The incoming senate minority leader

Ladies and gentlemen, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, as interviewed by Melissa Block. Sorry this is behind the curve, but doing even a half-ass job of transcribing stuff from the radio is a pain.

McConnell feels some love for Bipartisanship:

[It's] important to remember that the minority in the Senate is almost never irrelevant. Particularly a robust minority of 49.

The Senate was constructed by our founding fathers and then the subsequent evolution of the filibuster rule has turned the senate into an institution that can really operate on a bipartisan basis.

It takes 60 votes, not 51 to do virtually everything in the senate. [snip] In order to accomplish something for America we have to [put together] deals that make sense. Otherwise, the minority party is in a position to with a mere 41 votes to prevent the passage of almost anything.

As Martha Stewart would say, the filibuster: It's a Good Thing. Except for when it comes to Bush's judicial nominees.

McConnel on the minimum wage:

We tried to get the minimum wage increased just a couple of month ago. It was coupled with some other things, like getting relief on the death tax which has been an onerous thing for family farmers and small businesses for a long time. We'd be open to increasing the minimum wage, it does be need to be packaged with something else to provide relief for small business who would be laying off a lot of the youngsters as a result of the increase. [Blah blah blah] It would need to be in a package that is attractive to both sides.

It's funny how at this point Melissa Block just completely ignored his whole Death Tax! boilerplate about Family Farmers! and Small Businesses! and cut to the chase.

Block: Will you decouple it from the estate tax then?
McConnell: Probably.

Ah, bipartisanship means never wanting to be the party that filibustered a rise in the minimum wage.