As I was perusing the news today of scare stories of the President’s health, I had a thought come across my mind.

Even though we are just 31 days away from the national election on November 3rd, and the President is currently recovering nicely, which is halting his campaign a bit, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is running full steam ahead.

When it was announced today that the Senate would delay the floor schedule for a week over some GOP senators testing positive for COVID-19, but continue to move on the hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, this was a hopeful sign. Nothing is going to stop the Leader from getting $%^& done in the last 4 weeks before the election.

Here is a lil background from Associated Press…

The coroniavirus reached further into Republican ranks on Saturday, forcing the Senate to call off lawmaking as a third GOP senator tested positive for COVID-19. Even so, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared he would push President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee toward confirmation in the shadow of the November election.

So great was the threat posed by COVID-19 that McConnell called off floor proceedings but not Barrett’s hearings, slated to begin Oct. 12. The Kentucky Republican, who is battling to save the GOP majority and running for reelection himself, was not about to give them up.

“The Senate’s floor schedule will not interrupt the thorough, fair and historically supported confirmation process,” McConnell wrote Saturday. Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who like McConnell is running for reelection, added that senators can attend the hearings remotely.

There is a LOT going on here, and Sen. McConnell has his eye firmly on the prize of securing a historic, third Supreme Court nomination in just under four years.

Yet, there are a lot of other things going on, and he is managing these things equally as well.

First off, he is the President’s wingman on Capitol Hill, and that is no easy feat. McConnell is a quiet tactician on how best to get legislation passed, and the President is a bull in a china shop. These two men are quite different in how they operate, but if it were not for McConnell, these three-and-a-half  years getting all sorts of things passed in the Senate, then President Trump would not have had the success he has had legislatively. Particularly after the GOP lost the House in the 2018, midterm elections.

The Majority Leader is also doing all this while not only running for reelection in his home state of Kentucky, but also trying to keep the majority in the Republicans’ hands. While there are 35 total seats up for reelection this cycle, the Republicans have 23 that are up for grabs. Some of those are replacing retiring senators like Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) and Mike Enzi (Wyo.), that are solid to stay in the GOP fold; others are not. Seats currently held by Joni Ernst (Iowa), Cory Gardner (Colo.), and Susan Collins (Maine) are tossups. With only a 53-seat majority, if these seats fall without any pickups, you can see what a juggling act this has been to keep everything running smoothly, while running the Senate during COVID.

Also, I know activists get ticked at senators like Susan Collins for wanting to hold off, saying the ACB nomination should wait until after the election. But remember this: Collins was the one that ultimately was the green light after the Democrats SAVAGED Brett Kavanaugh and cleared the way for President Trump’s second Supreme Court Justice to be seated. Mitch McConnell once again kept his caucus focused and is a big reason these victories for the President have happened.

Last but not least, McConnell is doing all this knowing full well that he may be sacrificing the majority of the Senate to get this win for Trump’s third Supreme Court Justice. Even if the President wins reelection, the GOP could lose control of the Senate. This is a real possibility, and people that are taking this lightly are naïve

I remember marveling a bit at the Democrats in 2009-10, who knew that passing Obamacare was going to get them slaughtered in the midterms in 2010 over a program that Americans hated. But they still passed it. Nancy Pelosi had just finished redecorating the Speaker’s office, I bet, having just been there less than 3 years, when she willingly lay down on the political railroad track for socialized medicine and took the hit.

The Grand Old Party NOW has that same type of grit and legislative know-how in the current Senior Senator from Kentucky.

Stop just take a moment to ponder and appreciate how the 45th President of the United States would have fared without the craftiness of Mitch McConnell leading the GOP in the Senate.

Then pray to God that others in the GOP have been taking notes, so that they might one day be able to try and fill this guy’s shoes. There are going to be many more battles ahead, no matter who wins this November.

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