By: Ryan Grim

Senate Republicans want a voice in the debate over the direction the country is taking. Just don’t ask them what they’d like to say.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called a press conference Friday to release a letter signed by all 42 Senate Republicans [seven less than he had on Nov. 3] demanding that their Senate counterparts respect the minority’s right to participate in debate.

“The point I would like to make here is that the 42 Republican senators represent 157 million Americans and their voices are entitled to be heard,” he said.

So what do those voices have to say?

One reporter asked what the prospect was for action on the auto-industry bailout before year’s end.

“They’ll have to decide – ‘they’ being the majority – whether they want to bring us back for debate and if so,” offered McConnell, “What do they want us to do?”

The reporter followed up: “Do you think you should come back to do something?”

McConnell demurred. “They’re the majority and they can call us back. We’ll see if…,” he said, before being asked the question again.

Reporter: “But you’re asserting your rights as the minority here. Do you not have a view on whether Congress should come back or not?”

“My members have different views,” said McConnell. “Senator Bond and Senator Voinovich have an approach that mirrors what the administration wants to do and could actually become law. My advice is: Do you want to play games or do you want to make a law?”

Getting more specific, a reporter asked if “auto-makers should consider some sort of prepackaged bankruptcy.”

“There are a lot of options out there that various people are advocating. I think we all accept that they’re in serious trouble. No one is happy about that. But what to do about it remains to be seen,” McConnell said, before hinting that he’d support the idea that Bond and Voinovich had put forward. “Otherwise, it will be a private sector kind of solution.”

Would the GOP object if the party wasn’t allowed amendments on an auto-bailout package?

“First there has to be a decision by the majority about what to bring up,” said McConnell.

People are looking to McConnell as a de facto leader of the Republican Party, another reporter pointed out. What direction does he think the party should take?

You’ve got the wrong guy, said McConnell. “I’m the leader of the Republican Party in Kentucky,” he clarified.

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