GOP senators express confidence in McConnell's return as health scrutiny grows

Mitch McConnell has been a fixture of Senate Republicanism for close to two decades, and the instinct to close ranks around him is understandable. Loyalty counts for something in politics, and nobody wants to pile on a man dealing with health problems in his eighties. But Joni Ernst reaching for a letter from McConnell's office as the answer to "what's actually going on with the Republican leader's health and why has he been gone so long" is not reassurance. It's a press release standing in for a conversation the public deserves to have.

The Senate isn't a country club where members get to opt out of accountability because things are personal or uncomfortable. McConnell holds real power, or held it, and voters in Kentucky and beyond have a legitimate interest in knowing whether he's fit to keep exercising it. A letter drafted by staff and read aloud by a colleague is not the same as McConnell himself, or his doctors, leveling with the country. We've watched this movie before with other aging officials in both parties, and it never ends with anyone feeling like they got the straight story.

None of this requires cruelty or speculation about McConnell's condition. It just requires Republicans to stop treating basic transparency as an attack. If McConnential's health is fine, say so plainly and let him say it. If it isn't, the country can handle that too. What it can't handle, and shouldn't be asked to, is another round of colleagues vouching for someone's fitness on his behalf while the actual questions go unanswered.