(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . So What If Mitch McConnell Drops Dead? Republicans' Vacancy Rigging May Be Unconstitutional. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-08-31 While some in the media — Charlie Sykes for one — think we should be sensitive about Senator Mitch McConnell’s health issue, I am one of his constituents who McConnell has tried to harm with his attempts to kill Obamacare (I have been on Medicaid expansion under the ACA). Therefore, I feel no fucking need to be sensitive about McConnell’s health. What everyone is thinking is, “What happens if McConnell dies before 2026?” McConnell already planned on this by getting the Republican supermajority in the Kentucky legislature to pass a law that takes away the governor’s power to select a U.S. Senator when there was a vacancy. Instead, the Kentucky Republican Party gets to pick who fills that vacancy. However, if McConnell does drop dead before 2026, Democratic Governor Andy Beshear will probably file a legal challenge on this vacancy law as being unconstitutional — violation of the 17th Amendment. I will make one stipulation to this question: I do not think that McConnell will die before 2026. My Dad told me an old country saying about a despicable person we both knew. My Dad told me, “She’s too mean to die.” And I have no inside knowledge with regards to McConnell’s health, but I am betting he will linger on. McConnell’s life force is tied to his ambition of POWER, and McConnell is licking his chops at becoming Senate Majority Leader after 2024. Anyway, what if I am wrong and McConnell has another fall? And the fall worsens his health, and McConnell shuffles off to Hell before 2026. As I stated earlier, McConnell got the Republican legislature to pass a law to change how the state of Kentucky fills U.S. Senate vacancies. Legislature shifted appointment power from governor to party Whereas state law previously allowed the sitting governor to make his or her own appointment to fill a Senate vacancy with no restrictions, Senate Bill 228 passed by the Kentucky legislature in the 2021 session changed that. Under the amended law, the governor now may only choose from three names recommended by the executive committee of the outgoing senator's state party, and must make that selection within 21 days of receiving the list from the party. With both of Kentucky's senators currently being Republican, the choosing of those three nominees would be up to the executive committee of the Republican Party of Kentucky, which is made up of 54 members. Now, depending upon when McConnell croaks, there is to be a special election. And the procedure looks complex to me. I won’t go into all the details, but you can read it for yourselves. The article goes on to outline how Kentucky is now an outlier when it comes to filling a Senate seat vacancy. Most of the states have that power reside with the governor, which Kentucky used to have. But McConnell knew that he is an old geezer, and he wanted to keep his seat in Republican hands. This would have been no problem if there was a Republican governor, but horrors of horrors, we have a Democratic governor. So filling Senate vacancies had to be placed in the hands of the Kentucky Republican Party. Not even the clowns in the legislature. Instead, the power resides with an unelected group of Republicans. They get to put forward three names for the current governor to select from, and you can bet each of those three will be Trump fanatics or other lunatics like Jim Comer or Thomas Massie. So far, Governor Andy Beshear has not decided to challenge this law. But… Judging from Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear's veto statement for SB 228 — and recent conjecture of two attorneys with ties to the Kentucky Democratic Party — a challenge to the new vacancy law seems like a real possibility, should such a vacancy occur. Though his veto was overridden, Beshear wrote that the changes of SB 228 violated provisions of both the federal and state constitutions on how U.S. Senate vacancies could be filled. Beshear said the changes violate the 17th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which sought "to remove the power to select U.S. senators from political party bosses." "It delegates the power to select a representative to an unelected, unaccountable political committee that only represents a fraction of Kentuckians, when a senator is supposed to represent all of us," Beshear wrote. The 17th Amendment states that "the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct." Beshear also wrote in his veto statement that SB 228 violates Section 152 of Kentucky's constitution, which states a governor "shall" fill appointments or vacancies in the state at large. The governor wrote that "no conditions, qualifications, or limits are placed on that appointment power" in that section of the constitution. It’s obvious on its face that the law is unconstitutional, but it is in force until it is taken to court and struck down. FINAL NOTE: I know the media may be speculating about McConnell’s health and whether or not it may force him to resign. DO NOT FALL FOR THAT USELESS TALKING POINT! McConnell may not run for reelection in 2026, but no way in hell is McConnell going to voluntarily resign before January of 2027. We Democrats cannot get Feinstein to quit, and she is mentally long gone from being able to function as a U.S. Senator. She is too old, stubborn, and has nothing to go back to CA for. Her husband is dead, so all she has is her job, which she is clearly not able to do. Just like with Republican Senator Strom Thurmond, her staff is running the show. And they simply do not want to have to find other work. Thurmond’s staff did the exact same damn thing. It was well known in SC that voters were really electing Thurmond’s staff wth Thurmond being the front. So if there is no mechanism to get an old person with failing health to resign from the U.S. Senate, why should McConnell do it? Besides, McConnell holds a lot of purse strings. He sold his soul a long time ago to his wealthy corporate donors, and they have repaid him many times over with hoards of campaign case. This means that McConnell has cash to spread around to other Republican senators when election time rolls around. It’s one way McConnell keeps power, and unless someone can cut off McConnell’s cash spigot, there is no way he can or will leave voluntarily before 2026. So don’t count on that grisly ghoul Rick Scott of Florida to overthrow McConnell, even with McConnell’s failing health. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/31/2190628/-So-What-If-Mitch-McConnell-Drops-Dead-Republicans-Vacancy-Rigging-May-Be-Unconstitutional Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/