Is McConnell's Bungled Assault on the NLRB Evidence of Creeping Senility?

It's a lucky break this time. Next time it might not be.

The most famous senile person in literature painted by Benjamin West, 1788.

It’s not a nice question, but a necessary one. Is Mitch McConnell a few fries short of a happy meal?

We know that the famously shrewd (if nakedly cynical) Senate Republican leader, who is 81, has taken three spills in recent months, one of which gave him a concussion. We know that he froze up in mid-sentence (“in a string of, uh, uh …”) at a press conference in July, and that when he returned and insisted “I’m fine” that was an obvious lie. The question is whether a physically and sometimes mentally impaired minority leader can perform his job competently. Look, I’m sorry, but we’re having to confront this question more and more as the United States becomes a gerontocracy, and the fact that Republicans are raising it against President Joe Biden (with pretty weak evidence thus far) is no reason not to raise it against McConnell. In my latest New Republic article, I suggest that McConnell’s strategy on NLRB nominations is evidence that he’s losing his marbles. In this instance, that works out very nicely for Democrats and organized labor. In the next instance, who knows. You can read my piece here.