The Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal have noticed what everyone else knows:

Mitch McConnell Agonistes

The Beltway double standard on the health of public officials is something to behold.

by The Editorial Board | Friday, September 1, 2023 | 6:44 PM EDT

You can tell who’s loved and hated in Washington by the way they’re treated when they have a health issue. President Biden stumbles through his first term, and is tripping toward another, with nary a notice from the Democratic-media complex about his obvious physical and mental decline. But GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell freezes up twice in five weeks before the cameras and he’s supposed to resign forthwith.

Mr. McConnell, who is 81 years old, clearly isn’t the same since he fell and suffered a concussion in March. His speech has long been slow but it seems more labored now. The moments when he has frozen for 20 seconds or so, and had to be helped by colleagues or aides, are difficult to watch.

Yet colleagues and others who have seen him after those events say he was alert and engaged. His doctor issued a statement on Thursday saying he’s able to continue his regular schedule. “Occasional lightheadedness is not uncommon in concussion recovery and can also be expected as a result of dehydration,” Dr. Brian Monahan said after he conferred with Mr. McConnell’s neurology team. If that’s the proper diagnosis and Mr. McConnell can still do the work, then he has no need to step down as leader.

Washington’s double standard on the health of politicians is also something to behold. Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman ran for the Senate after suffering a stroke and he still struggles. The press ignores it. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein didn’t know her aides had sent out a press release saying she wouldn’t run for re-election in 2024.

One wonders why the left aren’t more vociferous in their demands that Senator Feinstein step down. After all, California Governor Gavin Newsom, another far-left Democrat, would appoint her replacement, so it isn’t as though her resignation, or death, would affect the party balance in the Senate. Senator Fetterman is in better health, but he, too, would be replaced by another Democrat if he had to leave office early.

Then there’s Mr. Biden, who stumbles repeatedly, blurts out inanities and non sequiturs, and sometimes doesn’t seem to know where he is on stage. But because Democrats don’t want a primary fight, and they fear Vice President Kamala Harris could be their 2024 nominee, everyone is supposed to ignore Mr. Biden’s infirmities. Whatever his issues, Mr. McConnell doesn’t have to negotiate with dictators like Xi Jinping or take calls at 3 a.m.

Mr. McConnell has been GOP leader since 2007, and he’s acquired many enemies on both sides of the aisle. Democrats loathe him because he’s been effective in defeating their fondest ambitions. He almost single-handedly made the current Supreme Court majority possible by blocking Merrick Garland’s nomination in 2016 after the death of Antonin Scalia.

Here in the Bluegrass State, I keep hearing how Senator McConnell is generally loathed by Republicans, yet he has won every election in which he has ever run, including 2020, when he was outspent by Democrat Amy McGrath Henderson, $90 million to $60 million, yet he won by his second largest re-election percentage margin, and the largest, in 2002, was against a sacrificial lamb candidate.

It’s been made very clear: given a choice, Kentucky voters would choose a Republican to represent them in the Senate, as both Mr McConnell and our other Senator, libertarian Republican Rand Paul, have been winning their campaigns by huge majorities. The problem is that the Governor, Andy Beshear, is a Democrat.

In 2021, the General Assembly passed KRS §63.200, specifying the procedures under which the seat would be filled in the event of a vacancy:

• (1) (a) The Governor shall fill vacancies in the office of United States Senator by appointment and the appointee shall serve until a successor has been elected and qualified under subsection (2), (3), (4), or (5) of this section.
• (b) The appointee shall be selected from a list of three (3) names submitted by the state executive committee of the same political party as the Senator who held the vacant seat to be filled, shall have been continuously registered as a member of that political party since December 31 of the preceding year, and shall be named within twenty-one (21) days from the date of the list submission
• (c) In the event the vacant seat was held by a person who was not a member of any political party as defined under KRS 118.015, the Governor shall appoint any qualified voter who is not a member of any political party as defined under KRS 118.015.
• (d) Upon appointment, the Governor shall, under the seal of the Commonwealth, certify the appointment to the President of the Senate of the United States. The certificate of appointment shall be countersigned by the Secretary of State.

If we could count on Governor Beshear to do something really radical like obey the law, it would be no problem, but ever since Mr McConnell’s first spell, the rumors have been flying that he would not. Democrats have suggested that Mr Beshear would likely push back against the law in one of two ways: ignore the law and appoint the replacement himself or sue against the law.

Either way would deny the Bluegrass State half of its representation in the United States Senate for some time. If Mr Beshear appointed someone not on that list, doubtlessly a Democrat, the Republican Party would immediately file a lawsuit; since the Secretary of State is required to countersign the certification, under KRS §63.200(1)(d), and Republican Michael Adams currently holds that office, Mr Adams could delay his signature long enough for the lawsuit to be filed. If Mr Beshear filed suit himself to challenge the law, he would not be able to appoint anyone to the seat while the lawsuit was in court, and if he tried, the appointment would be held up. If he took the second option, he would doubtlessly file it in Franklin Circuit Court, for his toady judge, Phil Shepherd, a highly partisan Democrat. We have previously reported on Judge Shepherd’s blatant partisanship.

This is why the Democrats and their allies in the credentialed media have been harping on Mr McConnell’s health issues: they think they can, at least temporarily, gain a Senate seat, hoping that Governor Beshear, who absotively, posilutely hates Republicans, will try to go against state law and appoint a Democrat.

If Senator McConnell leaves office early, much depends upon when he leaves office. Governor Beshear is up for re-election this November, and he is favored to defeat current state Attorney General Daniel Cameron. If Mr Cameron wins, there’s no problem; if Mr Beshear wins, the problem continues.

Because the general election is only two months away, under Section 3, any senator appointed by the Governor would hold the office until the general election in 2024, when there would be a special election to fill the remaining two years of the term.

Perhaps the best scenario would be, if Mr McConnell does not believe he can finish out his term, for him to resign at an effective November 5, 2024, so that the remaining term would be subject to the general election, rather than letting Governor Beshear try to steal the seat for the Democrats.