Mitt Tells All

“I heard on NPR” is the most presumptuous conversational opening ever.

Nonetheless, I heard an interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air” that was most illuminating. McKay Coppins (how’s that for an Ivy League/Country Club moniker) wrote a book based on two years of interviews with Mitt Romney. Since Mitt is retiring from the Senate at the end of this term and especially since he has more money than God from his days as CEO of Bain Capital, he can “tell it like is”.

Mitt was surprised that in the US Senate “twenty do all the work. The remaining eighty are along for the ride”. That would not surprise me, Mittens. In my life experience, be it school, the Army, work, church or any other organization, there are a lot more drones than worker bees.

Actually, with the majority party setting the Senate agenda and with seniority governing committee assignments, a junior senator from the minority party has little opportunity to get anything accomplished.

A senior senator advised Mitt to apply a three part test to any new legislation. 1. Will it help me get re-elected? 2. Will it improve the prospects of my party in the next election? 3. Is it good for the country? In that order.

Mitt was the only Republican senator to vote to impeach Donnie the first time. Before the process began, Mitch McConnell advised all his GOP colleagues to push the process through as quickly as possible and to vote for acquittal because impeachment would result in the Democrats winning the White House and the Senate in 2020. “We will have socialized medicine, gun control, and liberal judges!”

The Dems did win the White House and the Senate in 2020. Yet, we still have the most expensive and least available to the poor medicine in the First World, mass shootings, and 10 year old rape victims having to cross state lines for an abortion.

Happy retirement, Mitt. Thanks for telling it like it is.

By Ed Dufton