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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Home News Latest Stories Grow 'em before you plant 'em Since You Asked: Street utility fee is non-negotiable Emergency Services Events planned for Veterans Day New cable fence stops out-of-control SUV Crime, Courts and Emergency Services Emergency Services New cable fence stops out-of-control SUV Emergency services Police still searching for high-speed driver Emergency services Politics and Elections Ballot measures played little role in mobilizing voters in state Senate race 'Euphoria' over pot initiative Oregon voters narrowly reject GMO labeling measure Statewide voter turnout close to 70 percent Marsh, Seffinger win big in Ashland council races Education Crater students present play about Thoreau's night in jail Half of Oregon's community college enrollees need remedial classes Marketta Gregory: Stretch yourself for God Medford Schools Foundation supports programs the district can't Fire marshal visit prompts cancellation of Sacred Heart haunted house Environment Grow 'em before you plant 'em Since You Asked: Biomass One makes steam-generated power Organic squash creates a bountiful harvest for ACCESS Prospect-area cow death likely not a wolf kill Navickas ordered to pay court filing fees State News Kitzhaber embattled as he seeks fourth term Nation - World Obituaries Jeanne R. 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New cable fence stops out-of-control SUV ... Our View: Dems should take it slow in Salem ... Events planned for Veterans Day ... New cable fence stops out-of-control SUV ... Our View: Dems should take it slow in Salem ... ANOTHER VIEW George Will: In Kentucky, a constitutional moment MailTribune.com Writer Posted Oct. 23, 2014 @ 12:01 am Posted Oct. 23, 2014 @ 12:01 am » Social News LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Barack Obama lost Kentucky in 2012 by 23 points, yet the state remains closely divided about re-electing the man whose parliamentary skills uniquely qualify him to restrain Obama's executive overreach. So, Kentucky's Senate contest is a constitutional moment that will determine whether the separation of powers will be reasserted by a Congress revitalized by restoration of the Senate's dignity. Even counting Justice Louis Brandeis as a Kentuckian — at 18 he defected to Harvard and New England — Mitch McConnell, 72, is second only to Henry Clay as the state's most consequential public servant. McConnell's skills have been honed through five terms. He is, however — let us say the worst — not cuddly. National Review has said he has "an owlish, tight-lipped public demeanor reminiscent of George Will." Harsh. But true. On only one significant matter — McConnell opposes increasing the minimum wage, a symbolic issue of negligible economic importance — is he at odds with a large majority of Kentuckians. Thus he surely would be leading by more than a few points if he were less austere and more telegenic. Democrats selected McConnell's opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, 35, Kentucky's secretary of state, largely to further their "Republicans loathe women" fable. McConnell, however, is running even with Grimes among women, partly because of the persuasiveness of his wife, Elaine Chao, the longest-serving labor secretary since World War II (2001-2009). In 1952, a Republican member of the Phoenix City Council, Barry Goldwater, defeated U.S. Senate Majority Leader Ernest McFarland. For the next 52 years, until the defeat of Tom Daschle, D-S.D., in 2004, no party's Senate leader was defeated. But political polarization has increased leaders' conspicuousness and vulnerabilities. McConnell, who in 2002 won with 65 percent, won in 2008 with just 53 percent. Grimes' cringe-inducing campaign has depended on a migraine-inducing argument: She broadly disagrees with her party's leader, but it is important that she help perpetuate Harry Reid's iron-fisted shutdown of the Senate for Obama's convenience. Her campaign has raised more money than McConnell's in three consecutive quarters, but money is not magic, which would be needed to make her candidacy coherent. Although Senate races in many states remain close — McConnell remembers Republicans losing control of the Senate in 1986 by about 25,000 votes in five states — he anticipates a Republican majority in 2015. Then, he says, "a lot of institutional repair" will begin. Since Republicans won control of the House in 2010, the Democratic-controlled Senate's function has been obstruction. Reid has prevented bills passed by the Republican House from coming to a vote, and has prevented Republicans — and Democrats, too — from proposing amendments to Senate bills that would be awkward for Democrats to oppose or for Obama to veto. Obama has cast only two vetoes, both for technical reasons on minor matters. Since July 2013, McConnell says, there have been only 22 Senate roll call votes on amendments — and says Alaska Democrat Mark Begich has never in his six Senate years had a roll call vote on an amendment of his. Such paralysis of the Senate leaves Obama uninhibited in his use of executive orders and bureaucratic mission-creep to advance goals that should require legislation. Last January, in the most statesmanlike Senate speech in years, McConnell explained how, under Republican leadership, the Senate would be restored as the creator of consensus: "An executive order can't [create consensus]. The fiat of a nine-person court can't do it. A raucous and precarious partisan majority in the House can't do it. The only institution that can make stable and enduring laws is the one we have in which all 50 states are represented equally, and where every single senator has a say in the laws that we pass." Beneath McConnell's chilly exterior burns indignation about the degradation of the institution to which he has devoted much of his life. The repair of it, in the form of robust committee and amendment processes — and an extended workweek — will benefit Democratic members, too. Kentucky's Senate election is 2014's most important, for a reason rich in irony: Although Grimes considers McConnell the architect of gridlock, electing her to inevitably docile membership in Reid's lockstep ranks would perpetuate this. But a re-elected McConnell, with a Republican majority, would, he says, emulate his model of majority leadership — the 16 years under a Democrat, Montana's Mike Mansfield. He, like McConnell, had a low emotional metabolism but a subtle sense of the Senate's singular role in the nation's constitutional equilibrium. George Will's email address is [email protected]. MailTribune.com Writer Posted Oct. 23, 2014 @ 12:01 am » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with MailTribune.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services Home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Announcements Obituaries Story ideas Since you asked Alerts Email Alerts RSS Feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Your privacy is important, read our privacy policy. © Copyright 2014 Local Media Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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