Talking With Senate Minority Leader McConnell
Some Things Are Not Negotiable
By California Yankee Posted in Republicans — Comments (14) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Mitch McConnell, the new Senate Minority Leader, reached out to bloggers in a conference call this afternoon. I covered the event for RedState.
In his opening remarks Senator McConnell noted the historic significance of the House electing the first woman Speaker and observed that this is traditionally a time to employ civility, but not capitulation.
The Minority Leader drew a line in the sand saying two things were not negotiable.
1. Raising taxes -The minority won't put the economy at risk by allowing taxes to be increased.
2. Staying on offense in the War - The country has not suffered a terrorist attack since 9/11 because we have been on the offensive, taking the fight to our enemies.
The minority will cooperate on lobbying reform.
In the responding to a question about fighting so-called campaign finance reform, Senator McConnell said he will continue the fight for free speech.
Read on.
He noted the battle is now limited to litigation. There is hope in this arena because the initial legal battle over McCain-Feingold resulted was decided by a 5-4 vote. Now that Sandra Day O'Connor, part of the majority, has been replaced, there is hope of chipping away at the McCain-Feingold free speech restrictions.
That's most of the good news.
Asked about the Republican position on the "illegal" immigration" bill that the Senate passed last year, Leader McConnell candidly stated we probably won't agree on this issue. He noted border enforcement is improving and is funded, then said he supports comprehensive immigration reform. The need for a guest worker program was discussed, with the Senator noting some crops couldn't be harvested this year because of a lack of workers. McConnell did state he is opposed any preferential treatment for illegals becoming citizens. He doesn't think a guest worker program has to necessarily be related to a path to citizenship. The part of the question about whether the Senate would approve a more liberal immigration reform than that passed last year was ignored in the response.
On earmarks senator McConnell takes the position that the key to earmark reform is transparency. He said some earmarks, like a cancer hospital, are good, while others, like the Bridge to Nowhere, are bad.
The Minority Leader talked about the importance the Senate for the minority. Procedures are different in the Senate. It takes 60 votes to accomplish anything significant. That means the Democrats have to find nine votes and the Republicans can lose eight. He encouraged bloggers to inform their readers about Senate procedures and how the Senate works.
I thank Senator McConnell for taking time out of what had to be an extremely busy day to reach out to the right side of the blogosphere. It is clear that conservatives aren't in complete agreement with the Senate minority on a number of issues, but we can and should, work together in pushing back against the left wing extremists that now control the Senate. We should also work hard to encourage and nurture a dialogue with the Senate minority in order to help limit the damage as much as possible.
UPDATE: You can listen to the conference call via this link.
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Talking With Senate Minority Leader McConnell 14 Comments (0 topical, 14 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
am excited about McConnell. Senator Frist is a good guy, but everything he did was in the prism of a run for the presidency, which is not good for a senator. McConnell loves the senate, doesn't want to go anywhere else, and understands the rules like few others. I expect him to run cirlces around Dingy Harry and basically road block the nonesense that will come out of Nancy's House.
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"As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this."
- George Mason
"2. Staying on offense in the War - The country has not suffered a terrorist attack since 9/11 because we have been on the offensive, taking the fight to our enemies. "
Correlation is not causation.
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden, 1854.
Smoking doesn't cause lung cancer. Hell, it cures cancer!
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If "pro" is the opposite of "con", what is the opposite of "progress"...
Dems likely need to get ten GOP votes to break a filibuster as Johnson may remain a Senator, but will never cast another vote.
Of course, if the dead can vote for the dems, maybe an unconscious Senator can cast a vote as well.
not legally married to a woman who wants to off him to collect insurance money.
We'd have the perfect sequel to the Terry Schiavo controversy. With dems like Hillary and Nancy Pelosi reciting quotes from Pope John Paul II. Maybe we could get Orrin Hatch to steal a few quotes from Peter Singer, the bioethicist of death. It would be more than funny.
And you will not make jokes like that here in the future.
Are we clear?
Moe
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC.
raise taxes-they just have to let them expire, and boom, we have tax increases made easy, and the GOP won't be able to do anything to stop it. Sure they can go on Meet the Press and talk about the dems raising taxes, but the dems don't actually have to write and pass a bill for a tax increase to succeed at getting one.
That's what Democrat governor Grey Davis and all the rest of the Sacramento commies were saying all the way up until we recalled him.
Let the dems try and semanticize their way around a tax hike.
Political suicide. They know it.
Davis's recall vote, is most likely the scariest thing the Dems have ever encountered in the realm of politics.
Even in California, blatant liberalism won't fly forever...
"The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal comfort... has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
--John Stuart Mill
It's blatant stupidity, combined with incredible arrogance that got Davis.
If blatant liberalism was a problem, San Francisco would have slipped into the Pacific years ago.
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If "pro" is the opposite of "con", what is the opposite of "progress"...
"The country has not suffered a terrorist attack since 9/11 because we have been on the offensive, taking the fight to our enemies."
anthrax, anyone...
I'd like to ask Sen. McConnell what he would do to any legislation that attempted to resurrect the assault-weapons ban. GOA has Sen. McConnell as a "C."
I'm not expecting much in the way of push-back against the left from McConnell, or the Senate GOP in general. They were part of the problem in the last Congress and that seems likely to continue.