The Price of Power: How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America, and Lost His Party by Michael Tackett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A fine biography of the longtime Republican Senate leader who has just stepped down from his leadership position, which he has held since 2007. McConnell is the longest serving party leader in Senate history and certainly one of the most consequential Senate leaders to ever occupy the position. As a Democrat I certainly found many of McConnell’s actions objectionable but that is not important for the purposes of the review. McConnell, in several key areas, has had an outsized impact on the results, whether it be campaign finance, the Supreme Court, and politically strengthening the GOP in the Senate.
One of the best aspects of the book is the truth that came from McConnell himself. When called out for some positions he took earlier in his career (he actually supported campaign finance reform at one point) McConnell simply admits to political expediency as a justification. He is also quite open about some of the early career fights that happened in Kentucky in a way that you might not expect from someone as tight lipped as he is. He was even willing to admit gaining political revenge on a fellow student who had worked against him in a run for a student leadership position. When that fellow popped up on his radar screen many years later McConnell exacted revenge. He has a long memory.
Prior to reading the book I was unaware that McConnell had contracted polio as a child. The story of how his mother fought for his health in difficult circumstances, with his father being in wartime service, brought home how mothers can influence, and in some cases save their children with love and care.
McConnell’s actions in so many areas have stoked controversy, and deep animus from Democrats. One of these areas is obviously the Supreme Court. This story does not start with Derrick Garland, but rather with Robert Bork. Bork, nominated by President Reagan to the Supreme Court, was rejected by the Senate in a highly contentious process. McConnell, as he would later on the issue of filibusters, issued a warning that the Democrats were changing the rules of the game in a way that could bring regrets, or gridlock, later. He debated then Senator Biden on the issue.
“McConnell had his law journal article on Supreme Court nominations entered into the record and stood by its central thesis, that the Senate should judge nominees by their qualifications more than their philosophies, which he argued was the province of the president. ‘It was pretty clear to this Senator back in those days, and it is still clear to him today, that if we decide that the Senate and the President are on coequal footing on these nominations -in other words, any inquiry that is relevant to the Senate-we have a formula for gridlock in the future. What disturbs me is that if a majority of the Senators in this body today decided for whatever reasons that the test is no longer competence or qualifications or a variety of other questions of fitness, but that we instead should look at all of the criteria that a President, any President, might take into account, we have a formula for gridlock. If the Senate happens to be conservative at a given moment and the President is a liberal, he might never be able to get a nominee approved.’”
“The Price of Power: How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America, and Lost His Party” pg. 132
Without getting into the argument on Bork McConnell’s prediction ended up becoming reality.
On the filibuster McConnell objected to the Democrats filibustering many George W. Bush nominees to the federal appellate courts. Filibustering judges had not been the norm, and McConnell issued a warning:
“The sad thing for the Senate as an institution is that the old view that you would never kill a judge on a filibuster is over, and one day there will be a Democratic president and those chickens will come home to roost, McConnell said in December 2023. Democrats, he said, were being ‘very short sighted because they’re just living in the present and not thinking of the impact of this on them when they get somebody they like in the White House. Now there will be no barriers against defeating liberal judges in the future…I think it’s unfortunate but I think it is with us forever.”
“The Price of Power: How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America, and Lost His Party” pg. 185
Another McConnell prediction that was prescient. And to boot there was the course of action chosen by Democratic Leader Harry Reid, who, tiring of GOP filibusters against Barack Obama nominees, enacted the so called “nuclear option,” eliminating the filibuster by a rule change on nominees for the lower courts. McConnell issued the requisite warnings of payback there as well, and when the time came that rule change came back to bite the Democrats hard. They were unable to filibuster Republican nominees in the future (see Trump, Donald) but McConnell, using Reid’s actions as precedent, moved to abolish the filibuster with a GOP majority, for Supreme Court nominees as well, paving the way for straight party line votes for Supreme Court justices. McConnell, to his credit, did indeed play a long game. Democrats, to his point, played a very short game.
McConnell was a major player in the ultimate destruction of the campaign finance reforms pushed by John McCain and others, including Massachusetts Congressman Marty Meehan. He was a block of granite, fighting against campaign finance reform, and ultimately prevailing. The current system, essentially a free for all allowing money to flow largely unregulated, can be laid at his feet. And he is not at all regretful.
The book gives a quick reflection, by McConnell, on the Senate career of Lyndon Johnson. McConnell read “The Master of the Senate” by Robert Caro, and while acknowledging the LBJ skill also pointed to “luck” as a factor in the Johnson success. If he did read it he likely did not do so with great attention, as luck had very little to do with the Johnson ascension to Leader in the Senate.
McConnell’s blocking of Merrick Garlands nomination to the Supreme Court in Barack Obama’s last year cannot be attributed to past actions by the Democrats. It was simply a naked power play designed to stop Obama from making an appointment. Much like his earlier admonitions to the Democrats on the filibuster this action will likely, at some point, rebound to the dismay of the GOP. So be it.
The Mitch McConnell we see is someone geared towards winning elections for the GOP, and willing to use the levers of power to achieve his objectives. He has to be considered one of the greatest legislative tacticians in the history of the Senate, even if you are on the other side of the political fence. Joe Biden has shown that McConnell can be a productive legislative partner where there is perceived benefit for his side. He has been considered, by Democrats, to be the personification of everything bad about the GOP. But as McConnell brings his career to a close he is increasingly seen that way by the MAGA movement that has taken over the Republican Party. Donald Trump has referred to him as that “old crow” and he has been openly attacked, both in the Senate and outside the Senate, for opinions that no longer match up with MAGA beliefs. McConnell has been old school on NATO, and especially on U.S. aid to Ukraine. These views, his desire for legislative order, and his open dismissal of MAGA affiliated candidates for Senate, have not endeared him to the MAGA faithful. Tackett’s title says it all. He lost his Party, even while producing for them, great victories.
This is an outstanding book, and I highly recommend it. Even for Democrats.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/mfCoLNphq3I?si=RUW6aibFXtwxAaFU
Mitch McConnell’s gift package for the Kentucky Derby included a bottle of Old Crow bourbon, to have some fun with the Donald Trump designation of him as an Old Crow.
Donald Trump was not the only President to make fun of Mitch McConnell.
Bill Manzi.com 