Knowing When to Leave
UPDATE AUGUST 30, 2023
On August 30, after this column was written, Mitch McConnell froze again. This time he was addressing reporters in his home state of Kentucky. The incident was recorded on video. It is long past time something was done about this problem. Just as the 25th Amendment to the Constitution was added to deal with the possibility of presidential incapacity, something must be done for members of Congress either by amendment or by changes in the House and Senate rules.
As I wrote back on August 13th, both Senators McConnell, a Republican, and Feinstein, a Democrat, should be allowed to retire gracefully now, with provisions made to fill the committee and leadership positions which will become vacant in a way which maintains the partisan balance. What is the purpose of waiting until one or both are carried out of the Capitol on a stretcher, leaving a crippled Senate behind?
Original Post from August 13
Knowing when to leave may be the smartest thing that anyone can learn. No truer words were ever spoken. Or written as a song lyric, in this case by Hal David and set to music by Burt Bacharach for the 1969 musical Promises Promises. It is a lesson few politicians ever learn.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell suddenly stopped speaking during a weekly Republican leadership news conference on July 26, 2023, appearing to freeze, and then went silent and was walked away. McConnell had been making his opening remarks about an annual defense policy bill when he stopped talking. He was led away from the press conference and towards his office by fellow GOP Sen. John Barrasso. A brief time later, McConnell returned and told reporters that he was “fine.”
It certainly didn’t look fine. It looked frightening. Keep in mind that this is the long serving Senate Republican leader. The man most responsible for decades of right-wing judges being appointed throughout the federal courts. The man who once bragged that his desk was the place liberal legislation passed by a Democratic majority House of Representatives went to die. But while I would cheer if McConnell were defeated in his next election, I do not wish him poor health.
McConnell is not alone. California Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, is showing obvious signs of cognitive decline, leaving her colleagues in Congress scrambling for ways to work around her. She spent months at home in California reportedly suffering from shingles. She returned to the Senate in a wheelchair, but she has been seen in committee meetings apparently confused as to the state of the proceedings and unsure of her vote. That incident occurred during a meeting of the Appropriations Committee. Feinstein also sits on the Judiciary Committee which considers pending appointments to the federal bench. It is sad to watch.
Feinstein is currently the oldest member of the Senate, at 90 years of age. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa will be ninety next month. Grassley is the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee and has been a key player blocking the appointment of judges he believes are too liberal. Grassley, who won reelection in 2022, has had his share of incoherent moments in public as well. Feinstein has announced she will retire when her term ends at the end of 2024. There have been calls for her to resign now, allowing California Governor Gavin Newsome to name someone to serve the remainder of Feinstein’s term.
The arcane rules of the Senate appear to make it impossible to change committee memberships during any session of Congress without a filibuster proof majority of sixty votes. Republicans have already said they will not cooperate. That would cost Democrats their one vote majority on the Judiciary Committee, which approves the nominations of all federal judges.
Neither McConnell nor Grassley have discussed retirement.
This problem is not limited to members of Congress. Republicans love to attack 80-year-old President Joe Biden, the oldest man to serve in the White House. But Donald Trump, at 77 years, isn’t far behind. And unlike Biden, who regularly rides a bicycle, Trump requires a golf cart on the links and looks like he is one cheeseburger away from a coronary. Neither man is ready to retire.
It takes a special kind of person to put the public interest ahead of their own ambition and, perhaps, vanity. It’s worth considering the cases of Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Justice Ginsburg died in 2020 at the age of eighty-seven, while still serving on the court. While her dedication to the job is admirable, her decision not to retire earlier, despite her age and health issues, she had several surgeries for cancer, changed the balance of power on the Court. The overturning of Roe v. Wade was a direct result.
In contrast, Justice Breyer, who is currently 85 years old, retired in 2022, even though he is apparently in good health. That decision has been praised by many as a wise move, allowing President Biden to appoint a replacement while the Democrats held the Senate majority.
As someone who now has a Medicare card in his pocket, even though I am some distance away from the ages of the people I noted above, I am the last to imply that one should be automatically disqualified from public office, or from doing any job, simply because of age. But we must all make an honest assessment as to our ability to perform in whatever role we undertake. This is certainly most true in the public sector. A public official unable to perform their duties is not doing anyone any good. The key is knowing when to leave.
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