Thune Flubs SAVE America Act, Flees for 5-Week Break

Does Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., secretly want Republicans to lose the midterm elections? 

Rather than pass the SAVE America Act and other key legislation, the majority “leader” adjourned the Senate for a 36-day break. SAVE’s absence makes Capitol Hill even steeper to climb, if Republicans hope to maintain control after November.

Thune’s less-than-flaccid “leadership” rivals his lassitude. His work ethic lags that of a Skid Row panhandler. It takes real energy to rattle a tin cup all day long. Too bad Thune lacks such stamina.

“The Democrats bear a fair share of the blame for being the obstacle Thune has to overcome,” observed Cleta Mitchell, senior legal fellow with the Conservative Partnership Institute. “They shouldn’t get a pass.”

Mitchell is right. If Democrats did not despise every Republican election-integrity venture as viscerally as vampires loathe garlic, Thune might have passed SAVE already. But Democrat ferocity is a given. Thune’s job is, somehow, to find enough mallets and wooden stakes to neutralize the Senate’s Dracula Caucus. This is where Thune’s listlessness and lack of imagination aggravate Republicans.

“Thune is an empty suit when it comes to figuring out how to navigate the Senate,” Mitchell adds. “It’s shocking how poor a leader he is. He really does not have a creative bone in his body.”

Conversely, the deceptively unassuming House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., turns out to be a shrewd legislative strategist. He has used the rules to ease Senate adoption of SAVE.

Johnson’s chamber passed SAVE thrice. In February, it so amended an existing Senate-passed bill. This avoided a filibuster, and a mere 51-48 vote commenced debate.

Johnson also implemented my suggestion: Staple SAVE to multiple Senate-bound measures. This included the National Defense Authorization Act, featuring a 6.2% average pay hike for America’s intrepid GIs. Johnson also forwarded a Reconciliation 3.0 resolution with SAVE implementation funds. This $10 billion allocation makes it tougher for Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth McDonough to reject SAVE as insufficiently budgetary. (Then-Democrat leader Harry Reid of Nevada appointed McDonough in 2012.)

Thune could pass SAVE by daring Democrats and four GOP holdouts to torpedo Pentagon reauthorization, just to stop proof of citizenship for voter registration, limits on mail-in ballots, clean voter rolls, and photo ID at the polls.

Reconciliation 3.0 would give senators another 50-vote path to pass SAVE. But rather than advance that proposal, Thune excused the Senate for five weeks, until Sept. 14—the Monday after Labor Day! (The House returns Aug. 31—two weeks sooner.) 

This is parliamentary malpractice.

“I don’t understand how Republican senators can be dismissed and go home when we have such vital, needed legislation pending in the Senate, particularly the SAVE America Act,” laments Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at the Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law. “That legislation is essential to preserving not only the integrity of US elections but protecting our democratic Republic. The failure to pass it is one of the most grievous mistakes made by Republicans in decades, and they will bear the dire consequences in future elections.”

If Republicans lose the House and/or Senate, Thune will bear ample blame. Lazily fumbling SAVE leaves the Democrat Vote-Theft Machine ready for action.

Unidentified, ineligible “voters” will reach the polls. Election night Republican winners will become latter-day losers, as magic ballots trickle in via mail for days and weeks after polls close. This will occur with the Supreme Court’s blessing, thanks to wobbly Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s calamitous majority opinion in Watson v. Republican National Committee. 

SAVE could make mail-in ballots great again. Oh, well.

Meanwhile, SAVE’s paralysis and Thune’s lackadasia will disgust and demoralize the GOP base. 

“How do I make the case as a conservative activist trying to drum up support for Republicans when, as the majority controlling all three branches of government, we are incapable of delivering the very campaign promises that elected the majority we have today?” Early Vote Action founder Scott Presler asked Breitbart News. “How do I make the case to elect Republicans when our Senate majority leadership won’t deliver what 84% of Americans want?”

Democrats will wade through lava to visit their precincts and bash “DonaldTrump.” If Republican voters are too dejected to show up, Thune will be demoted to reinstated Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s errand boy.

Republicans should be toiling today, to prevent Democrats from stealing the House, Senate, or both. But John Thune believes he and his colleagues can SAVE America by occupying beaches and yachts until seven afternoons beyond Labor Day. Good luck with that.

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