McConnell, free from leadership constraints, bucks Trump and the evolving GOP

CNN — Sen. Mitch McConnell was a generational force for the Republican Party — using procedural tactics and political will to stymie much of former President Barack Obama's agenda, hand President Donald Trump key first-term political victories and deliver a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court majority. Now he's the odd man out. Weeks after relinquishing his leadership post as a new GOP majority was sworn into office, McConnell finds himself, likely in the final stage of his career, untethered from the party he'd led, in turns as minority and majority leader, since 2007. He has cast a trio of votes against…