A Senate Majority Leader Worthy of the Title

[Formerly Once-Ler]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10587845965603524902004581052413081749674

Mitch McConnell has achieved more in six months than Democrats managed in years.


By Bob Dole And Trent Lott
June 23, 2015 7:04 p.m. ET

Recently a reporter asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell what he thought about the fact that so many of his fellow Senate Republicans are running for president. His response: If they want a real challenge, they should try running the Senate.

We understand the sentiment. Having had the majority-leader job ourselves, we well know the frustrations of trying to unite a conference of willful and independent operators, all of whom feel the constant tug of their home-state interests and their own ambitions.

All of which is why we have both been impressed with Sen. McConnell’s leadership in these first months of the 114th Congress, perhaps best illustrated by the current bipartisan effort to give the president trade-promotion authority, also known as fast-track, in support of American jobs and exports. Tuesday’s 60-37 vote to break a filibuster clears the way for TPA to be signed by President Obama after a final Senate vote.

It is a relief to see an institution that we both devoted so much of our lives to working again. And it is an encouraging development for the country to see the Senate addressing big problems after years of inaction when it was controlled by Democrats.

In only six months, the progress has been dramatic. Committees are up and running. Senators in both parties are debating and amending bills. Since January, the Senate has passed 30 bipartisan bills, a feat that required skillful leadership and real consensus-building. Not only is legislation now passing, bills are actually making their way to the president’s desk.

The very first bill of the new Congress was a bipartisan proposal to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. In one week senators voted on more roll-call amendment votes to Keystone than they had voted on in all of last year, a welcome development that has been rightly cheered by Republicans and Democrats alike. After President Obama ultimately vetoed the bill, even an unsuccessful attempt to override the veto was bipartisan, with eight Democrats joining in.

Following an important but frustrating debate over the president’s unilateral actions on immigration from last fall, and a skirmish over a human-trafficking bill that eventually passed unanimously, Mr. McConnell helped shepherd through the Senate’s first budget in years.

Already, the Senate has resolved a thorny Medicare reimbursement issue that bedeviled both parties for years. The Senate also passed the Iran Nuclear Review Act, allowing crucial congressional oversight of any nuclear deal the administration strikes with Iran.

This month the Senate turned to the annual appropriations bills six months earlier than in recent congresses. And the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) made it to the Senate floor after intense scrutiny from both parties in committee and an overwhelming bipartisan committee vote of approval that foreshadowed a robust debate on the floor.

Indeed, the Senate considered more amendments on this year’s NDAA, passed with a significant bipartisan vote last week, than it had during debates over the same bill in the past two years.

When the Senate almost assuredly gives the president final fast-track approval this week, it will be an important step toward the successful negotiation of free-trade agreements that will give a boost to U.S. economic growth while enhancing national security.

At Mr. McConnell’s urging, the Senate is also poised to act on a cybersecurity bill that both parties recognize is needed at a moment when large security breaches are becoming increasingly common. A major rewrite of No Child Left Behind is also on the docket, as well as a number of other bipartisan measures now working through committee.

There have been hiccups along the way, as the human-trafficking debate clearly demonstrated. That’s the nature of a 100-member deliberative body, where 60 votes (Republicans control only 54 seats) are needed to achieve almost anything. But when this Senate has bogged down, it has usually been due to sincere policy disagreements—great debates over the proper balance between privacy and security or executive authority.

In a time of Democratic control of the White House and increased polarization between the parties, Mr. McConnell has shown real skill in securing bipartisan support to get bills over the 60-vote hurdle necessary for passage.

There was never a lot that a Republican-led Senate would be able to agree on with President Obama, but Mr. McConnell has been wise to identify the handful of matters where agreement is possible, and he has been tenacious in ensuring that the legislation earned bipartisan support. He said his Senate would focus on results, and it has. That’s a sign of real progress—not only for the public but for our politics as well.

Mr. Dole, a Republican, served as a U.S. senator from Kansas, 1969-96. Mr. Lott, a Republican, served as a senator from Mississippi, 1989-2007.

[sinkspur]

Mitch McConnell has done as good a job as anyone could have.

The bomb throwers want to constantly be in the Democrats' faces, but that accomplishes nothing. Mitch knows how to make the Senate work.

[truth_seeker]

Mitch McConnell has done as good a job as anyone could have.

The bomb throwers want to constantly be in the Democrats' faces, but that accomplishes nothing. Mitch knows how to make the Senate work.

Online viewers want Custer's Last Stand, 24-7-365 for their entertainment viewing pleasure.

If you can 't give them that drama, that conflict, that blood they want nothing to do with you.

[Free Vulcan]

The article paints a pretty picture, but what's the substance? Who cares if things are working again and bills are passed if the bills simply keep us on the destructive path that we're on by trying to be 'bipartisan'? If all we're doing is caving to Obama's agenda, what are we accomplishing?

[Fishrrman]

"Mitch McConnell has achieved more in six months than Democrats managed in years."
- Bob Dole

He's doin' about as well as you did as a candidate, Bob...