Roberts Court

• His doctor has said the episodes are part of the normal recovery from a concussion McConnell experienced in March, but political circles are concerned about his ability to continue to serve.
• His success could hardly have been predicted when Senate Republicans elected McConnell as their leader in 2006.
• He fulfilled that threat in 2016, refusing to confirm Merrick Garland, Barack Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court.
• Trump had exercised his power with what often seems like reckless audacity, but McConnell’s 36-year Senate tenure is built on his calculated audacity.

McConnell’s political rise

• McConnell ran anyway.
• But McConnell won.
• They reacted emotionally to this touchy issue; he studied it, owned it and moved higher in the leadership.

Business, not service

• McConnell makes up for that by having command of the rules and the facts and a methodical attitude.
• The recording on his home phone once said, “This is Mitch McConnell.
• Not something like “my service to you in the United States Senate,” but “business.” This lack of emotion keeps McConnell disciplined.
• The first word was no surprise, because of McConnell’s well-known maxim; the second one intrigued me.

McConnell’s Supreme Court

• He and his colleagues slow-walked and filibustered Obama’s nominees, requiring “aye” votes from 60 of the 100 senators to confirm each one.
• The process consumed so much time that then-Majority Leader Harry Reid abolished the filibuster for nominations, except those to the Supreme Court.
• Trump’s 2016 victory preserved the Senate Republican majority, which then did away with the Supreme Court exception, allowing McConnell and his colleagues to install by simple majority vote the sort of Supreme Court justices they wanted: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
• It is the Roberts Court, but it is also the McConnell Court.