Thus giving Donald Trump and Rick Scott the finger?
Mitch McConnell handily dispatched Rick Scott in a Wednesday contest for Senate Republican leader, beating back his first challenger and cementing a ninth term running the Senate GOP.
The Kentuckian prevailed over Scott (R-Fla.), 37-10, in a battle for Senate minority leader in the next Congress. One Republican voted present on the secret ballot held in the Old Senate Chamber, an ornate room where senators met before the Civil War, which one Republican estimated was about 50 degrees during the proceedings.
Scott’s challenge embodied a frustrated wing of the Republican Party that wants a new direction in the Senate, where McConnell has kept an iron grip on the GOP for nearly 16 years. Senators voiced complaints this week that individual members don’t have enough sway over the agenda or party strategy under McConnell’s rule, though the minority leader made little commitments to change how his conference operates.
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“I’m not in any way offended by having an opponent or by having a few votes in opposition,” McConnell told reporters. Asked if this might be his last term, though, he responded forcefully: “Look, I’m not going anywhere.”….
image…Francis Chung/E&E News/POLITICO