Mitch McConnell is an extraordinarily successful politician, despite lacking what might be described as traditional attributes of a public official.

The Senate majority leader pursues his policy goals with metronomic unflashiness. He is almost proudly uncharismatic, brandishing his fuddy-duddyism as a boy scout might display a merit badge.

He is, relatively speaking, unpopular in his home state of Kentucky. And he boasts of being “the Grim Reaper” when it comes to snuffing out legislation he does not like, which is virtually everything that comes his way from the Democratic House.

So what accounts for his success?

How does he keep winning elections in Kentucky, and why do his Republican colleagues keep making him their leader in the Senate?

The answer is simpler than you may think. “The place I feel most at ease is the Senate, an institution that rewards patience and confounds those who lack it,” McConnell writes in his 2016 memoir, “The Long Game.”

Here to discuss it is CQ Roll Call’s senior Senate reporter Niels Lesniewski.

Show notes:

• HR 1 provides freshman House Dems a McConnell 101 lesson
• McConnell moves toward ‘nuclear option’ for confirmation of Trump nominees
• Mitch McConnell sets up Senate vote on a Green New Deal resolution
• PAC seeking campaign finance reform launches $50,000 ad targeting Mitch McConnell
• Rating Alison Lundergan Grimes’ Chances in Kentucky
• A group that wants to topple Mitch McConnell joins efforts to recruit Amy McGrath
• Looking at Mitch McConnell’s Map for the 2018 ‘Knife Fight’
• Mitch McConnell Talks About Working With Nancy Pelosi
• Mitch McConnell Had a Fun-Free August
• Mitch McConnell casts 11,000th vote
• Walter Huddleston, Kentucky Senator Who Preceded Mitch McConnell, Dead at 92