Mitch McConnell is truly a legend of the U.S. Senate. He’s been one of the most effective leaders in memory, he deeply understands and cares about the institution, and he’s had an outsized influence on his party for decades now.
As of the beginning of this Congress, McConnell set the record for the longest-serving party leader in the history of the Senate. (To mark the occasion, he gave a typically thoughtful speech on the prior holder of the record, the Montana Democrat Mike Mansfield.)
But the time has come for the Kentucky senator, after his long, impressive run, to make the decision to step aside from leadership.
McConnell has now frozen up during two recent press availabilities. His staff has said he was just suffering from bouts of lightheadedness, and a public note from his doctor suggested the same. To the layman, the incidents looked more concerning than that. Regardless, this obviously is not normal and affects his ability to function as the leading representative of his caucus.
McConnell has noticeably aged since his bad fall in March, when he sustained a concussion and broken rib, and he should want, for his own sake and that of his colleagues, to go out on his own terms.
The details can be left to McConnell, who deserves a large measure of deference. A leadership transition doesn’t need to happen urgently, but the wheels should be turning.
Stepping aside from leadership would not necessarily require leaving the Senate; McConnell could, like Nancy Pelosi, remain in office, and he would doubtless remain influential so long as he is capable of serving. But the job of caucus leader demands more.
The time will come for a fuller appreciation of McConnell’s legacy. But his strenuous opposition to campaign-finance reform, effective resistance to the Obama agenda, stalwart refusal to fill the Scalia seat prior to the 2016 election, fruitful cooperation with President Trump on judges, and, lately, strong support for American leadership abroad when the winds in the party are blowing the opposite way easily make him one of the most consequential politicians of our era.
Prudence and realism have been hallmarks of his leadership and now are called for in considering his own future.