Since I am a Congress scholar in my day job, I just have to do this. First, here is a link to Senate action on cloture motions, which is as close as we can come to counting filibusters. Why? We can't count filibuster threats that we don't observe, and those matter. Anyway, see that spike in the 110th Senate (2007-8)? That's when the Republicans lost the Senate majority in the 2006 midterm, with Mitchy-boy as Minority Leader. He ramped up filibusters to an unprecedented level. The spike in the 113th Senate? That's when our Mitch decided that Obama alone was not constitutionally permitted to fill vacancies on the DC Circuit Court, so he'd blockade anyone, qualifications be damned. That forced Reid to use the nuclear option, which had the knock-on effect of more cloture motions in response to GOP filibusters led by... Mitchy. McConnell was the guy who announced the GOP would blockade Scalia's seat before his body was cold. I could keep going, but McConnell complaining about obstruction from anyone...
I do think that Mitch McConnell is the smartest legislative tactician in Washington right now. He is also a reprehensible person without a hint of principle.
What I keep reading, though, is that this is some brilliant maneuver to keep Democrats in DC, preventing them from campaigning, thereby keeping the Senate in GOP hands. Let's not get carried away here.
In the House of Representatives, different legislators have different "home styles," as Richard Fenno dubbed them. Great book. Read it. How legislators interact with their districts matters. Senators, though? That varies even more. Why so much more variation? State size. Feinstein was up yesterday, and unsurprisingly, she walloped that little twerp, de Leon. California is a big state. "Yuge." You don't go around California shaking hands. Why not? Too "yuge." Running for Senate in California is a media contest because it cannot be otherwise. Of course, in the general election, DiFi wins anyway, so that's not really an issue, but it demonstrates my point. The larger the state, population-wise, the more inefficient it is to try to run for office through anything other than a media campaign. For that, it doesn't matter where you are.
And that's assuming campaigns matter all that much, and... not so much, but that's another topic.
Joe Manchin in West Virginia? Joe Donnelly in Indiana? Smaller states than California by far, and they'd benefit more from campaign time than DiFi, but even so, West Virginia has three House districts, and Indiana has nine. Donnelly has nine times more flesh to press than a member of the House from Indiana. Maybe I shouldn't put it that way, given how many legislators are getting caught for sexual harassment and assault, but you get the point. Even Manchin has about three times more.
Would Senators rather be campaigning or dealing with McConnell and... Ted... [gulp]... Cruz? Sure, they'd rather campaign. Their chances of reelection would probably be higher by epsilon if it weren't for the recess cancelation, and with more Democrats up for reelection than Republicans, this gives a very, very, very slight advantage to the GOP.
Is this some masterstroke that allows the GOP to retain the Senate, though? No. Senate campaigns, to the degree that they matter, are media campaigns anyway.
No, this is just McConnell being an asshole. Hey, I'm going to force you to spend time with me! And worse yet, with TED CRUZ!