'Moscow Mitch' McConnell really, really doesn't like his new nickname

The Russian Asset.

Dartagnan

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Tuesday July 30, 2019 · 9:12 PM PDT

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Many kids suffered through the experience of being “nicknamed” something they didn’t really prefer to be called. For a brief span of time in my pre-teen years I had to endure the appellation of “Gerbil,” because I had a set of semi-bucked teeth that my parents decided wasn’t worth the high cost of braces (disclosure—they eventually receded normally).

But whoever coined “Moscow Mitch” seems to have really touched a nerve with the Republican Senate Majority leader responsible for killing just about every piece of legislation benefiting the American public that the Democratic House of Representatives has passed over the past year. While Mitch McConnell has reveled in his ability to single-handedly stop our country from functioning as a democracy, his refusal to protect the nation from an attack by pro-Trump Russian cyber-spies infiltrating our election process seems to have finally tipped the equation.

WASHINGTON — Senator Mitch McConnell is usually impervious to criticism, even celebrating the nasty nicknames critics bestow on him. But Mr. McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is incensed by the name “Moscow Mitch,” and even more miffed that he has been called a “Russian asset” by critics who accuse him of single-handedly blocking stronger election security measures after Russia’s interference in 2016.

It’s rare for a stodgy U.S. Senator, particularly one of such longstanding tenure as McConnell, to be forced to suffer the slings and arrows of social media. He doesn’t seem to be taking it well, especially since it’s now permeated his usually quiescent Kentucky media market.

[W]hatever Mr. McConnell’s reasoning, the criticism has taken hold — even back home in Kentucky, where the majority leader faces re-election next year.

“Democrats want more aggressive legislation to protect America’s elections after Robert Mueller’s stark warning about Russian interference,” began one report aired on a Louisville television station last week. “Mitch McConnell blocked it.”

His fellow Russian sympathizer, Donald Trump, came to his defense. But even the Tweetster-in-Chief’s effort was uncharacteristically lame.

“Mitch McConnell is a man that knows less about Russia and Russian influence than even Donald Trump,” the president told reporters Tuesday as he was leaving for a speech in Jamestown, Va. “And I know nothing.”

Ugh.

Democrats pressed their advantage. And why not? The hashtag #MoscowMitchMcTraitor was trending on Twitter, and Senate Republicans of all stripes were being asked about the blockade.

“So long as the Senate Republicans prevent legislation from reaching the floor, so long as they oppose additional appropriations to the states, so long as they malign election security provisions as, quote, partisan wish lists, the critics are right to say Leader McConnell and Republican senators are blocking election security,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said on the floor Tuesday.

There’s something about “Moscow Mitch” that just seems to resonate.