patrick.net

Rick Scott is right to challenge Mitch McConnell
Republicans want more from their Senate leaders

In a move that he’s been telegraphing for some time, Florida senator Rick Scott is challenging Mitch McConnell to be leader of the Senate GOP.

Scott and McConnell have openly feuded about the Senate candidates this cycle, with Scott embracing a big tent approach even as McConnell spent more according to who he thought would back his stance for leadership than out of interest in achieving a GOP majority. His expenditures in Alabama, Alaska and New Hampshire are now examples deployed by those who blame McConnell and his attendant groups for the failures of the cycle. Whether this blame is deserved is dependent on who you’re asking — but there certainly is some blame directed at Mitch and the choices his allies made. ...

Scott has his own faults. He advanced a conservative policy agenda that didn’t have enough buy-in from fellow members and which touched the third rail of entitlement program reform. But he is ambitious, a decade younger than McConnell and has the ability to work with Donald Trump in ways that are impossible for the current leader. He also, by dint of his success in business and relationships forged while governor of Florida, has the good relationships with the donor class necessary to lead Republicans in the Senate.

Scott’s gambit here is unlikely to succeed in part because Senate Republicans still seem loathe to move on from Mitch. But there is increased opposition to him, with new members over multiple cycles joining the body with their own critiques of his style.

Good, I hope he beats the Gobbler.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has now announced his own intentions to join the race.

Scott didn’t leave any confusion about why he’s running for McConnell’s spot.

He announced in his declaration message to colleagues that “I believe now is a moment we need dramatic change.”