Previous post
The voting in the Senate is over and done. You can’t always get EVERYTHING that you want. If John Thune is a better Majority Leader than Mitch McConnell, it’s a start. Although, better than Mitch is a low bar. Yes, Mitch did stop Merrick Garland from getting to the Supreme Court but that’s what I mean by low bar. Let’s talk Thune and how we got here.
If this was ToniWorld, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky would be Majority Leader. Too bad he isn’t better liked among Senators. I liked Marsha Blackburn for about five minutes until she endorsed John Thune. She heard from her constituents a lot (points to self) and changed her vote to Rick Scott but he lost on the first ballot. Then, it was a choice between Thune and John Cornyn. We should be grateful for small favors that Thune won. USA Today posted a column: “Republicans reject Trump allies’ pick, elect John Thune as next Senate majority leader”:
Senate Republicans have elected Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., as the next Senate majority leader after rejecting public overtures from allies of President-elect Donald Trump who backed a different candidate.
Thune won in a secret-ballot vote of 29-24, beating out opposing candidates Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rick Scott, R-Fla.
The 63-year-old Thune will succeed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has led his chamber’s Republicans since 2007 and is the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history.
The Senate majority leader is one of the most powerful people in Washington – and soon will have an important say over Trump’s agenda. Thune will have the power to set the schedule for the Senate, which has sole control over confirmation of the Cabinet, about 1,200 other high-level government jobs and a president’s judicial nominees.
Both Thune and Cornyn have been “nosing” around the Republican Senate Leader slot for a while. McConnell never seemed comfortable as Majority Leader setting the agenda. He was more comfortable as Minority Leader just doing as the Democrats demanded he do. John Thune already seems to be typing out the right things:
Honored to serve as the next U.S. Senate majority leader. pic.twitter.com/zq9XLrPDUr
— Senator John Thune (@SenJohnThune) November 13, 2024
Okay, nice words. Thune always seemed kind of smarmy to me. That might be because he got his undergraduate and master’s degree and went right into politics:
After completing his MBA, Thune became involved in politics. He worked as a legislative aide for U.S. Senator James Abdnor from 1985 to 1987.[10] In 1989, Thune moved to Pierre, where he served as executive director of the state Republican Party for two years.[11] Thune was appointed Railroad Director of South Dakota by Governor George S. Mickelson and served from 1991 to 1993. From 1993 to 1996, he was executive director of the South Dakota Municipal League.
snip–
Thune began his political career in 1996 by entering the race for South Dakota’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Almanac of American Politics said that Thune “entered the 1996 race as very much an underdog.”[12] His opponent in the Republican primary was sitting Lieutenant Governor Carole Hillard of Rapid City, who benefited from the support of the longtime South Dakota Governor Bill Janklow. A May 1996 poll showed Hillard leading Thune by a margin of 69%-15%.[12] By relying on strong personal skills and the help of his old network of Abdnor friends, Thune won the primary, defeating Hillard 59%-41%.[13] In the general election, Thune defeated Democrat Rick Weiland, a long-serving aide to U.S. Senator Tom Daschle, 58%-37%.[14] Thune won his subsequent races for U.S. House by wide margins. He was reelected in 1998 with 75% of the vote,[15] and in 2000 with 73% of the vote.
John Thune defeated Tom Daschle to win the Senate seat in 2004. No business building. No signing the front of paychecks. Nothing. And, the smarmy twatwaffle warned Trump to stay out of the Majority Leader race last week.
New: John Thune tells Donald Trump to stay out of the Senate Majority Leader race
Thune said: “I think it's probably in his best interest to stay out of that.”
Thune is currently running for Majority Leader.
What is your response?
pic.twitter.com/hvLpAefJQs— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) November 7, 2024
But, wait it gets worse. When Chuck Schumer congratulates him, he speaks of their bipartisan deals. Bipartisan is what Democrats call it when Republicans lose.
Everyone in the U.S. Senate thinks he/she would be a better President than the President. Thune’s attitude is not at all surprising warning Trump to stay out of it. It’s too typical. Okay so, John Thune is the Senate Majority Leader. Nothing has changed.
Featured Image: U.S. Department of Agriculture/Wikimedia Commons.org/cropped/Public Domain
Scott says: Not strong at all on 2A either. He’s been more than happy to go along with whatever the left pushed to restrict those rights. Here’s hoping that he does better in the slot ( bur I’m not holding my breath)
Seawriter says: He’s better than Cornyn. That’s damning with faint praise.
Cameron says: meh. We will get the occasional defeats and setbacks. Just behave like democrats and keep pushing our agenda forward.
GWB says: No. He is not the new Senate Majority Leader.
First, the Republicans are not yet in the majority. That doesn’t happen until Jan 6.
Second, the vote was to replace McConnell as the party leader in the Senate.
Now, this might mean they all vote him in as the Majority Leader in the Senate on or after Jan 6. But there is no guarantee of that.
GWB says: Also, Trump should have offered him a cabinet position before he officially talked about Noeme. He gets him out of the Senate and Noeme appoints a replacement. THEN he gets Noeme over on his team.
Chad King says: Acid test coming up. Both Thune and Cornyn voted to confirm Merrick Garland as AG (as did my own Senator, Lindsey Graham). Wonder where they’ll come out on Matt Gaetz? The Democrats are evil–but they know how to enforce party discipline to get what they want–and they know how to manipulate “moderates” like Thune and Cornyn to give them cover. Time for the Republicans in the Senate to show some political coverage. I’d wager that 95% of Americans don’t have a clue about who the AG is and that the 5% who do wouldn’t change their minds about anything if Gaetz were confirmed–the Republicans would continue to support Trump and the Democrats would continue to support socialism. I’m not a Gaetz fan (he behaved like a schoolyard bully in the last Speaker of the House dustup), but given the choice between Gaetz and another Jeff Sessions, I’m all in on Gaetz. The Democrats think of an aggressive Republican AG as payback. I think of it as “tit for tat,” which is generally a winning game theory strategy.
6 Comments