Mitch McConnell's hometown newspaper published his obituary this week while he is still alive, and the columnist who wrote it explained exactly why he refused to wait.
Genie says:
This piece is not a news report. It is an opinion column (an editorial) by longtime Kentucky political columnist Joseph Gerth of the Louisville Courier Journal. It argues for a particular interpretation of Mitch McConnell’s legacy rather than presenting a neutral account of facts.
Here’s what the author is saying, point by point:
Why write an obituary for someone who is still alive?
Gerth says he watched the reaction after Senator Lindsey Graham died. In his view, many people became unwilling to criticize Graham’s political record because he had just died. He concluded that if he waited until McConnell died, people would respond with, “How dare you criticize a dead man?” So he chose to publish what he calls a “pre-obituary” while McConnell is alive.
Why mention Hunter S. Thompson?
Hunter S. Thompson famously wrote a harsh obituary of former President Richard Nixon that focused on Nixon’s political legacy rather than offering the usual respectful tribute.
Gerth is saying:
- Thompson didn’t soften his judgment because Nixon had died.
- He wants to follow that tradition of evaluating a public figure honestly, even if it’s uncomfortable.
Why compare McConnell to Nixon?
Gerth argues that both men damaged American politics.
His key distinction is:
- Nixon resigned in disgrace after Watergate.
- McConnell, in Gerth’s opinion, was never held politically accountable for decisions that Gerth believes harmed American institutions.
That’s an opinion about accountability, not an established fact.
What are Gerth’s main criticisms?
He focuses on two major areas.
1. The Supreme Court
Gerth argues McConnell fundamentally reshaped the Supreme Court by:
- refusing to consider Merrick Garland’s nomination in 2016,
- then rapidly confirming Amy Coney Barrett just before the 2020 election.
Gerth believes these actions transformed the Court into a solid 6–3 conservative majority and contributed to declining public trust in the Court. The decline in approval he cites is based on polling.
2. Donald Trump
Gerth argues that McConnell privately viewed Donald Trump very negatively—including reportedly believing Trump bore responsibility for January 6—but still voted to acquit him during his second impeachment trial.
Gerth’s argument is:
- if McConnell had supported conviction,
- Trump might have been barred from future office (though that would also have required enough senators to vote to convict and then a separate vote to disqualify).
This is one of the column’s central claims.
Why mention Barry Goldwater?
Barry Goldwater was a conservative Republican senator.
Gerth points out an historical contrast:
- Goldwater opposed many civil rights measures.
- Yet during Watergate, Goldwater ultimately told Richard Nixon he had lost Republican support and should resign.
Gerth argues McConnell shared Goldwater’s conservative politics but did not show similar willingness to confront a president from his own party.
Again, this is Gerth’s interpretation.
Why mention Jefferson Memorial Forest?
Gerth deliberately includes one positive accomplishment:
McConnell helped expand Jefferson Memorial Forest near Louisville.
The point is rhetorical.
Gerth is essentially saying:
“I’m acknowledging something positive, but I believe it is outweighed by what I see as much larger harms.”
Why is this getting so much attention?
Because it breaks a strong journalistic and social convention.
Normally:
- obituaries are published after death,
- and they often become more charitable.
Gerth intentionally rejects that convention, arguing that a politician’s legacy should be debated while they are still alive and able to respond.
Is everything in the piece factual?
It’s a mix.
Based on verifiable facts:
- McConnell’s role in Supreme Court confirmations.
- His vote to acquit Trump.
- His reported absence from the Senate following health issues.
- Historical polling on the Supreme Court.
- Historical events involving Nixon and Goldwater.
Opinion and interpretation:
- That McConnell is “every bit as detestable as Nixon.”
- That he “destroyed” the Court’s credibility.
- That he bears primary responsibility for changes in American politics.
- That his legacy is predominantly negative.
Those are Gerth’s judgments rather than objective facts.
So, the piece is best understood as a forceful editorial making the case that Mitch McConnell’s political legacy should be evaluated now—before death changes the tone of public discussion. Whether readers agree with that assessment depends largely on their own views of McConnell’s career and its impact on American politics.
Read The Newspaper article;
Joe Gerth has covered Kentucky politics from the Louisville Courier Journal for decades, long enough to have watched McConnell's entire arc from the inside. This time he wrote the ending early.
Lindsey Graham died on July 11. Within hours, every honest accounting of Graham's record was getting shouted down online with the same four words: how dare you say that. Gerth watched a career get laundered clean over a single weekend and decided he was not going to let it happen twice.
So he wrote McConnell's early.
The senator has not cast a vote since June 11 and has not been seen in public since a fall on June 14. Gerth's move was to stop waiting.
His first admission is that he is not the right man for the job. He wanted Hunter S. Thompson, another Louisville boy, who wrote Richard Nixon's obituary in 1994 and refused to let death do any laundering at all. Gerth called it a master class in truth-telling.
Then he draws the comparison that gives the column its spine. McConnell is every bit as detestable a figure as Nixon was. The difference is that Nixon paid.
Nixon was driven out. Disgraced, resigned, finished. And in being finished he proved the machinery of accountability could still turn. McConnell never paid for any of it.
Not the trust drained out of the government, not the wreckage of political argument, not the lesson he taught two generations of Washington that winning is the only thing that matters.
He retires on schedule, with a pension and a courthouse full of his judges.
The indictment is specific. McConnell's maneuvering turned a 5-4 conservative Court with a reliable swing vote into a solid 6-3 bench with none, and in the process destroyed the Court's credibility with the American people.
Gerth puts a number on it. Approval stood at 58 percent in July 2020. A recent Economist/YouGov survey has it at 36.
Then Trump. By Gerth's account, McConnell privately considered the president stupid and a despicable human being.
He also believed the man had tried to overthrow the government of the United States on January 6, 2021. He voted to acquit him anyway, and that vote is the reason Trump was free to run again.
The column does find one kind thing to say. McConnell helped expand Jefferson Memorial Forest outside Louisville.
That is the concession. A park.
Then Gerth closes the file. McConnell ends his career holding the same anti-civil-rights positions Barry Goldwater held, handed to him by a distrusted Court he assembled himself.
But when Goldwater faced a criminal president, Goldwater walked into the Oval Office and told him it was over. Gerth's verdict is that McConnell never summoned an iota of that.
He took Goldwater's bigotry and none of his nerve.
Gerth finally signed off: "Whew! I'm glad I got that off my chest while he's still alive."
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