Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell feels put upon just for having to talk about
increasing the pay of the country's working poor.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wanted to share his
long-repressed feelings about a traumatic event. “It was,” the Kentucky
Republican confided, grim-faced, “the worst day of my political life.”
Was he talking about the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America? No.
McConnell was reflecting on the day 12 years ago when the Senate
approved the McCain-Feingold
campaign finance law, imposing some limits on political donations by super-rich
corporate interests.
While the vast majority of Americans enthusiastically supports
such restrictions, the gentleman from Kentucky isn’t often swayed by what The
People want.
It was a very sympathetic group: more than 100 right-wing
billionaires convened by the Koch brothers to fund a plutocratic takeover of
Congress in this year’s elections.
McConnell was the featured act at the three-day Koch-a-palooza
held at the posh St. Regis Monarch Bay resort in Dana Point. There, he
titillated the elites with the changes that would result from a GOP takeover of
the Senate.
For one thing, he exulted, “we’re not going to be debating all
these gosh darn proposals.” Like what, you might ask? “Like raising the minimum
wage,” explained the senator of a state with tens of thousands of minimum-wage
workers desperately needing a raise.
Poor Mitch. For once, he was being honest, thinking his candor
would not be heard outside this closed-door enclave of Koch-heads. But — oops —
a recording of his comments was leaked to The
Nation magazine.
Now, Kentucky voters are learning how put upon their nearly
$200,000-a-year lawmaker feels for just having to talk about those
“gosh darn proposals” to lift the roughly $15,000-a-year poverty pay of his
minimum-wage constituents.
Keep talking, Mitch — such stuff is what makes politics the
Greatest Show on Earth. Or is it the funniest? Or saddest? Kentucky voters will
get to choose in November.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is
a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He’s also editor of the
populist newsletter, The Hightower
Lowdown. OtherWords.org