Mitch McConnell is staying put. The Senate Minority Leader announced Sunday that he won’t be back in the Capitol for votes anytime soon, even as his colleagues trickle back from recess. It is a tough pill to swallow for the Kentucky Republican. He admitted the recovery process is dragging, and his doctors are holding the line. He cannot vote yet. Still, he insists he is not slacking off from his hospital room.
To prove he is still in the game, his office blasted out a photo. It shows the veteran lawmaker sitting in a hospital chair, clutching a fresh copy of the newspaper, with his wife by his side. He claims he is still pulling the strings behind the scenes. He is talking to staff, managing constituent issues back home, and keeping tabs on his colleagues regarding appropriations and midterm strategy.
He has been gone a month. The 84-year-old has not cast a Senate vote since June 11, following a nasty fall at his D.C. home. According to his doctor, the tumble was linked to mobility issues stemming from childhood polio. While he escaped fractures or strokes, he did battle a bout of pneumonia early in his hospital stay. Antibiotics cleared that up, leaving him to focus on grueling physical therapy to prevent future falls.
This is not his first health scare, and the whispers about his fitness to serve are getting louder. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear even publicly pressured him last week to come clean about his medical status.
Meanwhile, the math in Washington is getting ugly for Republicans. With McConnell sidelined and the recent passing of Senator Lindsey Graham, the GOP is down two crucial votes on the razor-thin Appropriations Committee. This leaves them in a tight spot as Congress tackles the massive National Defense Authorization Act. Without these defense hawks, pushing through military spending along party lines just got a whole lot harder.
