Author: patd

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Mitch Ditched

The Guardian:

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was taken to hospital in Washington DC after he tripped and fell at a hotel, a spokesperson for the senator said.

“This evening, Leader McConnell tripped at a local hotel during a private dinner. He has been admitted to the hospital where he is receiving treatment,” David Popp, communications director for McConnell said in a statement.

In 2019, McConnell, who is 81 and a survivor of childhood polio, tripped and fell at his home in Kentucky, suffering a shoulder fracture.

The Senate has been without several members recently due to illness.

The office of Senator Dianne Feinstein, 90, said she was taken to hospital last week to be treated for shingles.

Senator John Fetterman, 53, who suffered a stroke during his campaign last year, was expected to remain out for some weeks as he received care for clinical depression.

The Democratic absences have proven a challenge for Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, who is already navigating a very narrow 51-49 majority.

The Republicans, as the minority party, have had an easier time with intermittent absences. It is unclear if McConnell will be out on Thursday and if that would have an effect on scheduled votes. South Dakota Senator John Thune is the Senate’s No 2 Republican.

Wagged Dogs

A once grand old party cowers in a shadow of itself.

From Politico:

Despite his difficulties since he left office, about a third of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters still consider themselves supporters more of Trump than the Republican Party, according to a recent NBC News poll. Many of them aren’t going anywhere. Fully 28 percent of Republican primary voters are so devoted to the former president that they said they’d support him even if he ran as an independent, according to a national survey last month from The Bulwark and longtime Republican pollster Whit Ayres. Indeed, the “Always Trump” component of the party is so pronounced that it’s affecting how Trump’s opponents operate around him.