Mitch McConnell Writes His Own Letter Telling Everyone To Ignore 'President' Obama

We all know what a success it was for Senate Republicans to sign Tom Cotton's love letter to Iran's leadership explaining how, according to the U.S. Constitution, the president does not have any real authority. Everyone took them seriously, especially Iran, and no one called them traitors or suggested that openly declaring the president has no power is maybe not very America Fuck Yeah! of them.

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Because that was so effective, letter writin' is all the rave, so Senate Majority Mitch McConnell has whipped out his mighty pen and written a little "please for to ignore 'President' Obama" note of his own to the National Governors Association:

In an unusual move, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is calling on states to ignore a directive from the Obama administration to cut greenhouse gas pollution from coal-fired power plants.

In case you were wondering, no, it is not standard operating procedure for the leader of the Senate to explicitly direct governors to ignore the president. But then, we live in strange times, when the president is a black man (except for when we must conveniently remember that his mother was white, so it is not racist to say racist things about him because he's notentirelyblack) who doesn't have the legal authority to be president.

 McConnell's letter insists that a new proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce carbon emissions, called the Clean Power Plan, is not really legal -- the EPA is currently run by the Obama administration, you know -- so governors should feel free to ignore it.

"I have serious legal and policy concerns regarding this proposal," McConnell writes. Those policy concerns probably have nothing at all to do with Kentucky being one of those states that really likes its coal industry and would really REALLY like the EPA to stay the hell out and let business run havoc on the environment, for freedom and liberty and profit, amen. McConnell, who is not a scientist but did go to law school, where he apparently was sleeping off a bourbon hangover the day they taught How Does The Law Work, wants governors to know that in his legal and senatorial opinion, there is no need to comply with the Obama administration's new proposal:

Some have recently suggested that failing to comply with the EPA's requirements would be to disregard the law. But the fact is, it is the EPA that is failing to comply with the law here.

McConnell even includes a footnote citing a Supreme Court case, like some kind of guy who went to law school one time and learned how to do that. And in case the governors have any doubt that the law requires them to ignore federal regulations to keep the coal industry chugging along, McConnell dispels those concerns, writing that the "plan is already on shaky legal grounds," in the expert opinion of a senator from the third biggest coal-producing state. But here's his helpful suggestion:

[D]eclining to go along with the administration's legally dubious plan will give the other two branches of government time to address the proposal and will not put your state at risk in the interim. It will provide time for the courts to rule on whether the EPA's proposed rule is legal, and it will give Congress a chance to address numerous concerns surrounding this latest power grab by the EPA.

Wow. To a cynical person, it almost sounds like McConnell is threatening the governors. Don't you dare comply with the EPA, or else your state might be breaking the law! Would hate to have to bail you out of governor jail! Better ignore federal regulations, just to be on the safe side. It's not as if the Obama administration or any federal agencies have any authority anyway. Better just stick with Mitch McConnell (and the coal industry that keeps McConnell in office, but let's not mention that). He's just trying to stand up for "the law" as he sees it. Really.

[ TPM ]