Some habits are hard to break.
Only minutes after Sen. Mitch McConnell had assumed his majority leader post Tuesday, the Kentucky Republican inadvertently and incorrectly referred to his Democratic colleague Sen. Dick Durbin as “my friend the assistant majority leader.”
The floor exchange occurred moments after Senate president pro tempore correctly referred to Durbin by his proper and new title, assistant minority leader.
The harmless gaffe, which appeared to go unnoticed by McConnell, isn’t shocking, since Durbin had served as the Senate’s assistant majority leader for the past eight years.
Durbin, of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat who also goes by the title of Democratic whip, was filling in for the absent new minority leader, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who is recovering after injuring himself exercising on New Year’s Day.
