There is nothing that illustrates how privileged members of the US legislature are than the situation with Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell who is 84 years old and has been in obvious serious physical and cognitive decline for quite some time. He was last seen taken by ambulance to a hospital.
Public emergency services records indicate that paramedics were called to his Washington address on 14 June, where they administered CPR on an unconscious person who was allegedly suffering a cardiac arrest – one whose identity has been withheld. McConnell had been in a Washington DC area hospital ever since.
Since then he has not been seen or heard from in public. The long silence resulted in demands for proof that he was still alive. Although some congressional Republicans say that they have spoken to him, Republicans now routinely lie about pretty much anything as long as it serves their interests so this was greeted with some skepticism. You can see why they would lie. If McConnell is dead, then the governor of Kentucky Andy Beshear would be able to appoint an interim until a special election were held and Republicans would not want to have a Democratic senator replace a Republican one, given how small their current majority is.
In order to squelch rumors that McConnell was dead, two photographs were released showing a smiling McConnell seated in bed with his wife next to him and a copy of that day’s newspaper casually in front of him. Showing someone with a daily newspaper is the standard method of showing proof of life in hostage situations. It used to be definitive but with the ability of AI to generate lifelike photos of anything, it has ceased o be so. Nowadays it would be possible to produce realistic videos of McConnell doing the tango.
Two things struck me. One is that few people in the US would be able to not turn up for work for three months and be incommunicado still keep their jobs and health care. He is not the only one. New Jersey Republican congressman Tom Kean Jr. also disappeared for four months, before returning and saying that he was being reated for depression.
If people develop serious health issues, they should be able to get treated until they get better, and not lose their jobs. That is what a humane society should be able to provide. But Republicans in congress fight tooth-and-nail to prevent everyone else from getting the benefits that they take full advantage of.
I think that it is unlikely that McConnell is dead. If he had died, the hospital would have to record it and take whatever steps that are required when a patient dies and the news would get out. You just cannot have corpses lying around in hospital beds. It is possible, though, that he is in a coma or sedated and in hospice care because then his health information would remain confidential.
McConnell has been a devious and manipulative force in the senate and I for one will be glad to see him go. His term of office ends at the beginning of January. We may not know until then exactly what is going on.
The governor of his state can appoint a new senator if a senator dies or is incapacited.
If Mitch refuses to go on a Skype call with the governor to prove he can talk and function the governor should just say “fuck it, I am appointing a new senator”.
It is customary to appoint a senator fron the same party as the last one, but as M M has contributed to the total dissolution of norms it would be apt to appoint a senator from the opposite party.
Appointing a Democrat to replace McConnell might fire up the MAGAts and generate Republican
projectionscomplaints of Democrats stealing the election. Let’s wait to see what happens in the mid-terms.re birgerjohansson@1:
Supreme Court appointments comes to mind, among other things.
@birgerjohansson, billseymour:
As others have noted (see Lawyers Guns & Money: McConnell Can Fake Being Alive The Rest of His Term), while in theory Beshear could do that, in practice there are laws to deliberately restrict the Governor’s powers in cases like this because McConnell didn’t want to give up power that easily. The rules in Kentucky currently require the Governor to choose from a short list provided by the party of the Senator being replaced, and while there’s a good chance that restriction isn’t actually constitutional, running this through the courts (because of course the Republicans would challenge it if Beshear appointed a Democrat) would take more time than is actually left in McConnell’s term.
Beshear may be talking about replacing McConnell, but he probably isn’t going to actually do it: from his point of view, it’s best to just let McConnell’s seat stay effectively empty until after the election, because that way there’s no serious pushback or active attempts to unseat him, and having a Democrat rather than an empty seat for a few months at best isn’t actually worth the effort. If there were, say, active confirmation hearings for a Supreme Court appointee ongoing at the moment, it might be worth the effort, but otherwise, no.
@birgerjohansson:
Skype? MS got rid of that ages ago, and replaced it with the far inferior Teams.
I agree with the points in #4 and would add that Clint Eastwood showed how difficult it is for a Republican to argue with an empty chair.
If he had died, the hospital would have to record it and take whatever steps that are required when a patient dies and the news would get out. You just cannot have corpses lying around in hospital beds.
McConnell reportedly returned home about a month ago. He has a house valued at $22M, which probably includes a large-capacity freezer…
It would be terrible if Flock surveillance and DHS records were used against everyone at McConnell’s estate to find out whether his only daily visitors are medical staff. Mind, the Republicans might suddenly find a reason to curtail the power of the state they’ve built to survey everyone else.
Seems to me that delaying declaring death would complicate handling the estate. It would raise questions. And those around him probably want that cash soon
So my bet is on alive but unable to do his job due to poor health. Probably going through a lot of physio to try to get back to a point he can be a public scumbag
Despite what you see on TV the rate of thirty day survival after requiring CPR is very low, under ten percent. However technically while blood is flowing and being oxygenated you are still alive, and we can certainly manage to do that for months without there being any real possibility of you making a real recovery.
If Mitch McConnell somehow was to rise up and do a miraculous recovery, it will only be because some entity from the far side has taken over his body (as in the sequel from The Exorcist).
However, as Nyarlahotep et al have a colorful past -possibly in multiple universes -- it would make a conversation with Mitch much more interesting.
Sequestering bodies -- if it is one of the aliens from Dark City that is wearing McConnells’ body, it might have some amazing alien tech for us! Quick, go to his house and cut a deal.
/gesture
sleeeeeeep…
Ahem. According to current Kentucky law the governor cannot appoint a senator to fill a vacancy. The seat remains vacant until a special election takes place (or the regularly scheduled one). It is not uncommon for Republican legislators in a red state that elects a Democratic governor to pass laws that limit the governor’s powers.