By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
U. S. Sen. Mitch McConnell now is trying to make us Kentuckians even prouder of his 36 years of service in Washington.
In fact, it appears the Louisville Republican is trying to achieve something that has never been done successfully by a member of either house of Congress.
In short, he is trying to be counted on both sides of a major political fight, the second impeachment of Donald J. Trump.
Soon after the Jan. 6 assault on the U. S. Capitol, ole Mitch said it was Trump’s fault for encouraging the mob and for lying about the 2020 election being stolen from him.
Five weeks later, at the end of the second impeachment trial in the Senate, Mitch advised his fellow GOP senators that he intended to vote for Trump’s acquittal.
Later that day, McConnell did exactly that when he joined 42 of his Republican colleagues in denying the other side the two-thirds majority needed for impeachment.
You may recall at the first impeachment trial that Mitch, himself a lawyer, helped coordinate the former president’s legal defense, despite signing an oath to be an impartial juror, as required by the U. S. Constitution.
The votes had hardly been counted on Feb. 13 when Mitch made another floor speech in the Senate in which he again lambasted Trump as being responsible for the riot at the Capitol.
Despite having just chosen his party over his country by voting for Trump’s acquittal, Mitch revived his old college debating skills as he literally switched sides to again sharply criticize the former president.
Showing himself to be the master of the old Potomac two-step, our senior senator said he voted to acquit because impeachment was not appropriate for Trump because he had already left office and had resumed being a private citizen.
Unsaid at the time was the fact that McConnell himself, from his once-powerful perch as Senate majority leader, had delayed the Senate trial until after President Joe Biden officially took office on Jan. 20.
It’s not every day that a Washington politician has such a golden opportunity to make and then keep his own self-fulfilling prophecy and use it as an escape hatch.
Now that Republicans have lost control of both houses of Congress and the White House, as well as McConnell’s seat of power, it seems only fair that Kentucky voters deserve to know who will be representing us at the Capitol.
In the simplest of terms, which Mitch will it be?
Keith Kappes can be reached at keithkappes@gmail.com
