Maestro of Bad Faith and wrecker of American democracy Sen. "Moscow Mitch" McConnell (R-Hell), feeling the enormous heat and anger stemming from the Uvalde massacre, has another bad faith offer to take the heat off Senate Republicans:
Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN on Thursday he met earlier in
the day with Texas Sen. John Cornyn and encouraged the senior Republican
senator to begin discussions with Democrats, including Sens. Chris
Murphy of Connecticut and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, to see if they can
find a middle ground on legislation to respond to the tragic Texas elementary school shooting.
Lawmakers
on both sides of the aisle are facing enormous pressure to take action
in the wake of the horrific shooting, but members on both sides
acknowledge the uphill battle to find common ground given the highly
polarized political climate around gun legislation and widespread GOP
opposition to stricter gun control.
A "middle ground" on, for example, background checks and red flag laws, the very
de minimus the vast majority of Americans are demanding?? What kind of poison pill might Republicans have in mind? Well, in 2012, after the Sandy Hook massacre, Democrats tried to pass the Safe Communities Act, with a provision for expanding background checks. It died in the Senate thanks to a Republican filibuster, but not after Republicans
Ted Cruz (that loathsome weasel again) and Chuck Grassley proposed an amendment killing the background check expansion.
So, what is Sen. Cornyn's first thought out of the box?
Cornyn has also said that he does not want to see the shooting used as a way to infringe on gun rights.
"There's
a whole list of things that we can consider, but I think particularly
mental health, access to mental health treatment is high on that list,"
he said, adding, "I think we need to be open to whatever, wherever the
evidence leads us. I would say that this is not an excuse to infringe
the Second Amendment rights of law abiding citizens doing that will do
nothing to fix tragedies like this."
Ah, the mental health, "guns don't kill people, deranged 18-year-olds kill people" script ripped from the National Rifle Rampage Association handbook! The NRA, like white Christofascists, has long been an integral part of the Republican party/cult, and Republican "leaders" heading into an election cycle would sooner adopt "The Internationale" as their official anthem than decouple from those crackpots.
(Of course, the better way to get "sensible gun safety laws" is to throw Republicans out of office -- at the local, State and Federal level. Well, it's an aspiration to fight for.)
It seems at least some Democrats are finally wise to the bad faith rope- a- dope tactics of McConnell and his merry band of sociopaths, though. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) says the clock is ticking:
"I've been through this before," he said. "I know sometimes Republicans
are more interested in talking than doing, so if we can't get some
progress by the end of next week, then I'll say to Sen. Schumer it's
time to take votes. And Sen. Schumer has committed that we're gonna have
votes one way or the other on the floor of the Senate on issues like
background checks."
In the meantime, we won't be cashing any checks written by Moscow Mitch.
BONUS: These checks have already been cashed, though --
(Image: Moscow Mitch at the 2014 CPAC nutfest)