Mitch McConnell’s February 28th announcement of his retirement from the leadership of his party in the U.S. Senate came with welcomed relief until he added a caveat that it wouldn’t take effect until November of this year. That’s like the employee who announces in February that he’s leaving the company but will be hanging around until the next Christmas party. Somehow the idea just doesn’t float. When you’ve decided to move on from anything, remaining behind is hardly appealing or desirable from the standpoint of the people or place you are leaving. This should be especially true with respect to a body like the Senate.

McConnell, first elected a Senator from Kentucky in 1984, has held the leadership position of his party since 2007 making him the longest serving party leader in history. Growing clashes with more conservative members of his conference like Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, Texas’s Ted Cruz, Missouri’s Josh Hawley and Florida’s Rick Scott, who challenged McConnell for the leadership position, made it increasingly clear that the time to step aside had come. A fervent Trump despiser, and old friend of President Biden from his Senate days, McConnell demonstrated his own increasing disconnect with Republican voters on issues such as the war in Ukraine and immigration. The final fissure in McConnell’s leadership opened wide with the defeat of the 100-billion-dollar supplemental spending bill, which would have provided another 60 billion in aid to Ukraine, aid for Israel in its war against Hamas, and some money for the crisis at America’s Southern border.

The House of Representatives rejected the Senate bill holding out on approving the additional spending unless more stringent measures and concessions with respect to stemming the tide of illegal immigrants at the border were incorporated into the plan. McConnell, mindful of his desire to deliver for Joe Biden rather than American voters, anxiously tried to keep the package intact rather than engaging in standalone votes for aid. The House passed a separate aid package for Israel which the Senate rejected. The real objective of the supplemental bill was to procure the aid for Ukraine, and it was believed that linking it with aid for Israel and the border would assure passage of the whole. How wrong McConnell was. A second debacle reflecting the diminished power of McConnel followed on the heels of the spending package defeat. The Immigration Reform bill being commandeered by Senator James Lankford (R-OK) was supposed to quell the uneasiness of conservatives concerning a tougher approach to the border and ease opposition to passing Ukraine aid. The effort was highly praised and supported by McConnell, who still was hoping for a win on Ukraine aid for the White House. In a direct challenge to McConnell, former president Doanld Trump urged Republicans to stand fast and not support the bill. Negotiated behind closed doors and released for review a couple of days before a vote, it turned out to be another exercise in woefully inadequate political gimmickry, doing nothing to end the flow of humanity across the border. In a sop to Democrats, one provision of the legislation allowed illegal entrants to come in each day with a cutoff measure activated only when the numbers exceeded 5000. The bill ultimately crashed and burned in the Senate.

The time comes for everyone who holds power to face the reality of the finite, of limited possibilities and outcomes. McConnell wielded the kind of unlimited power which would be the envy of most. He had unbridled control and influence over money, legislation, and careers. He began seeing that power evaporate when he started losing touch with the people who put him that position, the voters. When he started believing the interests of voters were superseded by his own agenda, his own loyalties, his own fabricated sense of omnipotence, he was destined to fall on the sword. His desire to remain in the leadership position of his party after announcing his decision to go was viewed coldly by members of his own caucus, who felt he should step aside immediately and allow voting for a new minority leader to take place. It makes sense, because what kind of leadership is going to be exerted on behalf of the party and its interests by someone just marking time? In any event, while McConnell will finish out his Senate term ending in 2026, he should take the opportunity to relinquish the mantle of leadership with dignity rather than trying to stave off the inevitable and leave under a cloud of cynicism. If the old saying about how fish, even on ice, start stinking after a few days, McConnell by now has to know he isn’t going to be around for the Christmas party.