On Wednesday, for an opinion piece in The Washington Post that satirized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his intent to fill judicial vacancies up to and including the Supreme Court during the coronavirus crisis, writer Alexandra Petri inadvertently contributed to McConnell’s towering image by snidely referring to him as sitting “on a throne of skulls.”
Petri began by setting the stage:
Will Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) keep confirming judges in this time of pandemic? “We will go back to judges,” he said in an interview. “My motto for the rest of the year is leave no vacancy behind.”
Then, what Petri must have viewed as scintillating satire:
The whole landscape was barren, and the fires burned everywhere. And in the smoldering remains of the Senate, Mitch McConnell sat on a throne of skulls making preparations to confirm his 8,999th judge. Mitch McConnell would leave no vacancy behind.
Opinion: Sitting on a throne of skulls, Mitch McConnell confirms his 8,999th judge https://t.co/6IWfpBDIR6
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 9, 2020
What is truly hilarious about this is that McConnell will undoubtedly seize this new image of his rock-solid gamesmanship and make political hay out of it. He has already appropriated the title of “Grim Reaper” bestowed on him by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
At the end of February, speaking with Fox News, McConnell laid down the law with a tough, forceful statement asserting that he would not permit the Democrats to turn America into a socialist country, making it doubly clear by gleefully reiterating that he was the “Grim Reaper.”
McConnell stated:
Whether it’s Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, the nominee for president on the Democratic side is going to be on a path to try to turn America into a socialist country. We’re not going to let that happen. Donald Trump is still in the White House, and as long as I am Majority Leader of the Senate I get to set the agenda. That’s why I call myself the Grim Reaper. We will not have the Green New Deal and we will not have Medicare-For-None as long as I am Majority Leader of the Senate.
In 2019, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had stated, “Leader McConnell, the Grim Reaper, is creating this graveyard.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi echoed, “Leader McConnell seems to take great pride in calling himself the Grim Reaper … it’s part of the pride he takes as leader of the Senate.”
McConnell replied, “She’s got it right. For the first time in my memory, I’m going to agree with Nancy Pelosi. I am indeed the grim reaper when it comes to the socialist agenda that they’ve been ginning up over in the House with overwhelming Democratic support and sending it over to America, things that would turn us into a country we’ve never been.”
McConnell did relish the nickname; he even sold T-shirts on his campaign website with the moniker. The T-shirts were emblazoned, “So think of me as the Grim Reaper, the guy who is going to make sure that socialism doesn’t land on the president’s desk.” The website stated, “Get Your Official Grim Reaper for $35 and join Team Mitch today!”
In April 2019, during his reelection campaign, McConnell told an audience in Kentucky, “Are we still gonna be a competitive place? Are we still gonna be the kind of place where you realize your ambitions and your energy but if you aren’t able to do that there are still ways to lead a rewarding life? Or are we going to turn this into a socialist country? Don’t assume it cannot happen. It’ll all be in the hands, I think, of the voters of this country next year. If you share my view, and I hope you do, that that’s not what we want America to be like in the future, let me tell you this: If I’m still the Majority Leader of the Senate, think of me as the Grim Reaper. None of that stuff is gonna pass. None of it.”