10 Things You Didn't Know About Mitch McConnell

By Debra Bell

July 17, 2009 RSS Feed Print

McConnell is a senator from Kentucky and the minority leader

  1. Addison Mitchell "Mitch" McConnell Jr. was born to Addison Mitchell McConnell and Julia Shockley on Feb. 20, 1942, in Tuscumbia, Ala. He was raised in Louisville, Ky.
  2. When he was 2 years old, McConnell contracted polio. He was unable to walk until he was 5.
  3. In 1964, he graduated with honors from the University of Louisville College of Arts and Sciences; in 1967, he graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law.
  4. McConnell got his start as an intern on Capitol Hill for Kentucky Republican Sen. John Sherman Cooper. He worked as chief legislative assistant to Kentucky Republican Sen. Marlow Cook from 1968 to 1970.
  5. McConnell served as deputy assistant attorney general under President Gerald Ford. He returned to Kentucky and served as judge-executive of Jefferson County from 1978 to 1985.
  6. In 1984, McConnell was the only Republican to unseat a Democratic incumbent in a U.S. Senate race.
  7. In 2003, McConnell had triple-bypass heart surgery after a stress test and follow-up screening that revealed arterial blockages.
  8. In 2008, despite a fundraising advantage over Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford of more than 2 to 1, McConnell won re-election by only 6 percentage points.
  9. Since 1993, McConnell has been married to Elaine Chao, who served as President George W. Bush's labor secretary. He has three daughters from a previous marriage.
  10. On Jan. 10, 2009, McConnell became the longest-serving U.S. senator in Kentucky's history.

Sources:

  • Official Senate Bio
  • New York Times
  • The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)
  • The Cincinnati Enquirer (Ohio)
  • Los Angeles Times
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The conservative blockade on the extension of unemployment insurance (and relief for the state revenue crisis) might just be starting to crumble. As with the debates over health care and Wall Street reform, it appears that powerful facts are finally starting to wear down the nonsensical and ideological opposition of the far right.

Distilled to its essence, here is the hard factual and political reality that confronts the right and the its chief spokesperson, the hapless Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell: Most people simply find it illogical to block $35 billion in unemployment relief at the same time that one defends keeping nearly $1 trillion in tax cuts for the rich. Most Americans care about the federal debt, but they’re also smart enough to understand the difference between sane, disciplined fiscal policy that requires shared sacrifice and the absurd brand of snake oil economic being peddled by McConnell and the market fundamentalists.

Blank of FL 4:18PM July 19, 2010

On meet the press you talked the talk now walk the walk.We need the bill passed tommorow!! 680 BILLION IN TAX CREDITS 34 BILLION FOR EXTENSIONS!!Get the moving truck to your office in November! Hire me Ill work for temporary wages.

Eric of MI 2:40PM July 19, 2010

Mr McConnell knows how to get the job done. His track record is great. People might not like his methods, but he knows how to get the job done in the best interests of the common people.

Mr McConnell has the back bone to stand up against those we as common citizens oppose even if he is out numbered in Washington right now.

This is a true leader, not someone who raises a White flag of surrender when ever opposition clenches a fist.

Kregg of KY 5:27PM July 23, 2009

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