Mitch McConnell cozy with the White House?
by Prairie Weather
…For McConnell – who has some of the best tactical instincts in modern Washington – the choices ahead are pivotal.
So it seems. According to the Washington Post, the Senate Minority Leader is giving up obstructionism and embracing statesmanship. Well, sort of. He may have accepted the fragility of power in a country that doesn’t exactly embrace either party.
Having a new Republican majority in the House and six new GOP senators, his hand is stronger. But with more power comes higher expectations. The Republicans’ political gains are fragile, and voters – who have tossed a party out in each of the past three elections – have shown they will not tolerate politicians who don’t produce results.
That means working with the White House.
The potential for doing business with the Obama administration is there, however, as evidenced by the deal-making last month between McConnell and Vice President Biden. It produced a tax cut – and McConnell’s first-ever invitation to a bill-signing ceremony at the Obama White House, where the president lauded their “extraordinary work.” …
The vice president and the GOP leader now speak frequently on the phone. It’s a new relationship for a Republican leader who didn’t have a one-on-one meeting with the president until more than a year and a half into Obama’s term.
McConnell is oddly optimistic that things will move his way.
“I have a lot of discussions with the White House that I didn’t used to have. I think we’ll have a lot more interaction,” McConnell said. “They have obviously decided they are going in a different direction. When they basically adopt our positions, I expect we’ll have a lot of interaction.”…WaPo