McClatchy: “Mitch McConnell can see the future – and knows it’s likely to place Republicans in a pickle. He sees a rapidly recovering economy, an increasingly vaccinated population and general optimism budding across the country like bluegrass at the start of springtime. And he’s realized the GOP needs an explanation for the shower of good news coming in the opening months of a new Democratic administration. McConnell’s response, sprinkled in a drumbeat of speeches and media appearances during the month of March, is that the past is prologue. President Joe Biden and Democrats shouldn’t get the credit for all of this, he says, when it was the Republican-led work during former President Donald Trump’s final year in office that set the stage for this moment to begin to emerge from the pandemic.”

“‘Because of last year’s bipartisan work, our economy was already poised for an historic comeback,’ McConnell said on the Senate floor last week before the chamber adjourned for a two-week recess. ‘So I’ll be joining Kentuckians to celebrate what’s gone well, thanks to our bipartisan work last year.’ It’s a message he’s been carrying ever since Democrats were on the cusp of passing their $1.9 trillion Covid rescue plan earlier this month with zero Republican votes – and a message that he’s been plugging with more urgency now that Americans are receiving their stimulus checks and Biden is receiving the preponderance of the credit. ‘What I’m saying is the economy is about to come roaring back. What the administration is trying to do here, Judy, is to get in front of the parade so they can take credit for what’s already happening based upon what we have already done,’ McConnell said on PBS’ Newshour after Biden signed the bill into law.”

“A few days later, he added, ‘This brighter horizon is not a product of a partisan bill that was signed last week, or an administration that was sworn in less than two months ago.’ And before that, McConnell proclaimed, ‘The Biden Administration inherited a tide that was already turning.’ McConnell’s problem is that while the economic argument is at best debatable, the politics are pointed emphatically against him right now. ‘It’s hard for them to argue they should take credit for this,’ said Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody’s Analytics.”