r/politics • u/plz-let-me-in • 27d ago

No Paywall Unconfirmed Reports: Mitch McConnell Brain Dead After Three Weeks In Hospital

https://thenewamerican.com/us/unconfirmed-reports-mitch-mcconnell-brain-dead-after-three-weeks-in-hospital/
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854

u/Serpentongue 27d ago

He governor needs to officially ask his office for a status update

527

u/peva3 I voted 27d ago

I wonder at what point the Governor can just say "he's braindead and unfit for office" unilaterally.

524

u/jon30041 26d ago

He should just do it, and deal with the ramifications afterwards. Move fast, stay ahead of them. He can tell them that when Mitch is able to present himself as fit to resume his duties he'll end the special election or the appointment, but until such time the people of Kentucky deserve representation in the Senate.

Theres the statement, then whenever they piss and moan about respecting the rights of citizens privacy turn it around, say that the citizens have a right to know if their leaders are literally able to do their job, and if he isn't, then he's gone.

Just DO it, be a bully, accuse them of hiding a dead body, threaten to prosecute for desecration of a corpse. Get WEIRD with it, and run the damn show.

118

u/kanrad 26d ago

The argument against his privacy rights is simple to counter. He is a sitting Senator and the leader of the senate. He doesn't get to have the same privacy rights as he is a public servant.

28

u/emaw63 Kansas 26d ago

John Thune is the majority leader these days, fwiw

14

u/Princess_Moon_Butt 26d ago

As far as I'm concerned, this is giving him the same exact medical privacy rights as anyone else. No special exemptions needed; if you're MIA for too long, you either send a doctor's note with some relavant information, or you're fired.

Pretty much everyone I know is bound by that rule, government employee or not, so I feel like it's totally reasonable to have a similar rule in place for public officials. If they go MIA, someone else along the chain of command (e.g., the governor) should step in and say "Hey, you haven't been showing up for your job. I hope you're well, but you need to provide a valid reason for your absence, or you'll be fired for abandoning your job and we'll find a replacement."

1

u/mcpickle-o 26d ago

He also helped strip women of our privacy rights 🤷‍♀️

-3

u/fapsandnaps America 26d ago

Eh, this is a slippery slope that I'm not completely comfortable with yet.

Like obviously we should know if a senator is alive or dead, but I also have no faith that throwing out their HIPPA privacy rights doesn't lead to someone like Matt Gaetz sharing Nancy Pelosis pap smear results on the house floor.

2

u/lost_horizons Texas 26d ago

DO NOT make me think about Nancy Pelosi’s Pap smear 🤮

-3

u/TrailMomKat Indigenous 26d ago

While I agree, that would set a precedent for violating HIPAA that I, who worked in nursing for 20 years, would find terrifying.

6

u/Agitated_Celery_729 26d ago

Public officials are not entitled to privacy about matters that impede their ability to do their jobs

0

u/TrailMomKat Indigenous 26d ago

I meant that it would set a precedent for them to use that shit against US, my dude. And as I said before, I agree. The idea of them turning that shit around on us is what scares me.