I can’t be the only one mourning lost visions of a Democratic Senate. Seemingly easy wins from Maine to North Carolina went poof. Iowa and South Carolina had reachable wins.
But no. Even with records broken spent on races, Sen. McConnell will still set to be the Majority Leader and a firewall for any progressive legislation. If Biden is, as it currently seems, set to become President, he will have to work with McConnell to try to get anything from bills to judges passed. Biden could try to work with a GOP senator or two, but they likely would not do so without McConnell’s blessing.
Based on how things shake out, Electoral-vote.com suggested a hardball solution; appoint some GOP senators to the Biden administration.
If the Republicans control the Senate with 51 or 52 seats, there is one ploy a President Biden could try. Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Richard Burr (R-NC) have all announced that they will not seek reelection in 2022. Biden could offer one or more of them cabinet positions. It just so happens that all three of their states have Democratic governors. In Pennsylvania and North Carolina, the governor appoints the new senator, who would surely be a Democrat. In Wisconsin, there is a special election, which a Democrat would have a decent shot at winning.
I think the chance to have even a 50/50 Senate is worth it to have one or two of them in a Biden administration. It doesn’t even have to be in the cabinet. Maybe Toomey would like to be an ambassador to Switzerland and promote Hershey's chocolate to boot.
This would also play up bi-partisanship, an attempt to reach across the aisle, which is very much in Biden’s wheelhouse. President Obama had a few Republicans in his administration. And for whatever complaints McConnell and others will produce, they have repeatedly shown when they are in power, it is justified. If it advances their agenda, so be it. Who knows if a GOP Senate will even allow Biden to appoint judges and officials he wants.
Granted a 50/50 Senate may not be able to achieve the goals we dreamt of on November 2nd. But Democrats would be the Chairs of Committees, able to control the agenda, and maybe even able to convince recalcitrant members and the public that the filibuster has to go after McConnell and the rest abuse it like never before.
And wouldn’t it be worth it to demote McConnell from Majority Leader to Minority cause Democrats finally played hardball?