The Sizzle: What the News Won't Tell You (Feb. 14, 2025)

Topic: The Sizzle

Welcome to the latest installment of The Sizzle, which provides a deeper assessment of what the news won’t tell you when rattling off typically deranged headlines and untruthful narratives. These musings cover items and stories making the rounds in the news as we approach the middle of February:

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I. McConnell Amps Up His “F*** It” Tour

Most of you will remember when John McCain, years after running a softball campaign against the much ballyhooed “first black President,” once again ran for the United States Senate in anticipation that his so-called conservative ideals would be crucial for stopping a potential President Hillary R. Clinton. He promised to be a critical check on her, but when Donald Trump won instead, he spent his last year and a half not only insisting on remaining in office against all sound medical advice but doing everything possible to screw Trump over. He voted against two Trump Cabinet selections (Lighthizer and Sessions) and neglected to cast a vote in another confirmation (Mnuchin), but most memorably, rendered the critical down vote in what would have meant legislative reform to ObamaCare in what was called a “skinny repeal.”

McCain knew he was on the way out, literally, and therefore didn’t have to keep up the appearances and double-sided speech to placate Republican voters anymore. The same now appears true of Mitch McConnell, who hails from one of the Trumpiest states in the Union, which the President carried by 30.5%. We have come to expect Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins to be the weak links in passing aggressive legislation or confirming change agent nominees, but while both backed Tulsi Gabbard for DNI and Robert F. Kennedy for HHS, McConnell (who joined them in downvoting Pete Hegseth for SECDEF) stuck it to both picks for sport.

McConnell turns 83 next week. There are octogenarians still in the public eye who remain sharp, like Chuck Grassley (a nonagenarian), and then there are those like McConnell. I don’t know if he is pissed off that his wife, Elaine Chao, didn’t get a position this time around, or if he’s paying off those who funded his decades long career which began with his election in 1984 (the year I was born). Those masters are cruel, and they don’t like change, which is precisely what the people voted for.

The lesson here is that the entrenched in power do not simply retire gracefully. So much for the grandkids or the great grandkids, $174,000 a year to live in Washington, D.C., is simply too much to pass up, and forget about passing the torch to a younger generation of leaders, especially to one who represents the MAGA mantra of Kentuckians. It’s almost as if an unseen hand says, “you’re going to be carried out of this seat in a pine box.”

I have a feeling that McConnell isn’t going to stand for reelection in 2026, even though plenty of infirm politicians have saddled up and run one last time; however, with so many eyeballs on current events and Biden-level glitching already evident in Kentucky’s senior Senator, McConnell presents too much of a risk for the UniParty to trot back out there. Maybe this time, Kentucky Republicans can draft one prominent patriot for the seat instead of running six unknown candidates at the establishment choice?

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II. Whitmer is Definitely Running for President