Mitch McConnell under the gun, as 56 percent say: Go

OPINION:

Senate Majority Mitch McConnell should resign his leadership post, say 56 percent of Republicans in a new Harvard-Harris poll.

That’s all?

One has to wonder: What do these other 44 percent see as McConnell’s successes — as clear cause for him to stay?

Anyway, according to this poll, McConnell has the worst approval rating of any other politician in the survey, with only 16 percent saying he doesn’t suck.

Fifty-two percent say he does.

And 56 percent say he ought to go. Now.

Why?

Really, anyone who needs this explained probably shouldn’t be voting. Every day, news rings of a new Senate failure to pass a Republican bill; every week, some senator or another delivers what’s become the standard excuse for legislative failures — “we don’t have 60 votes.”

That’s apparently the McConnell way of doing business — fail, don’t fight, then whine.

No wonder Stephen Bannon’s going on the attack, not just against McConnell but against every senator — minus Ted Cruz — who’s facing an election battle in the coming months. But Bannon’s using McConnell as a sort of gauge for the candidates he wants to see win these races. In other words, he’s asking possible candidates to outright oppose McConnell.

That’s some kind of disapproval. McConnell’s so hated by Republicans that he’s being used as litmus test for up-and-coming Republicans.

“The Republican Party is at war with its traditional leadership and [President Donald] Trump and Bannon are winning in this unprecedented schism,” said Mark Penn, the Harvard-Harris Poll co-director, in The Hill. “The Republican elites appear broadly out of touch with the base of the party.”

That’s an understatement. It’s also a miscalculation on the part of GOP leadership. Just ask McConnell — apparently, one of the most hated pols in the Republican Party right now. Oops, no. Make that The Most Hated.