The animosity between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rick Scott last year was painfully obvious. Despite the fact that both men were members of the Senate Republican leadership, the Kentuckian and the Floridian spent months trading shots in public.
After the 2022 midterm elections, Scott took the tensions to a new level: Hoping to parlay failure into a promotion, he ran against McConnell for Senate GOP leader. The incumbent prevailed with relative ease, though it was the first challenge of McConnell’s tenure, and the fight was emblematic of the conference’s ongoing divisions.
Common sense seemed to suggest Scott should take a step back from the feud. (The phrase, “You come at the king, you best not miss” keeps coming to mind.) The Floridian neverthelesss did largely the opposite, helping form the so-called “Breakfast Club“ intended to apply even more far-right pressure on McConnell.
It was against this backdrop that NBC News reported yesterday:
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is upset that he has lost his seat on the Senate Commerce Committee, blaming the decision on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who quashed Scott’s leadership challenge late last year. “McConnell made the decision,” Scott told NBC News, “I got a text that I wasn’t on it. Nobody called me.”
When NBC News asked if he thought the move was retaliatory, Scott didn’t exactly say no. “So I’ve probably run one of the biggest companies, not the biggest company ever, than anybody that’s been on the Senate, the third biggest state, I’ve been on the committee for four years,” the senator complained. “So why, you know, he made the decision, so you should ask him.”
It’s worth noting for context that as the new Senate gets to work in earnest, Scott wasn’t the only one removed from the Commerce Committee: Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson and Utah’s Mike Lee received the same news this week.
McConnell moved Johnson to the Senate Finance Committee — a sought-after slot — and added Lee to the Senate Budget Committee.
Scott, in contrast, wasn’t given another slot, though he will maintain his other committee assignments.
In previous generations, rank-and-file senators were highly reluctant to pick fights with Senate party leaders because they feared the consequences. In general, the circumstances on Capitol Hill have changed: Scott, for example, doesn’t need McConnell for fundraising. He doesn’t need McConnell to line up appearances in conservative media. He didn’t need McConnell’s support to remain in the party leadership because his tenure as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee was already over. He doesn’t even need McConnell’s 2024 endorsement or feel the need to worry about McConnell recruiting a primary rival.
In other words, Scott picked a months-long fight with the Senate Republican leader, knowing that there simply wasn’t a whole lot the longtime incumbent could do to him.
That is, until this week, when McConnell apparently exacted a modest amount of revenge. If you’re thinking this will lead to another round of hostilities between the GOP senators, you’re not alone.
