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US Politics

Mitch McConnell Will Not Go Gently Into the Senate Goodnight

The Nation
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David Gergen : Even if Mitch McConnell wanted to retire, there's no way he’ll let Kentucky ’s Democratic governor choose his replacement, even temporarily.

Gergen says McConnell is a Republican man, which means nobody is going to pressure him into getting out of the way so somebody else can frost the glass of representative democracy.

Kentucky is one of 46 states that allows its governor to fill US Senate vacancies until a special election can be held and the voters decide who will finish the senatorial term.

If McConnell retires, the most likely thing for Beshear to do would be to appoint whoever he wants, let the Kentucky legislature sue him, and take the case to the Supreme Court .

Even if Kentucky ’s legislature manages to overcome the Seventeenth Amendment , there is yet another wrinkle: who is going to tell Besheare ’S replacement senator to go home? Remember, as of now, Democrats still control the Senate .