1y ago

Kentucky’s Democratic governor declines to commit to appointing a Republican if Mitch McConnell steps down

www.nbcnews.com Kentucky governor won't commit to GOP appointment if McConnell steps down

A recent state law directs the governor to select a Senate appointee from a list of three names submitted by the state executive committee of the outgoing senator’s party.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear this week declined to say whether he would follow a state law that says Republicans would get to choose a replacement for Sen. Mitch McConnell if the Senate GOP leader leaves Congress before the end of his term.

The Democratic governor was asked during a news conference Thursday about making an appointment in the event of a Senate vacancy but said he would not speculate on the matter.

39 comments

In what way could he "commit" that would be legally binding anyway?
Frankly, the Republicans have created such an atmosphere of bad faith that it would be fair to just promise whatever was necessary to get Mitch out, then appoint a Democrat replacement anyway. He won't, because Democrats care more about process than winning, but it would be fair.
- If the shoe were on the other foot you know exactly what the GOP would do.
  
  *have done
  I seem to remember McConnell specifically whining about how unfair it was for Obama to appoint a replacement Supreme Court justice in the last few months of his term and denying Obama the opportunity, and then ramming his own party's justice through when the tables had turned during Trump's last months.
  McConnell being replaced by a democrat against his party's will would almost be poetic justice if he hadn't have profoundly ruined our highest court in the process.
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- Just saying he would follow the law I imagine? It wouldn't be binding- but still.

It should be a new election tbh. Even if that ends up being another Republican, it's the best way to do it. Elections in the US are for people, not parties — at least on paper.
- The people of Kentucky also elected a Democratic governor, and at the time they did so (2019), the law that requires Senate replacements to be from the same party did not exist yet. So they voted for him fully expecting that if McConnell keeled over he might be replaced by a Democrat.
- It should be, yes. And it would be in any other state. Mitch changed the law in his state so if he dies in office a new rep from the same party has to take his place.
  
  An article I read earlier, it sounds like the Governor has a reasonable chance of winning a court fight to invalidate that law for being unconstitutional.
  
  It's me. Hi. I'm the Republican, it's me.
  *
- The issue is otherwise the voters are underrepresented in the meantime. Generally, how this is decided(and senators are elected in general) should be up to state law. And the state law as of now says it should be from the same party.
  
  Mitch McConnell's constituency aren't Kentucky voters, they're the oligarchy. He's never voted to protect or benefit anyone other than donors. Kentucky is one of the poorest states, so it's got the cheapestly bought federal positions.

What a shitty click bait headline. He refused to comment on an appointment at all because McConnell has no plans to resign.

Misleading headline designed to provoke Republicans. He didn't refuse to appoint one of the Republican nominees, he merely stated there is no vacancy yet.

In honor of McConnell he should ram though a partisan choice like good ol Mitch would have. Everyone talking about “democracy” didn’t really know the man. Show some respect, do it like he would

If that were to happen perhaps it would be best to let the people decide in the next election in Mitch's honor.
- There should be a special referendum, to honor Mitch’s respect for the will of the people. There should even be a same day voter sign up.

"what would Mitch do?"

that's right gov, give em fits, make them keep mitch there, which deflates any attack on biden, and feinstein. good job.
- I disagree with feinstein, she needs to go too. If Biden was doing the same.thing as Mitch, I would say he needs to go as well.
  
  100%, but I don't want to hear this from republicans who vote for idiots with no qualifications anyway.
  Anything that keeps them off center enough that they can't make their normal hypocritical bad faith arguments is fine in my book.

What? removed don’t remember Merrick Garland?

wE shOulD leT thE pEoPle DeCidE
Fr tho it's nice to see Democrats who aren't so dedicated to decorum that they're willing to sacrifice me in an effort to maintain the moral high ground.

This is the best summary I could come up with:
Andy Beshear this week declined to say whether he would follow a state law that says Republicans would get to choose a replacement for Sen. Mitch McConnell if the Senate GOP leader leaves Congress before the end of his term.
Kentucky state law previously permitted the governor to appoint a replacement for a vacant Senate seat until the next general House election, which occurs every two years.
In a veto statement, Beshear cited the state Constitution in suggesting that the bill “improperly and unconstitutionally" restricted the governor’s power to fill Senate vacancies.
McConnell's first on-camera freeze up took place in July during a news conference on Capitol Hill, with the senator abruptly pausing, with a blank look, until he was briefly escorted away.
A similar episode occurred in Kentucky on Wednesday when he stood motionless and did not speak for more than 30 seconds after a reporter asked whether he planned to run for re-election in 2026.
In a statement Thursday, Brian Monahan, the U.S. Capitol's attending physician, said that McConnell is "medically clear” to continue to work after conferring with the senator's neurology team who was treating him for a concussion after a fall in March.
The original article contains 532 words, the summary contains 194 words. Saved 64%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

This is some clickbait bullshit

What would stop him from appointing a democrat who changed parties to be a republican?
- IIRC, Republican party leadership chooses three options and the governor appoints one among them. No way would the party include someone who just switched over.
  
  What would happen if he just left the spot open? Or left it open until they picked someone suitable?
  
  Gotcha. That seems much less open to interpretation then.

39 comments