Senator John Thune: New Majority Leader

By Robin Itzler

Editor's Note:  This is one of the commentaries selected from Robin's weekly newsletter Patriot Neighbors. Any cartoons appearing will have been added by me.  If you wish to get the full edition, E-mail her at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com to get on her list, it's free. RK

What happened to transparency? Republican senators held a SECRET vote to pick their next leader. (Did they also say, “Thank you, sir, may I have another.”)

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Instead of going with President Trump’s preference of Florida Senator Rick Scott, the secret vote went to Establishment Senator John Thune of South Dakota. Following the vote, Charlie Kirk, founder and director of Turning Point USA, said on his podcast:

We don't know how people voted. Of all the votes that they take, this is one of the most important votes that they take. Since Republicans vote with the party 98% of the time, what matters is who are they actually putting in charge of the United States Senate, and the majority leader decides that. But their votes are private? 

We don't actually know who voted for John Thune. We can guess. We can piece it together. We know some of his allies. I like Markwayne Mullen. I think he's a good man from Oklahoma. We've gotten to know each other. Don't agree on a lot of stuff, but he's willing to dialogue. He's behind John Thune. OK. I know some people are behind John Cornyn. But why the secret ballot? And it's very clear. They do a secret ballot because they're terrified of you.

John Thune is now Senate majority leader. If he does not support President Trump in these next 30 to 45 days to fill President Trump's cabinet, we will remove him. If he does support President Trump, we'll support him. But Thune won in the darkness. Thune did not win when people had to voice their support for John Thune. 

The only way that they are able to keep business as usual in the Senate is to not have you see who's actually supporting business as usual in the Senate. And in some ways, that should give you some hope and that's some optimism. That should give you some confidence and encouragement. In some ways, that's actually a very good thing because they're terrified of you because you care and the American people have awoken from their slumber.