Letters to the Editor: Now Mitch McConnell wants to rein in Trump? Too little, too late

To the editor: Nice try, Mitch, but too little, too late. (“McConnell tests the strengths and limits of his power opposing a trio of Trump’s Cabinet nominees,” Feb. 18)

While no political party has a monopoly on hypocrisy, Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) stunts on U.S. Supreme Court nominations (blocking an appointment in the final 11 months of President Obama’s second term, and rushing one through in the final four months of President Trump’s first administration) took disingenuous behavior to new depths. Democracy cannot exist when the rules are heads I win, tails you lose.

When he had an opportunity to at least try to put a nail in Trump’s political coffin during his second impeachment trial over the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, McConnell, the Senate’s Republican leader, weaseled out.

He has consistently put the interests of his party over those of the country, and that will be his sad legacy.

Bob Fey, Orange

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To the editor: I will admit up front that I am not a fan of McConnell. In his quest for personal power and in support of his party, he played fast and loose with Senate tradition.

By refusing to give a hearing to Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland in the spring of 2016 due to it being too close to the election, and four years later confirming Amy Coney Barrett mere days before the 2020 election, McConnell showed his true face. “Party over country” sums up his style.

He assumed, like many other Republican power brokers, that Trump could be controlled and bent to their will. Another politician in Germany in 1932 also believed he could control a political upstart. Former Chancellor Franz von Papen foolishly believed that old-school conservatives could have their cake and eat it too.

Sadly, for both Germany and the United States, the object of von Papen’s disdain didn’t play by the rules. Those who believed they would be in control were left weakened or, like von Papen, ignored and forgotten.

History repeats itself, and because of those who ignore the past and care more for personal power than the common good, the results often prove calamitous.

Kent Grigsby, Riverside