Meet Mitch McConnell, the president's man in the Senate

McConnell's actions on health care may be a strategy to meet demands of his party and his president

Being Senate majority leader isn’t easy. And Mitch McConnell is finding out that having unified government could make it harder still.

As my research shows, U.S. Senate majority leaders represent several constituencies that push and pull in multiple – and usually conflicting – directions.

Balancing constraints

First, the leader is a senator responsible for representing the interests of his state – in McConnell’s case, Kentucky.

Second, like all majority leaders, McConnell is the leader of his party in the Senate, with an obligation to get more Republicans elected to office and to push a legislative agenda that burnishes the party label.

Third,