On Sunday Michael J. Tallon had this to say:
I don’t think Mitch McConnell is dead. I think he is incapacitated, possibly in a coma or otherwise fully unable to perform his duties as a Senator – and here’s why.
First, remember: Washington is filled with lawyers and the personally risk-averse. Most are willing to gamble with your wealth and freedom, but they are far more judicious when faced with risking their own. Covering up the death of a Senator would almost certainly violate the law. That matters because a death triggers legal mechanisms to fill the vacancy, so the people of any given state or district are not left without representation.
Those rules, however, do not apply to incapacitation. He could have had a stroke that prevents him from speaking but otherwise leaves him compos mentis. He could be in a coma, in a persistent vegetative state, or have had some internal event that caused rapid progressive dementia (RPD). Any of that would still leave Mitch McConnell legally the senior Senator from Kentucky. Short of a two-thirds vote in the Senate to expel him, there is nothing any of us could do about it, and that includes Governor Andy Beshear.
But that doesn’t explain why his staff or family would WANT to keep him as a Senator.
But this does:
So long as Mitch is legally the Senator, his staff still have jobs. If he is dead or his seat is declared vacant, they have 60 days until their last paycheck, and lots of those folks have made career plans that begin in January of 2027, not August of 2026.
(Also, for those of you who think I’m just being political here, I’ll note that I made this same argument on April 15, 2023, about Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein when she was clearly falling apart in her chair.)
If I am correct, this also explains why the rest of the politicos are holding their tongues. The Senate is still a collegial place. Mitch McConnell’s staff in Washington works every day with other Senators and Senatorial staff, and Congressional staff members have decades of personal relationships, deep friendships, and collegial connections with one another. Governor Beshear and his staff likewise have those relationships with McConnell’s Kentucky-based staff.
As I said with Feinstein back in 2023, I think it is high time for the Senator to go. Eighty-four-year-old men who are found unresponsive in their homes, lazily driven – sirens off – to the hospital, and stick around eating reconstituted mashed potatoes from the hospital mess for nearly 50 days are NOT in good enough shape to handle one of the hardest (desk) jobs in the world. Hence, it is high time for those staff members, no matter how little they want to, to suck it up and either move on to new Beltway positions, retire, or sell their DC Navy Yard condos and head back to the Bluegrass State.
What they are doing might be legal. It might even be considered an acceptable ethical lapse by those inside the Senate bubble. But it is not okay with the rest of us.
Mitch, an awful man who has done awful things to this country for well over fifty years, has reached the end of the line, and it is time for his staff to hit the bricks, as well.
Love and health to you all . . . unless you’re a fascist, in which case, I wish you all a very long and inconvenient season of sad-tortoise luck.
Greg back: I thought that this was very well-reasoned, but it still left open the question of complicity:what about all these other people, some sort of credible, claiming that they actually had one or more *extended conversations* with Mitch? That’s a whole lot of people lying and a whole lot to keep straight! I think that we’re clear on the motive that staffers have, but the means and opportunity aren’t clear.
And then I had my own insight to add — and it’s what Governor Andy Beshear needs to seriously demand “proof of life”: this could be a serious fraud perpetrated by staffers. Obviously conspiring to obtain undue government benefits is an issue, but I’m also talking about fraudulently blocking a gubernatorial appointment.
Here’s my insight: staffers sometimes learn how to imitate their “principals” — it’s part of the fun of being in politics. And it’s even more fun if said principal has an extremely distinctive way of speaking, such as Mitch’s marble-gargling patois.
Might it be true that the politicians who claim to have spoken to Mitch are not lying, but merely mistaken — because they are being actively deceived?
Have they in fact dealing with people — staffers — *impersonating* McConnell?
The ease of impersonating him would be greater because no one know what Mitch should sound like after a serious — and likely devastating, and perhaps *already* fatal — stroke. And the staffers may not just be serving *their own* interests — but actively serving what their principal’s interests would like have been: one final rat fuck of the Senate Democrats?
That may *well* be what Mitch wanted — but if he’s dead he’s not entitled to that end, and if he’s merely incapacitated then it’s still a fraud (and likely a conspiracy involving at least his wife.)
As others have said: Beshear should simply make an appointment (reports differ on whether he can appoint only someone from a small list of Republicans, or could appoint Thomas, or even a Democrat.) Put the onus on the Republicans to seek an injunction for a court to block it. Only then would a conspiracy of staffers (or others) to pull a “Weekend at Bernie’s” stunt with Mitch involve actionable wrongdoing.
If the default is that Beshear’s appointment goes forward unless it’s blocked, then impersonation becomes actual fraud — under Kentucky law as well as whatever may happen federally. That should get some staffers to protect themselves by disclaiming any role in an actually impactful fraud.
Beshear had better act quickly, while he can!
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