Mitch McConnell Leaves Hospital, Announces Imminent Return To Senate

Eighty-three years old, another hospital stay, and he's already telling reporters he'll be back on the floor any day now. Say what you want about Mitch McConnell's politics, and we've said plenty over the years, but the man does not quit. That's not nothing in a town full of people who quit on their principles the moment it's convenient.

Still, this is the third or fourth health scare in recent memory, and it keeps raising the same question nobody in Washington wants to ask out loud: at what point does showing up become more about pride than duty? McConnell clearly believes he's still the right man to lead, or at least to matter, in a closely divided Senate. Maybe he is. But a party that keeps propping up its oldest leaders instead of grooming the next ones is a party that's going to get caught flat-footed when the inevitable finally happens.

We're not rooting for anyone's decline, and we hope he actually does recover fully this time. But "discharged to continue recovery at home" followed almost immediately by "heading back to the Senate" is the kind of statement that sounds more like managing a narrative than managing a health condition. Voters deserve leaders who are honest with themselves, and with the public, about what they can still handle. Grit is admirable. Denial is a liability.