McConnell: I get more Obama ear time

By: Shira Toeplitz January 25, 2011 11:27 AM EST

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell joked Tuesday morning that he is now on President Barack Obama’s “speed dial,” a marked change since Democrats endured a shellacking from Republicans this past fall. “I think I’m on speed dial right now down there at the White House, and I think we’re going to have a lot more communications in the next couple months,” the Kentucky lawmaker said before a crowd of about 150 people at the W Hotel in downtown Washington. McConnell made the remark at a televised event called “Playbook Breakfast,” the first in a monthly series hosted by POLITICO, featuring chief White House correspondent, Mike Allen. Allen quizzed McConnell on a range of issues, including how the GOP plans to challenge Obama, both in Congress and in the 2012 race for the White House. “I think we’ve got a window here of about six to nine months — before the atmosphere is kind of overcome by the presidential campaign — to do some good for the American people,” McConnell said of his plans for Congress. McConnell said a vote on the sweeping health care law — which passed last year but the House voted to repeal last week — is his top priority, despite Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s repeated comments that such a vote is “unlikely.” “There will be a vote,” said McConnell. “Yeah, I say it confidently. Just trust me.” Even if McConnell gets a vote on health care, or any other GOP priority, he still faces an uphill battle. McConnell said he’s dealt with the “Maalox moment” of rallying a caucus of only 40 or 41 but says now he’s got a caucus of 47 — maybe more, depending on how many Democrats who face reelection next year will side with him. “How many of the 23 Democrats who are up in 2012 are going to vote with us?” McConnell mused. “Maybe my number is not 47, [maybe] it’s 51 — or maybe it’s 60.” Vulnerable Democrats are well aware of the result of the midterm elections, which McConnell would not go so far as to say was an endorsement of the GOP but, rather, about “stopping” the Democratic agenda. The minority leader charged that for the past two years, Obama has tried to turn the United States into a “Western European country.” He jabbed at the president, saying it’s going to take more than a few personnel changes to alter the relationship between Republicans and the White House on economic issues, though hiring top aides such as Bill Daley and Bruce Reed — both of whom have a strong business background — is a step in the right direction. As far as 2012, McConnell’s got a favorite for the fight: Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who is considering a presidential bid. When asked by Allen whether he had spoken with Thune about a run, he said: “Yeah. If I hadn’t talked to him about it, I wouldn’t be talking to you about it.” “Anybody who knocked out the Senate Democratic leader [Tom Daschle] and was so skillful that, six years later, no one even filed [to run] against him — that tells you John is a person of considerable political skill,” McConnell said. In the meantime, one of the most visible tests of bipartisan cooperation is the State of the Union address. While many senators paired off into bipartisan couples for Tuesday’s address, mixing up the traditional partisan seating arrangement, McConnell said he planned to sit in his regular seat. He called the bipartisan seating initiative for the State of the Union a “distraction” from the real concerns of the country, saying the camera will pan away from the president to couples — for example, Thune and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). “I don’t make much of it at all,” McConnell said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with accomplishing something in the end.” McConnell downplayed Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s plan to deliver her own response to the State of the Union on behalf of tea party activists. When pressed by an audience member as to whether he thought Bachmann’s response was “legitimate,” he said it was — in the same way other members respond to the speech through their local media, which frequently happens after the annual event. “Yeah, it’s legitimate, along with the response of everyone else in Congress, along with the one being televised with Paul Ryan,” he said of the House member who was selected to offer the GOP response, adding that Ryan would “be noticed the most.”