Mitch McConnell is only a few days younger than your solitary reporter, and he is not in the least good-looking. As we here at AP have cleverly observed for many years, the portentous McConnell is endowed with a triple chin.
He is a very astute pol (almost as smart as LBJ was when he was Senate Majority Leader), and whenever he speaks in front of a camera, Right next to him are a few other GOP senators: John Barrasso (R-WY), Chair of the Senate Republican Conference; John Thune (R-SD), Senate Minority Whip, McConnell’s Number Two, who is ever so much better looking than McConnell; and, sometimes, John Cornyn (Ted Cruz’ senior senator), the Ranking Member of the U S Senate Narcotics Caucus, ‘cause all Republicans are addicted to Donald Trump.
Though not really popular in his home state of Kentucky, McConnell, 79, is not gonna live forever, even though Donald Trump would prefer that McConnell die tomorrow, if not sooner, ‘cause McConnell knew damn well that he should have voted to convict Trump during the Second Impeachment Trial, and McConnell implicitly made that very clear when he announced his No Vote at the second impeachment trial, a fact that Trump never forgave McConnell for.
Since McConnell will eventually die, that means that the job of Senate Minority Leader will have to be filled by a john.
Which of the three johns will it be?
According to Politico’s superb Burgess Everett, it’s likely (maybe) to be senator John Thune, the senior senator from South Dakota (https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/12/mcconnell-successor-three-johns-race-5269200).
South Dakota is like Wyoming and Delaware and Vermont, because South Dakota has only one Member of the US House. Ardent Dem fans of the late, great George McGovern, who hailed from Mitchell, South Dakota, will easily recall that George McGovern could have defeated Richard Nixon for the Presidency in 1972, only that didn’t happen, in part because of Watergate.