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Says here Mitch McConnell may be clinically brain dead. Oh no, does that make him a Democrat now?It's a good joke. We'll let it stand. But the reality behind it is a lot darker than the punchline.Last Wednesday, the 84-year-old senator was wheeled into a Senate Agriculture Committee meeting to cast the deciding vote on the Farm Bill. It passed 12 to 11. His vote was the whole ballgame.When his name was called, nothing happened. It had to be called again. Senators and staff leaned in and prompted him before he finally got out a quiet "aye."Let's be honest about what we saw. That was not a man exercising his judgment. That was a man being walked through a vote.This is someone who fell at home in June, briefly lost consciousness, spent nearly a month in the hospital, then weeks in rehab, and vanished from the Senate for three months. He has had visible health problems for years, including those frozen moments at the podium.Now his own office says he will do his best to show up for "tough votes" when the party needs him.Think about that. What other job on earth lets you show up only for the big days? In the private sector, he would have been retired with a handshake long ago.But Washington is not the private sector. A vote is a vote, and the people running the show need his.We watched this movie with Dianne Feinstein. We watched it with Joe Biden. Aides propping them up, colleagues whispering instructions, everyone pretending it was fine because the math mattered more than the man.Now it's happening to Mitch McConnell, on our side of the aisle. That should bother conservatives most of all.Kentucky deserves a senator who can do the job. McConnell deserves to go home with some dignity.