Mitchell Reports   |  March 03, 2010

McConnell: A one-man party of no?

If the Democrats use reconciliation to pass the health reform bill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised to make it “the issue in every single race in America this fall.” Politico’s Glenn Thrush discusses.

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>> hey, jay.

>> we are going old school tonight.

>>> the democrats are in control. why has a republican candidate been so successful at blocking the president's health care proposals. gentile but iron fisted mcconnell . jen thrush joins us now. glen, great hat. how has mitch mcconnell managed to rule supreme?

>> well, the man knows the senate. and as a bunch of folks told me close to mcconnell , barack obama doesn't know the senate that well. he was there for two-plus years. he hadn't really mastered the by-ways and mcconnell knows how the use every trick in the book to keep the democrats on the defensive.

>> so where's harry reid in this scenario?

>> that's a very good question. you know, in the course of report thing story, we really didn't talk very much about harry reid . he was sort of a nonfactor. mcconnell 's strategy has been to sort of aim at the president no not to really bypass the majority but look at what obama 's strengths and weaknesses were and mcconnell 's communication staff very early on determined think couldn't compete with the president day by day. what they needed to do was really to show the gap between obama 's rhetoric and obama 's capacity to deliver in the senate and mcconnell 's used the filibuster rules as vigorously as anyone in history and has really obstructed a lot of what the democrats wanted to do.

>> that's been a fascinate storingy as it unfolds and continues to unfold. glen thrush, thanks so much from politico.

>>> president obama says that he's