A Tale of Two Senators

If, as they say, timing is everything, the untimely passing of Lindsey Graham couldn’t have come at a worse time for his former colleague in the Senate, Mitch McConnell. Fellow Senator Susan Collins perhaps spoke too soon when she announced in 2018, upon the death of John McCain, that “the lions of the Senate are gone. It is very sad.” By sheer tenure, McConnell would seem to hold that title. If he remains to the end of this, his seventh term, he will have served 42 years, making him the longest serving senator in Kentucky history. But he already holds an even more noteworthy record (18 years) as the longest serving Senate leader of either party in US history.

And yet, his lion stature is more than debatable. He’s been MIA for a month, hospitalized for weeks after suffering a medical emergency and remaining in an undisclosed rehabilitation facility to this day, but according to the spokesperson for his wife of 33 years, “the Senator’s health did not warrant an immediate return to the US.” The only visual sign of life is a photo of him smiling in a hospital bed, beside his spouse Elaine Chao, along with a partial view of a newspaper dated July 12. No one claims to have spoken with him save his former employee and token CNN conservative Scott Jennings, and current Republican Senate leadership John Thune and John Barrasso. His wife has only issued statements through her spokesperson. His three adult children have remained silent with one even deleting her previously active (Progressive) social media account. All this while perhaps the most important legislation, with majority bipartisan public support, the SAVE Act, remains stalled in the Republican majority Senate because of the intransigence of who really knows how many Republican senators… Although we do know that one of them was (is?) McConnell himself.

Saturday evening, another ostensible lion of the Senate, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, passed away unexpectedly from what appears to have been natural causes, an aortic rupture, consistent with his general health and family history. In stunning contrast to the silence surrounding McConnell, the reaction to Graham’s death was overwhelming and immediate, and very personal. The outpouring of sentiment for the never married and childless senator was like a tidal wave. Everyone had a Lindsey story to relate, had just talked to him, dined with him, played golf with him, traveled with him, worked with him… His beloved sister was almost immediately appointed to complete his term, and in remarkably unusual fashion, almost no one complained.

Graham’s death also exposed a big fat antisemitic lie. The greatest supporter, defender and advocate for America’s alliance with Israel, who was and remains accused of being in the pocket of AIPAC, of being owned by, bought and paid for by the Jews, turns out to have had one of the lowest net worths in the Senate, roughly $1.7 million dollars. A man repeatedly accused of war profiteering, of supporting foreign wars to make money, turns out to have been motivated by conviction, not greed. And Israel didn’t buy his friendship. Nor did Ukraine. As so often turns out to be the case, the loudest voices screaming about Lindsey Graham’s warmongering are themselves the ones receiving hefty funds from Qatar, or George Soros or Neville Roy Singham.

Mitch McConnell most certainly does not have one of the lowest net worths in the Senate. Thanks in large part to his wife’s enormous inheritance from her father, from family business in China, his sits at around $68 million. I guess that’s why it was more important for Elaine Chao to stay in China overseeing private “philanthropy” than to hop on a plane back to the bedside of her 84 year old ailing husband. As the wise Glenn Reynolds pointed out, every hospitalized patient needs another set of eyes watching over their professional treatment. And the longer the hospitalization, the older the patient, the greater the risk of error, complications, etc. Yet even after a lifetime in leadership, seemingly none of his colleagues, associates, friends, family or constituents stepped in to fill the void. There is a frigid and opaque dome encircling everything to do with Mitch McConnell. One wonders if he is cognizant of the emotional reactions to his fellow senator’s death and if it makes him reflect on his own dissimilar legacy? Pretty grim stuff to face, but maybe not for him. His obstinance and determination to see the end of the Trump/MAGA movement may be what’s keeping him alive.

His passing will not trigger the warmth and widespread sadness following Lindsey Graham’s death, but he’s been given the opportunity to do the right thing, to vote for the Save Act, to vote to nuke the filibuster, to help save the Republic. If he takes advantage of that opportunity, he’ll go down in history as a great American. I don’t believe he wouldn’t want that. I hope he proves me right.