Mitch McConnell: GOP More Willing To Be Isolationist Because There's A Democratic President (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) expects the Senate to soon debate and vote on the conflict in Libya, although he is refusing to go as far as House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and accuse President Obama of possibly violating the War Powers Act.

"I think the Senate is going to have a debate and is going to vote on something, and presumably that would relate to getting some kind of presidential approval of some sort," he told reporters in a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, pointing to a measure offering bipartisan support for the mission by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).

"I wouldn't say I have been uncharacteristically quiet [on Libya]," he added. "I was just simply paying attention to one of my senior members [McCain] who knows a whole lot about the subject."

On Sunday, McCain also rebuked members of his own party for supporting "isolationist" foreign policy positions, such as the end to the conflicts in Libya and Afghanistan.

In a recent interview with Politico, presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty added, "I don't like the drift of the Republican Party toward what appears to be a retreat or a move more towards isolationism."

McConnell said there were differences in his conference about when to use military force, but he played down how new this posture was, admitting that there's probably some partisanship at play in Republicans opposing the president on foreign policy.

"I'm not sure that these kinds of differences might not have been there in a more latent form when you had a Republican president, but I do think there is more of a tendency to pull together when the guy in the White House is on your side," he said. "So I think some of these views were probably held by some of my members even in the previous administration, but party loyalty tended to mute them. ... I think a lot of our members, not having a Republican in the White House, feel more free to express their reservations."

Obama is scheduled to address the nation at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday with an announcement about the beginning of troop withdrawal in Afghanistan. He is expected to announce an initial drawdown of 5,000 troops, followed by another 5,000 by the end of 2011.

"I'm having a hard time reacting to something I don't know will happen yet," responded McConnell when asked by The Huffington Post about these drawdown numbers. "I'm assuming what he will say tonight, Gen. [David] Petraeus approves."

"We've got a lot of tough sledding to go up in the east, near the Pakistan border," McConnell added, "but I'm reasonably confident Petraeus is on board for this. If he is, then I think I would be comforted. I have a lot of confidence in him. I think his strategy in Iraq clearly worked. It is working in Afghanistan."

WATCH McConnell on isolationism:

WATCH McConnell on Afghanistan:

Comments

[leslieowenct]

01:47 PM on 07/10/2011

The best way Mitch McConnell could help this country is by retiring ASAP!

[George Dayton]

11:24 PM on 07/06/2011

Look at Mitches face. You can tell he wants to lynch Obama so bad he can taste it.

[mollysmomma]

09:44 PM on 06/29/2011

it is disgusting to see mcconnell, he will stop at nothing, to try and take President Obama down. if i lived in his state i would work tirelessly to take down mcconnell. he will cause our citizens to suffer to accomplish his pledge to make the President have only one term.

[liberalOrgonian]

01:20 PM on 06/28/2011

All Mitch want to do is take the USA to the cleaners.
He has betrayed every thing good about our country.
He is actively trying to turn the country into a dead beat 3rd world republic.
With Republican politicians spewing such government hatred, who need enemies.

After watching Mitch since Obama became president,
I conclude Mitch is working for the absolute failure & financial ruin of this country.
So far he & the hate government cult are doing a pretty good job taking the country down.
If the R's fail to raise the debt ceiling, then it will be screaming obvious their intentions.
And they will be rightly blamed.

[rhdyrdnck]

06:19 AM on 06/27/2011

The Republcians will do anything to let President Obama look foolish.

[myrtle1909]

10:25 AM on 06/24/2011

Mitch Mcconnell should remove that Cheshire grin from his face. everyone knows what he is thinking. You can see his thoughts clicking in his brain. "we'll get you again, Mr. President just like we did when we held the un-employment checks ransom until you agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts."
Obama should make him swallow that rat in his mouth and stick to his guns on Medicare and Social Security, and tell Mc'connell that there will be no deal unless taxes are raised on the rich. The Democrats have got to show some guts and Obama should lead the way, which he hasen't done so for.

[AbstractImp]

09:11 AM on 06/24/2011

He only agrees
when he's on his knees.

[Sweetbay]

07:32 PM on 06/23/2011

Amanda,

You're very sweet, but your headline is very naive.  McConnell is not an isolationist.  McConnell and every legislator like him is a tr@!t0r to this country.  Not just for playing the kind of dirty policitcs that will put our troops at a huge disadvantage, or our national security that depends on us completing the mess he and his corrupt brethren left behind, but because they are intentionally destroying the country and the American people so they can blame it on this administration and get back in power.

Why would power be so important to the GOP?  In and of itself, it is not.  What is important is that they have very lucrative careers waiting for them as a reward for giving control back to the corporations, the banks, the MIC.

Let's not be kind to them.  They are out to screw me and I don't like it.

[patman77]

07:29 PM on 06/23/2011

who in their right mind would trade a chin for a pair of dead fisheyes ?

[Pup99]

10:00 AM on 06/24/2011

Oh, your comment has just made my day. Thanks.....

[FreedToChoose]

07:14 PM on 06/23/2011

If Obama is breaking the law, Congress has remedies. Presidents are charged with running the Executive Branch as they see fit. While they may want to consult with Congress at times, they may want to ignore them as well. Effective leaders take chances. Even Harry Truman, considered by many to have been a good (read excellent) President was shut down at times; e.g., when he tried to seize and operate most of the steel mills which was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

If the GOP thinks it has a case and the Supreme Court is really a branch of the GOP as many liberals claim, then the GOP must act or pack up and leave the issue alone.

[WeirdScience]

06:27 PM on 06/23/2011

They're also more willing to be openly racist because there's a black President.

[johnpw41042]

06:20 PM on 06/23/2011

I have said it before, Mitchypoo is still holding a grudge because he did not get to be the Senate Majority Leader. He is a spoild child who stomps his feet and will obstruct anything even if it is not in the best interest of the country. Just like he said in the interview, "tendency to pull together when the guy in the White House is on our side". This man considers anyone who is a Democrat to not be a loyal U.S. citizen. He might not say it completely, but you can tell in this interviews. This man is only for himself and those who think like him. The rest of us need not apply. I really hope that in the next election that we here in Kentucky vote his selfish backside out of office. He has no integrity. To say something that ol'Rushy would say, "make this President a one term President" does not come across like a loyal U.S. citizen.

[myrtle1909]

10:30 AM on 06/24/2011

He is like the rest of the Republicans in congress. He has no ethics and they all want to make Obama a one term President even if they have to destroy the economy to do it..

[Skunkman]

06:18 PM on 06/23/2011

Leading Republican Senator admits putting party over country & he's a turtle. :)

Mike

[redhead55]

06:10 PM on 06/23/2011

Snippets From DK - "The Republican agenda is indeed pro-woman," said freshmen Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D. "It is pro-woman because it is pro-small business, pro-entrepreneur, pro-family and pro-economic growth. We are not attacking women; we are women."

Since Republican women are fairly new to this whole feminist thing...it's understandable that they'd be confused about how this pro-woman thing works.

...the Republican Party's agenda of tax cuts for the rich and screw everyone else doesn't actually benefit women:

...redefining rape, defunding health care, and even fighting against tax incentives for breastfeeding is pro-woman.

...remaining silent when a woman is physically assaulted at a Republican rally is pro-woman.

...insisting that feminist organizations are only allowed to call out sexism when it's leveraged against someone who shares their political ideology is pro-woman.

...these newly minted feminists of the Republican Party want us to know that Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann don't speak for them, so maybe it's unfair to hold them accountable for the insanity spewed by the dueling queen bees of the conservative fauxminist movement.

...They haven't signed on to any of the proposed legislation that would actually help women, like H.R.894, the Maternal Health Accountability Act of 2011. Not a single Republican woman has signed on to H.R.1519, the Paycheck Fairness Act. And as for their all-too-eager endorsement of denying health care to women, well, sorry, girls, but that's not very pro-woman either."

[skwan91607]

06:02 PM on 06/23/2011

Referred to his repeated announcement "Make Obama one term president", McConnell taking about President Obama "He is a Democrat". It is not his real meaning. He really means "He is a Black race president". It is hard to understand that where is all the reasonable republicans.not coming out to serve the country but let this stupid old racist to be a "leader", republican litter. For more than 2 years he did not do any thing to serve the majority of Americans like job creation some sort but running his stupid mouth and get pay + health care.
Amazingly republican voters selected him to deny unemployment benefit to them. Republican female voters need him to deny women's rights. He is a PIECE of WASTE do Americans see that ?