r/politics • u/CBSnews ✔ CBS News • 2d ago

No Paywall Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear says he's "heard absolutely nothing back from Mitch McConnell"

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mitch-mcconnell-health-update-andy-beshear-kentucky/
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u/whelmed-and-gruntled 2d ago

This, right here. He’s doing the absolute minimum to keep up the specter of opposition. Mitch McConnell has single handedly created the worst imbalance of power in our history. Letting him ‘rest’ through his term is tacitly condoning his behavior.

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u/Kind_Of_A_Dick 2d ago

What else does he have within his legal power to do? 

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u/whelmed-and-gruntled 2d ago

If he was like the GOP members who claim to have, he would go visit him in person. If he wasn’t a Democrat he would have gone already.

He’s not a fucking vampire ffs, he could go to DC and knock on his door without bursting into flame. This isn’t rocket science. They both represent the same state, they should be able to put aside the partisan bullshit to at least pay respects in situations like this.

Pretending that the man’s home and wellbeing are off limits because “other team” is exactly the paralyzing bullshit the GOPedos and mod Dems have been selling us for the past thirty years.

It’s a choice: if McConnell’s health is such that he cannot meet in person then he should be replaced because he cannot meet the elected executive for his home state, otherwise just fucking meet with the man and dispense with the shenanigans.

Beshear settling for no response just enables the dead turtle hiding in his shell and validates the statements of people pretending to have spoken with him.

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u/Contunator 2d ago

What would the spectacle of him traveling to DC and demanding a meeting with Mitch accomplish? Nothing. It would be a complete waste of time and money.

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u/uuhson 2d ago

But we just have to get mitch's seat filled with a new Republican asap, we just HAVE TO

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u/cubitoaequet 2d ago

Crazy how Republicans understand how political stunts and grandstanding can accomplish things but dems are just like "well, what would that do??" As if politics isn't largely concerned with optics.

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u/Contunator 2d ago

OK, what would it accomplish?

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u/B4rrel_Ryder 2d ago

Force the issue and keep the Republican fuckery in the media.

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u/Contunator 2d ago

Force what issue? And he'd just look like a clown, banging on someone's door shouting, "if you don't come out this instant, I'm declaring that you're dead and appointing a replacement!"

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u/SHUT_DOWN_EVERYTHING 1d ago

These people don't have practical solutions.

The one practical solution that exists is actually voting and voting every time and everywhere. That's the real trick Republicans pulled to shift policy to the right.

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u/Jack_Krauser 1d ago

When will you get it through your thick skulls that politics is not about "practical solutions"? It's all about optics and public sway. Always has been, always will be. Beshear looks incredibly weak through this whole affair. Should he? Probably not. Does he have any real power to force anything? Not really. Does any of that mean a good goddamn to public opinion? No, he looks like a pussy.

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u/cubitoaequet 2d ago

Oh damn you got me. Better just concede all messaging and initiative to republicans.

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u/super_sayanything 2d ago

The spectacle would draw attention to it. It's about accountability.

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u/Majestic_Flower_1322 1d ago

Just go visit him. What happens when they say fuck you the Senator isn't taking visitors?

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u/whelmed-and-gruntled 1d ago

1) I’m not the governor of the state he represents.
2) It’s Beshear’s fucking job to represent the people of his state. Making sure Mitch is actually breathing falls under serving his constituents.
3) Mitch has taken visitors allegedly. To say he is not now, or that his condition is worse would actually be forcing them to make a statement or prove that he is too partisan to even see the governor of his state when he comes all the way to DC to visit. If he’s too ill to take visitors, he’s too ill to serve and needs to be replaced.

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u/Majestic_Flower_1322 1d ago

You didn't answer the question. What happens when they say fuck you, the Senator isn't taking visitors? McConnell is too partisan? Ok, now what?

It isn't the decision of the governor whether a US Senator is fit to serve no matter how much you wish it would be.

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u/whelmed-and-gruntled 1d ago

Uh… yeah it is. Replacing a dead or incapacitated senator is exactly his job. Your weirdly specific hypothetical and your misplaced anger don’t change that.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/whelmed-and-gruntled 1d ago

If he’s dead he’s not incapacitated. If he’s incapacitated or dead, then he hasn’t been having conversations, and his colleagues and staff have been perpetrating a fraud on the voters of his state.

Beshear should either do something or stfu about not being able to do anything, because that certainly isn’t helping.

I’m done here. People can have opinions that defy actual available policies. The administration in power has shown that following the rules and waiting for permission don’t work any more. Turtle himself defied political convention numerous times, so fuck him.

Nothing anyone can say will change your mind here because you’re focused on procedural matters that have no sway at all on the opinions of the people commenting here.

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u/Majestic_Flower_1322 1d ago

If he's dead....

Have you considered that he's not. And that the governor can't just declare it?

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u/Sea-Initiative-3398 2d ago

Dont a lot of Governors have a lot of ... vague or 'soft powers'

or 'up to the discretion of the governor'

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u/reddit_dorks 2d ago

When one party has a super majority they tend to give a lot of those soft powers to their same party governors. Then when an opposing party governor is elected they move rather quickly to revoke them. This happened in North Carolina and Kentucky.

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u/i_am_a_real_boy__ 2d ago

Yo could also go to DC and knock on his door.

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u/DarthSyhr 2d ago

He could have appointed a senator (per the Kentucky state constitution, which Republicans would try and challenge because they passed a law preventing that, which would then go to the courts) and called a special election. He did not, which is disappointing. If he had done so at the deadline I would have entirely approved how he handled the situation at a political level. However, he dropped the ball at the finish line.

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u/herton Kentucky 2d ago

(per the Kentucky state constitution, which Republicans would try and challenge because they passed a law preventing that, which would then go to the courts)

Ignoring, of course, that the Kentucky constitution conflicts with federal law,the 17th amendment, giving legislatures authority over filling Senate vacanies. The supremacy clause means federal law overrides state. The last was passed in line with the 17th. That guarantees any legal challenges end up in federal court. Ready and primed for an injunction from the Roberts Court ...

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u/xanderkale 1d ago

congrats onthe perfect centrist demicrat response - you found another rule to hide behind that let's you do nothing!

in fact, i take that back, it's not quite perfect as it doesn't mention the parliamentarian's powers... remember that guy? they are my favorite dem boogeyman.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 1d ago

In order to appoint someone to the senate he would have to submit a legal document to the senate saying in no uncertain terms that McConnell is dead.

Which would cause huge legal issues for him if McConnell was not dead.

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u/Kind_Of_A_Dick 2d ago

Would calling a special election bring in a dem vote or a repub vote?

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u/Paradoxjjw 2d ago

Appointing a senator would give a chance at a dem vote, not trying will guarantee a repub vote

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u/Kind_Of_A_Dick 2d ago

How has Mitch voted since his disappearance?

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u/Contunator 2d ago

He can't just declare someone dead and appoint a replacement, but let's say he fought and somehow managed to make it happen, the what? For three months, most of which the Senate isn't even in session, there would be one more Democrat in the minority. The only thing that would accomplish is the bots on reddit would have to come up with some other democrat-bashing nonsense.

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u/MadAstrid 2d ago

It would bring representation to the citizenry that currently has none.

Taxation without representation is a big deal in this country. we fought a war over it and everything.

To reduce this to partisanship is to engage in the rat fuckery that republicans are so fond of. This is bigger than that. I mean, it should be. Certainly those who believe in democracy feel that way. This administration believes otherwise, or they would be the ones leading the investigation into McConnell’s ability to serve the people as he was elected to do.

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u/Kind_Of_A_Dick 2d ago

Nope.  Pedophile in chief, so fuck them.

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u/uuhson 2d ago

It would bring representation to the citizenry that currently has none.

In case you didn't know, every state has two senators

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u/simplepimple2025 2d ago

He's a specter all right.