Last night, when the kids were in bed and my Direct TV not functioning on account of scattered snow flurries in the Twin Cities area, I was zipping around on the Internet and eventually found myself reading the Wikipedia article about Mitch McConnell. I think I'm generally familiar with his record in the US Senate but some of the biographical details were news to me.
Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. (born February 20, 1942) is an American politician serving as Kentucky's senior United States senator and as Senate Majority Leader . . . .
When he was eight, McConnell moved with his family from Athens to Augusta, Georgia, when his father, who was in the Army, was stationed at Fort Gordon. In 1956, his family moved to Louisville, where he attended duPont Manual High School. McConnell was elected student council president . . . . He graduated with honors from the University of Louisville with a B.A. in political science in 1964. He was president of the Student Council of the College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. He has maintained strong ties to his alma mater and is still "a rabid fan of the U of L Cardinals football and basketball teams". . . .
In 1967, McConnell graduated from University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was president of the Student Bar Association.
In March 1967, shortly before the expiration of his educational draft deferment upon graduation from law school, McConnell enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve as a private at Louisville, Kentucky. This was a coveted position because the Reserve units were mostly kept out of combat during the Vietnam War. His first day of training at Fort Knox was July 9, 1967, two days after taking the bar exam, and his last day was August 15, 1967. . . . His time in service has been . . . the subject of criticism because his discharge was accelerated after his father placed a call to Senator John Sherman Cooper, who then sent a wire to the commanding general at Fort Knox on August 10, advising that "Mitchell [is] anxious to clear post in order to enroll in NYU." He was allowed to leave post just five days later, though McConnell maintains that no one helped him with his enlistment into or discharge from the reserves. According to McConnell, he struggled through the exercises at basic training and was sent to a doctor for a physical examination, which revealed his optic neuritis. McConnell did not attend NYU. . . .
McConnell is a Southern Baptist. He was married to his first wife, Sherrill Redmon, from 1968 to 1980, and had three children. Following their divorce, she became a feminist scholar at Smith College and director of the Sophia Smith Collection. His second wife, whom he married in 1993, is Elaine Chao, Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush and Secretary of Transportation under President Donald Trump. . . .
In 2010, the OpenSecrets website ranked McConnell one of the wealthiest members of the U.S. Senate, based on net household worth. His personal wealth was increased after receiving a 2008 personal gift to him and his wife, given by his father-in-law James S.C. Chao after the death of McConnell's mother-in-law, that ranged between $5 and $25 million.
Sometimes I decide I dislike someone and then, learning more about the person, I conclude I was wrong and I feel embarrassed about having been so quick to judge. That is not the sensation I have while reading up on Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. But I am not one of these who think all of Congress is just a bunch of overripe frat boys. For example, I really like a letter that Rep. Ted Lieu, Democrat of California, recently sent to the lawyer for his Republican colleague Devin Nunes, one of Trump's fan boys in the Congress. The first page of the lawyer's long letter threatening Lieu is shown below in the left panel; Lieu's brief reply in the right. In case you're my age and your cheaters are out of reach, I'll set out the best sentence, which is Lieu's last: "Or, you can take your letter and shove it."
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