WASHINGTON — After he won re-election last November, soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made two sets of comments reflecting the dueling impulses of the Republican Mind. Freud fans might refer to the superego, aka the conscience, and the id.
The Kentucky Republican got the most attention for gracious words to reporters the day after the election. “When the American people choose divided government anything … I think it means they want us to look for areas of agreement,” he said, promising no government shutdowns and debt-ceiling disasters on his watch.
But his victory speech the night before was, well, not as gracious.
“For too long, this administration has tried to tell the American people what’s good for them — and then blamed somebody else when their policies didn’t work out,” he told his raucous supporters.
And the man who has spent the vast majority of his working life in the nation’s capital added this: “What the current crowd in Washington is offering is making us weaker both at home and abroad. … Friends, this experiment in Big Government has lasted long enough!”