Mitch McConnell

Is the criminal justice reform bill being considered in the Senate all it’s cracked up to be?

The retiring senator is threatening to block advancement of judicial nominees.

Republicans lost the House but held the Senate in the midterm election. That puts Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell in the catbird seat.

The Senate majority leader talked to THE WEEKLY STANDARD about judicial confirmations, the midterm elections and Democrats wanting to change the rules.

Aggression in the pursuit of policy victories is no vice.

Three senators skipped Judiciary Committee meeting on Thursday, including Ted Cruz.

The Senate majority leader did not mention the president by name, and in response to a question later said, “I'm not here to critique anyone else. I'm here to speak for myself.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he doesn’t know whether the Senate will take up a bill this week to rein in President Donald Trump’s authority to unilaterally impose tariffs on national security grounds.

Time is running out to confirm top federal judges in 2018.

The Senate majority leader is not depressed.

There’s been a lot of rancor in Washington over immigration this past month—you may recall President Trump’s concern about immigrants from s—hole countries, the ensuing s—storm in the media, and the less-memorable government shutdown. Four separate immigration bills were shot down in the Senate on…

The freewheeling, open process that was expected to define this week’s high stakes immigration debate in the Senate is off to a slow start. On Tuesday morning, the chamber did what it does best—that is, not much.

President Trump drew a line in the sand on immigration reform in a Tuesday morning tweet, telling Congress that the freewheeling negotiations that began Monday are “our last chance” to grant legal status to nearly 2 million people brought to America illegally as children.

If there was any enthusiasm for President Trump’s infrastructure proposal on Capitol Hill on Monday, it was hard to find. Republican Bill Shuster, the chairman of the House Transportation committee, gave a perfunctory statement noting the White House’s framework while hardly endorsing it.

Lawmakers in the Senate voted overwhelmingly Monday night to move forward with a contentious immigration debate this week. Let the race to 60 votes begin.

Editor's note: It has been our great privilege to publish dozens of articles over the years by Jeffrey Bell, and it was with great sadness that we learned of his death over the weekend. You can read a tribute to Jeff by his colleague Rich Danker elsewhere on this page (as well as other tributes,…

Senate leaders announced Wednesday afternoon that they reached a massive two-year budget deal after weeks of negotiations in hopes of averting a government shutdown when funding runs out Thursday at midnight.

Time dulls the sharp edges of painful memories, but some events are so traumatic that they are burned into our psyches where they live on forever.

“Republicans Just Killed The Bill To Make Sure Troops Get Paid During Shutdown,” or so ran a headline from Addicting Info, flagged as potential fake news by Facebook users.

Lawmakers in the Senate reached an agreement to end the government shutdown Monday afternoon, but congressional Democrats who voted down a spending bill that would have kept the government open on Friday because it did not include a replacement for the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood…

Lawmakers in the House overwhelmingly voted down a motion to adjourn Friday morning, with just 12 hours to go until a government shutdown.

Lawmakers in the House voted to advance a short-term spending bill Thursday night, a critical next step in keeping the government up and running before funds run out at midnight on Friday.

Update, 9:54 p.m. ET: The Senate voted overwhelmingly 97-2 to proceed on the House CR late Thursday night. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell objected to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s attempt to force a cloture vote Thursday night, pushing the final vote closer to the government shutdown deadline…

Senate leadership won just enough votes Tuesday night to advance the renewal of a controversial surveillance authority due to expire by the end of the week, the latest bump in the authority’s turbulent road to passage. Lawmakers will likely cast a final vote on the bill this week, paving the way to…

The forecast for November 6, 2018 is a Democratic tsunami.

*Correction, 1/3/17: The piece originally stated that "President Trump will meet with Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and Chuck Schumer on Wednesday to start on the list with a discussion of the government funding bill." Officials from the White House, not President Trump, will be meeting…

It was a joyous celebration on the White House lawn Wednesday afternoon, and deservedly so. Republicans in Congress passed their tax cut bill, their biggest legislative achievement all year, amid some difficult circumstances—particularly their little-room-for-dissent Senate majority. Donald Trump…

Senate Republicans announced Wednesday afternoon that they would not attach measures providing additional funding to Obamacare in a year-end spending bill to keep the government open.

As Republicans prepare to celebrate their tax reform victory, a potential disaster lurks right around the corner.

Voting on the final Republican tax bill begins Tuesday, and a pledge Monday afternoon from Maine senator Susan Collins that she would support it all but sealed the deal—she’s the 50th vote in the Senate, and Vice President Mike Pence, if needed, can provide vote number 51.

Chris McDaniel, a state legislator, is leaning toward challenging Sen. Roger Wicker next year in Mississippi in the Republican primary, saying the GOP’s stunning loss of a Senate seat this week in a special election in neighboring Alabama hasn’t discouraged him from running.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that no matter who wins Tuesday’s Senate election in Alabama, Republican Luther Strange will remain in the seat until the end of the session this year.

The GOP tax plan cleared its first major hurdle in the Senate Wednesday afternoon, after a motion to proceed to amendments passed on a 52-48 party line vote.

The Senate Budget committee voted to move forward on the Republican tax bill Tuesday afternoon, a small but substantial step forward for the GOP overhaul, which will now go before the full Senate for debate. “I think we're going to get it passed,” said President Donald Trump at a White House…

It’s been more than five days since President Trump figuratively stood by Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. As he was leaving the White House last Tuesday to spend Thanksgiving with his family at Mar-a-Lago, Trump stopped to talk with the press and told them Alabama does not need to send a…

This week on the Confab, executive editor Fred Barnes talks with host Eric Felten about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's strategy for passing tax reform in the Senate.

A stark divide has emerged between the White House and Senate Republicans on Roy Moore’s ongoing candidacy for the Alabama Senate. President Donald Trump has not formally endorsed Moore, who’s been accused of sexual assault and pursuing inappropriate relationships with teenage girls while in his…

There are, in essence, three things wrong with the federal tax code. They are, in descending order of importance, that corporations pay an absurdly high rate; that the code is a labyrinthine mess that turns the work of paying one’s taxes into a nightmare; and that marginal individual rates have in…

Attorney general Jeff Sessions has told political allies in Alabama that he is not considering running for his old Senate seat as a write-in candidate in next month’s special election. That’s according to a spokeswoman for Sessions at the Department of Justice, Sarah Isgur Flores, who also tells me…

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, senior writer Michael Warren talks with host Eric Felten about the friendly truce between the president and the Senate majority leader.

Kicking off his surprise press conference with Mitch McConnell at the White House Monday afternoon, Donald Trump made the message of the day perfectly clear: “Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell . . . has been a friend of mine for a long time.”

The Republican party is divided into two groups these days. There’s the Trump faction and its rival, the elected leaders, GOP officials, and rank-and-file antagonists of Trump. The split is not ideological. For the most part, the two sides agree on cutting taxes, killing Obamacare, and building up…

The Republican drive to confirm federal judges has gained momentum from a series of actions by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. They seem modest but are likely to speed up the confirmation of both appeals and district court judges—conservatives, for the most part.

The stock market rockets ever-upward, as well it should, what with the president’s tax package destined to make corporate America great again. Sure thing.

Controversial firebrand Roy Moore’s primary victory Tuesday over appointed Alabama senator Luther Strange to run for the Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions wasn't even close. Moore won the race by nearly 10 points.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon blasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Monday night, saying he wears the top GOP lawmaker's contempt as "a badge of honor."

Fiery social conservative Roy Moore is on the verge of upsetting Sen. Luther Strange, President Trump's preferred candidate, in a closely watched special election in Alabama.

In President Trump’s politics, “the overall impression matters more than the details,” writes Newt Gingrich in his book Understanding Trump. This is not only true and insightful, it also explains Trump’s conduct of late.

In President Trump’s politics, “the overall impression matters more than the details,” writes Newt Gingrich in his book Understanding Trump. This is not only true and insightful, it also explains Trump’s conduct of late.

Blindsided congressional Republicans worried Thursday about whether President Trump's surprise fiscal deal with the Democrats would mean more shocks are ahead on issues such as tax reform.

On Wednesday morning, House Speaker Paul Ryan called Democrats’ plans to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government for just three months “a ridiculous idea.” Hours later, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi announced that President Trump had agreed to help them do just that.

The Trump administration and congressional Republicans mixed it up the first several months of 2017, concocting a doozy of four parts discord and one part accomplishment. Candidate Trump made antagonism with the GOP establishment a selling point of his campaign. While that approach earned votes at…

Things went from bad to slightly worse between Donald Trump and Republican leadership in Congress Thursday. It started—as it always seems to—with a series of presidential tweets.

Donald Trump has been president for just over seven months.* The 2020 election is more than three years away. So why is his chief pollster asking if Republicans would vote for him in a presidential primary today? That’s what Tony Fabrizio asked 1,500 self-described Republican or Republican-leaning…

The president’s speech at his political rally in Phoenix Tuesday night was a disjointed ping-pong between a prepared address and Donald Trump’s own extemporaneous comments. In other words, it was a typical Trump campaign speech.

A group backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., launched a new ad campaign Tuesday against Kelli Ward — the primary opponent of Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. — attacking her over "crazy ideas" and "embarrassing behavior" during her time as a state senator and her primary campaign…

For the first time, Donald Trump has inserted himself into a 2018 Republican primary against an incumbent. The president tweeted Thursday morning that it was “great” to see Trump nemesis Jeff Flake of Arizona get a Republican challenger. “Great to see that Dr. Kelli Ward is running against Flake…

As the federal investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller digs deeper into the business dealings of Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman for Donald Trump is changing his legal team.

President Donald Trump intensified his rhetorical assault on Sen. Mitch McConnell Thursday, days after the Senate’s most powerful Republican said Trump had put “excessive expectations” on Congress to pass his legislative agenda.

Fred Barnes has a good rundown of the state of play in the Alabama Senate race this morning. He rightly zeroes in on the most important question in the race right now: Will Trump's endorsement of of former Alabama attorney general Luther Strange, who was appointed to fill Jeff Sessions’s seat in…

President Donald Trump is inching closer to abandoning the Republican party, even as the GOP is in the middle of an effort to remake itself in Trump’s image.

Congressional Republicans are attempting to pivot away from Obamacare repeal toward tax reform. But they continue to butt heads with a White House that’s unhappy with where they left the health care debate.

On August 15, Alabama Republicans will begin to choose their candidate for the race to fill Jeff Sessions’ Senate seat. If none of the 9 candidates wins more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two will face each other in a runoff on September 26. And the winner of that contest will face the top…

After months of private deliberations, GOP leadership and the White House announced Thursday that they are ready to move forward on tax reform.

Senate Republicans advanced an instrument more than an idea for Obamacare repeal Tuesday with a wild vote interrupted by jeering protesters and applause for the pivotal return of an ailing colleague.

The Senate’s way forward on health care is still uncertain, but majority leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that the upper chamber will take a procedural vote on at least something next week.

Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson, a Republican wildcard in the upper chamber’s health reform discussions, accused majority leader Mitch McConnell Friday of being duplicitous in his struggle to assemble 50 yea votes to pass the Better Care Reconciliation Act.

Republican tax negotiators believe they are closing in on an agreement to overhaul the U.S. tax code but remain at odds over whether reform would be enshrined permanently or automatically sunset after a period of years.

When Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, endorsed the latest draft of the Senate healthcare bill after it included a tweaked version of a proposal he had pushed, many observers expected his longtime ally and original co-author, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to quickly follow.

Leave sausage out of this. The ever-evolving Republican health care bills demonstrate how rancid legislative livermush gets made: a pudding of policy innards blended and baked with haste because the ingredients were up against their expiration date, or in this case the August recess. The concoction…

Nevadans living in 14 of Nevada's 17 counties who want to purchase coverage on the state's Obamacare exchange won't have any insurers to choose from next year, after two insurers decided to exit the marketplace for 2018.

The legislation faces opposition from both conservatives for not doing enough and from moderates for cutting too much.

The Senate GOP has revealed its closely guarded alternative to the American Health Care Act, which stitches together significant changes to Medicaid intended to unify disparate Republicans and modifies the House approach to Obamacare regulations in a way that still provoked the immediate ire of…

The Senate voted Thursday to impose new sanctions against Russia for its efforts to disrupt last year's presidential election through cyberattacks against the Democratic party and state election rolls.

President Donald Trump stated on Thursday that the United States would pull out of the Paris climate agreement, saying that it would not only help the economy of the United States but act as "a reassertion of America's sovereignty."

Wednesday seemed to offer a somewhat dispiriting conclusion to what had been a hopeful period for regulatory-reform advocates. Senate Republicans were unable to muster the 51 votes needed to repeal Obama-era rules governing methane emissions that stem from oil or natural-gas drilling. Vice…

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday panned President Trump's Twitter suggestion to do away with the 60-vote filibuster rule in the Senate.

When Kentucky governor Matt Bevin warmed up the crowd in Louisville ahead of Donald Trump’s speech in March, he seemed to share the president's taste for superlatives:

The DAILY STANDARD Podcast with executive editor Fred Barnes on his recent story "How Mitch McConnell Won the Battle to Confirm Gorsuch."

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell was asked at his weekly press conference on Tuesday if he was confident Republicans had the votes necessary to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court by eliminating the Senate minority's ability to filibuster Supreme Court nominees.

Amid unsparing challenges from conservative critics and policy wonks, Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday that the House GOP's new health care legislation is "the bill" to begin undoing and supplanting Obamacare, and has the White House's backing.

Beyond the fuss created by President Donald Trump's social media habit, the new Oval Office occupant is undertaking many of the same policy initiatives a generic Republican administration would have pursued, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell told a calm group of his Kentucky constituents on…

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell says President Trump's approval rating would be "10 to 15 points higher if he allowed himself to stay on message."

Republicans in the Senate have been privately concerned about Andy Puzder, Donald Trump's choice for Labor secretary, and the fast-food CEO could be in real trouble if more than two GOP senators vote against him. Now the Washington Post reports that four Republican senators are "on the fence" about…

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with deputy online editor Chris Deaton on why Republicans are speaking out when they don't need to.

Democratic antagonism toward attorney general nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions continued Wednesday ahead of a confirmation vote, with former presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders following Elizabeth Warren's lead from the night before.

If this was 1920, and Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge had disciplined his fellow Bay Stater for impugning the integrity of a colleague, we might have fairly said Elizabeth Warren was silenced on Tuesday night. Lacking an instantaneously publishing Internet and 'round-the-clock cable news, she would have…

President Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, won Senate confirmation Tuesday afternoon, but just barely. She lost two of the Republican majority's 52 votes, with Senate education committee members Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska having announced they would…

President Donald Trump continued encouraging his party's Senate leader Wednesday to waive a 60-vote threshold to confirm Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, if necessary, the morning after the upper chamber's top Democrat suggested a nomination fight was coming.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans had 12-to-15 billion dollars in mind for construction of a southern border wall, as they await a supplemental spending request from the White House to move forward on the project.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is joining bipartisan calls for a congressional investigation into Russia's interference in the U.S. election, following an announcement that President Obama has ordered a similar such review.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell chided the opposition for holding up last-minute spending legislation to keep the government funded beyond midnight Saturday, as a small group of Democratic senators pledged to fight the bill until they could secure a longer extension of health benefits for…

Mitch McConnell didn't have much to complain about on the night of November 4, 2014. In that day's elections, Republicans gained a net nine Senate seats, securing a majority and ensuring McConnell would become Senate majority leader. This was a crowning achievement in a turbulent year for the…

Mitch McConnell didn’t have much to complain about on the night of November 4, 2014. In that day's elections, Republicans gained a net nine Senate seats, securing a majority and ensuring McConnell would become Senate majority leader. This was a crowning achievement in a turbulent year for the…

Soon after Justice Antonin Scalia died on February 13, the battle over who should fill the Supreme Court vacancy commenced. Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, took the position that it shouldn’t be President Barack Obama but the next president—whoever Americans choose—who…

When Justice Scalia died on February 13, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell vowed not to process anyone President Obama might pick for the vacancy, arguing that the next president should make the nomination instead. Senate Republicans stuck to that position, and so the vacancy is now Trump’s to…

As House speaker Paul Ryan tries to weather a Trump imbroglio, his GOP counterpart, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, remains silent on the election.

Bill Kristol joined MSNBC's Morning Joe on Thursday morning and responded to Donald Trump's refusal at the debate the previous night to say he would accept the results of the presidential election.

Paul Ryan deserves credit and support for his decision to stop defending and campaigning for Donald Trump, says the Washington Examiner in a new editorial published Wednesday. Here's an excerpt:

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell was quick to endorse Donald Trump, waiting fewer than 24 hours after Trump had cleared the Republican primary field. He did so by releasing a 75-word statement at eight o'clock in the evening. And that was that.

The two most powerful Republicans in Congress say the memory of Army captain Humayun Khan, a Muslim-American soldier who died in Iraq in 2004, should be honored and valued—but both stopped short of criticizing the GOP nominee for president, Donald Trump. Khan's parents spoke out against Trump's…

Politics is a team sport. Ronald Reagan understood that. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell treat politics as a team effort. Ted Cruz isn’t a team player.

On February 13, Justice Antonin Scalia died at a hunting lodge in Texas. That same day, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell made this announcement: “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we…

Ted Cruz said Thursday that he has no plans to make up with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, calling the intrigue about their relationship the sort of inside baseball that makes voters "so frustrated with Washington". But the public acrimony between Cruz and the Senate's rank-and-file…

Ted Cruz said that he won't humble himself before Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to smooth over the rough relationship he has developed with colleagues.

President Obama says he soon will nominate someone to fill the vacancy opened by the unexpected death of Supreme Court associate justice Antonin Scalia. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell says his chamber will block any nominee the president sends up.

In the Obama era, incremental conservative progress that gets signed into law is a rare thing.

After Senator Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) delivered his maiden speech on the Senate floor last week, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent a text of his address to every Republican senator. This was unusual. McConnell rarely does anything quite like this.

It was just over a week ago when House majority leader Kevin McCarthy first considered dropping out of the race for speaker.

Something has gotten into Ted Cruz. The Republican senator is known as a conservative firebrand willing to take on his own party, but in a Thursday meeting with reporters in his Capitol Hill office, Cruz was sounding almost ecumenical. Maybe it was the presence of Pope Francis.

As Republicans in the Senate bring forward a bill next week that would ban most abortions after 20 weeks of gestation—when babies are capable of feeling pain and can survive outside the womb—Senate minority leader Harry Reid declined to say whether he supports any limits on abortion during any…

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell addressed the topic of higher education at a Shelby County Chamber of Commerce membership luncheon. Joe Arnold, political editor for WHAS-TV, tweeted some quotes from McConnell during the event. 

The top Republican in the Senate is applauding President Obama after the passage of the trade bill.

President Obama is thankful the trade deal has passed the Senate. And he wants the House to "follow suit."

Speaker of the House John Boehner is praising the Senate's passage of the trade bill and calling on Democrats to join with Republicans to pass the law in the House.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that President Obama "has done an excellent job" on the trade bill. "We'll pass it later this week," McConnell assured Stephanopoulos .

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has voted to confirm Loretta Lynch to be the next attorney general. 

Commentators have exposed how bad the Iran deal is in various ways; the point, however, is to kill it.

Wednesday evening’s Fox News Special Report featured the following exchange between Bret Baier and House Speaker John Boehner:

In a 60 Minutes interview with Scott Pelley, parts of which aired on Sunday, House speaker John Boehner and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell made it sound like they are no closer to producing the elusive Obamacare alternative than they were five long years ago. 

Speaker of the House John Boehner told CBS's 60 Minutes that he's "interested in working with" President Barack Obama:

Fred Barnes, writing in the Wall Street Journal:

Late last night, the White House announced a carbon deal with China. As the Washington Post explains:

President Obama said he'd "enjoy having some Kentucky bourbon with Mitch McConnell:"

In a live interview late last night on CNN, Texas senator Ted Cruz refused to commit to supporting Mitch McConnell for majority leader in the Senate.

Despite the quick victory, it's obviously too early to tell whether this is a good omen for Mitch McConnell's chances of becoming Senate Majority Leader. Looking at the map, a few key things jump out. It looks like McConnell overperformed in coal country compared to his 2008 victory in the state,…

The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with staff writer Jay Cost on the 2014 elections.

In a few minutes, Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes of Kentucky will meet with the editorial board of the Courier-Journal in Louisville. Campaign memos recently obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD show how Grimes and her staff prepare for these meetings, requiring the red-state…

In a speech delivered this morning, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell blasts President Obama's foreign policy for making America weaker.

Just before the start of the Labor Day holiday weekend, the reelection campaign for Mitch McConnell of Kentucky announced its campaign manager, Jesse Benton, was resigning. Benton was leaving the campaign, Politico reports, "citing potential distractions over renewed attention to a scandal from the…

Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate and Kentucky's secretary of state, is turning heads with her confusing answer to a question about the military conflict between Israel and the Hamas-led government in Gaza. Asked by the Lexington Herald-Leader about American support…

President Obama sought the advice of three initial supporters of the Iraq war on the current situation in Iraq. According to a White House readout of the meeting, the president this afternoon met with Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and John Boehner, all of whom voted to authorize the…

Alison Lundergan Grimes, the newly minted Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Kentucky, is out with her first ad of the general election. The 60-second spot features Grimes speaking directly to the camera about how "no matter how many elections we have, nothing gets better in Washington--it only…

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has won the Republican nomination, the Associated Press projects. McConnell held off a primary challenge from Matt Bevin, currently winning 60 percent of the vote to Bevin's 35 percent. The call was made shortly after polls in Kentucky closed at 7…

Ben Sasse has just won a decisive victory in the Nebraska Republican Senate primary. As of this writing, the race has been called by the Associated Press and Sasse holds a 27 point lead over his nearest competitor, with 79 percent of precincts reporting. Having clinched the primary win, early…

The New York Times is up with a story today, "Tea Party Activists See Own Groups Among Washington Adversaries," about the supposed tension between national Tea Party groups and local Tea Party activists. The lede of the piece involves an anecdote -- and I use that term loosely, as it seems to bear…

Yesterday, I reported on how a super PAC -- Freedom Pioneers Action Network, started by Mitch McConnell's former campaign manager Justin Brasell -- was flooding Nebraska with outside money to take down Tea Party endorsed Senate candidate Ben Sasse. The primary is just a week away and the Sasse…

With the Nebraska Republican Senate primary a week from tomorrow, outside money is flowing into the state to take down the race's frontrunner, Midland University president Ben Sasse. And the provenance of the money attacking Sasse is especially curious--a super PAC with strong ties to senate…

Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, has issued a statement expressing support for Speaker of the House John Boehner's decision to have the House vote on forming a Select Committee on Benghazi.

"This is the best Supreme Court, if you’re interested in a free society and in the ability of Americans to participate in the political process with a minimum amount of government restrictions. In fact, this is a great Supreme Court.”

Arkansas Democrat Mark Pryor has a 10-point lead in his race to retain his Senate seat, according to a new poll from the New York Times and the Kaiser Family Foundation. A two-term senator, Pryor has 46 percent support, while his challenger, Republican congressman Tom Cotton, has 36 percent…

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell opposes the nomination of Debo Adegbile as assistant attorney general.

Louisville

Mitch McConnell, the Republican senator from Kentucky and Senate minority leader, is tied with the leading Democratic candidate, secretary of state Alison Lundergan Grimes, in the race, according to a new poll from Rasmussen Reports. McConnell's Republican primary challenger Matt Bevin, meanwhile,…

The GOP Senate primary in Nebraska will be a 2014 battlefield in the hot war between the Republican establishment and the Tea Party insurgents. But at first glance, it's hard to see a casus belli.

More than 70 foreign policy experts have signed a letter addressed to the leaders in both parties in both houses of Congress urging them to enforce Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal agreed upon in Geneva late last year. Read the full text of the letter, organized by the Foreign Policy…

Ben Sasse is doing what few Republicans have been able to accomplish: He's uniting the GOP establishment with anti-establishment conservatives in his bid to become the next U.S. senator from Nebraska. 

Senator Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, announced a "deal" just now on the Senate floor:

The National Right to Life Committee, which typically endorses pro-life incumbents, has endorsed Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell for reelection in 2014. WDRB.com has the story:

The chairman of Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign is refusing to answer questions about allegations the campaign paid for endorsements before the Iowa caucuses last year. Jesse Benton, a longtime Paul aide who is now campaign manager for Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, has not replied…

Reuters recently reported that security testing for Obamacare is months behind schedule. And Michael Astrue, former HHS general counsel and Social Security commissioner, has warned in THE WEEKLY STANDARD that "unless delayed and fixed" the Obamacare exchanges will "inflict on the public the most…

A man alleged to be the campaign manager for senator Mitch McConnell said earlier this year that he was "sort of holding [his] nose" to work for the Kentucky Republican for the next two years.

Nineteen conservative activists have signed a letter to Republican leaders in Congress urging the body to fight to delay all of the provisions of Obamacare set to go into effect in 2014. (Update: the number of signatories has increased to 33.)

Mitch McConnell says he’s committed to having a vote on delaying the individual mandate of Obamacare. “The individual mandate is the weakest part of this law,” said the Republican leader in a Friday interview with THE WEEKLY STANDARD. “We should just, like a prizefight, just keep punching the…

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, the five-term Republican from Kentucky, has drawn a primary challenge for his reelection effort next year from businessman Matt Bevin. Bevin, who will likely self-finance part of his campaign, is out with his first ad Wednesday. The 30-second spot purports to…

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell will say today that the IRS is "thumbing its nose at the American people." He'll make those remarks this morning at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.

In a statement on the Senate floor this morning, Republican leader Mitch McConnell signaled he'd vote for cloture for the immigration bill. But he also suggested the bill needs to be amended.

Writing for Salon, Curtis Morrison, a self-titled "liberal activist," admits to bugging Mitch McConnell's office. He claims to have been inspired by Julian Assange and claims, "If given another chance to record him, I’d do it again."

Senator Mitch McConnell said Harry Reid is bringing the "culture of intimidation that we've seen at the IRS" to the Senate: 

In a couple minutes, the top Republican in the Senate will say that "we’ve only started to scratch the surface of this scandal." Mitch McConnell will say those words in reference to the IRS-targeting-conservatives scandal, and will make those remarks on the Senate floor.

David Corn, the Mother Jones writer who released the "secret tape" of a Mitch McConnell campaign meeting, might have broken the law by publishing information that appears to have been obtained illegally, according to sources.

A Louisville-area Democrat says two employees of Kentucky Progress, a left-wing activist group, are responsible for secretly recording a strategy session between Republican senator Mitch McConnell and his campaign staff. WFPL, the Louisville National Public Radio affiliate, has the scoop:

Mother Jones, the liberal magazine that somehow obtained audio of a private Mitch McConnell campaign meeting, now wonders whether the top Republican in the Senate is breaking the law. The direct accusation is that Senate staffers did work to help McConnell's reelection, which if done on official…

The top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, is asking the feds to investigate whether a closed campaign meeting was illegally wiretapped by his political opponents. The issue arises after the liberal outlet Mother Jones published "A recording of a private meeting between the Senate GOP…

Despite Hollywood actress Ashley Judd’s high-profile political rollout, national Democrats appear to be looking for an alternative Senate candidate in Kentucky to challenge Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell next year. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, for instance, has remained…

Mitch McConnell, the leader of the GOP minority in the Senate, struck an upbeat tone in his Friday morning address to the conservative activists gathered at CPAC. “Friends, this is a moment of renewal. I truly believe it,” he said. In this era of new beginning, McConnell is seeking his sixth Senate…

The top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell released a statement this morning saying that "there will be no last-minute, back-room deal and absolutely no agreement to increase taxes." McConnell's statement came out before he, along with other congressional leaders, is scheduled to meet with…

The top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said over the weekend that opposition to the nomination of Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense is "intensifying." The second highest ranking Republican in the Senate, John Cornyn of Texas, has been leading the charge against Hagel.

Is Mitch McConnell already losing his reelection campaign? That's what a new poll from the Louisville Courier-Journal released Tuesday suggests. According to the survey of 609 registered voters in Kentucky, just 17 percent say they would vote to reelect the Republican and Senate minority leader,…

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, blasted President Barack Obama for not leaving anything on the "fiscal cliff" negotiating table this morning in remarks on the Senate floor.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell blasted President Barack Obama from the Senate floor this morning for not offering any specifics on spending cuts.

On ABC's This Week Sunday, host George Stephanopoulos asked Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner about a report that Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell "burst out laughing" when Geithner told McConnell the Obama adminstration's proposal to avert the fiscal cliff. Geithner avoided the question.

The top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, revealed to THE WEEKLY STANDARD that he “burst into laughter” when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner outlined President Barack Obama's fiscal cliff plan yesterday. McConnell believes the plan is "completely unserious."

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, says he “burst into laughter” Thursday when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner outlined the administration proposal for averting the fiscal cliff.  He wasn’t trying to embarrass Geithner, McConnell says, only responding candidly to his one-sided plan,…

Harry Reid was against the filibuster rule change before coming out for it. In 2005, when Republicans threatened to change the rules to weaken Senate Democrats, Reid was a vocal opponent. 

Republican senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, is accusing Democrat Harry Reid, the majority leader, of wanting to "break the rules to change the rules." This is part a "systematic effort to marginalize the minority," according to McConnell.

Senate aides confirm that Republican senator Mitch McConnell has been reelected minority leader in the Senate. Conservative stalwarts Pat Toomey and Marco Rubio spoke in favor of McConnell's nomination at the closed door session.

In remarks on the Senate floor, the top Republican in that chamber argues against a mandate for President Barack Obama after his reelection last week.

Here are excerpts of Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell's address, which he'll deliver tonight at the Republican convention: 

On the Senate floor right now, just before Congress breaks away for summer recess, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is imploring Majority Leader Harry Reid to allow the full Senate to vote on Obamacare. This is the fourth time McConnell has asked Reid for a vote since the Supreme Court decide to…

This morning on the Senate floor, Senate majority leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, pledged to block Republican efforts to vote on the repeal of Obamacare and tax cuts:

It looked so easy when the bipartisan JOBS Act cleared the Senate (73-26) and the House (380-41) and was signed into law by President Obama last week. But passage of a strong bill wasn’t a snap. Only the maneuvering of Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell kept the measure from being delayed,…

President Obama has earned much criticism for preemptively challenging the Supreme Court's authority to strike down Obamacare's individual mandate. And deservedly so; his glib ignorance of constitutional history deserves a firm response.

The Obama campaign sent out an email today asking supporters to urge Congress to at least vote on the president’s jobs bill almost immediately after Democratic majority leader Harry Reid blocked a vote on the bill in the Senate.

President Obama arrived in Cincinnati Thursday afternoon to tout his newest bill meant to stimulate the economy with billions of dollars in infrastructure investment for job creation. The Obama team chose the “functionally obsolete” Brent Spence Bridge connecting Kentucky and Ohio, and the still…

For a while now, Obama's been mentioning in speeches that there are free-trade agreements that need to be ratified as away to create jobs and spur growth... while blaming Republicans for the hold up. Today, Mitch McConnell blasts Obama in the Washington Post for his blatant dishonesty on the issue:

House speaker John Boehner has chosen Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas to be co-chair of the joint select committee on deficit reduction, or the so-called supercommittee. Reps. Dave Camp and Fred Upton, both of Michigan, were also selected by Boehner to represent the House Republicans on the…

Members of Congress and their staff who know and care about defense are somewhere between alarmed and panicked at the emerging shape of the debt ceiling deal. (Consider this amazing on-the-record statement by Senator Joe Lieberman’s communications director to Jennifer Rubin just a few minutes ago:…

Last night, Speaker Boehner toyed with adding a gimmicky balanced budget amendment provision to the Republican budget bill in order to try to get the final handful of votes he needs for passage. He thought better of this last night, and didn’t do so. He should continue to avoid pointless and…

President Obama portrays himself as the nonpartisan adult in the room in the struggle over raising the debt limit. In his nationally televised speech Monday, he placed himself above Washington’s “three-ring circus,” as someone who has “put politics aside” and is desperate for a bipartisan…

Soon after Mitch McConnell joined the debt limit talks, his suspicions grew. An agreement with President Obama on raising the limit by $2.4 trillion​—​and tied to serious spending cuts​—​looked impossible. The more he heard from Obama and his aides in the private sessions at the White House, the…

Louisiana senator David Vitter just released the following statement, expressing disapproval of Mitch McConnell's proposed debt ceiling plan:

Mitch McConnell’s plan, as Eric Cantor and Jim DeMint said tonight, is “going nowhere.” Which is where it deserved to go. It was too clever by half, transparently cynical, probably unconstitutional, and Rube Goldberg-like in its incomprehensibility.  

Roll Call: 

Senate Republicans mounted a bold offensive today against President Obama’s effort to force them to accept a tax hike as part of a bipartisan agreement to raise the debt limit.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell challenged President Obama’s claim to support trillions in serious spending cuts as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling – cuts the president says show he’s ready to anger Democrats to get a deal.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said this morning that Congress will not raise taxes this year to reduce the budget deficit, favoring instead a pro-growth agreement as a solution to debt ceiling debate.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell will vote against increasing the debt limit unless President Obama agrees to spending cuts and long term reforms that satisfy the bond market, as well as foreign investors, and “astonish the American people.”

"Wal-Mart: Our shoppers are 'running out of money'"