there is almost no federal oversight of private vendors that design and maintain the systems that allow us to determine who can vote, how they vote, what voters see when they cast their vote, how votes are counted, and how those vote totals are communicated to the public,” Noren told Congress recently in a testimony. “In fact, there are more federal regulations for ballpoint pens and magic markers than there are for voting systems and other parts of our federal election infrastructure.”

Several of the bills that have been proposed in Congress would subject them to regulation and oversight for the first time, and some could result in the companies doing less business with the states as they encourage the use of hand-marked ballots instead of machines.

A bill from Senator Wyden — the Protecting American Votes and Election Act (PAVE Act) — would, for the first time, establish minimum cybersecurity requirements that election equipment vendors would have to comply with in order for their equipment to be eligible for use in federal elections. The rules would be established by the Department of Homeland Security, and systems would have to be tested and certified by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC).

The PAVE Act would also require voting systems to use an “individual, durable, voter-verifiable, paper ballot of the voter’s vote that shall be marked and made available for physical inspection and verification by the voter before the voter’s vote is cast and tabulated.” And while the bill does not explicitly ban electronic systems for marking paper ballots — something that both ES&S and Dominion Voting Systems have begun manufacturing — it specifies that funding it would give to states to replace their paperless systems could not be used “to acquire any electronic device that a voter can use to mark a paper ballot.”

If a paper ballot requirement were to become law, with or without a funding restriction such as the one included in Wyden’s bill, the increased costs and security risks of ballot-marking machines could make them less appealing to states looking to purchase new systems.

According to testimony from Alex Halderman, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, equipping a precinct with ballot-marking electronic devices costs about three times as much as equipping it with a truly paper-based system along with a dedicated electronic device for voters with disabilities. “Fortunately, the most cost-effective approach is also the most secure: hand-marked paper ballots counted using optical scanners,” Halderman stated.

Another bill being blocked by McConnell, the House-passed H.R.1, includes a paper ballot requirement and would subject vendors to additional new security regulations. Voting machine vendors would be required to follow cybersecurity best practices that would be issued by the EAC’s Technical Guidelines Development Committee, and they would have to report election cybersecurity incidents and response plans to the EAC. They would also be forced to submit their equipment to independent security testing, and the EAC would be empowered to decertify any equipment that does not meet its security standards.

“I don’t know why Mitch McConnell is staging a full roadblock of election security legislation,” Wyden said. “But it is clear as day that there are politicians in the country who view insecure voting equipment as a benefit that helps them win elections. Instead of defending Americans’ constitutional rights, they are looking at this issue from a purely cynical and political standpoint.”

https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/your-regular-reminder-that-mcconnell-abetted-russian-election-interference-and-is-doing-it-again

Running interference for the occupier of the Oval Office, the execrable Rep. Steve Scalise is attacking Joe Biden, saying “Russian interference in America’s elections happened on Obama and Biden’s watch.” That’s “irrefutable” he says, pointing to a craptacular 2017 CBS News report from 2017 that vaguely references the “political difficulties” President Obama faced in addressing Russian hacking without once mention Mitch McConnell.

Those political difficulties were entirely of McConnell’s making. He’s the guy who, in reporter Greg Miller’s retelling, was fully briefed on everything the intelligence committee knew about Russian interference. He was told that Russia was intervening to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump. And McConnell told the CIA, “You’re telling us that Russia is trying to help elect Trump. If you try to come forward with this, I’m not going to sign onto any sort of public statement that would condemn Russian interference. But I will condemn you and the Obama administration for trying to mess up this election."

McConnell doesn’t have that card to play in the lead-up to the 2020 election, another one that he appears to be just as committed to helping Russia fix. As we speak, McConnell continues to refuse to take up legislation to protect the next election, falling back on that old saw, “states’ rights.” His excuse is that “Democrats would like to nationalize everything” and that they “want the federal government to take over the election process because they think that would somehow benefit them.” It does happen to be true that clean elections in which all eligible voters are able exercise their franchise tend to result in Democrats winning. That’s McConnell’s tell right there—he doesn’t want a clean election.

McConnell also argues that the Trump administration did a “terrific job” in working with state and local officials in the 2018 election and asks, “Where is the applause for that?” That’s in spite of the fact that bipartisan attorneys general were pleading with a then-Republican Congress to give them some help just a few months before the election, alarmed at the threat they knew existed.

A week ago, the Democratic House passed an expansive election protections bill, with mandatory back-up paper ballots and post-vote audits to ensure that elections systems won’t be compromised by hacking. Democrats have got more legislation coming, hoping a barrage of bills will force McConnell to respond to bipartisan pressure to break his blockade. Thus far they haven’t been able to make a dent in his refusal to consider the bills.

McConnell’s obstruction might have something to do with the past big campaign donations he’s received from pals of Putin and the millions those same Russian oligarchs are pouring into his home state of Kentucky, in the form of capital investment in an aluminum plant. It probably has everything to do with the fact that he’s just about the least popular politician in the nation and that he’s up for reelection himself this cycle, and is underwater in his home state, with a “razor-thin” lead over a generic Democratic opponent.

So, no, Obama and Biden aren’t to blame for Russian interference in the 2016 election. Granted, Obama could have ignored McConnell’s threat and gone ahead with his warnings, but he was well aware of the lengths McConnell would go to to poison the election—he was right in the middle of McConnell’s blockade of the Merrick Garland Supreme Court nomination and knew that there are no depths to which McConnell will not sink. He’ll happily do it again to win.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/mitch-mcconnells-ancestors-owned-at-least-14-slaves-report/

Top GOP Priority: Make Obama a One-Term President, National Journal, (October 23, 2010)

"The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."

Top GOP Priority: Make Obama a One-Term President, National Journal, (October 23, 2010)

https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/mitch-mcconnell-is-hated-even-more-than-trump-heres-how-democrats-can-use-that-to-sweep-the-2020-elections/

no lnx

Mitch McConnell is hated even more than Trump. Here’s how Democrats can use that to sweep the 2020 elections

Mitch McConnell is hated even more than Trump. Here’s how Democrats can use that to sweep the 2020 elections Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian

written by Matthew Chapman / Raw Story June 25, 2019

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) arguably was everything President Donald Trump stood for politically long before Trump was even taken seriously as a presidential candidate.

Gallons of ink have been spilled about how he is a worse threat to democratic institutions than Trump. He has blocked any and all progressive reform, engineered a right-wing takeover of the federal courts, rewrote Senate rules to enforce GOP ideology, and did all in his power to undermine campaign finance and corruption laws. In the historical record, he is probably matched in his power and anti-democratic tendencies only by Joseph Gurney Cannon, the early 20th century House speaker who essentially ruled Congress with an iron fist.

ADVERTISING

McConnell is also one of the most toxic and despised politicians in America — even more than Trump. And some Democratic strategists now believe the key to winning in 2020 is to make the election a referendum on him.

According to the Huffington Post, a poll conducted by End Citizens United across 10 battleground states showed that anti-McConnell messaging is more effective than anti-Trump messaging. Democrats started with a 3-point advantage on the generic ballot, but among voters who were exposed to messaging about McConnell, it grew to a 12-point advantage. Trump messaging only generated a 6-point advantage.

The anti-McConnell sentiment is robust across a broad range of key groups. The Majority Leader polls just 18 percent approval among independents, and 25 percent in Obama-Trump counties.

Democrats face a difficult Senate map in 2020 — while most of the seats in play are held by the GOP, most are in safely red states. Democrats will have to net a total of four seats to win the majority, or three if they win the White House.

For his part, McConnell reportedly relishes the idea of an election nationalized about him — his campaign has eagerly embraced both the “Cocaine Mitch” and “Grim Reaper” labels — and as he seeks a seventh term in 2020, he aims to portray himself as the only thing standing in the way of Congress enacting full-bore socialism. But it is clear that huge swathes of the electorate see him as standing in the way of Congress doing anything, period.

rant/ racism

https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/mitch-mcconnell-is-the-second-worst-human-being-on-the-planet/

McConnell goes berserk – says granting Puerto Rico statehood, voting rights, representation is ‘full bore socialism’

619 an

As he blocks election security bills, Mitch McConnell takes checks from voting machine lobbyists

written by June 12, 2019

This article was written by Donald Shaw and reprinted from Sludge, which produces investigative journalism on lobbying and money in politics. In 2016, Russian hackers targeted voting systems in 21…

This article was written by Donald Shaw and reprinted from Sludge, which produces investigative journalism on lobbying and money in politics.

In fourteen states, some 2018 midterm voters submitted their votes on touchscreens that did not produce paper trails necessary to verify their votes or audit election outcomes. If votes had been inaccurately processed in these precincts—whether through equipment errors or foreign hacking operations—election officials wouldn’t have been able to find or correct the problems.

Several Democratic and Republican members of Congress have submitted legislation to shore up election security. Proposals from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) include replacing paperless electronic voting machines with hand-marked paper ballots and optical scanners, subjecting voting equipment vendors to rigorous cybersecurity standards, and requiring vendors to report cybersecurity incidents.

“At this point I don’t see any likelihood that those bills would get to the floor if we mark them up,” Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said recently when asked by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) whether the Rules Committee, which Blunt chairs, would mark up any election security bills. The Hill asked McConnell’s office about Blunt’s comments regarding election security and was referred to the majority leader’s verdict on the Mueller report: “case closed.”

Senator Wyden told Sludge he thinks McConnell does not want to make elections more secure.

The two largest voting machine vendors in the U.S., Election Systems & Software (ES&S) and Dominion Voting Systems, together supply more than 80% of the nation’s voting machines. The companies have operated extensive lobbying operations in states for years, and both companies recently hired new lobbyists to represent them at the federal level.

ES&S hired lobbying firm Peck Madigan Jones in Oct. 2018 and paid it a combined $150,000 to lobby the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019. ES&S did not employ any federal lobbyists in 2017, and when they reported lobbying in previous years it was at a much lower level, spending just $10,000 in many quarters. Dominion Voting Systems, which was recently acquired by New York-based hedge fund Staple Street Capital, signed its first-ever federal lobbying contract in January 2019 with Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck and has paid the company at least $30,000 so far to lobby Congress.

Several of the lobbyists working for ES&S and Dominion Voting Systems have recently made contributions to McConnell’s campaign and joint fundraising committee.

“It’s not surprising to me that Mitch McConnell is receiving these campaign contributions,” the Brennan Center for Justice’s Lawrence Noren told Sludge. “He seems single-handedly to be standing in the way of anything passing in Congress around election security, and that includes things that the vendors might want, like money for the states to replace antiquated equipment.”

“Mitch McConnell’s conflicts of interest in blocking any and all election security legislation is not only shameful, it is placing our democracy at risk,” Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen, told Sludge. “The conflicts of interest arise from more than the campaign contributions he is receiving from voting machine vendors—contributions which certainly appear to be a reward from the industry for letting them off the hook—but it is also a self-serving act for strictly partisan purposes.

McConnell’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Voting machine vendors like ES&S and Dominion Voting Systems are not currently subject to any specific regulations or mandatory security standards.

A bill from Senator Wyden—the Protecting American Votes and Election Act (PAVE Act)—would, for the first time, establish minimum cybersecurity requirements that election equipment vendors would have to comply with in order for their equipment to be eligible for use in federal elections. The rules would be established by the Department of Homeland Security, and systems would have to be tested and certified by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC).

The PAVE Act would also require voting systems to use an “individual, durable, voter-verifiable, paper ballot of the voter’s vote that shall be marked and made available for physical inspection and verification by the voter before the voter’s vote is cast and tabulated.” And while the bill does not explicitly ban electronic systems for marking paper ballots—something that both ES&S and Dominion Voting Systems have begun manufacturing—it specifies that funding it would give to states to replace their paperless systems could not be used “to acquire any electronic device that a voter can use to mark a paper ballot.”

Another bill being blocked by McConnell, the House-passed H.R.1, includes a paper ballot requirement and would subject vendors to additional new security regulations. Voting machine vendors would be required to follow cybersecurity best practices that would be issued by the EAC’s Technical Guidelines Development Committee, and they would have to report election cybersecurity incidents and response plans to the EAC. They would also be forced to submit their equipment to independent security testing, and the EAC would be empowered to decertify any equipment that does not meet its security standards.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/as-he-blocks-election-security-bills-mitch-mcconnell-takes-checks-from-voting-machine-lobbyists/

619 an

As he blocks election security bills, Mitch McConnell takes checks from voting machine lobbyists

https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/mitch-mcconnells-empire-of-corruption-this-is-what-joe-bidens-normal-looks-like/

digby

...Biden is just wrong about this. As someone who was an integral part of the Obama administration, he should know better. He participated in the Obama team’s tortured attempts at a Grand Bargain with then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, when they got snookered over and over again until they finally woke up to the fact that the Republicans were not acting in good faith.

The Republican Party went over the cliff quite some time ago and there is no evidence at all that it is prepared to climb back up. For that we can thank a lot of people, from Rupert Murdoch to the Tea Party, but none so much as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Even more than Trump himself, McConnell exemplifies the degradation of the GOP.

Recent reporting shows that he’s like the president in some ways that may surprise people. McConnell is not only a ruthless partisan, he also appears to be taking full advantage of the chaos and corruption of the current era to enrich himself personally. His partner in that endeavor is his wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. And what a partnership it is.

The New York Times reports that Chao has blatantly leveraged her position in Trump’s Cabinet to benefit her family’s shipping business, the Foremost Group. In 2017, she had planned a visit to Beijing, ostensibly on government business, and has also arranged for members of the family to attend government meetings. This so alarmed the U.S. embassy that staffers there got in touch with the State Department to find out how to handle it. That visit was canceled, but according to this Politico article published last month, Chao has held at least a dozen interviews with Chinese media, with her father by her side, clearly associating his business with her position as transportation secretary.

Report Advertisement

Chao herself is not officially part of the Foremost Group’s management team, but her father and other members of her family have given millions to McConnell’s campaigns over the years. In turn, they have benefited greatly from their connection to the American political elite:

Over the years, Ms. Chao has repeatedly used her connections and celebrity status in China to boost the profile of the company, which benefits handsomely from the expansive industrial policies in Beijing that are at the heart of diplomatic tensions with the United States, according to interviews, industry filings and government documents from both countries. Now, Ms. Chao is the top Trump official overseeing the American shipping industry, which is in steep decline and overshadowed by its Chinese competitors.

Trump and his spawn could only dream of such an effective scam. Not only is it corrupt to the core, it’s downright unpatriotic.

Elaine Chao isn’t just doing favors for her family business. She’s helping out the hubby as well. In a separate report this week, Politico reported that “Chao designated a special liaison to help with grant applications and other priorities from her husband Mitch McConnell’s state of Kentucky, paving the way for grants totaling at least $78 million for favored projects as McConnell prepared to campaign for reelection.” That liaison is now Chao’s chief of staff. When asked about the report, McConnell smugly responded, “I was complaining to her just last night, 169 projects and Kentucky got only five. I hope we’ll do a lot better next year.”

Report Advertisement

Never let it be said that McConnell himself isn’t doing his part to ensure the corruption of the Republican Party. He may be leaving the personal bagman duties to his wife but he’s using every means in his power to ensure that the 2020 election remains as unsafe and vulnerable as it was in 2016. (You will recall that he was personally responsible for the government not warning the public about Russian interference —a story for which Joe Biden was the main source.) McConnell remains committed to blocking all election protection bills in the Senate, even those sponsored by Republicans. And he isn’t one to turn down voting-machine lobbyist money, either.

McConnell continues to pack the courts with right-wing judges at a frenzied pace and has made it clear that he will fast-track Donald Trump to acquittal in a Senate trial, should the House impeach him. If Mitch is not be technically guilty of obstructing justice, he’s doing it just as much as the president is.

Someone should alert Joe Biden that when McConnell was asked what he would do if another Supreme Court vacancy opened up during the last year of Trump’s term, he just took a gulp of water and said with a barely suppressed smirk, “We’d fill it.”...

https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/mitch-mcconnells-empire-of-corruption-this-is-what-joe-bidens-normal-looks-like/

will this get him beat in 2020? unless he gets pts for pork barrell!

619

basically earmarks revival trms

https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/full-fledged-banana-republic-ethics-experts-sound-the-alarm-after-transportation-secretary-chao-secures-millions-for-projects-in-mcconnells-state/

McConnell is trampling the rules of the Senate to keep Trumpism alive — no matter what voters say in 2020

Tom Boggioni / Raw StoryMay 20, 2019

Political insiders claim that Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell is trampling all the rules of the Senate to get as many of Donald Trump’s court nominees approved as quickly as he can.

deripaska kty alum plant (no direct link?)

https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/somethings-rotten-in-the-state-of-kentucky/

mcconnell

LONG TERM SYSTEMIC DAMAGE

https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/heres-why-mitch-mcconnells-mark-on-the-federal-judiciary-could-last-for-generations/

In either January 2021 or January 2025—depending on whether he serves one or two terms—Donald Trump’s presidency will become a memory. But his mark on the federal judiciary could last for generations. The Republican who is doing the most to help Trump achieve that is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and in an April 10 report for the Daily Beast, journalist Eleanor Clift explains why the Kentucky senator has been so helpful to Trump when it comes to moving the federal judiciary to the far right.

Clift opens her piece by observing, “What Mitch McConnell lacks in charisma, he more than makes up for with steely discipline”—and McConnell, to be sure, has been amazingly disciplined since becoming Senate majority leader in January 2015.

Clift outlines how much McConnell has done to advance the Republican agenda, writing, “McConnell’s goal is not fairness. He envisions a federal bench firmly on the right to steer the country for generations to come.His record so far: two Supreme Court judges, 37 Court of Appeals judges, and 57 District Court judges, including two confirmed Tuesday.”

The journalist elaborates, “He took extraordinary means to deny President Obama’s Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland. And in the last two years, he’s taken numerous actions to override the Senate’s role of advise and consent.”

Clift notes that just last week, McConnell “pushed through a change in Senate rules…. to reduce the time for debate on certain judicial nominees and executive branch appointees from 30 hours to just two hours.” And she points to Patrick Wyrick, a 38-year-old District Court nominee from Oklahoma, as a beneficiary: under the new rules, Wyrick was confirmed by the Senate in a 53-47 vote on Tuesday, April 9. The far-right Wyrick is an ally of Scott Pruitt, Trump’s former administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Wyrick, Clift points out, “has only been on the Oklahoma Supreme Court for two years—and now, he’s on his way to a lifetime federal appointment. No wonder McConnell didn’t want anybody talking about Wyrick for 30 hours.”

Clift goes on to explain, “Republicans are now putting nominees forward in groups of four, which restricts senators in their ability to probe any one nominee. Wyrick was part of such a panel, which meant that each senator had just five minutes for questioning.”

McConnell (who was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984) is up for reelection in 2020. And given how much of a red state Kentucky is, his chances of winning another term and staying on as Senate majority leader are quite good.

Clift concludes her report by stressing that McConnell has made it more difficult for Democrats in the Senate to vet GOP judicial nominees.

“Progressives need government to work to enact their agenda—Republicans not so much,” Clift observes. “They’ve kept their eye on the prize: the federal judiciary. And with McConnell in place, it’s paid off.”

https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/mitch-mcconnell-moving-toward-nuclear-option-to-approve-trumps-judges-even-faster-another-step-in-his-effort-to-cede-authority-to-the-administration/

Senate Republicans are threatening to use the “nuclear option’ in order to speed through President Donald Trump’s judicial and executive nominees 15 times faster.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing a resolution that would change the Senate rules to speed through more of Trump’s District Court nominees and sub-cabinet nominees. But Republicans would likely need to drastically change the filibuster rules to get it approved.

McConnell’s push comes after the Senate Rules Committee in February voted to limit debate time for Trump’s sub-cabinet and District Court nominees to two hours after procedural votes, The Hill reported. The current debate time is 30 hours.

In a Senate floor speech Thursday, McConnell claimed that the move was necessary because of “unprecedented obstruction” by Democrats. The speech came after Trump insisted to McConnell in a closed-door meeting Tuesday that he wanted his nominees approved faster, Politico reported.

“A minority of senators have used Senate procedure to systematically prevent the president of the United States from putting a full team in place,” McConnell said Thursday. “The American people deserve the government they elected.”

The majority leader claimed that the rule change would also benefit Democrats because the current rules would subject future Democratic administrations to “the same paralysis.”

After his speech, McConnell likened his resolution to former Democratic leader Harry Reid’s order that sped up the process for approving President Obama’s District Court judges and sub-cabinet nominees. Reid effectively eliminated most filibusters for these nominees but left in place the 30-hour post-cloture debate rule.

“A number of members on the other side have said they’d be more than happy to support it provided it took effect two years from now, so they know it’s not an unreasonable proposal,” McConnell told Politico.

But the resolution needs 60 votes to pass and Democrats are far from eager to go along with a plan that would let Trump speed through the 128 District Court and sub-cabinet nominees currently pending in the Senate.

Senate Republicans say that they are ready to invoke the nuclear option to scrap the filibuster and rewrite the Senate rules with a simple majority vote, The Hill reported.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blasted the move,accusing McConnell of trampling longstanding Senate rules to appease the Trump administration.

“Sen. McConnell’s approach has always been to manipulate Senate rules when it helps him and then change Senate rules when the tables turn,” the New York Democrat said in a statement. “This is just another step in his effort to limit the rights of the minority and cede authority to the administration.”

McConnell’s complaints are especially rich given that Reid only changed the rules to get around the obstruction led by McConnell. McConnell slowed judicial confirmations down to the slowest level in 60 years, Politico reported at the time. The Senate confirmed just 20 district and circuit court judges in Obama’s last two years in office despite dozens of unfilled positions, while the Democratic-led Senate in the final two years of the George W. Bush administration confirmed 68 federal judges. And after stopping Obama from filling the many vacant seats, McConnell denied any hearing whatever for Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/young-kentucky-climate-activists-demanding-green-new-deal-arrested-at-mitch-mcconnells-office/

Hundreds of Kentucky high school students and climate campaigners with the youth-led Sunrise Movement descended on the Capitol Hill office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday to deliver 100,000 petition signatures and stage a sit-in to make clear to lawmakers that young people want a Green New Deal for their communities and futures.

For calling on McConnell to heed public demands for federal lawmakers to pass policies that will phase out fossil fuels and combat the global climate crisis while also creating green jobs and a more just economy, more than 40 demonstrators were arrested:

BREAKING: arrests happening now outside #OilMoneyMitch‘s DC office pic.twitter.com/S4AyB73aZY

— Sunrise Movement (@sunrisemvmt) February 25, 2019

As recent polling shows more than 80 percent of Americans back key elements of the Green New Deal put forth by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the mobilization to increase pressure on McConnell comes after the majority leader announced last week that he plans to rush a floor vote on the resolution, which critics denounced as a ploy to fuel divisions in the Democratic Party.

“Kentucky youth traveled here today because their state needs a Green New Deal. Mitch McConnell’s Green New Deal vote is a political stunt to score some points for his wealthy donors,” Sunrise Movement executive director Varshini Prakash said in a statement. “We’re here to warn him and all senators: if you refuse to back the Green New Deal, young people will remember next time you ask for our votes.”

Demonstrators who carried signs that read “Oil & gas $$ or our lives?,” “Green New Deal,” and “Mitch, Look us in the eyes” as well as supporters posted updates on social media from Monday’s demonstration with the hashtags #OilMoneyMitch and #LookUsInTheEyes:

Young Kentuckians with @sunrisemvmt were just kicked out of #OilMoneyMitch‘s senate office because he won’t #lookusintheyes as he condemns our generation.

Join the livestream: https://t.co/eTkLp9cibC pic.twitter.com/ZCZgl53ju3

— matthew miles goodrich (@mmilesgoodrich) February 25, 2019

Stand with the young folks risking arrest in Washington, DC today to stand up to #OilMoneyMitch & fight for the just climate solutions we need.

If you’re in the US, call your Reps to ask them to co-sponsor the resolutions for a #GreenNewDeal: https://t.co/EhEdyGq9LV pic.twitter.com/Vy5wcIwx4J

— 350 dot org (@350) February 25, 2019

“I am here because people in my community don’t have jobs, are starving and turning to opioids and dying,” 15-year-old Lily Gardner of Lexington, Kentucky, said in a statement. “Mitch McConnell refuses to do anything about it. His own constituents — high schoolers — have traveled here to meet with him. All we want is for him to put our lives above the interests of his campaign donors.”

Both from McConnell’s office and outside the Capitol building, the youth demonstrators shared why they felt compelled to visit their senator in Washington — with some pointing to warnings from a recent U.N. report that the international community has about 12 years to pursue “rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented” systemic changes needed to avert climate catastrophe:

Young Kentuckians w @sunrisemvmtlou….

visited #OilMoneyMitch‘s office in KY multiple times last week

camped out when he wouldn’t meet with them

traveled to DC to confront the Senator directly

are now getting arrested bc he is too cowardly to #LookUsInTheEyes pic.twitter.com/YX28IwhhXS

— matthew miles goodrich (@mmilesgoodrich) February 25, 2019

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who is among the scores of co-sponsors of the Green New Deal resolution, voiced support for the sit-in at McConnell’s office on Monday, urging the youth climate activists to “keep fighting.”

.@senatemajldr claims that a #GreenNewDeal is unattainable, as if he suddenly cares about climate. Instead of his obstruction, we need these bold and transformation solutions to save our planet and economy. Keep fighting, @sunrisemvmt!

— Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) February 25, 2019

OMFG

https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/meet-the-new-un-ambassador-nominee-a-billionaire-gop-donor-and-science-denier-who-gave-trump-millions/

prez **Donald Trump** promised he’d always hire the “best people” during his presidential campaign, but not only has that turned out to be false, he’s had more turnover than any president in modern history, if not ever.

The president is fond of playing “whack-a-mole” with his personnel problems, by shuffling the players around instead of actually looking for, as he put it, the “best people.”

For example, Mick Mulvaney joined the Trump administration after serving as a U.S Republican Congressman. He served as Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, then added to his resume the title of Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Mulvaney then became Trump’s Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing embattled and disgraced John Kelly – while giving up his CFPB job but still retaining the role of Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Fast forward to Friday evening.

President Trump has just announced his latest nominee to become Ambassador to the United Nations, after his earlier nominee, who would have replaced Nikki Haley, was forced to withdraw her nomination after illegally hiring as a nanny an immigrant unauthorized to work in the U.S.

“I am pleased to announce that Kelly Knight Craft, our current Ambassador to Canada, is being nominated to be United States Ambassador to the United Nations,” Trump announced via tweet. No formal White House announcement has been made yet. “Kelly has done an outstanding job representing our Nation and I have no doubt that, under her leadership, our Country will be represented at the highest level. Congratulations to Kelly and her entire family!”

Trump neglected to mention that Knight Craft is Trump’s current Ambassador to Canada, so he’s just shuffling the players around again.

Knight Craft is perhaps best known for her science-denying remarks, saying she believes in “both sides” of climate change. (There are not two sides.

[vid]

Meanwhile, the President also neglected to mention Knight Craft, along with her billionaire coal baron husband, donated millions of dollars to Trump’s presidential campaign.

Ambassador to the United Nations is not the same as Ambassador to Canada. There are few national security issues America’s Ambassador to Canada would be relied upon to keep Americans safe.

But the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations holds a key national security role. They sit on the UN Security Council and represent the U.S. to the rest of the world.

There is no indication Knight Craft is qualified for the role.

Knight Craft does hail from Kentucky, where she has also been a major GOP donor, or, as one Canadian news publication described it, “Knight Craft is well known among Republicans, to whom she has donated piles of money.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, also of Kentucky, reportedly recommended her for the role of UN Ambassador.

McConnell is not the only member of his family greasing the wheels. This week Trump Transportation SecretaryElaine Chao, who happens to be married to the Senate Majority Leader, was embroiled in scandal.

Secretary Chao “has met at least 10 times with Kentucky business leaders or politicians after email requests made by her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY),” The Daily Beast reports.

“A cache of more than 800 emails—obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the watchdog group American Oversight—shows that some of thosemeetings led to McConnell’s associates being granted their wishes by the powerful Transportation Secretary—from infrastructure grants to highway project funding. In at least one example, the lobbyist had donated to McConnell’s re-election campaign.”

https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/how-mitch-mcconnells-weak-kneed-cowardice-makes-him-the-perfect-target-for-perfect-for-agents-of-power-and-influence/

no linx, graf

On Saturday January 12, the government shutdown became the longest in American history, eclipsing the former record of 21 days. At the forefront of this burgeoning disaster is Mitch McConnell, a one-man blockade to re-opening the government.

I don’t refer to him by his formal title because it falls short of describing what he really is: he’s a tyrant, a malevolent dictator.

No bill comes to the floor without his say-so. Even if every one of the other 99 senators wanted to vote on a particular bill, McConnell can prevent it. The only meaning majority has for him is that he has power over it.

And he’s using this power to single-handedly keep the government shut down.

Some have posited that he’s carrying Trump’s water because he’s in Trump’s pocket. Some say he’s worried about his upcoming 2020 re-election so he’s pandering to Trump’s base. Some suggest he’s protecting the GOP because he’s a hardcore republican. The media line seems to be that he’s a “wily old fox.”

But none of these really take full account of McConnell’s need to succeed, driven by weak-kneed cowardice and inadequacy. Yet it is these personality traits which greased the wheels of his rise to senate tyrant because it is these personality traits which make him the perfect mark for agents of power and influence.

Homegrown Billionaires

First on the list is the most obvious: the American billionaire donor class. Chief among these would-be plutocrats are the Koch brothers, the Adelsons and the Mercers. It comes as no surprise then that all three have supported, and continue to support, McConnell. Last year theAdelsons topped the donor list with two $25 million contributions to McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund.

Of course these billionaire donors support other republicans too in order to consolidate their influence on the upper house. That influence includes putting a man of their choosing in the position of republican senate leader.

Now consider for a moment what they want from this leader… subservient obedience, unquestioning compliance, covetous greed and a feeble conscience would have to top their list. Mitch McConnell fits the bill in every respect. So they buy him the senate leadership and buy themselves a senate leader.

Vodka and Vice

In 2015 an old player with new tricks entered the field of influence: Russia. In the donor category, Russia appears in a number of guises including a Soviet-born billionaire living in the U.S.

Len Blavatnik, who holds dual U.S.-U.K. citizenship, used to be a fairly run-of-the-mill campaign contributor, donating relatively modest amounts in a bipartisan fashion — [$53,400 in 2009-2010; $135,552 in 2011-12; $273,600 in 2013-14] and then the 2016 election cycle hit.

Beginning in 2015, Blavatnik lavished contributions on Republicans, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell alone on the receiving end of $3.5 million between 2015 and 2017.

This dramatic increase in contributions is attributed to Blavatnik acting as a go-between for illegal donations from Russian oligarchs. He has strong ties to some serious players in the oligarch section of the Russian mafiya state.

From Dallas News:

Viktor Vekselberg is one of the 10 richest men in Russia. He and long-time business partner Blavatnik hold a 20.5 percent stake in Rusal.

and

Oleg Deripaska is said to be one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s favorite oligarchs, and he is founder and majority shareholder of Russia’s Rusal, the second-largest aluminum company in the world.

Further, nearly 4 percent of Deripaska’s stake in Rusal is owned by Putin’s state-controlled bank, VTB, which is currently under U.S. sanctions.

That McConnell’s senate fund received half of the moneys funneled through Blavatnik to the GOP indicates how important useful they consider him to be to them and — this is the crux — he’s only useful to them if he knows he is now irrevocably linked to them.

The NRA is also suspected of acting as a funnel for Russian funds after self-confessed Kremlin agent Maria Butinainfiltrated the organisation in 2015. Washington Post December 13, 2018:

One of Butina’s main targets was the NRA — a group she identified in a 2015 memo as an organization that “had influence over” the Republican Party, according to court filings. Her relationships with the group, she wrote, could be used as the groundwork for an unofficial channel of communication to the next presidential administration.

That “channel of communication” is transparent code for “conduit for Russian money” is supported by a massive influx of cash that immediately followed the NRA’s alliance with Butina and her boss, Aleksandr Torshin.

The NRA’s interactions with Butina and Torshin came as the group embarked on an unprecedented spending spree to help elect Donald Trump president.

NRA spending on the 2016 elections surged in every category, with its political action committee and political nonprofit arm together shelling out $54.4 million.

That was triple the amount the NRA spent in 2012 and $1.6 million of it found its way into McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund.

When an FBI counterintelligence investigation laser-focused on Butina, the NRA’s spending in 2018 plummeted by 84% to less than $9 million. Obvious conclusion: the Russians were no longer funneling money through the NRA. Coincidentally, the RNC also suffered a shortage of funds in 2018.

The Chao Connection

Though third in this list because their influence is the least known and understood, the Chao family had by far the most significant effect on McConnell’s personal life and career. Thanks to second wife Elaine and her family, McConnell became a millionaire many times over and forged ties with contacts at the highest echelons of Chinese government and business.

Elaine Chao’s father is shipping magnate, James Chao.

The South China Morning Post takes up the story.

He ordered two ships to be built at the state-owned shipyard in Shanghai during Mr Jiang’s tenure as mayor. He started meeting Mr Jiang regularly, including three months after the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, when most other American businessmen were avoiding the leadership. Later Mr Chao’s business ties to Beijing would deepen as he started chartering his ships to mainland giants, such as Cosco and Sinotrans.

As McConnell’s acquaintance with Elaine Chao developed into a serious relationship, contributions began to pour into his campaign from the Chao family and their business associates. Their wedding ensured that the spigot was never turned off.

Ms Chao and Mr McConnell married in February 1993, and in December the pair met Mr Jiang in Beijing, joined by Ms Chao’s father. Mr McConnell was the second Republican Senator to meet Mr Jiang since Tiananmen, a move which helped him build ties with senior mainland envoys in the US.

Through the Chao family, McConnell cultivated friends in very high places — Mr Jiang is none other thanJiang Zemin, Secretary of the Communist Party from 1989 to 2002 and President of the People’s Republic of China from 1993 to 2003.

There’s little if any doubt that this prompted Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole to appoint McConnell as chair of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee for foreign operations and export financing in 1994. Certainly members of the US-China Business Council were impressed, and their corporate donations flowed freely into McConnell’s campaign coffers.

The change in his fortunes attracts the billionaire donors and McConnell is catapulted to rising star status.

In Shanghai on May 22, 2014, Chinese and Russian firms establish a number of partnerships. Among them are these two:

the Russian State Development Bank and the Export Import Bank of China sign an agreement on a $500 million credit line to finance projects in Russia

the Kremlin-controlled VTB Bank and the Bank of China ratify a partnership in investment banking, trade finance and capital markets transactions, and inter-bank lending.

The following year, the Export Import Bank of China (now partnered with the Russian State Development Bank) extends a $37.5 million loan to the Chao family shipping company, Foremost, to finance the construction of two bulk carriers being built by the state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC). Among those present for the signing of the deal are James Chao (Chairman of Foremost) with his daughters, Angela (Deputy Chairman) and Elaine.

Seven months later in May 2016, Elaine’s sister Angela Chao is elected to the Board of Directors at the Bank of China — now partnered with Russia’s VTB bank which has been operating under US sanctions since 2014.

So not only does McConnell have links to China via the Chao connection, both he and the Chao family interlink with the Russians.

Fast forward to 2018: McConnell retains his position as senate tyrant after the midterms; Elaine Chao is the Secretary of Transportation in Trump’s cabinet, and the Chao family maintains extensive contacts and business investments in China including a seat on the Board of the Bank of China which is partnered with the Russian VTB Bank that is part-owned by oligarch Oleg Deripaska who shares ownership in Rusal with Viktor Vekselberg whose business partner Len Blavatnik donated $3.5million to McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive.”

~ Sir Walter Scott

On June 7 CNBC reports:

Revelations about Russia’s meddling in America’s 2016 presidential election have pushed Congress to turn up the heat on China, as it seeks to tamp down foreign influence on American institutions.

Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., on Tuesday introduced a bill that would require an unclassified interagency report on Chinese political influence operations.

That must have jolted McConnell, especially when Marco Rubio declared that he would follow suit.

A search of the Library of Congress Roll Call database found that Chris Smith’s bill, HR6010, was introduced on June 5 whereupon it was referred for further action to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. It never surfaced again.

There’s no record of Marco Rubio introducing a similar bill in the senate. His effort was very effectively thwarted

It should now be clear that McConnell has far more to worry about than his upcoming re-election and whatever the hell Trump’s base are thinking. He has more strings attached to his person than an intricate marionette and those controlling the strings are not known for being even-tempered, understanding or forgiving.

It’s little wonder then that he’s blocked every bipartisan bill to protect the Special Counsel’s investigation. Even when the latest bill was strongly and vociferously supported by members of his own caucus, he refused to allow it to come to the floor for a vote. It’s hardly surprising when you realise how enmeshed he is in corruption. He must be terrified of being caught — so the last person he’d want to protect is Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

This also explains why he was so aggressively opposed to President Obama going public with warnings regarding Russia’s attack on American democracy in 2016. If prior to that meeting he was blissfully unaware that USIC was onto the Russians, the suddenness of that unwelcome knowledge, and the realisation of his own jeopardy, must have come as one helluva shock. He wasn’t protecting his party or the GOP presidential nominee when he refused his consent, he was desperate to protect himself.

And that brings us back to why McConnell is perpetuating this shutdown. Some of those pulling his strings may also be involved at some level with Trump’s perfidy. If protecting himself means sticking with Trump then McConnell’s heightened sense of self preservation is going to kick in hard.

But it’s likely to be more complicated than that. For all his posturing, McConnell’s inadequacy renders him weak and his weakness is exacerbated by fear. Running home to Kentucky rather than confronting the expanding disaster in DC is both a physical as well as symbolic attempt to hide from it all.

Weakness, especially a sense of inadequacy, breeds vindictiveness. If he can’t take his dislike and disdain for Trump out on the man himself then he’ll turn his attention to a more acceptable and accessible target: Democrats. Particularly House Democrats. Their vow to conduct real oversight must have really intensified his stress levels. But he has one weapon he can use against them, he can block everything in the senate that they pass in the House. It’s petty and vindictive but that’s how low he’s going.

Nor does he care about the hardships being faced by furloughed employees. The numbers of those affected are already staggering. While there’s no precise accounting of them all, the guesstimate has to take into account the 800,000 furloughed plus their families, plus those in private businesses which depend on working government agencies, plus their families. Already the number must be between 3 and 4 million. By the end of this week, more sections will shut down as their funding also runs out.

No end in sight.

Because the tyrant in charge of the senate isn’t just flawed, isn’t just inadequate to the enormity of the situation, he’s also corrupt. No honorable man would subject his fellow citizens to such privation and misery if he had the power to prevent it.

Addison Mitchell McConnell is without conscience, without benevolence and without honor.

prolly neglected, 3 stories one day on sleazy tactics?

ramming thru judges, but stalled in favor of..?

McConnell says it was a 'mistake' for Alabama voters not to elect a child molester to the Senate

https://www.alternet.org/economy/trumps-budget-director-reveals-plans-attack-social-security-and-medicare

Opponents of Social Security and Medicare are so eager to end these two overwhelmingly important and popular earned benefits that they can’t contain themselves. Mick Mulvaney, the Trump administration’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, is the latest to make crystal clear the longstanding plan to destroy both programs.

Speaking at a conference of state legislators hosted by the anti-government American Legislative Exchange Council (“ALEC”), Mulvaney just revealed that he plans first to go after what he sees as more politically achievable cuts. He explained that the next step, presumably after Trump is in his second term, will be for the administration not just to cut these programs but to end them as we know them.

Mulvaney is apparently so eager to go after our earned benefits that he threw the point into a speech to state legislators, even though both Social Security and Medicare are federal programs.

Mulvaney’s apparent uncontained enthusiasm to take away people’s earned benefits is similar to that of Mitch McConnell, who just weeks before the midterm, called for Social Security and Medicare to be “adjusted” (code for destroying them). McConnell couldn’t resist broadcasting his intentions, even though these programs are extremely popular even with Republican voters.

Why are these opponents so hostile to such important programs? Social Security, now more than eight decades old, and Medicare, now more than five decades old, have stood the test of time. Both of these efficient, virtually universal, overwhelmingly popular programs insure us against risks that all of us face. Rich or poor, anyone can suffer a disabling illness or accident, making work impossible. Rich or poor, any parent can die prematurely leaving dependent children. Rich or poor, all of us hope to live to old age and, if we are so fortunate, require income we cannot outlive and health insurance for the treatments and medication we inevitably will need.

The private sector is incapable of providing the wage and health insurance that Social Security and Medicare provide as efficiently, universally, securely or effectively as the federal government. Insurance works best when the greatest numbers of people are covered. The only entity that can require that everyone is covered and pays premiums as soon as they start working is the federal government. That is one of the reasons both Social Security and Medicare work so well.

And that is why Mulvaney, McConnell, and other opponents of these programs want to end them. These programs put the lie to their ideological zealotry, which insists that the private sector is always better than government.

Decades ago, opponents of these programs were forthright that their objections were ideological. They did not see the creation and administration of universal insurance programs as an appropriate role for the federal government. But the American people overwhelmingly disagreed, so this argument was utterly unsuccessful.

Now most opponents have changed their tactics, and proclaim their love for these programs. President George W. Bush, for example, proclaimed, “Social Security was a great moral success of the 20th century, and we must honor its great purposes in this new century.” His very next sentence argued for radically changing it.

Similarly, Mulvaney, McConnell, and other opponents hide their straightforward ideological opposition. Rather, these opponents subversively seek to undermine confidence in Social Security’s and Medicare’s future by asserting that both programs are unaffordable.

Worse, in their efforts to end Social Security and Medicare, they seek to turn Americans against each other. They tell us that seniors are taking from children, that people with disabilities are taking from seniors.

Moreover, in their efforts to lull us into thinking they are not seeking to hurt our legitimate interests, opponents claim that our vital and earned financial protection in the event of disability isn’t as “core” as our financial protection in the event of old age. In his recent ALEC speech, Mulvaney tried to make just such a claim, asserting, “You can reform and save a ton of money in Medicare and Social Security and not touch the primary pillars for the next several years.” Along those same lines, last April, Mulvaney rhetorically asked, “Do you really think that Social Security disability insurance is part of what people think of when they think of Social Security?”

I am confident that the over 10 million Americans receiving Social Security because of wages lost as the result of serious, work-ending disabilities understand that Social Security disability insurance is Social Security. When American workers pay into Social Security with every paycheck, disability insurance is one of the protections they earn, along with life insurance and retirement annuities.

Social Security disability benefits are inextricably intertwined with Social Security’s retirement and survivor benefits. Social Security benefits are generated from the same formula. When workers with disabilities reach retirement age, their benefit is unchanged in amount but is paid as a retirement benefit, no longer as a disability benefit. Despite those facts, though, Mulvaney’s claim that Social Security disability insurance is not really Social Security is a convenient rhetorical game to claim “core” benefits are not being touched.

For Medicare, Mulvaney revealed another trick before his ALEC audience. He floated the idea of Medicare no longer reimbursing teaching hospitals its fair share of those hospitals’ costs, arguing that the cut wouldn’t hurt beneficiaries. Like his claim that Social Security disability insurance is not “really’ Social Security, beneficiaries would be hurt, though not immediately, and the cause of the hurt would be difficult to trace.

While benefits wouldn’t be directly cut, it certainly would limit the ability of Medicare beneficiaries to get treatment at teaching hospitals if that were their choice and the best setting for their care. To the extent Medicare didn’t pay its fair share and teaching hospitals nevertheless continued to treat seniors and people with disabilities, those costs would be shifted to everyone else.

And, of course, this is just the start, Mulvaney made clear. “In the long term you’ll have to [make more major changes.] The president has asked me to fix the easy stuff first,” Mulvaney explained to his audience.

Fortunately, the Democrats—who support expanding, not cutting, Social Security and Medicare—have control of the House of Representatives, at least for now. But, all of us who want to keep the benefits we have earned must remain vigilant. We must not be fooled or confused into allowing opponents to make what they deem “easy” cuts to our earned benefits.

These opponents will not give up. And neither must we. Expanding, not cutting, our Social Security and Medicare is profoundly wise policy and is overwhelmingly popular. But it will only become a reality if we keep our voices loud, reminding our political leaders that it’s voters, not donors, to whom they must account next election day.

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

===

"Easy to pay for something that costs less': New study shows 'Medicare for All' would save US $5.1 trillion over 10 years

By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams

"Medicare for All promises a system that

In a new piece for the New York Review of Books, historian Christopher Browning warns that there are troubling parallels between the present-day United States and the days of fascism's rise in Europe.

Browning, a specialist in the areas of the Holocaust, Nazi Germany, and world war-era Europe, isn't arguing that President Donald Trump is a modern Adolf Hitler or that Trumpism is akin to Nazism.But he does argue that certain stress fractures in the society and the international order appear to be re-emerging and that these patterns portend troubling trends for the United States and the rest of the world.

And there is one figure in American politics that Browning does see as a relatively direct — and troubling — analog to a crucial world war-era figure. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican, is becoming "the gravedigger of American democracy," Browning wrote, a role played for Germany beginning in the 1930s by President Paul von Hindenburg.

Hindenburg didn't defend democracy in Germany. Instead, he unleashed emergency powers in 1930 to appoint chancellors to skirt over political divisions in parliament. Eventually, Hitler became chancellor, when Hindenburg erroneously thought he could be controlled.

Now, McConnell shows a similar disregard for democracy and likewise opens up the country to serious risk, Browning explained:

He stoked the hyperpolarization of American politics to make the Obama presidency as dysfunctional and paralyzed as he possibly could. As with parliamentary gridlock in Weimar, congressional gridlock in the US has diminished respect for democratic norms, allowing McConnell to trample them even more. Nowhere is this vicious circle clearer than in the obliteration of traditional precedents concerning judicial appointments. Systematic obstruction of nominations in Obama’s first term provoked Democrats to scrap the filibuster for all but Supreme Court nominations. Then McConnell’s unprecedented blocking of the Merrick Garland nomination required him in turn to scrap the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations in order to complete the “steal” of Antonin Scalia’s seat and confirm Neil Gorsuch. The extreme politicization of the judicial nomination process is once again on display in the current Kavanaugh hearings.

As a result of McConnell's strong-arm tactics, Browning argued, it will now be impossible for a president to make significant judicial appointments — including to the Supreme Court — unless the Senate is led by the same party. This dynamic will push the country toward greater dysfunction.

He continued:

Whatever secret reservations McConnell and other traditional Republican leaders have about Trump’s character, governing style, and possible criminality, they openly rejoice in the payoff they have received from their alliance with him and his base: huge tax cuts for the wealthy, financial and environmental deregulation, the nominations of two conservative Supreme Court justices (so far) and a host of other conservative judicial appointments, and a significant reduction in government-sponsored health care (though not yet the total abolition of Obamacare they hope for). Like Hitler’s conservative allies, McConnell and the Republicans have prided themselves on the early returns on their investment in Trump. The combination of Trump’s abasement before Putin in Helsinki, the shameful separation of families at the border in complete disregard of US asylum law (to say nothing of basic humanitarian principles and the GOP’s relentless claim to be the defender of “family values”), and most recently Michael Cohen’s implication of Trump in criminal violations of campaign finance laws has not shaken the fealty of the Republican old guard, so there is little indication that even an explosive and incriminating report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller will rupture the alliance.

Most ominously, Browning warns that the detrimental effects of figures like McConnell and Trump will last for a long time. However long they stay in power, they will eventually leave — but the damage done to democracy and American institutions may persist for generations.

yikes courts

kroll mojo 10th wave of fedsoc

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trumps-judicial-takeover-711200/

no lnx

One evening last November, Don McGahn, the top lawyer in the Trump White House, walked onstage in an opulent ballroom at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. He looked out at the audience of several hundred judges, lawyers, clerks and law students seated under a pair of glittering chandeliers that hung from a ceiling accented in gold. McGahn, who rarely gives interviews or speeches, had come to speak at the annual conference of the Federalist Society, the powerful network of conservative lawyers, and the occasion felt like a homecoming and a victory lap.

Over the past two decades — including five years serving on the Federal Election Commission — McGahn has become an ideological warrior battling what he sees as the tyranny of the federal government. He parlayed his campaign-finance expertise into a job as Donald Trump’s lawyer. After the election, Trump rewarded McGahn with the job of White House counsel, a perch from which McGahn has spearheaded the administration’s unprecedented campaign to reshape the American judicial system, filling courts with judges who share Trump’s goals of dismantling environmental protection, rolling back civil and reproductive rights, and gutting labor laws — in other words, destroying the so-called administrative state. “These efforts to reform the regulatory state begin with Congress and the executive branch,” McGahn said in his speech, “but they ultimately depend on courts.”

On the campaign trail, Trump told evangelicals and other wavering Republicans they had no choice but to vote for him: “You know why? Supreme Court judges, Supreme Court judges.” He talked about judges nonstop and even released a list of 21 potential Supreme Court picks that he had gathered with the help of the Federalist Society and the archconservative Heritage Foundation. He would enter office with the most judicial vacancies since Bill Clinton — largely thanks to Republican filibustering of Obama’s nominees — and his administration has filled those vacancies as fast as possible.

As of this writing, Trump has put 26 new judges onto the appellate courts, more than any other chief executive at this point in the presidency. He has also nominated over 100 district-court judges and gotten 26 of those picks confirmed. These judges are overwhelmingly young, ideological and now set to serve lifetime appointments. And then, of course, there’s Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s first pick for the Supreme Court, and Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the president’s second Supreme Court nominee, who stands a strong chance of confirmation. “Whatever anyone wants to say about President Trump, he was very explicit about which judges he wanted, and he’s gone about appointing them,” says Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. “He made a promise and they’re keeping it.”

[RELATED

Jamil Smith: Lessons From a Botched Voter Suppression Scheme

Taibbi: Why Did John McCain Continue to Support War?]

What unites these judges is the radical legal doctrine of originalism— that the text of the Constitution should be understood only as it was intended when written more than 230 years ago. Originalism was long seen as a fringe philosophy; taken to its logical extreme, an originalist reading of the Constitution could mean a country without same-sex marriage, federal child-labor laws or the Americans With Disabilities Act. Today, however, originalism is the dominant legal philosophy on the right and the litmus test for any judge appointed by President Trump.

That’s in large part due to the influence of Leonard Leo, who sat in the front row for McGahn’s speech. An owlish 52-year-old lawyer and operative, Leo is the executive vice president of the Federalist Society, where he has played a pivotal role grooming a generation of conservative lawyers and supplying dozens of names to the White House for judicial vacancies. (He has advised on the past three successful Republican picks for the Supreme Court.) “Our opponents of judicial nominees frequently claim the president has outsourced his selection of judges,” McGahn said. “That is completely false. I’ve been a member of the Federalist Society since law school, still am, so frankly it seems like it’s been in-sourced.”

Leonard Leo, executive VP of the Federalist Society, has helped the White House appoint an unprecedented number of federal judges. Photo: Mark Peterson/Redux

Behind all the chaos and upheaval of the Trump administration, McGahn, Leo and Republican leaders including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have steadily filled the courts with future Clarence Thomases and Antonin Scalias. In Donald Trump, they have found the perfect vehicle for executing a judicial takeover. “We’re now looking at the possibility of as many as three Supreme Court vacancies and more than 200 lower-court seats to fill just in these next few years,” Leo said last year. “We are at this unique point in history.”

In the process of filling the empty seats, McGahn and Co. have shown a willingness to look past extreme and inflammatory comments made by judicial nominees. Damien Schiff, a Trump pick for the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, blogged in 2007 that Justice Anthony Kennedy was a “judicial prostitute” because of his frequent swing votes. John Bush, an appointee to the Sixth Circuit, likened Roe v. Wade to the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which denied citizenship to black people. Using an anonymous byline, Bush also promoted birther conspiracies about President Obama.

Not surprisingly, many of Trump’s picks have championed hard-line conservative positions on LGBTQ equality, civil rights, environmental regulation, consumer protection and more. These are the kinds of judges who hesitate to say that Brown v. Board of Education was correctly decided, or rule that campaign-finance laws are unconstitutional. They would almost certainly overturn Roe if given the chance. “These nominees appear to have been chosen because they check ideological boxes, rather than because they represent the best and the brightest,” says Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. “This is a clear strategy to stack our courts for generations.”

It has taken brute force and legislative cunning to engineer an overhaul of the courts. During the Obama years, Senate Republicans — led by McConnell — filibustered so many picks for the bench that then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid used the “nuclear option” to abolish the 60-vote threshold for lower-court nominees. Reid said McConnell’s tactics had left him a choice: “Continue like we are or have democracy?” Obama rushed through a slew of confirmations, but Republicans won back the Senate in 2014. McConnell, a master tactician and consummate cynic, was running the show. He not only denied Obama the chance to fill a Supreme Court seat after Scalia’s death, but the Senate confirmed just 22 judicial nominees in Obama’s final two years, reportedly the lowest number since the end of Harry Truman’s second term, leaving 112 vacancies for Trump.

A week after Trump’s victory, McConnell gave McGahn a call to say the new president had a chance to make history. “The impact that this administration could have on the courts,” McConnell later told Time, “is the most long-lasting impact we could have.”

McConnell and Senate Republicans have tossed out one norm after another to whisk Trump’s nominees through the confirmation process. They eliminated the filibuster for Supreme Court picks, paving the way for Gorsuch’s confirmation. They’ve held confirmation hearings for two nominees at the same time, limiting how long each senator can question them. They have disregarded the blue-slip tradition of seeking the approval of both home-state senators before confirming a nominee. And with the exception of George W. Bush, Trump is the only president to dismiss the role of the American Bar Association, which interviews and rates the quality of judicial picks. The ABA rated four of Trump’s nominees “not qualified,” two of them by a unanimous decision. (That represented 25 percent of all “not qualified” ratings for the past five presidencies.)

Trump has also suffered some setbacks. One pick for the U.S. District Court of D.C., Matthew Petersen, withdrew his nomination after failing at his confirmation hearing to answer questions a first-year law student should know. Another nominee for appellate court, Ryan Bounds, went up in smoke when Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., vowed to oppose him due to past writings that were widely seen as racist. And then there was Brett Talley. A 36-year-old lawyer, horror novelist and ghost hunter with scant courtroom experience, Talley joined the Trump administration in early 2017 working in the Justice Department office that selects and vets judicial nominees. Trump nominated him later that year for a district-court opening in Alabama, but journalists soon discovered that Talley had written comments on a sports-fan message board trashing Muslims, making light of statutory rape and defending the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Talley withdrew his nomination — only to land a plush job as an assistant U.S. attorney in northern Virginia.

But at the appellate-court level — the “de facto Supreme Court to the vast majority” of Americans, as Feinstein once put it — Trump appointed more judges in his first year than any previous president since the appeals courts were created in 1891.Appellate courts hear 59,000 cases a year, compared with just 70 or 80 for the Supreme Court. Trump is on pace to flip three of the 13 appellate courts from liberal to conservative in his first term alone. “These are the judges that have the greatest influence,” says John Malcolm of the Heritage Foundation. “The buck stops at the courts of appeals.”

It is too soon to say how influential Trump’s dozens of judicial picks will be, but the early returns are what you’d expect. Judge Amul Thapar, a Trump appointee on the Sixth Circuit, helped uphold Ohio’s controversial lethal-injection program and a Michigan county’s tradition of beginning government meetings with Christian prayer. Recently appointed Judge James Ho on the Fifth Circuit issued fiery opinions in two Texas cases, about campaign-finance limits and a law concerning the burial of fetal remains. Ho’s opinion on the latter case — at one point he refers to the “moral tragedy of abortion” — left no doubt about his opposition to Roe. “It is hard to imagine,” he wrote, “a better example of how far we have strayed from the text and original understanding of the Constitution than this case.”

If Republicans retain control of the Senate this fall — to say nothing of Trump in 2020 — McGahn and Leo and McConnell could have as much as 20 percent of the American judicial system to fill. As Heritage’s Malcolm puts it, “This is the president’s legacy.”

https://kpfa.org/episode/talkies-august-28-2018/

chao" leave my hubby alone!

omg

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary:{/2018/05/:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:08/putins-proxies-helped-funnel-millions-gop-campaigns

no lnx infogragfix:

Blavatnik contributed a total of $3.5 million to a PAC associated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.Blavatnik contributed $1.5 million to the GOP Senate Leadership Fund PAC in the name of Access Industries and another $1 million in the name of AI-Altep Holdings during the 2015/2016 election season. And as of September 2017, he had contributed another $1 millionthis year through AI–Altep.

The Dallas Morning News

How Putin's oligarchs funneled millions into GOP campaigns

FILED UNDERCOMMENTARY AT MAY 8 SHARE

Ruth May, Contributor

Connect with Ruth May Email

Don't miss a story. Like us on Facebook.

LIKE DALLAS NEWS'

Editor's note May 8, 2018: This column originally published December 15, 2017. New allegations about $500k in payments from a Russian oligarch made to Trump attorney Michael Cohen have placed it back in the news.

As Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team probes deeper into potential collusion between Trump officials and representatives of the Russian government, investigators are taking a closer look at political contributions made by U.S. citizens with close ties to Russia.

Buried in the campaign finance reports available to the public are some troubling connections between a group of wealthy donors with ties to Russia and their political contributions to President Donald Trump and a number of top Republican leaders. And thanks to changes in campaign finance laws, the political contributions are legal. We have allowed our campaign finance laws to become a strategic threat to our country.

Oligarch steered cash to Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's account, Avenatti says

An example isLen Blavatnik,a dual U.S.-U.K. citizen and one of the largest donors to GOP political action committees in the 2015-16 election cycle. Blavatnik's family emigrated to the U.S. in the late '70s from the U.S.S.R. and he returned to Russia when the Soviet Union began to collapse in the late '80s.

Data from the Federal Election Commission show that Blavatnik's campaign contributions dating back to 2009-10 were fairly balanced across party lines and relatively modest for a billionaire. During that season he contributed $53,400. His contributions increased to $135,552 in 2011-12 and to $273,600 in 2013-14, still bipartisan.

In 2015-16, everything changed. Blavatnik's political contributions soared and made a hard right turn as he pumped $6.35 million into GOP political action committees, with millions of dollars going to top Republican leaders including Sens. Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham.

In 2017, donations continued, with $41,000 going to both Republican and Democrat candidates, along with $1 million to McConnell's Senate Leadership Fund.

[Blavatnik contributed a total of $3.5 million to a PAC associated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.Blavatnik contributed $1.5 million to the GOP Senate Leadership Fund PAC in the name of Access Industries and another $1 million in the name of AI-Altep Holdings during the 2015/2016 election season. And as of September 2017, he had contributed another $1 millionthis year through AI–Altep.]

Touch chart to see info:

So is this legal?

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking Democratic leader on the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC News in September: "Unless the contributions were directed by a foreigner, they would be legal, but could still be of interest to investigators examining allegations of Russian influence on the 2016 campaign. Obviously, if there were those that had associations with the Kremlin that were contributing, that would be of keen concern."

Under federal law, foreigner nationals are barred from contributing directly or indirectly to political campaigns in local, state and federal elections.

Should Blavatnik's contributions concern Mueller's team of investigators? Take a look at his long-time business associates in Russia.

GOP campaigns took $7.35 million from oligarch linked to Russia

The Oligarchs

Oleg Deripaska is said to be one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's favorite oligarchs, and he is founder and majority shareholder of Russia's Rusal, the second-largest aluminum company in the world. Blavatnik holds a stake in Rusal with a business partner.

Further, nearly 4 percent of Deripaska's stake in Rusal is owned by Putin's state-controlled bank, VTB, which is currently under U.S. sanctions. VTB was exposed in the Panama Papers in 2016 for facilitating the flow of billions of dollars to offshore companies linked to Putin.

Earlier this year, The Associated Press reported that Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager, began collecting $10 million a year in 2006 from Deripaska to advance Putin's interests with Western governments. Deripaska's name turned up again in an email handed over to Mueller's team by Manafort's attorneys. According to The Washington Post, in the email dated July 7, 2016, just two weeks before Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president, Manafort asked an overseas intermediary to pass a message on to Deripaska: "If he [Deripaska] needs private briefings, tell him we can accommodate."

Viktor Vekselbergis one of the 10 richest men in Russia. He and long-time business partner Blavatnik hold a 20.5 percent stake in Rusal. (They met while attending university in Russia.)

In 1990, Blavatnik and Vekselberg co-founded the Renova Group for large-scale investments in energy, infrastructure, aluminum and other metals. One of their earliest investments was in Tyumen Oil Co. (TNK), founded in 1995. TNK is best known for its contentious partnership with British Petroleum after the two entities formed a joint venture in 2003. That rocky relationship ended 10 years later when they sold out to the state-controlled energy giant, Rosneft, under pressure from the Russian government.

As for BP, that pressure took the form of growing harassment and intimidation from Russian authorities who at one point, according to Forbes, refused to renew visas for BP employees, forcing BP's joint venture chief Robert Dudley (who is now chief executive of BP) to flee Russia and manage TNK-BP from a foreign outpost in a secret location.

Vekselberg has connections to at least two Americans who made significant GOP campaign contributions during the last cycle. They are among several Americans who also merit Mueller's scrutiny.

Touch chart to see info:

The Americans

Andrew Intrater, according to Mother Jones, is Vekselberg's cousin. He is also chief executive of Columbus Nova, Renova's U.S. investment arm located in New York. (FEC records list his employer as Renova US Management LLC.)

Intrater had no significant history of political contributions prior to the 2016 elections. But in January 2017 he contributed $250,000 to Trump's Inaugural Committee. His six-figure gift bought him special access to a dinner billed as "an intimate policy discussion with select cabinet appointees," according to a brochure obtained by the Center for Public Integrity.

Alexander Shustorovich, chief executive of IMG Artists, attempted to give the Republican Party $250,000 in 2000 to support the George W. Bush presidential campaign, but his money was rejected because of his ties to the Russian government, according to Quartz. So why didn't the Trump team reject Shustorovich's $1 million check to Trump's Inaugural Committee?

Simon Kukes is an oil magnate who has something in common with Intrater. From 1998 to 2003, he worked for Vekselberg and Blavatnik as chief executive of TNK. Redacted CIA documents released in 2003 under the Freedom of Information Act said "TNK president Kukes said that he bribed local officials." The CIA confirmed the authenticity of the reports to The Guardian newspaper but would not comment further. In 2016, Kukes contributed a total of $283,000, much of it to the Trump Victory Fund. He had no significant donor history before last year's election.

Touch chart to see info:

There is no doubt that Kukes has close ties to the Putin government. When he left his job as CEO of TNK in June 2003, he joined the board of Yukos Oil, which at the time was the largest oil company in Russia owned by the richest man in Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.Four months after Kukes joined the board, authorities arrested Khodorkovsky at gunpoint on his private plane in Siberia on trumped up charges of tax evasion and tapped Kukes to be CEO. This decision could only have been made at the highest levels in the Kremlin. The arrest of Khodorkovsky rattled the nerves of international investors and was the first tangible sign that Putin was not going to be the kind of leader that global executives and Western governments had expected him to be when he first took office in 2000.

Khodorkovksywas given a 13-year sentence in a Siberian prison and served 10 years before being released by Putin in December 2013, a month before the start of the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, as a sign of goodwill. As for the fate of Khodorkovksy's company, its largest oil subsidiary was sold in a sealed bid auction to Baikal Financial Group, a shell company with an unpublished list of officers. Baikal was registered at an address that turned out to be a mobile phone store in Tver, Russia. Three days after the auction, all of Baikal's assets were acquired for an undisclosed sum by Rosneft, the Russian oil giant that went on to buy TNK-BP in 2013.

In total, Blavatnik, Intrater, Shustorovich and Kukes made $10.4 million in political contributions from the start of the 2015-16 election cycle through September 2017, and 99 percent of their contributions went to Republicans. With the exception of Shustorovich, the common denominator that connects the men is their association with Vekselberg. Experts who follow the activities of Russian oligarchs told ABC News that they believe the contributions from Blavatnik, Intrater and Kukes warrant intense scrutiny because they have worked closely with Vekselberg.

Even if the donations by the four men associated with Russia ultimately pass muster with Mueller, one still has to wonder: Why did GOP PACs and other Trump-controlled funds take their money? Why didn't the PACs say, "Thanks, but no thanks," like the Republicans said to Shustorovich in 2000? Yes, it was legal to accept their donations, but it was incredibly poor judgment.

McConnell surely knew as a participant in high level intelligence briefings in 2016 that our electoral process was under attack by the Russians. Two weeks after the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a joint statement in October 2016 that the Russian government had directed the effort to interfere in our electoral process, McConnell's PAC accepted a $1 million donation from Blavatnik's AI-Altep Holdings. The PAC took another $1 million from Blavatnik's AI-Altep Holdings on March 30, 2017, just 10 days after former FBI Director James Comey publicly testified before the House Intelligence Committee about Russia's interference in the election.

And consider Steve Mnuchin, Trump's campaign finance chairman. Could he have known that the Trump Victory Fund, jointly managed by the Republican National Committe and Trump's campaign, took contributions from Intrater and Kukes?Mnuchin owned Hollywood financing company RatPac-Dune with Blavatnik until he sold his stake to accept Trump's appointment as the Treasury secretary.

Which PAC officials are making the decisions to accept these donations?

The Supreme Court

The contributions are legal because the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling, Citizens United, and several subsequent decisions, allowed American corporations and citizens to give unlimited amounts of money to PACs and non-profit 501c4 organizations, regardless of how they make their money, where they make their money, or with whom they make their money. The only caveat is that PACs and non-profits cannot coordinate their activities with the political candidates they support.

The man who led the winning fight for Citizens United was David Bossie,president of the conservative non-profit since 2001. In 1996, Bossie was hired by Republican Rep. Dan Burton to lead an investigation into President Bill Clinton's campaign fundraising. Burton fired him 18 months later for manipulating recordings of conversations among law officials and Webb Hubbell, a Clinton confidant who resigned as associate attorney general and pleaded guilty to tax fraud during the Whitewater investigation. CNN reported at the time that Newt Gingrich, who was speaker of the House, called Bossie's tampering with the Hubbell recordings an embarrassment to the Republicans.

Bossie served as Trump's deputy campaign chairman.

The Super PAC, Make America Number 1, is primarily funded by Trump's largest donor, Robert Mercer. His Renaissance Technologies hedge fund donated $15.5 million to the PAC.

Mercer's daughter, Rebekah, assumed control of Make America Number 1 in September 2016 and is now tainted by her role in the communications between Wikileaks and Cambridge Analytica, the firm that Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, hired for $5.9 million to handle the digital portion of the Trump campaign.

Robert and Rebekah Mercer are major investors in Cambridge Analytica. According to The Wall Street Journal, Rebekah Mercer asked Cambridge chief executive Alexander Nix if the firm could compile stolen emails related to Hillary Clinton so that they could be more easily searched. (This suggestion came from someone she met at an event supporting Sen. Ted Cruz, according to The Hill. Cambridge Analytica had worked on digital marketing for Cruz before he dropped out of the Republican primary.)

Nix confirmed that he had asked Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to forward the Clinton-related emails. Assange said he declined the request.

Rebekah Mercer also heads the non-profit Making America Great, formed in March 2017. The non-profit ran a seven-figure ad campaign highlighting Trump's achievements. Bossie is the group's chief strategist.[russia in brezit w/ c anal?]

Erik Prince, brother of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, contributed $150,000 to Mercer's Make America Number 1 PACand another $100,000 to the Trump Victory Fund. Prince has recently testified to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence about his trip to the remote Seychelles for a secret meeting in December 2016 with a close ally of Putin, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund. The purpose of the meeting was allegedly to setup a back channel of communication between then president-elect Donald Trump and the Russians, though Prince has denied this allegation. Before the 2015-16 elections, Prince's political contributions totaled a mere $31,800 as far back as 2007, according to FEC records.

The hybrid super-PAC, The Committee to Defend the President, was formed in 2013 under the name Stop Hillary PAC. It is managed byDan Backer, the lead attorney who won the McCutcheon vs. Federal Election Commission case in 2014. The Supreme Court decision eliminated the cap on how much wealthy individuals can donate to federal candidates, parties and PACs in a single, two-year election cycle.

Like Bossie, Dan Backer helped to open the floodgates to millions of dollars of influence brought to bear on incumbents and their political challengers who are now pressured to kowtow to their donors with the biggest bank accounts, even if their billions are earned in Russian rubles.

Backer was born in Russia and emigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1978.

The changes to our campaign finance laws created an avenue for Russia to try to influence our elections. There are holes in our firewall and they aren't on the internet.

Cyprus is at the center of a circle of corruption surrounding Trump

Touch chart to see info:

Ruth May is a business professor at the University of Dallas and an expert on the economies of Russia and Ukraine. She wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News. Twitter: @ruthcmay

There is an unusual space in the basement of the University of Louisville library, in the large anteroom to the official archives for Sen. Mitch McConnell. The space is called the Civic Education Gallery, but it is, essentially, a kind of shrine to the political career of McConnell, not unlike the exhibits on Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron you’d find at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The mere fact of the shrine is curious enough, given that it memorializes a politician who shows no sign of leaving the stage any time soon. What’s most unusual, though, is what it chooses to highlight. There are a few artifacts from McConnell’s youth — his baseball glove, his honorary fraternity paddle — but most of the exhibits are devoted to the elections he won, starting with high school and on up through Jefferson County executive and the Senate.

When I visited the room while researching my 2014 biography on McConnell, I was struck by what was missing: exhibits on actual governing accomplishments from the Senate majority leader’s four decades in elected office. That absence confirmed my thesis that McConnell, far more even than other politicians, was motivated by the game of politics — winning elections and rising in the leadership ranks, achieving power for power’s sake — more than by any lasting policy goals. Well, that was then. Four years later, it is becoming increasingly clear that Mitch McConnell is creating a legacy for himself, and it’s a mighty grand one.

McConnell has created the world in which we are now living. Donald Trump dominates our universe — and now has the power to fill the second Supreme Court seat in two years. McConnell, who has promised a vote on whomever the president nominates “this fall,” is the figure who was quietly making it all possible, all along.

First, there was McConnell’s vigorous defense, going back to the early 1990s, of the role of big money in American politics, which would help Trump not so much in terms of funding his campaign, but in helping shape the conditions for his appeal.

While McConnell has long cast his defense of campaign spending as a First Amendment issue — money is speech— he made no secret of his motivation for fighting so hard on the issue. Namely, that he was well aware that he, as someone lacking in natural campaign talents, and the rest of the Republican Party, as more business-oriented than the Democrats, would need to maintain the flow of large contributions to be able to win elections. “I will always be well financed, and I’ll be well financed early,” he declared after winning his first race for county executive, in 1977.

His crusade against campaign finance reform culminated in the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling eliminating limits on corporate spending on elections, which McConnell followed up by blocking legislation to disclose the identity of large donors. Even before that ruling, the spread of big money in politics had done so much to sour the public on government, creating a ripe target for the Tea Party and, later, for a billionaire populist running against “the swamp.”

McConnell laid the groundwork for the right-wing insurgency of 2009 and 2010 in another way, too, with his decision to withhold Republican support for any major Democratic initiatives in the Obama years. This meant that Republicans had less influence on the final shape of legislation such as the Affordable Care Act than they would have had as fully willing negotiators.

Prioritizing elections over policy, McConnell calculated that by blocking or delaying Democratic legislation, above all through aggressive use of the filibuster, Republicans would create a tedious gridlock that voters would blame the Democrats for. After all, weren’t they the ones in power?

His role in the election of Trump was even more direct. Most notable was his refusal to hold a confirmation hearing, let alone a vote, on Merrick Garland, Obama’s nominee to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, despite the fact that the nomination was made a full 10 months before the end of Obama’s term. This refusal exploded norms and dismayed Beltway arbiters who had long accepted McConnell’s claim to be a guardian of Washington institutions. It also provided crucial motivation to Republicans who had grave qualms about Trump but were able to justify voting for him as “saving Scalia’s seat.”McConnell was right. This strategy helped to foment opposition to the health care bill, and to drive huge Republican gains in the 2010 election. But it also fueled the rise of the Tea Party, which was motivated substantially by the notion that Obama was “ramming things down our throats” — that is, passing legislation on a partisan basis after McConnell withheld any Republican negotiation. Of course, McConnell proceeded to have plenty of headaches managing the far-right contingent in his own caucus, but it was a contingent he helped produce.

McConnell’s other form of aid for Trump was more hidden. As The Washington Post reported a month after the 2016 election, Obama had been prepared that September to go public with a C.I.A. assessment laying bare the extent of Russian intervention in the election. But he was largely dissuaded by a threat from McConnell. During a secret briefing for congressional leaders, The Post reported, McConnell “raised doubts about the underlying intelligence and made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.” The Obama administration kept mum, and voters had to wait until after Trump’s election to learn the depth of Russian involvement.

Now, with the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, it is evident just how much of a lasting legacy Mitch McConnell’s will leave the country: Donald Trump will have at least two lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court. The president has — and will now — enjoy greater latitude in filling those seats as a result of McConnell’s doing away last year with the 60-vote requirement for Senate confirmation, to get Neil Gorsuch seated. In the day and a half before Kennedy’s announcement, the impact of the Scalia seat was made plain again, as the court issued 5-4 rulings in favor of Trump’s “travel ban” and anti-abortion groups, and against public employee unions.

The abortion and union rulings had an ironic resonance, as far as Mr. McConnell goes. In the 1970s, when he ran for county executive in Louisville, he secured the pivotal endorsement of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. bypledging to back collective bargaining for public employees (a promise that went unfulfilled), and while in office he worked effectively behind the scenes to protect abortion rights locally.

But that was a long time ago, before McConnell saw the rightward swing of the Reagan revolution and decided to hop on board for his own political preservation as a Southern Republican. These days, McConnell has made explicit, with taunting tweets among other things, that he views long-term conservative control of the Supreme Court as his crowning achievement. It’s not hard to see why: Holding a long-term majority on the court greatly aids his highest cause — Republicans winning future elections — as recent rulings on voting rights and gerrymandering demonstrated once again.

Whether McConnell decides to add an exhibit in the Civic Education Gallery documenting his role in the rise of Donald Trump is another matter. The final historical judgment on that score will not rest with him, in any case.

Filed under:

staffer mafia:

replace simmonshttps://www.rollcall.com/news/sharon-soderstrom-mitch-mcconnell-chief-of-staff-profile

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/they-can-just-have-cartoon-new-book-reveals-obamas-real-reaction-trump-election

evil mfer confirmed:

Rhodes also writes about Obama's farewells to world leaders. German Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly told Obama that Trump's victory made her feel a greater obligation to run for a fourth term which she ended up winning. When she left Obama for the last time, she "had a single tear in her eye."

Obama also apparently felt that, despite the criticism he has since received, there was little more he could have done to counter Russian interference in the 2016 election. Calling out the meddling efforts even more than he did would have resulted in Trump saying Obama was rigging the election and Putin working harder to undermine the vote, the president feared.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pointedly refused to issue a bipartisan statement condemning Russia' actions when Obama wanted to take action, limiting his options. Rhodes called this refusal "staggeringly partisan and unpatriotic," but he says Obama was unsurprised...

excerpt, see below srcwtch:

McConnell has attended at least one Koch network donor summit, the June 2014 retreat in California, where he spoke alongside Koch operative [Gentry] and Koch Industries general counsel Mark Holden on a panel titled "Free Speech: Defending First Amendment Rights."^[2] A recording of his remarks was obtained by The Nationand The Undercurrent. He began, "I want to start by thanking you, Charles and David for the important work you’re doing. I don’t know where we’d be without you," referring to Charles and David Koch.

The recording also included McConnell's statements on a key Koch issue: fighting campaign finance limits and disclosure rules. Speaking to a room of wealthy donors, McConnell said, "All Citizens United did was to level the playing field for corporate speech…. We now have, I think, the most free and open system we've had in modern times. The Supreme Court allowed all of you to participate in the process in a variety of different ways. You can give to the candidate of your choice. You can give toAmericans for Prosperity, or something else, a variety of different ways to push back against the party of government."^[3]

https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/trump-brings-back-coal-miner-jobs-deaths-soar

Newsweek

Coal miner Rodney Osborne was towards the end of a double shift at the Gateway Eagle Mine in West Virginia in June when the 32-year-old was crushed to death by a rotating drill. A subsequent investigation revealed that Osborne, who had been working at the Boone County mine for just five months, had not received adequate safety training on the device.

The state's junior senator, Shelley Moore Capito, said she was heartbroken by the news of Osborne's death, then reminded her constituents that "West Virginia coal miners like Rodney selflessly put so much on the line to ... power our state."

Osborne was not the only miner who paid the ultimate price. In all, 15 miners died since President Donald Trump took office in 2017—up from eight in all of 2016.

This is the dirty secret of Trump’s much-touted effort to help the coal industry. The president has been quick to celebrate the 771 workers that were hired in 2017, but the administration's push to support the dirtiest of fossil fuels has been accompanied by a surge in deaths of the workers who procure it. The 2017 death toll was the highest since 2014—when there were roughly 60,000 more miners at work in America.

Mining advocates put some of the blame on the president, whose support for mine owners has led to relaxed safety enforcement, scores of inexperienced new miners and inconsistent commitment to training programs and courses. In the meantime, Republicans in the House want to cut mine safety budgets further, and Trump, who says he supports coal miners, has been silent on a Senate bill that would shore up miners' pensions.

“When you look at the Trump administration policies and his ratcheting back of regulations ... this administration has no moral compass about ethics,” said Joe Main, who ran the Mine Safety and Health Administration under President Barack Obama. “Companies now think we have a less aggressive sheriff in town.”

Trump’s support for coal is part of a larger economic vision of deregulation—one that he says is responsible for the stock market’s recent boom and higher gross domestic product.

“The stock market is way up (because) we took off restrictions and we took off regulations,” he said on January 16.

But for coal miners, those restrictions and regulations can be the difference between life and death.

A majority of the 15 victims were new to their job site and seven deaths involved miners with one year or less experience at the mine where they died, data show.

“There’s been a whole new generation of people hired into coal industry, younger workers who haven’t had the benefit of enough training,” said Phil Smith, spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America. “But companies are resistant to taking time to take them off production to train them.”

The results can be deadly—and not only for new workers.

In May, Luches “Big Lou” Rosser, 44, was traveling on an electric locomotive deep in a West Virginia mine when his head hit a steel beam, killing him. The official investigation into his death found that Rosser, a husband and father of three, hadn’t been properly trained on the machine. He knew how it worked, but was never briefed on safety procedures.

“Showing someone how to push a button isn’t a training,” said Smith.

In July, Andrew Oxenrider, a 28-year-old with seven years on the job, exited his Caterpillar D9L bulldozer on the slope of a refuse bank. Oxenrider had not been trained in proper parking procedures for that model, and the bulldozer rolled backwards, killing him before falling to the bottom of the embankment.

And then there's the case of Osborne, who disabled his drilling machine's emergency shutoff system so he could make a minor alignment adjustment—only to get pinned between the cutter head and the coal seam, suffering "fatal crushing injuries," state investigators revealed.

State officials issued seven citations to Rockwell Mining, including two that carry a $10,000 fine. But so far, the Trump administration's mine safety agency has only recommended education.

Coal mining is inherently dangerous, with zero margin for error even under the best conditions. The average height of a mine tunnel is about three and a half feet, so miners crawl or duck-walk while avoiding big, mobile electrical equipment. Even a small lapse in safety can be catastrophic.

“I have been to too many mine explosions and funerals,” said West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat. “Too many miners have died for us to get to where we are today. We can not go backwards on safety.”

Last year’s death count suggests a step back. For the first seven months of the Trump administration, the top position at MSHA remained vacant. Congressional aide and White House adviser Wayne Palmer was finally put in charge of the agency in late August, but he had no experience in mining or mine safety.

Under Palmer's oversight, MSHA proposed changing language about when safety inspections must be done at metal and non-metal mines. Instead of mandating the inspection before laborers enter a mine, operators could do the check "as miners begin their work," a wording that allows mine owners to start a shift before an inspection, putting miners in potentially dangerous situations.

The National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association, an industry group that spent $300,000 to lobby for the rule change and featured former Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski as the keynote speaker at its annual convention, was pleased with the new language, writing that "it appears that MSHA is willing to listen to the industry."

In the fall, Trump finally appointed David Zatezalo, a retired coal mining executive, to run the Mine Safety and Health Administration, but Zatezalo has a questionable commitment to miners’ welfare, advocates say.

His Rhino Eastern Eagle mine in West Virginia, for example, was hit with multiple violations in 2010 and 2011. All together, Rhino mines have been issued more than $2.1 million in fines for 162 workplace safety or health violations since 2000.

Now Zatezalo runs an agency charged with creating training initiatives, monitoring accidents, and, most important, carrying out safety inspections at mines several times a year. Critics say he is a pawn of industry.

“He’s a former coal operator, he’s not a mine safety advocate,” said Tony Oppegard, a mine safety lawyer.

This week, Zatezalo told Newsweekthat the Trump Administration is committed to the health and safety of America’s miners. "At MSHA, our focus is on ensuring that every miner is able to return safely to their loved ones at the end of every shift," he said. "To ensure the health and safety of miners, MSHA will continue to conduct inspections, and vigorously emphasize safety enforcement, education and training."

Such inspections and training are mandated by federal laws, but miner advocates are not convinced that Zatezalo will aggressively enforce them.

“[Zatezalo] might call the district manager in Barbourville, Kentucky and tell them how he wants the agency to run,” said Oppegard. “Influential mine operators might also call MSHA directly and say, ‘Your inspector is giving me a hard time,’ the head would then call the district manager and say, ‘Lay off.’ That kind of stuff happens. It really does.”

Main, the former MSHA director, said it is likely to get worse.

“If the perception of the industry is these guys are backing off, it won’t play out well for safety,” he said. “Word gets around the industry, and you know what’s going to happen there.”

Smith already sees alarming changes at MSHA, such as emphasizing a more-lenient safety check system called “compliance assistance," which was a key program under President George W. Bush. If a compliance assistant visits a mine and notices a safety or health violation, he or she does not have the authority to issue a citation or fine, the way an official inspector would.

They’re essentially tourists in a mine, said Smith.

If such assistants see “something going on in a mine that’s bad or wrong, they can only ask the company to fix it,” he added. “The company can easily say, ‘No we don’t think it’s a problem’ and that’s the end of it. There’s no enforcement.”

MSHA responded to the recent surge in deaths by increasing the size of its compliance assistance plan, a voluntary program for mine operators. Advocates say compliance assistance is typically most popular with deregulation Republicans.

“You know one administration, a Democratic administration, is interested in enforcement and wants to do enforcement. And a Republican administration wants to do compliance assistance,” Celeste Monforton, a former MSHA official and occupational health researcher, told *Ohio Valley Resource* as mining deaths were on the rise last year.

MSHA still uses official inspectors to carry out its mandatory inspections of all underground mines four times a year and all surface mines twice a year, and compliance assistance programs existed under Democratic presidents, as well. But the Trump administration has further dulled its teeth.

In the past, for example, all compliance assistants were to be accompanied by miners' representatives, but that is no longer the case, Smith said.

Compliance assistance is “a complete waste of time,” added Oppegard. “You can directly link the reliance on this method of inspection with an increase in mining disasters and fatalities.”

Annual miner deaths did increase twice during the Bush administration and were higher than under his successor, Barack Obama, who, in 2009, brought total miner deaths down below 20 for the first time in American history.

Manchin expressed his own concerns, telling Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta in a letter in September that MSHA inspectors were being instructed to remove their Representative Status credentials. Without the credentials, inspectors are not allowed to issue violations or remove miners from unsafe conditions.

"By separating the MSHA inspector from his or her credentials, one is essentially removing the ability of that MSHA inspector to issue an order to remove miners from the unsafe area and issue a violation which, particularly in the event of an imminent danger, can prove perilous," Manchin wrote.

He also questioned why miners' representatives were no longer able to walk with compliance assistants. "This is particularly alarming because, no one is better suited to spot inconsistencies or unsafe conditions that the very people who work at the mine day in and day out," Manchin wrote.

In the midst of the current mine safety crisis, Congress has proposed to cut MSHA’s coal enforcement budget by $11 million or 7 percent in the next fiscal year, leaving the agency with its lowest budget since FY 2013. Trump originally proposed to leave MSHA’s budget largely untouched but to reduce staffing by 42 positions.

“The proposed budget cut is absolutely a move towards reducing the inspectors in the coal industry,” said Smith, adding that the plan will result in an agency staffed by “inexperienced inspectors.”

“It takes five years to take an inspector up to speed,” Main added. “These are things that are really important to the life of a miner.”

Main said he worries about long-term leadership trickling out of the agency. “I was struggling to keep the agency functioning with the budget we had. Any additional cuts would hamper its ability to keep working,” he said.

On-site injuries are only one aspect of the job. Sustained exposure to coal dust leads to a number of respiratory diseases, such as black lung disease, a progressive illness with no cure. More than 76,000 miners have died of black lung since 1968.

Last month, Trump announced that MSHA was reconsidering rules intended to protect miners from breathing in the dust that causes black lung. And in his first days as president, Trump eliminatedan Obama-era rule blocking coal companies from dumping waste into streams. Miner advocates say these rule changes and others are all about appeasing mine owners, not workers.

“They’re receiving a lot of complaints from coal operators that these rules are wasteful and useless, but that’s just false,” said Smith.

MSHA says it is still taking comments about these rules, which went into effect in 2014 and aim to lower the concentration of respirable coal mine dust in the air, but Oppegard believes there’s only one reason to revisit them: “To raise the amount of dust miners can breathe in up again or to create other loopholes where operators could violate the standard.”

Smith added that such air quality rules don't get in the way of industry profits and are simply necessary.

“All of these regulations exist because someone was killed at work,” he said. “All those laws and regulations are written in a dead miner’s blood.”

Manchin disagrees, claiming that there are just too many environmental rules. “Some of the stuff doesn’t make sense and makes it hard for people to do their job,” he said.

Manchin is most upset with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who he says refuses to fund the pensions of 117,000 retired coal miners and dependents, who are at risk of losing their retirement funds due to the declining coal industry.

A Senate bill has 21 co-sponsors, but McConnell won't move it and Trump hasn't pushed the issue, Manchin said.

“We’re not talking big numbers here,” said Manchin. “Most pensions top out at $500 or $600 each month.”

Manchin added that Trump has been a sympathetic ear on the issue, but has not acted. To Joe Main, that means Trump's rhetoric about caring for coal miners is empty.

“I don't think I’ve ever heard the president talk about this pension,” he said. “These are people who produced the energy for this country to grow, they’re owed healthcare and a darn pension.”

Trump’s efforts to prop up the coal industry are bucking decades of decline for the mineral, mostly due to a drop in global demand. Even with hundreds of new miners hired last year, the solar and wind industries still employed nearly three times as many people as the coal industry. Half of America’s coal-fired plants have shuttered since 2010 and since Trump took office at least 17 plants have announced they’ll be closing shop. Coal isn’t cost-competitive with cheaper natural gas and it faces new competition as the cost of renewable energy continues to decline.

Coal is a leading source of carbon emissions, and many nations are weaning themselves off the pollutant to fight climate change, even as officials in the United States deny some realities about global warming. Exports of coal fell 23 percent in 2015 and another 32 percent through the first half of 2016, though domestic production is slightly up, thanks to a growing economy under Trump.

“I’m the one that saved coal,” the president said in a year-end interview. “I’m the one that created jobs.”

But on the homefront, Trump’s call to end the “war on coal” appealed to his base: wealthy, anti-regulation industry leaders and blue-collar workers nostalgic for a past they likely never knew. Trump’s support for coal countered Hillary Clinton, who was widely misquoted during the campaign that she would intentionally “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”

Trump carried eight of the top nine coal-mining states in the 2016 election

yikes, longterm damage:

https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/senate-republicans-want-speed-approval-trumps-nutty-nominees

It's one of those stories that might be a minor issue in a normal presidential administration but takes on alarming implications in the era of Donald Trump: The Hill reports that Senate Republicans under Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are considering changing the rules for confirming appointees to both federal agencies and the district courts, drastically reducing the amount of time that senators get to question the people Trump wants to entrust with these powerful positions.

Republicans are considering shrinking debate for non-Cabinet federal nominees down from 30 hours to just eight, and limiting debate on district judges to two hours apiece.

To be clear, it's not that unusual to shorten debate time on nominations, and Senate Democrats made a similar rule change in 2013 — though only for that session of Congress. The current proposal, offered by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., would be a more permanent change so that rubber-stamping Trump nominees could be the practice not just this year but for as long as Trump holds office. But the larger concern is not just that this would be a long-term rules change being proposed, but who, exactly, would benefit: A president who has been quite clear that incompetence is no obstacle to nomination -- and that being opposed to the mission of the office you wish to run is a bonus.

"What we need is not less time, but more time, based on what we’ve seen over and over," Sasha Buchert, a staff attorney at Lambda Legal, told Salon. "The judicial nominees we’ve seen are so bad, and every day there’s something new that’s revealed. It’s a similar issue with the executive nominations, unfortunately."

With Senate Republicans eager to simply vote in everyone Trump tosses their way, the only way to stop at least some of the worst nominees is to make the confirmation process a public spectacle that forces withdrawal from sheer embarrassment. Buchert pointed to cases like that of Matthew Petersen, who withdrew his nomination to be a district judge after the confirmation hearing exposed that he was incapable of answering basic questions most first-year law students could handle.

Buchert also flagged the case of Eric Dreiband, a lawyer who spent his career defending employers in discrimination cases, whom Trump nominated to be the head of the Justice Department's civil rights division. The longer confirmation process gave human rights groups time to raise the alarm and so far, Dreiband's confirmation seems stalled. But shortening debate might make it easier for troublesome nominees to slide through.

Drew McConville, a senior managing director at The Wilderness Society, linked the proposal to limit debate to the Trump administration's larger hostility toward any kind of public accountability.

"Time after time, we’re seeing the administration look to undermine opportunities for public input," McConville said. “Unfortunately, the administration has shown itself in the first year to put special interests above the public interest.”

McConville noted that over the past year, environmental activists have documented a downturn in public comment opportunities, the disbanding of advisory committees, and an apparent decision to ignore public opinion on issues like protecting national monuments — in favor of doing whatever oil and gas companies want. Instead, a cult of secrecy has become ingrained in the Trump administration, particularly at the Interior Department and the EPA, and the public is being shut out of important decisions that affect it directly.

"The fact that the GOP Senate conference is reacting to Trump's comically unqualified nominees by streamlining the process really should end 'When will Republicans start standing up to Trump?' discussions," said Scott Lemieux, a political science lecturer at the University of Washington.

He added that "getting conservative judges and executive branch nominees is the main thing Republicans -- both legislators and voters -- are getting from Trump," saying this attempt to fast-track the process "was probably overdetermined."

Republicans argue that the change is necessary because Trump is lagging behind his predecessors when it comes to getting appointees confirmed, at least to the federal agencies.(He's getting his judicial nominees confirmed at breakneck speed already.)

"As of Thursday, the Trump administration has had 300 nominations confirmed by the Senate, with an additional 177 currently working their way through the upper chamber's pipeline," The Hill reports. "That lags behind former President Obama who had 418 nominations confirmed by the Senate at the same time, while former President George W. Bush had 493 and former President Clinton had 471."

But while Republicans want to blame Democrats for this, the reality is far more complicated. As NPR reports, the Trump administration has failed to file paperwork quickly and completely, which is hanging up a lot of nominees. Also, as The Washington Post tracker indicates, a huge part of the problem is that the administration isn't too hasty with its nominations, either. By this point in his presidency, Obama had sent 640 nominations to the Senate. George W. Bush had sent 616. Trump has only sent 477 so far.

Still, the larger issue is competence. Trump has an unmistakable tendency to pick appointees who oppose the mission of the agency they are slated to manage. In many cases, these picks have been laughably unqualified. Sam Clovis, Trump's initial pick to be chief scientist at the USDA (now withdrawn), is not a scientist of any kind and had no experience with agriculture whatsoever. His pick to head NASA, Jim Bridenstine, has no background in science or engineering. That Trump isn't nominating people quickly is probably a good thing on the whole, since so many of the people he does pick clearly have no idea what they're doing.

“These positions matter," McConville said. "We’re talking about public officials who are entrusted with stewarding our public lands, protecting the air we breathe, the water we drink and so much more.”

But as with the tax reform bill, it's clear that congressional Republicans are less interested in doing something well than in cramming through a right-wing agenda at breakneck speed. It's almost as if they don't think they will get a full four-year term to enact the Trump agenda and are making this a rush job, which may not be an unreasonable assumption when the headlines are dominated by the slowly unfolding Russia scandal and Trump's dubious mental state.

Comcast, Verizon, AT&T winning fight against restoring net neutrality

Anyone doubting the power lobbyists still hold in Washington need only look at the ongoing, shameful net neutrality travesty.

It was bad enough that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, a former Verizon lawyer, engineered the repeal of President Obama’s landmark rules prohibiting Internet Service Providers from blocking or slowing down the internet or giving preference for certain online content.

Now Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee wants to lock the vast majority of Pai’s rules into law through her proposed legislation with the Orwellian title: the Open Internet Preservation Act.

The Verizon, AT& T and Comcast Dream Act would be more appropriate.

Unlike Pai’s new rules, Blackburn’s bill would prevent ISPs from blocking access to websites. That’s good news. But Blackburn would put into law the FCC chairman’s approval to allow ISPs to charge content providers on websites a premium for faster speeds. The legislation would devastate small businesses and startups from being able to compete, throttling creativity and innovation. It would also rake in billions for the ISPs who have poured more than $600 million into their lobbying efforts over the last 20 years.

Blackburn has been one of their prime beneficiaries, receiving more than $500,000 from telecom companies since she took office in 2002, including $84,000 in the most recent election cycle, the biggest contribution to any member of the House of Representatives.

Don’t expect Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell or Republicans in the Senate to stand up for consumers in a heist that will net Verizon, AT& T and Comcast billions. Telecom companies gave Mc-Connell a cool $250,000 in the last election cycle.

Blackburn also went out of her way to block any notion of blue states writing their own net neutrality laws. Her bill would pre-empt states from passing “any law, rule, regulation, duty, requirement, standard or other provision” related to net neutrality.

The Tennessee Republican was well aware that in California only days after the FCC vote, state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco announced that he would introduce a net neutrality bill when the Legislature reconvenes in January. Wiener later indicated that he would join forces with New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman of Manhattan to write legislation that would restore net neutrality to both states. Democrats in Congress are hoping that a small number of Senate Republicans who in the past have expressed some support for net neutrality may find the courage to oppose Blackburn’s bill if it reaches the Senate floor, as expected.

It will take a major show of outrage by consumers and the tech industry to help make the case. They can start by citing a recent survey by the University of Maryland showing that 80 percent of Americans — including 75 percent of Republicans — oppose the notion of repealing net neutrality regulations.

The only alternative is to hope the courts strike down Pai and Blackburn’s efforts — or that enough Democrats win seats in 2018 to start their own cycle of congressional “repeal and replace”.

Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee wants to lock most of the new rules into law through her proposed legislation with the Orwellian title: the Open Internet Preservation Act. The Verizon, AT& T and Comcast Dream Act would be more appropriate.

https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/mcconnell-refuses-mueller-protection-being-fired-trump-no-pressure-pass-anything

McConnell (R-KY) shrugged off concerns that Congress should safeguard against a constitutional crisis by passing legislation to protect special counsel Robert Mueller from being fired by the White House he is tasked with investigating.

Sen. McConnell was asked about multiple bills that would protect the special counsel from interference from President Donald Trump during an interview with MSNBC anchor Hugh Hewitt that was broadcast Saturday.

“This is also a week of indictments,” Hewitt noted. “There are two views about Mr. Mueller. Some want legislation to restrain his power and limit his reach. Others want legislation to keep him safe from being fired.”

“Do you think Congress has any role in legislating about the special counsel right now?” Hewitt asked.

“I don’t think so,” McConnell answered.

Multiple Republican leaders have urged President Trump to fire the special counsel. Ousted Trump strategist Steve Bannon has urged a scorched earth approach to the investigation and Pat Robertsondemanded Trump fire Mueller and pardon everyone to “shut down” the investigation.

As the chorus of far-right voices against the special counsel grows, the appetite for congressional action to protect Mueller has waned.

That perspective has now trickled up to Majority Leader McConnell.

“I don’t hear much pressure to pass anything,” McConnell claimed. “There’s been no indication that the president or the White House are not cooperating with the special counsel.”

“I think the view up here is let him do his job,” McConnell suggested.

Roy Moore, the insurgent conservative who rose to national fame over his hardline stances on social and cultural issues, knocked off Sen. Luther Strange (R-AL) in the Alabama GOP Senate runoff election on Tuesday.

With the victory, Moore, the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, becomes the Republican nominee for the seat formerly held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and will face off against Democratic candidate Doug Jones in the general election in December. Moore pulled in nearly 55 percent of the vote, defeating Strange in all but four counties in the state.

The race was an unusual one, as it pitted President Trump, who backed Strange, against the same anti-establishment voices who propelled him to the White House. Former chief strategist Stephen Bannon and his far-right website Breitbart, ex-adviser Sebastian Gorka, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin all supported Moore and vigorously campaigned for him. Meanwhile, the Senate Leadership Fund, a group aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), poured millions of dollars into supporting Strange, giving Moore the opportunity to paint his opponent as the establishment’s choice.

Before the results were even official, the Senate Leadership Fund conceded to Moore, writing in a statement: “While we were honored to have fought hard for Big Luther, Judge Roy Moore won this nomination fair and square and he has our support, as it is vital that we keep this seat in Republican hands.” Trump congratulated Moore in a tweet and said Strange “ran a good race.”

Trump’s involvement in the race can best be described as a Hail Mary pass. The run-off result seems to have confirmed Republicans’ greatest fears about the president wading into this race in particular. Privately, Republicans in Washington were worried that Trump’s attempts to choose sides in a Republican primary in a deep-red state could backfire politically at a time when he is still in search of a legislative victory. Trump himself admitted, “the last thing I want to do is be involved in a primary,” but has cited Strange’s loyalty as a reason to go all-in for the incumbent.

In Alabama, Trump’s core base of supporters excused his backing of Strange over Moore, saying he needed to throw his support behind the GOP establishment’s preferred candidate in order to win back some much-needed political capital. Many of those voters feel that too many congressional Republicans are working against the president rather than with him.

Trump enjoys immense popularity in Alabama, a state he won last year by 30 points, and in a normal race his star power would have almost certainly been enough to push his preferred candidate over the finish line. But with Moore ahead of Strange by double digits in some polls leading up to Election Day, it was a risky gamble for Trump from the beginning.

https://www.ecowatch.com/mcconnells-office-hurricane-survivors-2490534124.html

...Explaining why they were targeting the Kentucky Republican, Yvette Arellano of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services said from the occupied office that McConnell "is not only the leader of the majority. He's also the leader of climate change denial."

...

AN 917

Yet another example this week showed that the GOP is willing to rewrite the rules when it comes to the democratic process, if that’s what it takes for them to win. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he wants to end a process where home-state senators must approve any federal judicial nominee in their state. Blue state senators have been opposing Trump’s nomination of right-wingers to lifetime appointments.

McConnell blocked President Obama’s final U.S. Supreme Court nomination, and stalled Senate action on federal appeals and district court seats—hoping a Republican victory last November would result in a federal judiciary turning toward the right for decades. Currently, there are 144 federal court vacancies. In this case, McConnell is trying to press the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Iowa’s Charles Grassley, to end the so-called “blue slip” practice, where home state senators can veto nominations. Yet again, the GOP is willing to put party before country to win and exercise power.

black lung still screwed

22 GOP Senators vs. World Leaders on Paris Agreement

Twenty-two GOP senators sent a letter Thursday urging Donald Trump to pull out of the Paris agreement. They argued remaining in the deal could "upend" the administration's ability "to fulfill its goal of rescinding the Clean Power Plan."

Accounting for fewer than half of Senate Republicans, signers included coal-friendly politicians and prominent climate deniers, such as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and James Inhofe of Oklahoma.

Overseas, French president-elect Emmanuel Macron urged Trump not to make a "rushed decision" on the agreement at a Thursday meeting. White House economic adviser Gary Cohn predicts "fairly robust" talks on the Paris agreement at this weekend's G7 leadership summit in Sicily, and European leaders at the summit have indicated they will pressure Trump to remain in the deal.

As The Guardian reported:

"Some western powers are trying to frame the climate change discussion as a national security argument, pointing to the risk of war and terrorism if mass migration explodes out of drought-ridden Africa.

Trump's aides insist he remains in listening mode on climate change, and no decision will be made for a few weeks. The British, eternal optimists, at least sense he is moving on the issue. Results may have to wait for the G20 summit, to be attended by China in Hamburg in June."

For a deeper dive:

GOP letter: AP, Axios, The Hill; Macron: Reuters, CNBC; G7: The Guardian, Reuters, BBC

https://www.ecowatch.com/paris-agreement-g7-2422835676.html

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/black-lung-disease-deadlier-than-ever-before-180963303/

...Michael “Flip” Wilson had a very different journey into coal than McCool. The first coal miner in his family, Wilson entered the mines when he was 18 years old. It was 1974, and he was seeking his fortune in what was then a booming industry in Kentucky.

Wilson spent 41 years toiling down dark, winding tunnels in search of coal seams—layers of valuable fuel sandwiched between rock. For most of that time he operated what’s known as the “continuous miner,” a machine that carves away the mine’s walls and breaks apart massive seams into bite-sized hunks. Unlike McCool, however, he rarely used a facemask.

The masks were burdensome, he says. Dust would collect over the filters, clogging them up and requiring frequent changes. “You just couldn’t breathe through them,” he says. So Wilson foraged ahead with the continuous miner, clouds of inky black dust billowing in its wake.

Three years ago, Wilson was diagnosed with black lung. Not using a facemask may certainly be one way that coal dust found its way into his lungs. But Wilson is also among a new generation of miners working without the safety net of mine unionization, which research suggests helps protect workers from unsafe conditions and company dishonesty.

Miners at non-union mines often don't report safety violations for fear of losing their jobs, Addington explains. Dust, in particular, has faded to the background. “Miners are more likely to put up with excessive dust because it doesn’t threaten them and the bigger stir that they cause the more likely they are to lose their job,” says Addington, who also files lawsuits against companies for unjust treatment of workers who speak up. “It’s much more difficult for miners to complain about excessive dust than other safety and heath issues at a coal mine.”

“I always did what the coal company wanted me to do, if it was right or if it was wrong,” Wilson recalls. “I should have known better, but at the time I needed the job.”

Armstrong Coal did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Unions became popular among miners during the late 1800s, with today’s largest organization, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), founded in 1890. The UMWA has been instrumental in improving conditions for miners, from shorter work hours to safer working conditions. It was also a driving force in drawing attention to the issue of respiratory disease during the early 1900s, a time when “strenuous denial of the existence or extent” of black lung was still rampant, according to a 1991 article in the American Journal of Public Health.

Measuring the effects these unions have had on overall mine safety has been difficult, in part due to confounding factors like mine size and the fact that unionized mines tend to report more injuries than non-unionized ones. But a Stanford Law School study published in the journal Industrial and Labor Relations Review in 2013 found that unionization had resulted in a “substantial and significant decline” in both fatalities and traumatic injuries.

Today, however, mine unions have declined along with mining jobs. Union representation has fallen by over 50 percent in the last decades—from 14 percent in 1997 to just 6 percent in 2016.In Kentucky, where some of the highest rates of black lung are being reported, the last unionized mine shuttered its doors in 2015.

Experts reason that longer work days may also contribute to the current surge in black lung. Fewer breaks give workers less time to flush their lungs with clean air, says Cohen, which can rid their lungs of particulate that has not yet taken root. Wilson estimates that he worked an average of 70 to 80 hours per week while at Armstrong Coal. “A lot of the time I would come in on day shift,” he says. “I worked 10 [or] 11 hours that day, then I would go home and sleep three or four hours. And then I'll go back on third shift.”

There’s yet another reason for the rise. Many researchers believe the disease’s new intensity stems in part from the size of the coal seams being mined. These days, coal companies have plundered most of the thick seams of pure coal and now seek thinner and thinner veins. That means miners are taking out more rock along with the coal using heavy machinery. As a result, the clouds of black dust have grown increasingly muddled with silica, a much more potent lung irritant.

Coal mine dust isn’t just coal; it’s a mix of coal, silica and other elements like iron. Silica’s toxicity comes from a variety of chemical properties, including electrostatic charge—the same force that makes your hair stand on end when rubbed with a balloon—and what is known as “reactive oxygen species” (ROS). When these highly reactive particles make their way deep into the respiratory system, they can lance the lung cells, resulting in a flood of damaging enzymes that harm the tissue.

:{...

http://www.ecowatch.com/nuclear-option-gorsuch-2347867635.html

Senate Republicans Rig System, Trigger 'Nuclear Option' to Push Through Gorsuch

Senate Republicans rushed through a confirmation vote Thursday on President Donald Trump's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Neil Gorsuch has been met with widespread criticism both across the country and from the Senate before, during and after his confirmation process.

For more than 200 years, the Senate has honored a 60 vote margin for Supreme Court nominees to be confirmed. Gorsuch only received 55. According to existing Senate procedure, Gorsuch's nomination would be defeated and the Senate would move forward without confirming him to the court. Instead, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell changed the rules and triggered the so-called "nuclear option" for what had been deemed the "greatest deliberative body" to force Gorsuch's nomination through.

The Senate rightfully rejected Judge Neil Gorsuch's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is their duty to advise and consent on judicial nominees and with this vote, they refused their consent and advised President Donald Trump that Gorsuch is not fit to be granted a lifetime appointment to America's highest court..

staffer mafia

Lawmakers are calling on Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt to hand over information about a key agency appointee, citing her record as an energy industry lobbyist as recently as the first quarter of this year.

Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) sent a letter to Pruitt on Tuesday, challenging his appointment of Elizabeth "Tate" Bennett as deputy associate administrator of EPA's Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations. In that role, Bennett is the agency's primary point person and liaison with Congress and state governments.

The senators cited President Donald Trump's executive order on ethics, writing: "Because of her activities as a registered federal lobbyist she cannot work on legislation, communicate with Congress, or coordinate and monitor regional, state and local responses to a wide-range of major issues faced by EPA."

Bennett worked for two years as a lobbyist for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which represents more than 900 customer-owned rural utilities. The association, whose members have been historically reliant on coal, has pushed heavily against emissions-cutting regulations, including the Clean Power Plan.

The senators say that Bennett's appointment violates Trump's executive order on ethics, which says appointees can't "participate in the specific issue area" for which they lobbied in the two years prior to their appointment. Trump issued the order during his second week in office, following up on his oft-repeated campaign pledge to "drain the swamp." Previous presidents had similar ethics orders.

The EPA and Bennett's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The letter points out that the association spent $5.3 million on lobbying during Bennett's tenure, and that she "specifically lobbied on a broad set of EPA matters, including EPA's Clean Power Plan and New Source Performance Standard, Clean Water Rule, ozone standard, EPA enforcement, pesticides bills, budget resolutions, and appropriations bills."

Prior to her position at the rural utilities association, Bennett was an energy and agriculture aid to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

The appointment is the latest in a series of lobbying-related ethics problems facing Trump appointees. Critics of Pruitt have questioned his deep ties to fossil fuel companies, including his leadership in the Koch brothers-funded Rule of Law Defense Fund, which lobbied heavily against environmental regulations.

Late last month, the director of the Office of Government Ethics challenged the Trump administration's granting of waivers that exempt appointees from the president's ethics pledge. On April 28, Walter M. Shaub, Jr., who was appointed to head the office by President Barack Obama in 2013, sent a request asking every executive branch to provide him a copy of any waivers by June 1.

Whitehouse and Merkley are asking for information about Bennett by June 2, including any waivers she may have signed, a signed copy of her ethics pledge and her "Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report."

PUBLISHED UNDER:

POLITICS

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/13/were-dying-flies-sick-retired-coal-miners-betrayed-gop-senators

the country must not turn its back on coal miners," right-wing Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell told constituents in eastern Kentucky last week.

Yet coal miners—many "facing a slow death" from black lung and other deadly illnesses from a lifetime of mining coal—say that McConnell and other Senate Republicans are doing exactly that, the Associated Pressreports.

McConnell has been repeatedly blocking a bill that would provide a pension plan and health benefits to about 13,000 retired coal miners in his home state.

By doing so, McConnell places his allegiance with coal barons, and not their workers.

As coal has declined, the ailing industry has been attempting to "jettison all pension obligations to miners" while still giving multi-billion-dollar bonus packages to executives, as Kelly Mitchell of Greenpeace noted earlier this year.

But the legislation in question, the Miners' Protection Act, "would make certain that union retirees who lost healthcare benefits after the bankruptcy or insolvency of an employer are eligible for the benefits," writes West Virginia's Register-Herald.

Because McConnell refused to allow the bill to come to a vote before the October recess, it will not be considered until after the November election.

Meanwhile, coal miners are suffering. APreports:

"We're dying like flies," said Billy Smith, a coal miner for 39 years who said McConnell's lack of support was difficult to understand, given all the ailments he sees among his fellow retirees in his local union.

[...] Workers like Joseph Holland, a retired union coal miner in Owensboro, said the federal government owes them their pensions and health benefits because of a promise former President Harry Truman made in the 1940s that ended a costly strike. Holland said he believes McConnell is punishing the United Mine Workers of America for endorsing his opponent during the 2014 U.S. Senate race, which McConnell won easily.

"He says he supports coal, but you know no evidence that he's supported the coal miner," Holland said. "It's very frustrating."

Moreover, last week "the Patriot Voluntary Employee Beneficial Association notified about 12,500 retired union coal miners last week that their health benefits would cease on Dec. 31 without congressional action," APwrites.

In response, Hillary Clinton issued a statement supporting the Miners' Protection Act. "Time is running out for Republican leadership to stop playing politics and give the Miners Protection Act a vote," Clinton said. Trump has remained silent on the issue.

As 350.org U.S. divestment campaign manager Jenny Marienau warned after Peabody Coal declared bankruptcy in April: "Make no mistake, the fossil fuel industry is going down, but it won't go down easy. The priority now is to make sure it doesn't take its workers [and] the communities it has impacted with it."

:{==

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined Wells Fargo $185 million for opening millions of credit and debit card accounts in the names of actual people, who didn’t know about or authorize the accounts.

Now, Senator Mitch McConnell — who reports more than $1,000,000 in Wells Fargo stock owned by his wife (who sits on the bank’s board of directors) — is trying to cripple the agency.

Sign the Petition to Senator Mitch McConnell

We, the undersigned, demand that Mitch McConnell immediately withdraw the legislation (S. 3318) that would weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and that he recuse himself from any further matters related to this critical agency. 9/15/16

CoC mutual aid admiration club

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/02/475022/mitch-mcconnell-the-chamber-of-commerce-tell-the-supreme-court-to-double-down-on-citizens-united/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chamber-of-commerce-mitch-mcconnell_n_4372904

The reelection campaign of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will get a boost from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday when it launches a television ad defending his record of protecting the coal industry and fighting the Environmental Protection Agency.

“Coal means jobs in Kentucky,” a female narrator says in the ad. “While the EPA and bureaucrats try to kill Kentucky’s coal industry, Mitch McConnell is fighting back, fighting hard, opposing regulations on coal, working to block the EPA and shut down the bureaucrats.”

The ad will run for 10 days statewide in Kentucky, according to the Chamber of Commerce. A spokeswoman declined to say how much the group is spending on the ad, but Politico reported on Friday that it was reserving over $180,000 in airtime.

McConnell has a difficult path to reelection in 2014, facing a tea-party backed Republican primary opponent, Matthew Bevin, and a well-funded Democratic challenger, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. The Senate Conservatives Fund, meanwhile, has spent $670,000 on ads charging that McConnell is insufficiently conservative. The Chamber ad is a signal that the conservative group is willing spend money to defend McConnell from such attacks.

The Chamber of Commerce, which does not disclose its donors, spent nearly $33 million on electioneering communications for the 2012 elections, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

McConnell hired policy chief, koch lobbyist

Mitch McConnell owes the Kochs big time. The Kochs bought McConnell a slew of GOP Senate seats in the 2014 midterms and handed him his post as Senate Majority Leader. In addition, Koch Industries gave over $10,000 to buoy McConnell in his own Senate battle. Now McConnell is hiring a Koch crony to push the Koch agenda through Congress. McConnell has :{hired:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:Hazen Marshall, a former lobbyist on behalf of Koch Industries, to serve as his new policy director.

Koch Industries spent a hefty $13 million on influencing the federal government last year. Marshall previously served as partner of the Nickles Group where he worked on behalf of Koch Industries. There, he lobbied on the Kochs’ pet issues, including against the Wind Production Tax Credit. The wind PTC has been crucial to the growth of the wind energy industry as it has boomed in recent years, providing more affordable energy, supporting thousands of new jobs, and protecting our environment. But self-interested fossil fuel titans like the Koch brothers are lobbying to crush the wind industry. The Kochs will stop at nothing to stave off threats to their petrochemical empire.

Since the midterms, Koch lieutenants have been dispatched to work in offices across Capitol Hill — demonstrating the deep ties between Koch-world and the GOP. Joni Ernst hired her chief of staff from the Koch-backed National Federation of Independent Small Business, Jim Inhofe tapped his Environment and Public Works Committee press secretary from the Koch-funded Generation Opportunity, and Tom Cotton’s former spokesman is the new director for Americans for Prosperity-Arkansas. It’s getting harder and harder to separate the Koch shills from the GOP.

Mitch McConnell's Policy Chief Previously Lobbied for Koch Industries

https://theintercept.com/.../mitch-mcconnells-policy-chief-previously-lobbied-koch-in...

May 18, 2015 - Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appointed Hazen Marshall, a lobbyist for Koch Industries, as his new policy chief. Marshall, whose lobbying ...

McConnell Names Koch Shill to Key Senate Post | Real Koch Facts

realkochfacts.com/mcconnell-names-koch-shill-to-key-senate-post/

May 20, 2015 - McConnell has hired Hazen Marshall, a former lobbyist on behalf of Koch Industries, to serve as his new policy director. ... Joni Ernst hired her chief of staff from the Koch-backed National Federation of Independent Small ...

===

RAGA LEC?

In the early months of 2014, a group of about 30 corporate lawyers, coal lobbyists and Republican political strategists began meeting regularly in the headquarters of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, often, according to some of the participants, in a conference room overlooking the White House. Their task was to start devising a legal strategy for dismantling the climate change regulations they feared were coming from President Obama.

The group — headed in part by Roger R. Martella Jr.,a top environmental official in the George W. Bush administration, and Peter Glaser, a prominent Washington lobbyist — was getting an early start.

By the time Mr. Obama announced the regulations at the White House on Monday, the small group that had begun its work at the Chamber of Commerce had expanded into a vast network of lawyers and lobbyists ranging from state capitols to Capitol Hill, aided by Republican governors and congressional leaders. And their plan was to challenge Mr. Obama at every opportunity and take the fight against what, if enacted, would be one of his signature accomplishments to the Supreme Court.

Within minutes of the announcement, West Virginia’s attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, stepped before a bank of cameras for a news conference at the Greenbrier resort in his home state. Flanked by Mike Duncan, the president of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, one of the nation’s top coal lobbying groups, and Greg Zoeller, the attorney general of Indiana, Mr. Morrisey announced that a group of at least 15 Republican state attorneys general were preparing to jointly file a legal challenge to Mr. Obama’s proposal.

“The final rule announced Monday blatantly disregards the rule of law and will severely harm West Virginia and the U.S. economy,” Mr. Morrisey said. “This rule represents the most far-reaching energy regulation in this nation’s history, drawn up by radical bureaucrats and based on an obscure, rarely used provision of the Clean Air Act.”

“Our coalition, in short order, will comprise of many states, consumers, mine workers, coal operators, utilities and businesses who are united in opposition to this radical and illegal policy,” he added.

While Mr. Obama had not even put forth a draft proposal of his plans when the group started its work, the president had made plain in several speeches that he intended to act forcefully on climate change — and that he would flex the muscle of his executive authority to do so. “If Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will,” he said in his 2013 State of the Union address. The lawyers and lobbyists wanted to be ready to fire back hard and fast when he did.

RELATED COVERAGE

Opinion Editorial

President Obama’s Tough, Achievable Climate Plan AUG. 3, 2015

Opinion Joe Nocera

Obama’s Flexible Fix to Climate Change AUG. 4, 2015

Opinion Op-Ed Contributors

A Climate Plan Businesses Can Like AUG. 3, 2015

Opinion Op-Ed Contributor

Obama Takes a Crucial Step on Climate Change AUG.

In devising its strategy, the group worked closely with the office of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader whose coal-producing home state also stands to suffer under the regulation. While Mr. McConnell opposes the climate change regulations, his advisers knew that he had little chance of enacting legislation to block them in Congress. Instead, Mr. McConnell has taken the unusual step of reaching out directly to governors and attorneys general, urging them to refuse to submit compliance plans for the regulations, and encouraging a state-by-state rejection of the rules.

Mr. Morrisey, whose coal-producing home state is also struggling with the nation’s highest unemployment rate, was chosen as the public face of the suit. But key strategists joining the original planning were Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a former attorney general there, and Scott Pruitt, the attorney general of Oklahoma. Both already had experience suing the Obama administration over major Clean Air Act regulations.

An important ally in the effort was the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a conservative advocacy group that pushes policy through state legislatures. Typically, the council’s committees of corporate members will craft a model bill designed to push through policies it supports, such as rolling back environmental regulations.

At a July meeting in San Diego, ALEC’s energy committee — which includes Mr. Duncan, the coal lobbyist who also worked closely with Mr. McConnell on his tactics — enacted a model bill designed to directly support state attorneys general who legally challenge the climate change plan. According to a person present at that July meeting, the bill would allow states to create funds, which could be funded by corporate donations, to support legal challenges to the climate change rules.

While it is not unusual for major corporations to sue the federal government over environmental regulations, people involved in the effort to craft a legal strategy against the climate change rules said the time, labor and coordination of the effort were unusual. That effort reflects the sweeping scope of climate change regulations, which, unless struck down in the Supreme Court, could transform huge sectors of the economy, potentially crippling the coal industry and other industrial sectors whose economic well-being relies on coal.

The Obama administration contends that despite the massive scale of the challenges trained against it, the climate change plan is legally sound. “The final rule is built on a rock-solid legal foundation,” said Thomas Reynolds, a spokesman for the agency.

“E.P.A. is using its clear authority under the Clean Air Act to set emission standards for air pollutants,” he said. “The rule is wholly consistent with the law, and we are confident it will withstand any and all legal challenges.”

But Michael McKenna, a Republican energy lobbyist who has worked closely with the group, says that the attorneys general will not back down. “This rule was more aggressive than any of us could have imagined,” he said. “There is no lack of state attorneys general who would like to put a bullet in this thing.” The rules, a final, stricter version of a plan that the Environmental Protection Agency announced in 2012 and 2014, assigns each state a target for reducing its carbon pollution from power plants. States will be allowed to create their own plans to meet the requirements and will have to submit initial versions of their plans by 2016 and final versions by 2018.

The most aggressive of the regulations requires that by 2030, the nation’s existing power plants must cut emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels, which is an increase from the 30 percent target proposed in the draft regulation.

The president on Monday called the new rules a public health imperative and “the single most important step America has ever taken in the fight against global climate change.” He also sought to wrap the policy in the legitimacy of transcendental values, noting that Pope Francis issued an encyclical in June, calling action on the issue a “moral obligation.”

Even as Mr. Obama acknowledged the steep resistance from coal-producing states and industry critics, he said it was up to the United States to adopt tough standards so that other countries like China would feel compelled to take similar steps.

But Mr. McConnell made it clear he would do everything in his power to combat the rules, which he said the president had crafted because he was “tired of having to work with the Congress the people elected.”

“That’s why the administration is now trying to impose these deeply regressive regulations — regulations that may be illegal, that won’t meaningfully impact the global environment, and that are likely to harm middle- and lower-class Americans most — by executive fiat,” Mr. McConnell said. “It represents a triumph of blind ideology over sound policy and honest compassion,” he added.

mma

UPDATE (2/10/12): National Journalaccurately identifiedMichael McKenna as a "Republican energy lobbyist" in a January 26 article. Politico, on the other hand, has quoted McKenna without noting that he is a lobbyist in at least two articles since this post was published.

One of these is not like the others:

"...said Michael McKenna, a Republican strategist and energy lobbyist" [*Washington Times*]
"... said Michael McKenna, a Republican strategist and energy lobbyist" *[New York Times*]
"...said Michael McKenna, a GOP strategist and energy lobbyist" [E&E Daily]
"...said GOP political strategist Mike McKenna, who is an expert on energy and is close with congressional leadership" [*National Journal*]

National Journal reporters have quoted Michael McKenna 21 times in the past year, more than any other news outlet in the Nexis database. In each case, McKenna provided comments on the politics surrounding energy and environment issues, including EPA regulations, climate change, clean energy, and gasoline prices. Not once did National Journal note that McKenna is a lobbyist who represents oil and utility companies. Instead, he was identified as a "Republican strategist who focuses on energy issues," or a "GOP energy strategist."

McKenna is the President of MWR Strategies, which aims "to help our clients advance their agendas in the public policy and media arenas." According to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, MWR Strategies has worked for major fossil fuel interests including American Electric Power, Southern Co and Koch Industries, for several years.

National Journal is not alone in omitting this information about McKenna. Politico reporters quoted the "GOP energy strategist" in 14 energy and environment stories over the past year without mentioning his lobbying firm or its clients

subsidize/bailout dying coal but screw worker pensions

Now given Republican Congressional rhetoric about President Obama’s “war on coal” and the latest indignation about Hilary Clinton’s clumsily phrased honesty in recognizing that a lot of coal companies are going out because the market no longer needs the coal they produce, you might think that Democrats had been fierce in cracking down on coal company scofflaws. Alas, until very recently both parties have looked the other way. Obama’s Interior Department continued to award sweetheart coal mining leases of publicly owned coal with no competitive bidding. It permitted coal companies to create shell companies to avoid paying legally obligatory royalties. It allowed the states the play along with the “self-bonding” rip-off. And the Justice Department took no effective action to prevent the coal industry from shifting its pension and health care debts to the taxpayers and workers.

This 24-year-old citizen activist is running for Congress

Finally, in February 2015, the Administration moved, proposing a “Power Plus” plan to help protect miner’s pensions, health care and the economic based on coal dependent communities. (It also moved in the same month to reform royalty abuses).

But, of course, by this time such aid required Congressional appropriations. Bankruptcy courts had already let Patriot and other companies dump their pension and health care obligations. The same Republican leaders who blasted Obama for making war on coal denounced the new plan. Leading the charge?Kentucky Senator and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who made it clear that his hostility towards the United Mines Workers trumped whatever concern he might have had for Kentucky coal miners. In December, McConnell personally blocked efforts to include community and pension rescue efforts in the budget deal Republicans cut with Obama.

:{===

http://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/53298/mitch-mcconnell

Jan. 21, 2016

S J Res 22

Joint Resolution Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8

of Title 5, United States Code, of the Rule Submitted by the Corps of

Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency Relating to the

Definition of ":{Waters of the United States" Under the Federal Water

Pollution Control Act}:](http://votesmart.org/bill/20990/55078/53298/a-joint-resolution-providing-for-congressional-disapproval-under-chapter-8-of-title-5-united-states-code-of-the-rule-submitted-by-the-corps-of-engineers-and-the-environmental-protection-agency-relating-to-the-definition-of-waters-of-the-united-states-under-the-federal-water-pollution-control-act)

Oct. 26, 2015

S J Res 23

Joint Resolution Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8

of Title 5, United States Code, of a Rule Submitted by the

Environmental Protection Agency Relating to "Standards of Performance

for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from New, Modified, and Reconstructed

Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units"](http://votesmart.org/bill/20663/54524/53298/a-joint-resolution-providing-for-congressional-disapproval-under-chapter-8-of-title-5-united-states-code-of-a-rule-submitted-by-the-environmental-protection-agency-relating-to-standards-of-performance-for-greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-new-modified-and-reconstructed-stationary-sources-electric-utility-generating-units)

Senate

nay:

Sept. 11, 2014

S J Res 19

Joint Resolution Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the

United States Relating to Contributions and Expenditures Intended to

Affect Elections](http://votesmart.org/bill/18834/49906/53298/a-joint-resolution-proposing-an-amendment-to-the-constitution-of-the-united-states-relating-to-contributions-and-expenditures-intended-to-affect-elections)

:{==

	Blackstone Group	$188,300	$171,800	$16,500
2	Kindred Healthcare	$130,100	$100,100	$30,000
3	Humana Inc	$128,300	$93,300	$35,000
4	Goldman Sachs	$118,325	$103,325	$15,000
5	JPMorgan Chase & Co	$117,075	$87,075	$30,000
6	Altria Group	$115,108	$90,108	$25,000
7	Blue Cross/Blue Shield	$109,300	$51,800	$57,500
8	Elliott Management	$104,600	$104,600	$0
9	General Electric	$100,955	$67,455	$33,500
10	Alliance Resource Partners	$93,450	$88,450	$5,000
11	DaVita HealthCare Partners	$87,575	$66,075	$21,500
12	Votesane PAC	$82,000	$82,000	$0
13	Peabody Energy	$81,800	$71,800	$10,000
14	Berkshire Hathaway	$81,750	$52,750	$29,000
15	Metlife Inc	$77,150	$53,150	$24,000
16	Delta Air Lines	$76,700	$59,700	$17,000
17	Capital Group Companies	$75,200	$50,200	$25,000
18	American Express	$74,750	$62,250	$12,500
19	United Parcel Service	$72,421	$35,200	$37,221
20	Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance	$71,550	$46,550	$25,000

Securities & Investment	$2,409,312	$2,064,212	$345,100
Retired	$1,302,870	$1,302,870	$0
Insurance	$1,123,050	$574,050	$549,000
Oil & Gas	$1,110,958	$688,359	$422,599
Health Professionals	$1,095,945	$698,445	$397,500
Real Estate	$1,067,425	$851,825	$215,600
Lawyers/Law Firms	$1,052,889	$735,339	$317,550
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products	$728,573	$239,900	$488,673
Hospitals/Nursing Homes	$711,970	$316,070	$395,900
Lobbyists	$675,526	$634,880	$40,646
Health Services/HMOs	$674,476	$381,926	$292,550
Commercial Banks	$639,489	$364,539	$274,950
Misc Finance	$615,480	$557,480	$58,000
Leadership PACs	$458,629	$31,400	$427,229
Mining	$440,450	$337,250	$103,200
Misc Manufacturing & Distributing	$429,355	$301,755	$127,600
Pro-Israel	$425,523	$318,072	$107,451
Electric Utilities	$413,349	$93,650	$319,699
Air Transport	$385,121	$191,050	$194,071
Retail Sales	$358,450	$147,450	$211,000

steven law poster boy staffer lobbyist

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/mitch-mcconnell-112945

In Mitch McConnell’s world, it doesn’t matter who works in his Hill office, who left for K Street or who runs his campaign, almost everyone calls the Kentucky Republican “Boss.”

Indeed, interviews with a number of those closest to the incoming Senate majority leader say there’s little difference between the McConnell confidants who used to be on his payroll and those who still are: a couple dozen key players, from political operatives to senior leadership staff to outside policy wonks, work nearly seamlessly to advance his agenda, whether it’s getting him reelected or pushing bills through. A number of those closest to McConnell are alumni turned lobbyists, and they too have retained their access to his office and staff in a mutually beneficial way, advancing his interests at the same time they gather intel for clients who pay their firms millions of dollars.

As McConnell prepares to take control over the Senate, then, it’s impossible to understand how he’ll run the place unless you know who’s in his network and how it works.

( Also on POLITICO: Obama turns to McConnell to secure his legacy)

“One thing that you consistently hear from former McConnell staffers is how proud they are to have worked for him and the personal affection they have for him,” said Steven Law, a former McConnell chief of staff.

The tight bond comes in part from the long hours Hill staffers clock during big fights, like over health care reform or the government shutdown, but McConnell world is unusually tight even for a powerful Senate office. Loyalty, years of service and a near-devotion to McConnell make it one of the strongest and most influential in Washington.

The gatekeepers on his staff controlling who has access to McConnell, to the wonks who help write and vet Republican bills, to former chiefs of staff who now lobby his office, to even his wife, Elaine Chao.

Chao is a political operative in her own right, and she’s committed to keeping her husband on top. She served as secretary of labor under President George W. Bush and is now an important surrogate for McConnell at events in Washington and Kentucky. This campaign season, she went so far as to meet with Republican lobbyists and others and urge them not to wait, but to give the maximum donation to her husband early — a bold ask for a congressional spouse. She also made individual phone calls to donors asking for money. And with Democratic opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes trying to paint McConnell as anti-woman, Chao appeared in an ad to counterattack.

( Also on POLITICO: The GOP's numbers problem)

Never was the network more on display than in his recent reelection, when current congressional staff became political aides, old friends took leaves of absence from their jobs to go on the campaign trail, and the entire crew not only contributed but encouraged their networks and clients to cut checks for his reelection bid.

Formal roles shift and change - but the goal has remained the same: help McConnell.

For example,Josh Holmes, chief of staff in McConnell’s personal office left Capitol Hill for Kentucky to lead his political team.Holmes is credited with the strategy that helped McConnell handily beat Lundergan Grimes by 15 points. The Kentucky Republican was so thankful, on election night, he said Holmes “pitched a perfect game.” Holmes has not said publicly what he’ll do next.

Even long-ago aides like Law, who hasn’t worked for McConnell in more than 20years, has remained part of the extended political team.He helped set up and served on a pro-McConnell super PAC that was key to hitting McConnell’s primary tea party challenger and trying to define Grimes. “Even when they aren’t talking, they are thinking the same way,” one lobbyist said of the relationship between McConnell and Law. Law ran McConnell’s first reelection campaign in 1990 and later served for six years as his chief of staff. He’s now the CEO of American Crossroads, a super PAC backed by Karl Rove.}:

Three former chiefs of staff who now lobby — Kyle Simmons of the Simmons Russell Group, Billy Piper, whose clients include the American Television Alliance and Metlife Group, and Hunter Bates, a lobbyist who splits time between Washington and Kentucky — were on a weekly call helping with campaign strategy.

Piper, who worked for McConnell for nearly 20 years, went so far as to take a three-week leave of absence from his K Street job at boutique GOP lobbying firm Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock to help out on the campaign.

( Also on POLITICO: The angst is rising on Capitol Hill)

The extended network isn’t just on call when McConnell is in trouble on the campaign trail.

After helping with the reelection effort, the lobbyists have all gone back to their jobs, where clients will expect them to use their ties with the office to get access and information on critical bills and to help shape them.For example, a set of business-tax deductions and subsidies, called extenders, that are worth billions to companies must be renewed by the end of the year. It’s a top priority for K Street, especially this year, when some downtowners are nervous that the package could spark a fight between establishment Republicans and movement conservatives. Top lobbyists will game out a way to get the measures through. McConnell has said he wants the package done during the lame duck session of Congress.

The Kentucky Republican and his staff also often rely on former aides who have gone to K Street for their expertise and experience on the Hill.

David Schiappa, now at lobbying firm the Duberstein Group, is a prime example. A former secretary of the minority, Schiappa is an expert on procedure — a skill that is critically important in the Senate, where complex rules can dictate whether a bill succeeds or fails. Republicans right now are not just debating whether to derail President Barack Obama on immigration reform and Obamacare, but how technically to do it. Schiappa continues to help advise GOP leadership on Senate rules and guide them on the process of moving into the majority. When he left Capitol Hill, Schiappa got a waiver from the Senate Ethics Committee to continue to respond and help staff when they reached out with questions on procedure. He did not lobby or talk about clients before his lobbying ban was up.

While government reform groups balk at arrangements like the one between McConnell and his former staffers who now lobby, the situation is common. Senators of both parties maintain ties with former staffers even after they head to K Street.

For McConnell’s part, he’s defended his ties. On the eve of the election in Kentucky, POLITICO asked McConnell about the optics of lobbyists descending on the Bluegrass State. He had no qualms about it. “I’m just grateful for the help,” he said.

Illustration by POLITICO

***

THE WIFE

ELAINE CHAO

Elaine Chao is a political operative in her own right. | AP Photo

Elaine Chao, McConnell’s wife since 1993, is a political force in her own right. The former secretary of labor plays several important roles in McConnell’s professional life: She’s a chief confidante. A regular on the campaign trail, she frequently stands in for her husband at events. She brings out the “softer side of Mitch,” according to several sources. She also isn’t afraid to shake down donors and helped McConnell raise money in Washington and beyond. She sits on several corporate and nonprofit boards, including News Corp., Protective Life Corp. and Wells Fargo. The companies have plenty of business before Congress and are players in Washington.

***

POLITICAL OPERATIVES

JOSH HOLMES, former chief of staff and campaign manager

Josh Holmes left Capitol Hill to lead McConnell's political team. | AP Photo

McConnell put his toughest political reelection bid in Holmes’ hands. After serving as his personal office chief of staff for nearly three years, Holmes moved to McConnell’s political operation full time in August 2013 and moved down to Louisville, Kentucky. On election night, McConnell said, “He pitched a perfect game.” He’s weighing his next move.

STEVEN LAW, political adviser and former chief of staff

Law is seen as McConnell’s No. 1 political consultant. This cycle, he served on the board of the pro-McConnell super PAC Kentuckians for Strong Leadership, meaning he technically could not coordinate with the campaign. Still, one McConnell ally described the relationship between Law and McConnell as, “Even when they aren’t talking they are thinking the same way.” Law ran McConnell’s first reelection campaign in 1990 and later served for six years as his chief of staff. He’s a U.S. Chamber of Commerce alum and is a major fundraiser and strategist for the Karl Rove-backed American Crossroads.

LAURA SEQUEIRA, national finance director

The former office manager in the Senate Republican leader’s office, Sequeira is the brains behind Team Mitch’s fundraising operation. Based out of Kentucky, this cycle she worked solely raising for McConnell, a rarity in the fundraising world. Besides being able to bring in the money, Sequeira knows the world of McConnell’s major donors.

LARRY McCARTHY, media consultant

McCarthy has been with McConnell since the senator’s first campaign. The veteran media consultant of McCarthy Hennings Whalen worked on the original “Bloodhound” ad with Roger Ailes and was responsible for the reprise in this past campaign.

***

THE GATEKEEPERS

SHARON SODERSTROM, chief of staff

Soderstrom is the resident institutionalist. | Getty

Soderstrom is the resident institutionalist, known for her encyclopedic knowledge of how the Senate works. McConnell’s leadership chief of staff is a veteran aide who worked for the two previous GOP leaders. McConnell is very comfortable with her, and they have personal camaraderie and trust that allows her to make sure the entire Republican Conference is on board with plans.

DON STEWART & JOHN ASHBROOK, communications

McConnell trusts Stewart to be his first line of defense with the news media. The former aide to Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and the late Sen. Paul Coverdell of Georgia has a reputation for being tireless. “The guy never sleeps and he never stops working,” said one McConnell confidant.

Ashbrook serves as staff director of the Senate Republican Communications Center. He is integral to McConnell’s message operation. He moved to Kentucky for the last three months of the campaign and is credited with helping sharpen McConnell’s press operation.

BRIAN McGUIRE, chief speechwriter

McGuire has been “the voice” for McConnell for nearly eight years, serving as his chief speechwriter. He also has a hand in communications and political strategy for the office.

SCOTT RAAB, health care

The former legislative director to McConnell has been his key adviser personally and to the Republican Conference on Obamacare. As Republicans look to find opportunities to repeal portions of the law, Raab will be key to any strategy and serve as the key point of contact for K Street.

TERRY CARMACK, senior adviser

The veteran McConnell aide has served in many roles starting with his 1984 campaign and is a trusted adviser. The former National Republican Congressional Committee aide was a constant presence on the campaign trail this cycle, often serving as the photographer at events when attendees wanted to get a shot with the boss.

***

FORMER CHIEFS

KYLE SIMMONS, Simmons & Russell Group

McConnell choked up on the Senate floor when chief of staff Simmons left in 2010 after 14 years working for the Kentucky Republican. Simmons is known for his close relationship with McConnell. He managed McConnell’s 1996 race and then served as chief of staff, opening up the Kentucky Republican’s office, first when he was whip, and later when he became minority leader. He recently hung a shingle with Bob Russell, former chief of staff to outgoing Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), and now reps companies including American Airlines, ExxonMobil, Google and Toyota.

BILLY PIPER, Fierce Isakowitz & Blalock

Piper began his career with McConnell as his driver, spending hours shuttling the senator to and from events. The Kentucky native worked nearly 20 years for McConnell, serving as a his principal political adviser and liaison to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He now works at the all-GOP boutique lobbying firm Fierce Isakowitz & Blalock for clients like the American Television Alliance, Almost Family, Apple and BP America.

HUNTER BATES, Republic Consulting

The former chief legal counsel and chief of staff to McConnell, Bates also advised McConnell on ethics and campaign finance, and served as his speechwriter. He was McConnell’s campaign manager for his 2002 reelection campaign. He now splits his time between Washington, D.C., and Louisville after co-founding Republic Consulting. He represents Altria Client Services, Amgen and Brown-Forman Corp., among others.

***

FORMER POLICY EXPERTS

ROHIT KUMAR, PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLC

Kumar served as domestic policy director and chief of staff to McConnell, but his real claim to fame is working on the big tax deals. Over the years, McConnell and Kumar spent many late nights during negotiations, and the two developed a close rapport and sports rivalry. (Kumar went to Duke, and McConnell is a die-hard University of Louisville fan). One of Kumar’s biggest clients is the Alliance for Competitive Taxation.

MEGAN HAUCK, Nathanson+Hauck

Former McConnell health policy adviser Hauck was the chief architect of Senate Republicans’ strategy on Obamacare. She also focused on Medicare, Medicaid and FDA reauthorization. She now lobbies at a two-person shop for health care clients like Hospira, Express Scripts, DaVita and Pharmaceutical Care Management Association.

DAVE SCHIAPPA, Duberstein Group

Schiappa is considered the GOP’s guru on Senate rules. The former secretary for the minority actually started working in the office before McConnell got into leadership. The Kentucky Republican would often ask Schiappa how things used to get done or as a “validator” of his memory. Schiappa, who left in 2013, got clearance from the Senate Ethics Committee to continue to give institutional counsel before his lobbying ban expired.

***

LAWMAKER ALLIES

SEN. RAND PAUL

The Kentucky junior senator and McConnell have struck up an unlikely alliance after getting off to a rough start when McConnell endorsed Paul’s opponent in his first bid for Senate. McConnell even used Paul family ally and high-ranking staffer Jesse Benton as a campaign manager for a bit during his 2014 reelection. Since then, McConnell said he would endorse a 2016 Paul presidential bid, and the two have an unspoken alliance that they won’t surprise each other if they disagree on Capitol Hill.

SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER

Alexander has been a trusted McConnell ally for years, especially when the Tennessee Republican served as Senate Republican Conference chairman. The two have known each other for more than 40 years, and Alexander has often filled the role of McConnell’s pragmatic right hand.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN

The Texas Republican and McConnell have grown close since Cornyn began serving as the minority leader’s chief deputy. With Republicans in the majority, Cornyn will be in charge of making sure the Senate Republican Conference stays unified behind McConnell.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/mitch-mcconnell-112945#ixzz435vUx14K

Revolving Door whose current or former place of employment matches your criteria:

2/15

mcconnell staff network

When Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy cast the deciding vote to gut a century of campaign finance law, he assured the public that the unlimited corporate spending he was ushering in would “not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.” Because those authorized to give and spend unlimited amounts were legally required to remain independent of the politicians themselves, Kennedy reasoned, there was no cause for concern.

Just five years later, in a development that may be surprising only to Justice Kennedy, the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision is reshaping how, how much and to whom money flows in Washington.

How the flood of money released by Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission has changed elections has been the subject of much discussion, but the decision’s role in allowing that same money to soak the legislative process has largely gone unreported. According to an extensive review of public documents held by the FEC, the U.S. Senate and the Internal Revenue Service, as well as interviews with lobbyists and policymakers, Kennedy's allegedly independent spending has become increasingly intertwined with lobbying and legislation -- the precise appearance of corruption campaign finance laws were meant to curb.

Politically active nonprofits, known as "dark money" groups for their ability to shield the identity of donors, and super PACs, which take unlimited sums of money but must disclose donors, have become dominated by lobbyists and other political operatives with close ties to leaders in Congress. Meanwhile, businesses with issues before Congress are pumping increasingly more money into the lobbyist-connected organizations.

The Supreme Court initially established a narrow definition of corruption in the 1970s, but Citizens United used it to blow open the gates that had been holding back corporate money. The 2010 decision came as the U.S. legislative system had evolved into a near parliamentary system of party-line voting and expansive party networks extending seamlessly from the Capitol to party headquarters to lobbying firms to outside political groups. Most top congressional legislators now have "leadership teams" -- informal but internally recognized groups of aides-turned-lobbyists who help raise funds.

To the lobbyists working in the system he helped create, Kennedy’s vision of political spending is unrecognizable. "I think Justice Kennedy's view on this was naive at best," one lobbyist told The Huffington Post, reflecting a rare bipartisan consensus. "People are going to do what's allowed under the law."

The Supreme Court majority’s casual dismissal of the possibility that the Citizens United ruling could lead to corruption or the appearance of corruption was necessary from a judicial perspective. Citizens United and a subsequent lower court ruling essentially hold that the First Amendment prevents the government from restricting political spending independent of the candidates and parties. Yet the courts had long recognized Congress’ authority to regulate the financing of campaigns and the lobbying process in order to maintain the citizens’ trust in a democratic government. Where the choice had been between the sanctity of elections on the one hand and an unfettered interpretation of the First Amendment on the other, the courts chose to protect elections -- because without a trusted government, there is no First Amendment to speak of.

Kennedy and the other four justices, therefore, had to insist that independent political spending could not lead to corruption or the appearance of corruption -- no threat of corruption meant no congressional authority to regulate that spending.

It is difficult, however, to look closely at the way laws are being made today without acknowledging at least an appearance of corruption. Congressional aides to whom HuffPost spoke all said that their own members of Congress were certainly not influenced in an untoward way by the corporate funds pumped into efforts to re-elect them, but that it was easy to see why the public might assume that to be the case. Five years later, the judicial logic of Citizens United has unraveled.

Political advisers closely associated with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) serve as both operatives on their behalf and lobbyists for corporate clients with business before Congress. The clients are encouraged to give generously to super PACs associated with the respective lawmakers, according to lobbyists familiar with the widespread strategy.

Trevor Potter, one of the top election lawyers in the country whose clients include Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and comedian Stephen Colbert, warns that this arrangement creates exactly the appearance of corruption that courts have used to justify campaign finance limits.

“It does make a significant difference to have lobbyists involved because then you have the very lobbyists who seek official action from the members being the conduits to the money,” Potter said. “It makes them valuable to their clients because they have a good relationship with the member, and they have a tight relationship with the member because they have access to the money from their clients.”

They're making use of the opportunity. A connected super PAC and nonprofit manned by lobbyists tied to Boehner have collectively received millions from interests in the insurance, drug, energy and other industries. Big-money groups associated with McConnell have been funded by coal companies, insurers and hospitals. Mining and gambling businesses have given directly to the super PAC associated with Reid, which is staffed by two Reid confidantes, one of whom advises the lobby shop that represents those companies while she also prepares to run the senator's 2016 re-election bid. All these companies have hired lobbyists who are connected to those same lawmakers as well as to the big-money groups and who are also working on issues over which Congress has much sway. The groups they fund have spent big to put and keep Boehner, McConnell and Reid in the driver’s seat.

Tony Podesta, a Democratic super lobbyist with the Podesta Group, told HuffPost that he has encouraged his corporate clients to give to super PACs and dark money nonprofits. “It’s unfortunate that we have the decision Citizens United, but as long as that’s the law of the land, then Democrats and Republicans are both active in these kinds of endeavors,” he said.

Speaker John Boehner has close ties to the American Action Network, a dark money nonprofit, and the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC. These groups raise funds from clients of lobbyists looking to increase their own influence.

In the House of Representatives, Speaker Boehner maintains a tight network of former aides who have decamped to K Street. Through these aides, he is tied to a dark money nonprofit and related super PAC that have spent millions to help him become speaker and to maintain and expand his GOP majority. The House leadership's agenda regularly aligns with that of the clients of the lobbyists who give to these groups.

The two outside groups in the middle of Boehner’s web are the American Action Network, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that does not have to disclose its donors, and the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC operating under AAN’s umbrella.

The board of directors of AAN and Congressional Leadership Fund is lined with lobbyists and influencers including Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck strategic adviser Barry Jackson, a former chief of staff to Boehner who left his office in 2012. Brownstein’s profile of Jackson, who is not registered to lobby, focuses heavily on his congressional and executive branch connections and experience without mention of any particular policy expertise.

Also, Brownstein Hyatt employed former Boehner aide Marc Lampkin as managing director of its Washington lobbying office. His firm bio declares him to be a proud member of “Team Boehner," and he is widely seen as one of the speaker's closest advisers. He is also a lobbyist for a number of interests that contribute to super PACs and nonprofits that help Republicans in elections.

The Apollo Education Group, which owns and operates the for-profit University of Phoenix, has donated $50,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund since 2012 while employing Lampkin to lobby on behalf of such schools. Boehner and his House Republicans have long been staunch supporters of for-profit universities. In recent years, they have fought back against federal regulations to rein in that industry, which relies hugely on its students receiving federal grants and taxpayer-backed loans while it fails to graduate those same students.

The CEO of pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories, another Lampkin client, gave $50,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund in 2012. Boehner recently inaugurated a new Abbott factory in his congressional district while opposing changes to tax laws that allowed Abbott to purchase an overseas competitor in 2014 and turn itself into a multinational corporation to avoid U.S. tax payments (the tactic, known as an inversion, has come under increasing scrutiny).

Lampkin and another former Boehner aide, Sam Geduldig, have both registered to lobby for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, a trade group for large insurance companies that has given $185,000 to outside groups supporting Republicans since 2012. PCI’s contributions include $25,000 each to the Congressional Leadership Fund and AAN.

The insurers group also pumped funds into the dark money network run by Steven Law, a member of McConnell’s inner circle and a former general counsel at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. PCI gave $75,000 to Crossroads GPS and $25,000 to the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition. Both groups are run by Law and spent millions to re-elect McConnell in 2014. PCI also put money into super PACs supporting two Republicans first elected to the Senate this past November: Joni Ernst of Iowa and David Perdue of Georgia. Their seats were among the handful McConnell needed his party to win in order for him to take the Senate’s top spot.

"PCI participates in the political process like many others and supports pro business and pro property & casualty organizations,” Marguerite Tortorello, PCI's senior vice president for public affairs, said in a statement.

Shortly after the 2014 election, the two top priorities of the insurers group and the broaderinsurance industrywere rolled into one: A provision to roll back capital standards placed on insurance companies by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law was attached to the reauthorization of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. Although that bill stalled last year, the new Congress in January passed a terrorism insurance reauthorization with the capital standards rollback attached -- with bipartisan support. An amendment from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to strip the rollback measure failed.

The inability to pass legislation was a hallmark of the last Congress. But one area where lawmakers forced swift action wound up being profitable for the super PACs and nonprofits that support them.

In April 2013, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that it would be furloughing air traffic controllers throughout the year due to the automatic budget cuts brought about by sequestration. This would have led to flight delays, lost profits for the airline industry and lost wages for controllers and pilots. Within a week of the announcement, Congress passed legislation to ease the sequester cuts at the FAA.

...

DELTA?

The inability to pass legislation was a hallmark of the last Congress. But one area where lawmakers forced swift action wound up being profitable for the super PACs and nonprofits that support them.

In April 2013, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that it would be furloughing air traffic controllers throughout the year due to the automatic budget cuts brought about by sequestration. This would have led to flight delays, lost profits for the airline industry and lost wages for controllers and pilots. Within a week of the announcement, Congress passed legislation to ease the sequester cuts at the FAA.

Lobbying players who pushed Congress to act on the FAA also sent contributions to various outside groups connected to congressional GOP leaders. Airlines for America, the industry’s main trade group, gave $150,000 to theCongressional Leadership Fund, $35,000 to the pro-McConnell super PAC Kentuckians for Strong Leadership and $40,000 to Defending Main Street SuperPAC, a group backing moderate Republicans in fights with tea party candidates.

“You can’t have good policy without good candidates and legislation, which is why it’s important to the 2 million people we fly every day and the nearly 600,000 people we employ that we be involved,” Airlines for America spokesman Vaughn Jennings said in a statement.

The lobby group is headed by Nick Calio, a veteran of both Bush administrations, who expressed an interest in increasing the airline industry’s political giving upon taking the helm in 2010.

“You’ve got to be part of the political process, and contributions and political support are part of the political process,” Calio told Politico in 2010. “When you have people who consistently support you on policy issues, they expect you to be part of their political life support system. It’s just that simple.”

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, a labor union, also gave $50,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund and $150,000 to Defending Main Street after Congress ended the sequester-related furloughs. Those contributions were out of the ordinary for the union, which had been a major supporter of Democrats alone. It has given $3.9 million to super PACs backing Democrats.

Calio is deeply enmeshed in the political party machinery, and his group rewards congressional action by making huge contributions to outside groups that directly support lawmakers. What he does not have is a direct relationship with an outside spending group. Other major lobbyists, including heads of trade associations, do.

TakeMike Duncan, who served as chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2007 to 2009. Following the Citizens United decision, he joined with Karl Rove and other GOP operatives to form the super PAC American Crossroads and the nonprofit Crossroads GPS. He still sits on the board of American Crossroads.

But Duncan is not just a party operative. In 2012, he became head of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a major Washington lobbying arm of the coal and railroad industry. The coalition was in the midst of a massive advertising and pressure campaign in Washington as the Obama administration pushed for new regulations on coal-fired power plants to reduce their pollution.

To further increase its GOP connection, the coal coalition signed up Boehner’s former aide Lampkin to lobby in 2013.

Coal industry companies and executives on the board of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricityhave contributed more than $10 million to Republican outside groups. Joe Craft and his company Alliance Resource Partners have provided most of this money with contributions totaling nearly $9.4 million. Alpha Natural Resources, Consol Energy and Murray Energy have also chipped in. Additionally, Matthew Rose, the CEO of Burlington North Santa Fe and a member of the coal coalition’s board, gave $25,000 to the super PAC supporting McConnell in 2014. (This is all aside from the hundreds of millions in political spending by the Koch brothers, fossil fuel magnates.)

Republicans have, in turn, become increasingly vocal in their support for the coal industry and their opposition to any rule, regulation or idea -- including belief in climate change driven by human action -- that could harm the industry.

A spokeswoman for the coal coalition said that Duncan separates his work at American Crossroads from that at the lobbying group and does not solicit the latter’s members to give to the former.

The pro-Boehner AAN, the nonprofit parent of the Congressional Leadership Fund, is a hotbed of lobbyist activity. The board currently boasts four registered lobbyists -- former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), former Reps. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.) and Vin Weber (R-Minn.), and former RNC official Maria Cino -- and two other employees of lobbying firms -- former Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno and former Boehner aide Barry Jackson.

Past AAN board members include major GOP fundraiser and previously registered lobbyist C. Boyden Gray and former Rep. Jim Nussle (R-Iowa), who is the head of the Credit Union National Association.

“We’re proud to have a distinguished board from business executives to policy leaders to former elected officials -- they’ve been successful in all walks of life and they’re critical to our success,” Dan Conston, spokesman for both AAN and the Congressional Leadership Fund, said in an email. “Do they fundraise for us? Of course. Do they uphold their fiduciary responsibility to us as board members? Of course.”

Crossroads GPS, like its sister super PAC, also maintains connections to K Street through its board. Crossroads board member Sally Vastola, a former staffer for Rep. Reynolds, decamped with her old boss to the law and lobbying firm of Nixon Peabody, where she lobbies for pharmaceutical companies and the student loan giant Sallie Mae.

"Both American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS have separate and independent boards whose members do not fundraise for either organization and have a range of work outside their board positions," said Paul Lindsay, communications director for the Crossroads duo.

Lobbyists straddling the party operative-influence peddling line have themselves given more than $1 million to super PACs and nonprofits since the Citizens United decision.

The top lobbyist donor to these groups is Boyden Gray, a top-shelf GOP fundraiser and former AAN board member,whose contributions total $390,000. Gray made contributions to such super PACs as American Crossroads, Freedom PAC and Kentuckians for Strong Leadership. According to lobbyist contribution disclosures, he also gave to dark money groups: $50,000 to Crossroads GPS and $15,000 to Wisconsin Club for Growth as it worked incredibly closely with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) to help him survive a recall election.

"The vast majority of our donors give on the basis of broad philosophical conviction," said Crossroads' Lindsay. "The fact that some have various policy interests should come as no surprise, but those interests have no effect on our activities."

The full record of lobbyists and their clients funding outside groups connected to party leadership is almost certainly obscured by the fact that many of these groups are not required to disclose their donors. Dark money nonprofits like AAN, Crossroads GPS and the Democratic Party group Patriot Majority USA spend huge sums on elections and on attack ads masquerading as issue advocacy. Few of their donors have materialized, but what little has leaked indicates that contributions from clients of party-linked lobbyists and trade associations actively lobbying Congress are common.

AAN has sucked in millions from Washington-based corporate trade groups and corporations with major interests in Congress. Those donations include $6 million from Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and $3.3 million from pharmaceutical giant Aetna. The Alliance for Quality Home Nursing Care chipped in $250,000. Additional funds came from America’s Natural Gas Alliance, the Motion Picture Association of America and the top lobbyist for Health Care Service Corporation.

The Alliance for Quality Home Nursing Care and its affiliated group, the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare, have given $2.9 million to outside groups as part of their lobbying campaign to restore Medicare reimbursements for home and hospice care that were cut by the Affordable Care Act. The two groups have hired top lobbyists to help direct their efforts, including Democrat Tony Podesta and Republican Haley Barbour.

Barbour, a former two-term governor of Mississippi and a onetime RNC chairman, is the personification of this cross-pollinating age. He is a powerhouse lobbyist running the BGR Group who is also an adviser to political campaigns and a past fundraiser for American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS. One client, the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare, gave $500,000 to Crossroads GPS in 2012.

In 2014, Barbour joined hands with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to beat back a tea party primary challenge to Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.). Cochran had attracted the ire of tea party activists for his support of immigration reform and his long history of earmarking funds to build projects in his impoverished state. To save the six-term senator’s seat,Barbour helped launch the super PAC Mississippi Conservatives with the backing of the chamber and Republican Senate leadership. He chipped in $35,000 of his own money, and Crest Investment Company, one of his clients, sent an additional $50,000. The chamber gave $100,000 to the super PAC and directly spent another $1.2 million to help re-elect Cochran.

Cochran’s eventual victory in a run-off election was a triumphant moment for Barbour, the chamber and Republican leadership. They had beaten back a potential stumbling block to capturing the Senate majority.

The chamber didn’t just support an establishment Republican in Mississippi last year. The larger anti-tea party campaign was chiefly its work. The chamber ran hard against tea party candidates in Kentucky and North Carolina while scaring off potential challengers in West Virginia before they could materialize. In Iowa and Colorado, it found common ground on candidates with national tea party groups.

Of course, beyond being a funder of election ads, the Chamber of Commerce is also the nation’s largest business lobby, generously funded by corporations across America. It employs dozens of Washington lobbyists, including top former staffers for McConnell. And it does not shy away from the implication that its campaign spending is part of its lobbying operation.

"Our deal is to have a political program so that there is a hammer, and there is a consequence, and there is leverage and it's aggressive," Rob Engstrom, the chamber’s national political director, told CNN in 2014.

Once Republicans won the majority in the Senate, they immediately talked up the chamber’s priorities, from the Keystone XL pipeline to tax reform and pro-corporate trade policies. Newly elected Republican senators backed by the chamber announced their support for immigration reform, which the chamber strongly favors, and increased transportation and infrastructure spending, a major chamber wish opposed by the GOP’s tea party wing.

As noted, a former general counsel for the Chamber of Commerce and McConnell insider, Law, now runs American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS. For his own re-election, the new Senate majority leader is tightly bound to the Crossroads duo and two state groups, Kentuckians for Strong Leadership and Kentucky Opportunity Coalition. Former McConnell aide Scott Jennings operates as the public face of the latter two organizations, which are also headed by Law.

Soon after the 2014 victory, McConnell and Law announced the creation of yet another super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, which will raise funds to maintain the new GOP majority. The formation of the group echoes the big-money strategy used by now-Minority Leader Reid to keep Senate Democrats in power for the previous four years....

:{==

staffer revolv door:

cf school of DeLay

http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/search_result.php?mem=McConnell%2C+Mitch

:{==

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mitch_McConnell

The Koch brothers -- David and Charles -- are the right-wing billionaire co-owners of Koch Industries. As two of the richest people in the world, they are key funders of the right-wing infrastructure, including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the State Policy Network (SPN). In SourceWatch, key articles on the Kochs include: Koch Brothers, Koch Industries, Americans for Prosperity, American Encore, and Freedom Partners.

- 2.5 Environmental record
  - 2.5.1 Hold on Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act
  - 2.5.2 Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007

3 Bio
- 3.1 Background
- 3.2 Senate career

4 Money in politics
- 4.1 Oil and coal money in politics

5 Committees and affiliations
- 5.1 Committees
  - 5.1.1 Committee assignments in the 109th Congress (2005-2006)

9 References

Ties to the Koch Brothers

McConnell has attended at least one Koch network donor summit, the June 2014 retreat in California, where he spoke alongside Koch operative [Gentry] and Koch Industries general counsel Mark Holden on a panel titled "Free Speech: Defending First Amendment Rights."^[2] A recording of his remarks was obtained by The Nation and The Undercurrent. He began, "I want to start by thanking you, Charles and David for the important work you’re doing. I don’t know where we’d be without you," referring to Charles and David Koch.

The recording also included McConnell's statements on a key Koch issue: fighting campaign finance limits and disclosure rules. Speaking to a room of wealthy donors, McConnell said, "All Citizens United did was to level the playing field for corporate speech…. We now have, I think, the most free and open system we've had in modern times. The Supreme Court allowed all of you to participate in the process in a variety of different ways. You can give to the candidate of your choice. You can give to Americans for Prosperity, or something else, a variety of different ways to push back against the party of government."^[3]

Record and Controversies

Talking Strategy at Koch Donor Retreat

In a recording made at the Koch network donor retreat in June 2014, McConnell described plans to "go after" Democrats by attaching riders to spending bills. "No money can be spent to do this or to do that. We’re going to go after them on healthcare, on financial services, on the Environmental Protection Agency, across the board [inaudible]. All across the federal government, we’re going to go after it."^[3] A full transcript of McConnell's remarks is available here.

"Worst Day of My Political Life" Not 9/11 or 2008 Crisis, but Campaign Finance Reform?

In comments made to wealthy political donors at the Koch network retreat in June 2014, McConnell stated that "The worst day of my political life was when President George W. Bush signed McCain-Feingold into law in the early part of his first administration."^[3]

As The Nation noted, "To put that in perspective, Mitch McConnell’s thirty-five-year career in the Senate saw the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed thousands of Americans, the 2008 housing meltdown that threatened the entire economy and Barack Obama’s election, to cite a conservative bête noire."^[3]

^...^

Money in politics

This section contains links to – and feeds from – money in politics databases. cid=N00003389&cycle=2006

Links to more campaign contribution information for Mitch McConnell from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.	Links to more campaign contribution information for Mitch McConnell from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.	Links to more campaign contribution information for Mitch McConnell from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.
Fundraising profile:	2006 election cycle	Career totals
Top contributors by organization/corporation:	2006 election cycle	Career totals
Top contributors by industry:	2006 election cycle	Career totals

Links to more campaign contribution information for Mitch McConnell

from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.

Links to more campaign contribution information for Mitch McConnell

from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.

Links to more campaign contribution information for Mitch McConnell

from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.

Fundraising profile:

2006 election cycle

Career totals

Top contributors by organization/corporation:

2006 election cycle

Career totals

Top contributors by industry:

2006 election cycle

Career totals

Revolving door profile for Mitch McConnell from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org website.
2006 privately funded travel profile for Mitch McConnell from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org website.
Personal finance profile for Mitch McConnell from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org website.

Oil and coal money in politics

Mitch McConnell received $305,600 in oil contributions during the 110th congress. $147,000 of those dollars were from industry PACs. In total, McConnell accepted $474,658 from oil companies from 2000 to 2008, making him a leading recipient of oil money.^[2] In addition to oil, McConnell has received $187,350 in coal contributions during the 110th congress. $78,250 of those dollars were from industry PACs. See above for oil and energy voting record.^[citation ^needed]

According to Oil Change International, Mitch McConnell received a total of $1.27 million in donations from fossil fuel companies from 1999 to 2011, mainly Peabody Energy.^[3]

Committees and affiliations

Jefferson Awards Board Member, American Institute for Public Service

Committees

Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
- Subcommittee on Nutrition and Food Assistance, Sustainable and Organic Agriculture, and General Legislation
- Subcommittee on Domestic & Foreign Marketing, Inspection, & Plant & Animal Health
- Subcommittee on Rural Revitalization, Conservation, Forestry and Credit

Senate Committee on Rules and Administration
Senate Committee on Appropriations
- Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Related Agencies
- Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science
- Subcommittee on Defense
- Subcommittee on Energy and Water
- Subcommittee on Military Contruction and Veterans Affairs
- Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs

Committee assignments in the 109th Congress (2005-2006)

Senate Committee on Appropriations
- Senate Subcommittee on Foreign Operations Appropriations (Chairman)

Chair, National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 1998 and 2000 election cycles.

:{:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:

wiki

Addison Mitchell "Mitch" McConnell, Jr. (born February 20, 1942) is the senior United States Senator from Kentucky. A member of the Republican Party, he has been the Majority Leader of the Senate since January 3, 2015. He is the 15th Senate Republican Leader and the second Kentuckian to lead his party in the Senate.^[1] He is also the longest-serving U.S. Senator in Kentucky history.^[2]

Early life, education, and military service

Mitch McConnell was born on February 20, 1942 in a hospital in Sheffield, Alabama, which is now called the Helen Keller Hospital, and raised as a young child in nearby Athens.^[3] McConnell is the son of Addison Mitchell McConnell, and his wife, Julia (née Shockley). As a youth, he overcame polio.^[4] His family moved to Georgia when he was eight.^[5]

When he was a teenager, his family arrived in Louisville where he attended duPont Manual High School. He graduated with honors from the University of Louisville with a B.A. in history in 1964. McConnell was president of the Student Council of the College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. He has maintained strong ties to his alma mater and "remains a rabid fan of its sports teams."^[6] Three years later, McConnell graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was president of the Student Bar Association. McConnell is of Scottish and Irish descent.^[7]

McConnell enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve at Louisville, Kentucky during his last year of law school. He received an Honorable Discharge for medical reasons (optic neuritis) after five weeks at Fort Knox.^[8][9]

Early career

McConnell began interning for Senator John Sherman Cooper (R-Ky.) in 1964, and his time with Cooper inspired him to run for the Senate eventually himself.^[10] Later, McConnell was an assistant to Senator Marlow Cook (R-Ky.) and was a Deputy Assistant Attorney General under President Gerald R. Ford, where he worked alongside future Justice Antonin Scalia.^[11] In 1977, McConnell was elected the Jefferson County Judge/Executive, the former top political office in Jefferson County, Kentucky. He was re-elected in 1981.^[10]

U.S. Senate

Elections

1984

Main article: United States Senate election in Kentucky, 1984

In 1984, McConnell ran for the U.S. Senate against two-term Democratic incumbent Walter Dee Huddleston. The election race wasn't decided until the last returns came in, and McConnell won by a thin margin—only 5,200 votes out of more than 1.8 million votes cast, just over 0.4%.^[12] McConnell was the only Republican Senate challenger to win that year, despite Ronald Reagan's landslide victory in the presidential election. Part of McConnell's success came from a series of television campaign spots called "Where's Dee", which featured a group of bloodhounds trying to find Huddleston,^[13][14] implying that Huddleston's attendance record in the Senate was less than stellar. His campaign bumper stickers and television ads asked voters to "Switch to Mitch".^[15]

1990

Main article: United States Senate election in Kentucky, 1990

In 1990, McConnell faced a tough re-election contest against former Louisville Mayor Harvey I. Sloane, winning by 4.4%.

1996

Main article: United States Senate election in Kentucky, 1996

In 1996, he defeated Steve Beshear by 12.6%, even as Bill Clinton narrowly carried the state. In keeping with a tradition of humorous and effective television ads in his campaigns, McConnell's campaign ran television ads that warned voters to not "Get BeSheared" and included images of sheep being sheared.^[15]

2002

Main article: United States Senate election in Kentucky, 2002

In 2002, he was re-elected against Lois Combs Weinberg by 29.4%, the largest majority by a Republican candidate in Kentucky history.

2008

Main article: United States Senate election in Kentucky, 2008

In 2008, after a close campaign, he defeated Bruce Lunsford by 6%.^[16]

2014

Main article: United States Senate election in Kentucky, 2014

In 2014, McConnell faced Louisville businessman Matt Bevin in the Republican primary.^[17] The 60.2% won by McConnell was the lowest voter support for a Kentucky U.S. Senator in a primary by either party since 1938.^[18] He easily defeated Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in the general election, 56.2%–40.7%, 15.5 percentage points – one of his largest margins of victory, second only to his 2002 margin.

Leadership

During the 1998 and 2000 election cycles, McConnell was chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Republicans maintained control of the Senate in both. He was first elected as Majority Whip in the 108th Congress and unanimously re-elected on November 17, 2004. Senator Bill Frist, the Majority Leader, did not seek re-election in the 2006 elections. In November 2006, after Republicans lost control of the Senate, they elected McConnell to replace Frist as Minority Leader. After Republicans took control of the Senate following the 2014 Senate elections, McConnell became the Senate Majority Leader.

Tenure

Reputation

According to The New York Times, in his early years as a politician in Kentucky, McConnell was "something of a centrist". In later years, McConnell followed his party and his state in becoming more conservative, changing his position on a number of issues, including abandoning collective-bargaining rights and minimum-wage increases that he previously supported, and abandoning pork barrel projects he once delivered to the state of Kentucky.^[10] According to a profile in Politico, "While most politicians desperately want to be liked, McConnell has relished—and cultivated—his reputation as a villain." The Politico profile also noted "For most of Obama's presidency, McConnell has been the face of Republican obstructionism."^[19] According to Salon, "Despite McConnell's reputation as the man who said his No. 1 goal was to stop President Obama from winning a second term, it's been McConnell at the table when the big deals—be they over threatened government shutdowns, debt defaults or fiscal cliffs—have been finalized."^[20]

Foreign policy

After winning election to the U.S. Senate in 1984, McConnell backed anti-apartheid legislation with Chris Dodd.^[21] McConnell went on to engineer new IMF funding to "faithfully protect aid to Egypt and Israel," and "promote free elections and better treatment of Muslim refugees" in Myanmar, Cambodia and Macedonia. According to March 2014 article in Politico, "McConnell was a 'go-to guy' for presidents of both parties seeking foreign aid", but he has lost some of his idealism and evolved to be more wary of foreign assistance.^[22]

In August 2007, McConnell introduced the Protect America Act of 2007, which allowed the National Security Agency to monitor telephone and electronic communications of suspected terrorists outside the United States without obtaining a warrant.^[23] McConnell was the only party leader in Congress to oppose the resolution that would authorize military strikes against Syria in September 2013, citing a lack of national security risk.^[24]

On March 27, 2014, McConnell introduced the United States International Programming to Ukraine and Neighboring Regions bill, which would provide additional funding and instructions to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in response to the 2014 Crimea crisis.^[25][26]

Campaign finance

McConnell argues that campaign finance regulations reduce participation in political campaigns and protect incumbents from competition.^[27] He spearheaded the movement against the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (known since 1995 as the "McCain–Feingold bill" and from 1989–1994 as the "Boren–Mitchell bill"), calling it "neither fair, nor balanced, nor constitutional."^[28] His opposition to the bill culminated in the 2003 Supreme Court case McConnell v. Federal Election Commission and the 2009 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. McConnell has been an advocate for free speech at least as far back as the early 1970s when he was teaching night courses at the University of Louisville. "No issue has shaped his career more than the intersection of campaign financing and free speech," political reporter Robert Costa wrote in 2012.^[29] In a recording of a 2014 fundraiser McConnell expressed his disapproval of the McCain-Feingold law, saying, "The worst day of my political life was when President George W. Bush signed McCain-Feingold into law in the early part of his first Administration."^[30]

On January 2, 2013, the Public Campaign Action Fund, a liberal nonprofit group that backs stronger campaign finance regulation, released a report highlighting eight instances from McConnell's political career in which a vote or a blocked vote (filibuster), coincided with an influx of campaign contributions to McConnell's campaign.^[31][32] Progress Kentucky, a SuperPAC focused on defeating McConnell in 2014, hosted a press conference in front of the Senator's Louisville office to highlight the report's findings.^[33][34]

Flag Desecration Amendment

McConnell opposed the Flag Desecration Amendment in 2000. According to McConnell: "We must curb this reflexive practice of attempting to cure each and every political and social ill of our nation by tampering with the Constitution. The Constitution of this country was not a rough draft. It was not a rough draft and we should not treat it as such." McConnell offered an amendment to the measure that would have made flag desecration a statutory crime, illegal without amending the Constitution.^[35]

Health policy

In August 2001, McConnell introduced the Common Sense Medical Malpractice Reform Act of 2001. The bill would require that a health care liability action must be initiated within two years, non-economic damages may not exceed $250,000, and punitive damages may only be awarded in specified situations.^[36]

McConnell voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly called ObamaCare or the Affordable Care Act) in December 2009,^[37] and he voted against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.^[38] In 2014, McConnell repeated his call for the full repeal of Obamacare and said that Kentucky should be allowed to keep the state's health insurance exchange website, Kynect, or set up a similar system.^[39]

McConnell received the Kentucky Life Science Champion Awards for his work in promoting innovation in the life science sector.^[40]

Economy

In July 2003, McConnell sponsored the Small Business Liability Reform Act of 2003. The bill would protect small businesses from litigation excesses and limit the liability of non-manufacturer product sellers.^{[41][better source needed]}

McConnell was the sponsor of the Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008. The bill, which did not pass, would have allowed states to engage in increased offshore and domestic oil exploration in an effort to curb rising gas prices.^[42]

In June 2008, McConnell introduced the Alternative Minimum Tax and Extenders Tax Relief Act of 2008. The bill was intended to limit the impact of the Alternative Minimum Tax.^{[43][better source needed]}

In an interview with National Journal magazine published October 23, 2010, McConnell explained that "the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." Asked whether this meant "endless, or at least frequent, confrontation with the president," McConnell clarified that "if [Obama is] willing to meet us halfway on some of the biggest issues, it's not inappropriate for us to do business with him."^[44]

In September 2010, McConnell sponsored the Tax Hike Prevention Act of 2010. The bill would have permanently extended the tax relief provisions of 2001 and 2003 and provided permanent Alternative Minimum Tax and estate tax relief.^{[45][better source needed]}

In 2010, McConnell requested earmarks for the defense contractor BAE Systemswhile the company was under investigation by the Department of Justice for alleged bribery of foreign officials.^{[46][unreliable} ^source?]

In June 2011, McConnell introduced a Constitutional Balanced Budget Amendment. The amendment would require two-thirds votes in Congress to increase taxes or for federal spending to exceed the current year's tax receipts or 18% of the prior year's GDP. The amendment specifies situations when these requirements would be waived.^[47][48]

In December 2012, McConnell called for a vote on giving the president unilateral authority to raise the federal debt ceiling. When Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) called for an up or down vote, McConnell objected to the vote and ended up filibustering it himself.^[49] In 2014, McConnell voted to help break Ted Cruz's filibuster attempt against a debt limit increase and then against the bill itself.^[50]

After two intersessions to get federal grants for Alltech, whose president T. Pearse Lyons made subsequent campaign contributions to McConnell, to build a plant in Kentucky for producing ethanol from algae, corncobs, and switchgrass, McConnell criticized President Obama in 2012 for twice mentioning biofuel production from algae in a speech touting his "all-of-the-above" energy policy.^[51][52]

In April 2014, the United States Senate debated the Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 2199; 113th Congress). It was a bill that "punishes employers for retaliating against workers who share wage information, puts the justification burden on employers as to why someone is paid less and allows workers to sue for punitive damages of wage discrimination."^[53] McConnell said that he opposed the legislation because it would "line the pockets of trial lawyers" not help women.^[53]

In July 2014, McConnell expressed opposition to a U.S. Senate bill that would limit the practice of corporate inversion by U.S. corporations seeking to limit U.S. tax liability.^[54]

McConnell expressed skepticism that climate change is a problem, telling the Cincinnati Enquirer editorial board in 2014, "I'm not a scientist, I am interested in protecting Kentucky's economy, I'm interested in having low cost electricity." ^[55][56][57]

Gun rights

On the weekend of January 19–21, 2013, the McConnell for Senate campaign emailed and robo-called gun-rights supporters telling them that "President Obama and his team are doing everything in their power to restrict your constitutional right to keep and bear arms." McConnell also said, "I'm doing everything in my power to protect your 2nd Amendment rights."^[58] On April 17, 2013, McConnell voted against expanding background checks for gun purchases.^[59]

Iraq War

In October 2002, McConnell voted for the Iraq Resolution, which authorized military action against Iraq.^[60] McConnell supported the Iraq War troop surge of 2007.^[61] In 2010, McConnell "accused the White House of being more concerned about a messaging strategy than prosecuting a war against terrorism."^[62]

In 2006, McConnell publicly criticized Senate Democrats for urging that troops be brought back from Iraq.^[63] According to Bush's Decision Points memoir, however, McConnell was privately urging the then President to "bring some troops home from Iraq" to lessen the political risks. McConnell's hometown paper, the Louisville Courier-Journal, in an editorial titled "McConnell's True Colors", criticized McConnell for his actions and asked him to "explain why the fortunes of the Republican Party are of greater importance than the safety of the United States."^[64]

Regarding the failure of the Iraqi government to make reforms, McConnell said the following on Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer: "The Iraqi government is a huge disappointment. Republicans overwhelmingly feel disappointed about the Iraqi government. I read just this week that a significant number of the Iraqi parliament want to vote to ask us to leave. I want to assure you, Wolf, if they vote to ask us to leave, we'll be glad to comply with their request."^[65]

On April 21, 2009, McConnell delivered a speech to the Senate criticizing President Obama's plans to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, and questioned the additional 81 million dollar White House request for funds to transfer prisoners to the United States.^[66][67]

Fundraising

From 2003 to 2008, the list of McConnell's top 20 donors included five financial/investment firms: UBS, FMR Corporation (Fidelity Investments), Citigroup, Bank of New York and Merrill Lynch.^{[68][better source needed]}

In April 2010, while Congress was considering financial reform legislation, a reporter asked McConnell if he was "doing the bidding of the large banks." McConnell has received more money in donations from the "Finance, Insurance and Real Estate" sector than any other sector according to the Center for Responsive Politics.^[68][69] McConnell responded "I'd say that that's inaccurate. You could talk to the community bankers in Kentucky." The Democratic Party's plan for financial reform is actually a way to institute "endless taxpayer funded bailouts for big Wall Street banks", said McConnell. He expressed concern that the proposed $50 billion, bank-funded fund that would be used to liquidate financial firms that could collapse "would of course immediately signal to everyone that the government is ready to bail out large banks".^[68][69] In McConnell's home state of Kentucky, the Lexington Herald-Leader ran an editorial saying: "We have read that the Republicans have a plan for financial reform, but McConnell isn't talking up any solutions, just trashing the other side's ideas with no respect for the truth."^[70] According to one tally, McConnell's largest donor from the period from Jan. 1, 2009 to Sept. 30, 2015 was Bob McNair, contributing $1,502,500.^[71]

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/mitch-mcconnell-campaign-manager-jesse-benton-resigns-110465

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager, Jesse Benton, announced his resignation late Friday, citing potential distractions over renewed attention to a scandal from the Iowa 2012 caucuses.

A longtime associate of Ron Paul and his son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Benton was the surprise choice to run the McConnell campaign in the Bluegrass State in September 2012 — even before the current election cycle began. Benton’s departure comes days after a former Iowa GOP state lawmaker pleaded guilty to charges of accepting money to change his endorsement in 2012 from Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul. Benton was the chairman of Paul’s 2012 campaign and has been mentioned in documents surrounding the case. He has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case.

“The press accounts and rumors are particularly hurtful because they are false,” Benton said in a statement. “However, what is most troubling to me is that they risk unfairly undermining and becoming a distraction to this reelection campaign.”

A source familiar with the situation said the Paul case has been all over the local press, and McConnell officials were concerned it could become a serious distraction during the final months of the campaign.

( WATCH: McConnell, Grimes and Kentucky's leadership issue)

Benton’s appointment in 2012 was seen as a marriage of convenience between McConnell — seeking to shore up his right flank — and the younger Paul, who was looking to build up his establishment cred ahead of a possible presidential bid. The tension was most clearly on display when a recording went public last year of Benton saying he was “holding my nose” to work for the Senate minority leader’s campaign.

McConnell is locked in a tight reelection battle against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes at the same time he vies to become majority leader if Republicans can take back the Senate. Assessing the potential impact of Benton’s exit on the race, Kentucky political scientist Stephen Voss told the Lexington Herald-Leader that the aide’s absence might prove less consequential than if this had happened before the primary. (McConnell ended up defeating challenger Matt Bevin easily in May.)

“Benton already served his role of helping McConnell appeal to the conservative base during the party primary, and a lot of campaign responsibilities had already passed from his shoulders,” Voss told the newspaper, which first reported the resignation.

( Flashback to 2013: Blog: McConnell campaign chief 'holding my nose')

But, he added, the publicity certainly isn’t helpful to the senator.

In the Iowa case, then-state Sen. Kent Sorenson, who was a paid operative on Bachmann’s campaign, accepted tens of thousands of dollars from people connected to the elder Paul’s campaign — payments that were not disclosed to the Federal Election Commission.

Sorenson now faces up to 25 years in prison after his guilty plea to one count of causing a federal campaign committee to falsely report its expenditures to the FEC and one count of obstruction of justice.

In a statement Friday morning, before news of the resignation, a McConnell spokesperson said in a statement that “Sen. McConnell obviously has nothing to do with the Iowa presidential caucus or this investigation so it would be inappropriate for his campaign to comment on this situation.”

Grimes’ camp begged to differ. “Senator McConnell owes the people of Kentucky a full account of what he knew and when he knew it,” said Grimes spokeswoman Charly Norton.

( PHOTOS: Kentucky Senate race)

The McConnell campaign said it didn’t have any additional comment beyond the Benton statement — including who might take over as campaign manager. Josh Holmes, McConnell’s former chief of staff, moved over to the National Republican Senatorial Committee last year with the Kentucky race a key part of his portfolio.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/mitch-mcconnell-campaign-manager-jesse-benton-resigns-110465#ixzz430hKy7eV

:{==

the Senate is voting on legislation that guts drinking water protections for one in three Americans. Soon, both chambers will be employing an extreme legislative tactic topermanently block any action to curb carbon pollution from power plants. And polluters’ allies in Congress are pushing for over 100 anti-environmental riders in the must-pass year-end spending bill.

Padraic, I’m worried. In all my years at LCV I’ve never seen a Congress so hell-bent on blocking protections for our air and water. Here’s what the polluters get if their allies in Congress are successful:

National limits on carbon pollution — permanently blocked
Drinking water protections for all Americans — thrown aside
EPA funding to protect our environment — slashed

We’re gearing up for a massive fight. A donor has offered to TRIPLE every donation to help — but whether we win or lose depends on you.

THIS IS IT: Congress is unleashing an extreme legislative assault on our clean air and drinking water protections. Chip in today and your donation will be tripled »

Newly elected House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are under intense pressure to rack up some wins for their corporate backers. They’re using every tool — including an arcane Gingrich-era legislative maneuver called the Congressional Review Act (CRA) — to find a way to stop the EPA’s historic progress.

Here’s the catch — the CRA vote gets fast-tracked, needing only 50 votes to pass in the Senate, and if successful, it means the EPA can never take up a “substantially similar” rule in the future — locking in the dangerous status quo that polluters desperately want.

And despite the fact that there was a significant breakthrough last week in the budget process, there are still a host of anti-environmental riders that extreme members of Congress will insist on attaching to the year-end spending bill.

lcv 10/15

Republican legislators in the House and Senate have introduced resolutions that aim todismantle the Obama administration’s recently finalized carbon pollution rules.

Led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,lawmakers in the Senate introduced a resolution on Tuesday to block the Clean Power Plan under the Congressional Review Act. Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) introduced a House version of the bill on Monday. Whitfield and McConnell also introduced resolutions to preempt a recently proposed rule to cut carbon emissions from new power plants.

The Clean Power Plan, which requires states to cut carbon emissions by 32 percent by 2030 from existing power plants, has faced attacks on multiple fronts since it was proposed in 2014. The final rule was announced in August.

The publication of the rule in the federal register last week made it official, opening it up to fresh lawsuits and legislative opposition. So far, 26 states as well as a number of business groups and coal companies have filed lawsuits. They contend that the Clean Power Plan is an example of federal overreach and an onerous burden on industries that will cost jobs and hurt the economy.

This latest attempt to use the Congressional Review Act (CRA) would not get past a veto by President Obama. The resolutions are widely seen as symbolic, meant to show congressional opposition to the carbon regulations ahead of the international climate treaty negotiations in Paris later this year.

The Clean Power Plan is the centerpiece of the Obama administration’s climate policy agenda, which the White House believes is critical in garnering international support for the Paris talks. Fierce opposition could shake the international community’s confidence that the U.S. will follow through on its climate commitments.

The Congressional Review Act gives Congress the authority to review major regulations. Congress has introduced CRA resolutions 43 times since its inception in 1996. Of them, only one passed both chambers, was not vetoed by the president and succeeded in overturning a rule....

715

least five Republican governors, including two presidential hopefuls — Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana — have indicated they may defy new federal rules that are part of President Obama's climate change agenda. The rules — which are meant to reduce the nation's carbon emissions and speed the transition to renewable energy and a low-carbon economy — require existing power plants to reduce their carbon emissions 30 percent by 2030 (from 2005 levels). This goal is to be achieved by federally-enforceable state plans submitted to the EPA.

The gubernatorial response follows Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell's campaign, launched earlier this year, to get state governors to refuse to carry out the new regulations, which are slated to be finalized this summer.

In a March letter to the nation's governors, Sen. McConnell issued a warning:

[S]ubmitting a plan exposes states to the real danger— allowing the EPA to wrest control of a state’s energy policy if they or any other federal agency becomes dissatisfied with a state’s progress in reaching federal emissions goals. As both the EPA and other environmental groups have noted, a state plan must be “federally enforceable.” The meaning of this language is clear: as the EPA sees it, a state-issued plan would give the agency broad new authority to control that state’s energy future — not to mention the ability to place the blame for future consequences squarely on the state itself.

He also quoted Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe, who called the EPA’s plan “constitutionally reckless”, saying it “usurp[s] the prerogatives of the States, Congress and the Federal Courts — all at once.” Tribe, a long venerated legal scholar and Constitutional lawyer who was Barack Obama's mentor, has lately been the target of criticism for his representation of Peabody Energy, a coal company, in its fight against the EPA's carbon emissions rules....

Scathing reports have once again spotlighted the massive cost and delays surrounding the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a jet designed for multiple branches of the military that has been dubbed the single most expensive weapons program in history. Even as criticism has rained down upon them, though, the four main contractors on the project have made sure campaign funds flow to lawmakers who are instrumental in keeping government payments coming for the jet. And all four contractors upped the ante last year with record contributions.

One of the recent reports, from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, is critical of engine failures and software glitches that have caused delays in manufacturing and testing. Notably, an engine fire last summer grounded the entire fleet, some of which were expected to enter active service by the end of this year. The engine is designed by Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies — a company that also took fire in a separate report from the Department of Defense Inspector General this month, which mentioned more than 60 breaches in the company’s compliance with Pentagon requirements and policies.

F-35 procurement is expected to cost nearly $400 billion, according to the GAO report, and the Pentagon’s budget for it is projected to rise from $8.4 billion in 2015 to $12 billion in 2018.

A 2011 OpenSecrets blog report linked members of a then-new group of F-35 enthusiasts on Capitol Hill — the Joint Strike Fighter Caucus — to the contractors. But a new analysis of 2014 data shows that some of the top recipients from the contractors are powerful legislators: party leaders and chairs or ranking members of influential committees and subcommittees.

Giving from the contractors typically favors Republican candidates by large margins. In the case of Lockheed, for instance, Republican support generally hovers at 60 percent of its total giving (2008 and 2010 were two recent exceptions to the rule, but, as seen in the chart above, Republicans are once again the favored party).All together, United Technologies,Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and BAE Systems donate millions of dollars every couple of years to lawmakers in the Capitol. Following slightly differing time frames, their individual giving has grown enormously since the JSF program started in 1997. The main contractor, Lockheed, and Northrop Grumman led the pack in 2014, each contributing $4.1 million to campaigns. UT spent $2.1 million, and BAE gave $1.4 million. For all four, 2014 was a record year.

At the top of their recipients list, however, are lawmakers on both sides of the aisle with powerful spots in important committees. The House Armed Services Committee, House Appropriations Committee, and Senate Appropriations Committees were the biggest targets of all of the companies; lawmakers in each received $1.7 million, $1.3 million, and $658,499, respectively.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is the only lawmaker in the top five of each company. Now the Senate minority party’s No. 2, and ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, Durbin in 2014 took $62,000 from Northrop Grumman, $54,000 from UT, $29,600 from Lockheed, and $29,299 from BAE.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) showed up in the top five of two of the contractors — $27,400 from Lockheed, $23,500 from BAE— as did Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) — $14,000 from BAE, and $11,500 from UT.

Members of the House appropriations and Armed Services Committees were up there as well — often taking in more than the lawmakers in the Senate.

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, received $75,900 from Lockheed, and $29,000 from Northrop Grumman. The top Democrat in the Committee, Washington Rep. Adam Smith took in $28,200 from Northrop Grumman. Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), the ranking member of a subcommittee in Armed Services took in $11,500 from UT. Rep.Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), just a member of the Committee, got $11,500. Hunter is also the son of former House Armed Services Chairman, former Rep. Duncan L. Hunter (R-Calif.).

In Appropriations, several subcommittee chairs make a showing in the companies’ top fives as well. Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) the chairwoman for the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee and vice-chair of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee received $73,350 from Lockheed (Granger also lists herself as co-chair of the JSF caucus on her website with a link to the 2011 press release announcing the caucus). The ranking New Jersey lawmaker on the panel, Republican Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, saw $73,350 from Lockheed (Frelinghuysen is also the chairman of the Homeland Security and Defense Committee). Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.) took in $35,700 from Northrop Grumman, and $13,600 from BAE.

Categories: Defense

Tags: Adam Smith, ander crenshaw, barbara comstock, BEA systems, clark mindock, departmet of defense,Dick Durbin, Duncan Hunter, elizabeth etsy, F-35, gao, Government accountability offices, homeland security,House Appropriations Committee, House Armed Services Committee, joe courtney, John Larson, joint strike fighter, Kay Granger, Lockheed Martin, Mac Thornberry, mitch mcconne, Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney,Rodney Frelinghuysen, Senate Appropriations Committee, Thad Cochran, United Technologies

Clark is the Center's spring 2015 reporting intern. He went to school at Northern Arizon

http://www.alternet.org/environment/antarctica-hits-635-degrees-mitch-mcconnell-vows-sabotage-climate-pact

On Wednesday, the U.S. House passed a bill to stop the EPA from using the best health research when setting clean air protections.

This isn’t the first attempt by Big Oil’s allies to sabotage health protections or the EPA. Earlier this month, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged states to flat-out ignore the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which sets the first national limits on the amount of carbon pollution power plants can spew into our air

Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is taking extraordinary measures to block the most modest efforts aimed at preventing catastrophic climate change. He has begun an “aggressive campaign to block” EPA’s carbon pollution standards “in statehouses and courtrooms across the country, arenas far beyond Mr. McConnell’s official reach and authority,” as the New York Times reports.

Tragically, while his efforts can’t save the coal industry, which is “dead man walking,” as Deutsche Bank has explained, McConnell can certainly make it much harder for Americans to save ourselves from Dust-Bowlification and the loss of our coastal cities.

On Thursday, the coal-state senator Senator sent out an an unprecedented letter to every governor in the country urging them not to comply with federal law. But this campaign is aimed at a much bigger target than the relatively limited EPA rules — which are so weak that we’ll come close to meeting them simply because of low natural gas prices and state and federal efforts to expand energy efficiency and renewable energy.

McConnell is trying to “undercut Mr. Obama’s position internationally as he tries to negotiate a global climate change treaty to be signed in Paris in December,” the New York Times reports. “The idea is to create uncertainty in the minds of other world leaders as to whether the United States can follow through on its pledges to cut emissions.”

Remember that Christiana Figueres, the top U.N. climate official, has said the Paris talks will “not get us onto the 2°C pathway,” which scientists have said is the limit if we are to avoid dangerous impacts. Instead, the best outcome for Paris is to get as far as possible from the unimaginably catastrophic 6°C (11°F) path we’re currently on — and to give the next generation a plausible chance at staying well below the 4°C (7°F) path that would render large parts of the Earth unsuitable for farming and virtually uninhabitable, probably for centuries.

The likely future of North America if Sen. Mitch McConnell succeeds in blocking domestic (and international) climate action — via a 2015 NASA study. If we stay near business-as-usual CO2 emissions, we will turn the normal climate of much of the country and world into “severe drought.”

McConnell wants governors to ignore the law’s requirementfor them to put forward a state implementation plan to meet the EPA’s proposed Clean Power Plan standards. He claims that doing so “will provide time for the courts to rule on whether the EPA’s proposed rule is legal.” But EPA is legally obligated to issue rules regulating CO2 from existing power plants, since the Roberts Supreme Court 2007 ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA that carbon dioxide qualifies as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. And just last year, the Roberts Court affirmed 7 to 2 the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases from stationary sources, such as power plants.

If states don’t put forward a state implementation plan to meet the EPA’s extremely flexible standards, then the federal government is required by law to do so. The net result is the same — the state must meet the law — but McConnell’s strategy means the federal government tells the states exactly how to meet the targets, rather than the other way around.

Of course, McConnell’s strategy can delay things — especially with the help of the staggering $889 million the multi-billionaire pollutocrat Koch brothers are planning to spend in the 2016 election cycle at the state and national level. And after 25 years of dawdling on climate action, we have no more time to delay.

So an epic struggle for the fate of America and the world has begun. Unfortunately, the media seems to miss this crucial point as it embraces the pro-pollution framing of the anti-science Senator. The New York Timesheadline for its story is, “McConnell Urges States to Help Thwart Obama’s ‘War on Coal’.” Seriously.

Nothing McConnell is doing has any plausible chance of reversing the rapidly vanishing Kentucky coal workforce or saving the coal industry. A recent report reveals that “Developers Are Cancelling More Coal Plants Than They Build.” The biggest coal consumer in the world by far, China, actually cut its coal use 2.9 percent last year on its way to meetings its target of a peak in coal by 2020 (and likely much sooner). The only hope for the coal industry in a rational world that wants to avoid catastrophic warming is carbon capture and storage — but the industry has basically let that option wither on the vine for lack of support.

Back to the Times story. This is the same paper that reported in 2014 on how the faster-than-expected disintegration of the West Antarctic ice sheet we are now seeing could “potentially caus[e] enough sea-level rise that many of the world’s coastal cities would eventually have to be abandoned.” And the Times reported in February on the NASA drought study discussed above, noting “As bad as recent droughts in California, the Southwest and the Midwest have been, scientists say far worse ‘megadroughts’ are coming — and they’re bound to last for decades.”

So their headline is wrong. Obama isn’t waging a war on coal, he just doesn’t want to flood coastal cities or turn much of the interior of the nation into a vast wasteland that “makes the Dust Bowl look like a picnic,” in the words of one scientist!

It is McConnell who is waging a war — a war on humanity, a war on America’s future, a war on the world’s children and indeed the next 50 generations, since man-made climate changes are essentially irreversible on a time scale of centuries.

===

:{http://insidecl:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:imatenews.org/todaysnews/05032015/sen-mcconnell-urges-states-defy-us-plan-cut-greenhouse-gas

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/us/politics/mcconnell-urges-states-to-defy-us-plan-to-cut-greenhouse-gas.html?ref=energy-environment&_r=1

N — Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and majority leader, is urging governors to defy President Obama by refusing to implement the administration’s global warmingregulations.

In an op-ed article published Wednesday in The Lexington Herald-Leader with the headline, “States should reject Obama mandate for clean-power regulations,” Mr. McConnell wrote: “The Obama administration’s so-called ‘clean power’ regulation seeks to shut down more of America’s power generation under the guise of protecting the climate.” He added, “Don’t be complicit in the administration’s attack on the middle class.”

As Mr. Obama pushes an aggressive climate change agenda, theEnvironmental Protection Agency has proposed regulations to slash greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants, the nation’s largest source of planet-warming pollution. The rules, which the E.P.A. expects to be final this summer, would require each state to submit a plan detailing how it would cut coal-fired power plant pollution. Once implemented, the plans could lead to the closing of hundreds of coal plants, in what the administration says will be a transformation of the nation’s energy economy away from fossil fuels and toward sources like wind and solar.

States that rely heavily on coal production or coal-fired electricity are wary of the plan, which could ultimately freeze demand for coal. Already, 12 states, including Mr. McConnell’s home state, have filed lawsuits opposing the plan and at least a dozen more are expected to file similar suits.

But Mr. McConnell urged governors to fight the regulations by simply refusing to submit their state plans to the federal government.

“Think twice before submitting a state plan — which could lock you in to federal enforcement and expose you to lawsuits — when the administration is standing on shaky legal ground and when, without your support, it won’t be able to demonstrate the capacity to carry out such political extremism,” Mr. McConnell wrote.

Since the moment his party regained control of the Senate, Mr. McConnell has made clear that he intends to use all legal, legislative and political means available to fight Mr. Obama’s climate agenda.While Republicans called Mr. Obama’s climate change policies an example of government overreach that could threaten jobs in the coal industry, Mr. McConnell, whose home state is one of the nations’ largest producers and consumers of coal, takes the fight personally.

For now, it appears unlikely that Mr. McConnell will be able to use his role as majority leader to completely block the rules. Even if Republicans could summon the majority required to pass legislation that would delay or weaken the rules, Mr. Obama is almost certain to veto such measures. Republicans are unlikely to have the two-thirds majority necessary to override that action.

Democrats said that Mr. McConnell’s call for states not to prepare plans appears unprecedented. Under the terms of the Clean Air Act, the executive branch is required to issue the carbon pollution rules. The Supreme Court has upheld that requirement.

hen Jesse Benton signed up to manage the reelection campaign of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), it was seen as a win-win. Good for McConnell, who needed help broadening his appeal in the tea party. Good for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who needed a boost in the establishment.

Turns out it was good for Benton, too. At least, financially speaking.

A review of campaign finance records shows Benton made more than $500,000 working for McConnell from the beginning of 2013 through the end of last month. The former top Ron Paul and Rand Paul strategist made most of his money from McConnell's campaign. The rest came from work he did for McConnell's leadership PAC.

Campaign 2016 Email Updates

Get the best analysis of the presidential race.

McConnell's campaign paid Benton's consulting firm more than $402,000 during the last 21 months for strategy consulting and research, records show. That's substantially more than a typical Senate campaign manager takes home in salary in a comparable period.

As liberal blogger Joe Sonka, who dug into the numbers earlier this week, pointed out, McConnell's campaign paid Benton's firm days after he resigned this summer. Benton, as Sonka noted, has also been paid by the Kentucky Republican Party.

To put Benton's compensation into further perspective:

-- It's more than double McConnell's annual $193,400 Senate salary.

-- It's more than double what President Obama campaign manager Jim Messina made in 2012.

-- It's more than Obama's annual $400,000 salary.

McConnell's leadership PAC, the Bluegrass Committee, paid JRB Consulting LLC about $110,000 last year and this year, campaign finance reports show. The address for JRB matches the address where Benton is registered to vote in Texas, records show.

McConnell started the 2014 election cycle facing the prospect of a tough primary. The tea party was eager to unseat him. So he tapped Benton's deep ties to the tea party movement to help navigate the rough waters

It worked out. Rand Paul -- eyeing a 2016 White House bid and on the lookout for new allies -- endorsed McConnell. Tea party challenger Matt Bevin never picked up steam. McConnell easily won his primary.

Benton resigned from McConnell's campaign in late August amid a federal probe into an endorsement-pay-scheme related to the 2012 presidential campaigns of Paul and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

McConnell's campaign did not respond to requests for a comment about the disbursements to Benton's firm. Benton did not respond to an e-mail asking about his compensation, either.

amazed it's not more $

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/11/19/3593884/blankenship-political-contributions/

A federal grand jury sent shockwaves throughout the country last week when it announced the indictment of Don Blankenship, former CEO of coal company Massey Energy, on four charges related to willful safety violations and cover-ups prior to the explosion at its Upper Big Branch mine in 2010, a disaster that killed 29 miners.

“This indictment is momentous,” a Charleston Gazette editorial declared.

In the intervening years since the disaster, Blankenship has sought to portray himself not as a symbol of corporate greed, but an honest entrepreneur, releasing a 51-minute video this year purporting that the explosion was due to a build-up of natural gas and characterizing Blankenship as a champion of the health and safety of miners.

The grand jury found otherwise. It singled out Blankenship himself for not only being aware of “hundreds of safety-law violations every year” but, worse, for the fact that he “fostered and participated in an understanding that perpetuated UBB’s practice of routine safety violations, in order to produce more coal, avoid the costs of following safety laws, and make more money.”

Blankenship, dubbed “The Dark Lord of Coal Country” in a 2010 Rolling Stone profile, has been an active political donor, both during his days at Massey and since stepping down in December 2010 (the company was acquired by Alpha Natural Resources in early 2011). His indictment on three felony charges and one misdemeanor raise serious questions about the candidates and committees who benefited from Blankenship’s largesse and whether they plan to return or donate those funds.

Andrew Beshear (D), son of Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D), is currently running for attorney general in the state and has garnered attention for the $1.48 million he has raised as the only declared candidate thus far, including $1,000 from Blankenship. When asked about the donation by the Lexington Herald-Leader last week, Beshear’s campaign said it would return the money.

In recent years, Blankenship’s largest contributions have been to committees working to elect Republican candidates to Congress: $30,400 each to the National Republican Congressional Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2010, and a combined $25,000 to the NRCC in 2012, according to a ThinkProgress analysis of Political MoneyLine data.

Neither the NRCC nor NRSC responded to multiple requests for comment regarding the contributions, but in 2010, Brian Walsh, the NRSC’s communications director, told OpenSecrets the committee had no plans to refund the contribution: “At this point in time the NRSC has no intention of returning the money. There is no reason to,” Walsh said.

At the state level, Blankenship gave $10,000 to the Republican Party of Kentucky in 2010, $10,000 to the West Virginia Republican Party in both 2010 and 2012, and $10,000 to the Kentucky State Democratic Central Executive Committee in 2012. None of the three state committees responded to multiple requests for comment by ThinkProgress.

Blankenship has donated to several individual candidates in recent years, as well. The only federal candidate to receive money from Blankenship in 2014 was Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who took $2,600. Blankenship and Inhofe are both fervent deniers of human-caused global warming and routinely disparage the EPA and any sort of government regulation, particularly those that relate to coal. Inhofe also received a combined $3,300 from Blankenship in 2008.

Learn how mild my views are vs. Sen Inhofe-Oklahoma. Unfortunate coal area Senators not pro-coal like Inhofe. See http://t.co/RNaQ9UFfdN

— Don Blankenship (@DonBlankenship) October 22, 2014

In 2012, Blankenship gave $2,500 to help elect Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) and Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI). Both have been clear about their desire to stop the EPA in its attempt to curb the carbon pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants under the Clean Air Act, citing the common coal industry talking point that the Obama administration is waging a “war on coal.”

Several recipients of Blankenship’s 2010 federal contributions are still in office today. Rep. Todd Young (R-IN) received $2,400; Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) received $2,400; Rep. Robert Hurt (R-VA) received $2,400; Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) received $2,000; and Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) received $1,000 from the coal baron.

And Mitch McConnell (R-KY), incoming Senate Majority Leader, has also accepted funds from Blankenship in the past: $1,000 each for his Senate campaigns in 1996 and 2002.

Campaign spokespeople for Inhofe, Walorski, Ribble, Young, McKinley, Hurt, Toomey, Portman and McConnell did not respond to multiple requests for comment by ThinkProgress.

These candidates for federal office receiving money from Don Blankenship are likely just scratching the surface of his political influence. He has given $18,700 to Massey Energy PACs, according to Political MoneyLine data, and Massey Energy in turn has given significant contributions to candidates and committees, such as $100,000 to the Texas Republican Party, $55,000 to disgraced former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell (R), and $40,000 to the Virginia Republican Party, according to data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

Massey’s contributions haven’t been limited to political candidates and committees either. “As the UBB disaster occurred, Blankenship’s Massey Energy gave $100,000 to the Competitive Enterprise Institute,a libertarian think tank that went on to defend Massey’s company and to push back against calls for better mine safety regulation,” the Republic Report noted last week.

Blankenship’s most unabashed exertion of his wealth for political influence came in 2004 when he “sought to reshape the politics of the West Virginia Supreme Court shortly before it took up Massey’s appeal of a fifty-million-dollar judgment for fraud and interfering with a contract,” the New Yorker recently recounted. Blankenship spent over $3 million on behalf of conservative candidate Brent Benjamin and to discredit progressive Justice Warren McGraw. The coal baron gave $2.2 million to his “And for the Sake of the Kids” PAC, according to Political MoneyLine, which then ran a series of hits on McGraw.

“The group deployed every sleazy trick in the book, accusing McGraw of letting child rapists out of prison and putting them to work in local schools. The smear tactics worked: McGraw was defeated, replaced by an industry-friendly judge backed by Blankenship,” the Rolling Stone profile recalled. “In 2007, the court overturned the $50 million verdict against Blankenship by a vote of 3 to 2. His $3 million investment had saved him $47 million.”

If Blankenship is convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 31 years in prison and while a judge has issued a sweeping gag order preventing anyone potentially involved in the case from speaking with the media, the details of the grand jury’s indictment offer a chilling glimpse into the coal baron’s tactics to intimidate workers, flout safety rules, and deliberately mislead investigators.

“Let me be clear: in my view, Don Blankenship, and the mines he once operated, treated miners and their safety with callousness and open disregard,” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) in a statement. “As he goes to trial, he will be treated far fairer and with more dignity than he ever treated the miners he employed. And, frankly, it’s more than he deserves.”

Tags

Mitch McConnell at War

By Jonathan Strong Mitch McConnell at War

by Jonathan Strong November 8, 20134:00 AM

The tough and wily leader is entering the toughest primary challenge of his career. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell likes to say, “If someone flicks a pebble at you, you hurl a boulder back at him.” His political team is just as emphatic. Some Republicans in Kentucky who flirted with working for his primary opponent, Matt Bevin, were told by the McConnell allies that they would get the “death penalty.” Another frequent warning: “Mitch McConnell doesn’t take prisoners.” McConnell’s team “shoots the wounded on the battlefield as a matter of course,” says University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato. A former GOP leadership aide who has seen the McConnell operation up close sounds terrified. “They’re all killers,” he says, without a trace of humor in his voice. “These are not guys to be trifled with. They are burn it down, p*** on it, then blow it up kind of guys.” And it’s not a secret.

The New York Times reported that the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) was blacklisting a GOP ad firm, Jamestown Associates, for working with the Senate Conservative Fund (SCF), which is helping Bevin. Privately, McConnell aides acknowledge that it was McConnell who had Jamestown blacklisted for cutting ads that the SCF ran in Kentucky. McConnell’s former chief of staff, Josh Holmes, spoke to the Times, offering a dark analogy: “The SCF has been wandering around the country destroying the Republican Party like a drunk who tears up every bar they walk into. The difference this cycle is that they strolled into Mitch McConnell’s bar, and he doesn’t throw you out, he locks the door.” Holmes, who is now heading McConnell’s campaign committee, later confirmed on Twitter that his quote alluded to a scene in A Bronx Tale in which a group of mafiosos savagely beat members of a biker gang who vandalized their bar — a scene as violent as any in the movies. In blacklisting Jamestown, McConnell has opened up a new front in what has become an open war between McConnell and Holmes, on the one side, and Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint and SCF executive director Matt Hoskins on the other.

Freshly re-provisioned from millions of dollars in donations that flooded in during the government-shutdown episode, Hoskins, a former DeMint aide, invaded enemy territory October 18 when he decided to back Bevin. For McConnell, this is the direst threat of his career, as he’s now in a two-front war, with Bevin on one flank and Democratic challenger Allison Lundergan Grimes on the other. The wily incumbent is upping the ante, casting the fight as a battle for the future of the Republican party. “This is an election where you are choosing sides,” says former McConnell chief of staff Billy Piper, now a lobbyist at Fierce, Isakowitz, and Blalock. “We’re finding out where people are. This is not just about the May 2014 primary. This is about the future of the party. Do we want to get to 51 — and, we hope, 55 over time? Or do we want to have 25–30 guys in the Senate who we think are going to be reliably conservative no matter what but who are never able to achieve anything other than drafting a strongly worded white paper?” Hard-charging Hoskins is undaunted. “Mitch McConnell is doing this because he can’t defend his record and running dirty campaigns is all he knows how to do,” he says. McConnell has often exercised power in D.C. by pressuring major donors to withhold donations from a given lawmaker or organization.

His allies on K Street are often the people who deliver this message and “enforce” it.SCF is receiving most of its donations from a large number of individuals who send in small-dollar amounts. McConnell can’t easily pressure these grassroots donors — they aren’t professional politicians and they’re far from D.C. But the blacklisting of Jamestown has deeply unsettled people involved in the behind-the-scenes machinery of GOP politics. Senator John Cornyn of Texas also canceled a small contract with the firm, which produces political television ads for a wide array of GOP candidates, including many moderates. Cornyn has sought to distance himself from this action, though. “I’m not involved,” he told me. The scope of the blacklisting is probably limited to Jamestown, which pitched the NRSC on new business even while its anti-McConnell ads were on the air in Kentucky. But the blacklisting has sent a message that seems to be getting out loud and clear. Several other Republican ad firms privately told NRSC officials that they now “understand the rules,” sources say. For now, Jamestown is sticking with the SCF. McConnell’s scorched-earth tactics are making life difficult for Bevin.

A number of Kentucky Republicans both inside and outside his campaign describe McConnell’s team as the campaign equivalent of the NSA — it instantly finds out about anything that happens. Bevin-campaign spokeswoman Rachel Semmel, for instance, had accompanied Bevin to the Fox News studios before she announced she would be going to work for him. A McConnell spy in the green room promptly leaked news of her decision to the Daily Caller. Bevin’s top consultant, Mark Harris of Cold Spark Media, came under incredible pressure back when McConnell operatives discovered he was considering joining the campaign this spring. A far-reaching group of professional acquaintances initially tried to intervene with Harris, walking through the history of corpses, Republican and Democratic, that McConnell had left in his wake. In a second phase, several McConnell emissaries suggested that Harris would find lucrative work elsewhere if he dropped the campaign. A third phase comprised even more strident threats from McConnell allies, who warned Harris that his career would be over if he worked for Bevin’s campaign. For Harris, the final indignity was when lobbyist Alex Urrea of CSA Strategies found Harris’s father at a Pittsburgh golf course and sternly recommended that he talk his son out of committing career suicide. (Reached by phone, Urrea declined to comment.) McConnell built the modern Kentucky Republican party, and it now serves as an arm of his campaign, Republicans there say. His network reaches into “the hollers”: It’s not unusual for local Republicans who show up at a Bevin event to receive a phone call and a talking-to about being a “team player.” McConnell’s network in D.C. is just as extensive.

He first worked on the Hill in 1967, and dozens of his former aides occupy top slots in a variety of D.C. businesses. Insiders list Billy Piper, American Crossroads’ Steven Law, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Scott Reed, lobbyist Hunter Bates, and public-relations guru Scott Jennings as top outside McConnell supporters, with Holmes and former Rand Paul hand Jesse Benton coordinating the efforts with the campaign. In politics as elsewhere, the mind-set of the office tends to trickle down from the top, and that’s the case here. McConnell relishes the fight. He came of political age when Democrats completely dominated Kentucky politics, and they weren’t nice about it. Brawling was a useful skill. In 2009, McConnell slowly strangled the Senate career of his home-state colleague Senator Jim Bunning. Fearing Bunning was too weak to win, McConnnell’s team leaned on people not to donate money to the incumbent senator, which dried up his financial base. The move was supposed to pave the way for McConnell protégé Trey Grayson. As we now know, Senator Rand Paul intervened, rocking the Kentucky establishment and beating Grayson — and proving that the McConnell machine could be beaten. McConnell adapted, cannily working to bring Paul into his fold, and now Jesse Benton, Paul’s former campaign manager, is a top McConnell soldier. For all these reasons,McConnell is by far the most formidable adversary to take on DeMint, Hoskins, and the outside conservative groups that have quickly risen to prominence since the emergence of the Tea Party in 2010. In the House, SCF and Heritage Action have run roughshod over Speaker John Boehner, a leader who lacks McConnell’s mean streak. And they’ve been picking off weak moderates for years, striking fear in Republicans. The question of the upcoming primary season is, Will Hoskins and DeMint be able to handle Mitch’s “killers”? — Jonathan Strong is a political reporter for National Review

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/363459/mitch-mcconnell-war-jonathan-strong

McCONNELL2 SEN

Timeline of Senator Mitch McConnell’s Hypocrisy on Corporate America’s Role in Politics

Political Ploy by Mitch McConnell Blocks Attempt to Stop War With Iran

McConnell goes berserk – says granting Puerto Rico statehood, voting rights, representation is ‘full bore socialism’

McConnell is trampling the rules of the Senate to keep Trumpism alive — no matter what voters say in 2020

McConnell says it was a 'mistake' for Alabama voters not to elect a child molester to the Senate

Sign the Petition to Senator Mitch McConnell

Mitch McConnell's Policy Chief Previously Lobbied for Koch Industries

McConnell Names Koch Shill to Key Senate Post | Real Koch Facts

Contents

Ties to the Koch Brothers

Record and Controversies

Talking Strategy at Koch Donor Retreat

"Worst Day of My Political Life" Not 9/11 or 2008 Crisis, but Campaign Finance Reform?

Money in politics

Oil and coal money in politics

Committees and affiliations

Committees

Committee assignments in the 109th Congress (2005-2006)

Contents

Early life, education, and military service

Early career

U.S. Senate

Elections

Leadership

Tenure