2 min read

I have withheld comment on this whole Mitch McConnell business because I find it difficult to analyze a person without the most basic information—like, whether or not he’s freaking alive. It appears that Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is rather of the same mind. From Politico:

Beshear sent a letter to McConnell Wednesday, saying that Kentuckians had grown “increasingly concerned” since the former Senate Republican leader was hospitalized in mid-June about both his health and “ability to hold office.”

“As governor, I request that you fully update Kentuckians regarding the current status of your health,” Beshear wrote to McConnell. “As public officeholders, we have made a commitment to our constituents to do our best to represent them and to always be transparent. I believe this requires clear communication about one’s ability to serve.”

Strange disappearances now seem to be the order of the day for the Republican congressional majorities. First, Congressman Tom Kean goes AWOL for almost four months. Now, we have this completely bizarre dead or alive guessing game about the former Senate majority leader. Three Republicans, including McConnell’s successor as majority leader, John Thune, and CNN millstone Scott Jennings, have said that they have spoken to McConnell on the phone for 20 minutes each. Some are calling for McConnell to provide a "proof of life" video, as though he were being held by drug lords in a Colombian jungle.

Beshear, a Democrat who was elected in 2019, cited the online chatter in requesting transparency, arguing that “allowing speculation to continue in the media is not fair to the Senator or to Kentuckians.” He said his own office has been peppered with questions about McConnell’s health. Notably, Kentucky Republicans have moved to sideline Beshear from the appointment process should there be a Senate vacancy. The state legislature changed the succession law in 2024, shortly after McConnell announced that he would retire at the end of his current term. Where previously the governor could make an appointment to fill a Senate vacancy pending a special election, as in most states, the new law provides only for a special election. Republican legislators overrode a Beshear veto to enact the 2024 law, but there are ongoing questions about its legality that could be litigated if there is in fact a vacancy

Whether or not Mitch McConnell has ceased to be, expired and gone to meet his maker, or is a stiff bereft of life and rests in peace, whether or not he has rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible, it must be comforting for him to know, here or in the Beyond, that Republican legislative ratfcking never sleeps.