Soon-to-be Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.) explained in a conference call today that “To the frustration of any majority, the minority in the Senate has and has always had enormous sway over the outcome. When we are majority obviously we are frustrated by that, but when you are in the minority you find it somewhat liberating.”

He explained, “And as odd as it sounds, some of the high points of my Senate career have been killing things” and recalled his memories of the “genuine, all night, round-the-clock filibuster” that he had organized to kill a bill to create taxpayer funding of elections and spending limits.

“We stayed up all night, killed it with a filibuster and proudly proclaimed its demise amidst all these observations by the Washington Post and the New York Times that it would mean disaster for Republicans.”

He said it was his strategy for the coming year to hold 41 senators together to “shape legislation that we think is fixable or stop altogether legislation we think should not make it out of the Senate at all.”