Washington (CNN)Governing is much tougher than it looks, even for a Master of the Senate like Mitch McConnell.

Claiming the majority he had long craved in the mid-term elections, the wily GOP leader promised to turn the polarized, gridlocked Senate back into a chamber in which both sides get a say and pass meaningful legislation.

McConnell's vow was not just altruistic. With a tough slate of Senate races looming in 2016 and Republicans desperate to take back the White House, he has a strong incentive to show the GOP can govern.

But two months into the Republican majority, the new Senate looks an awful lot like the old Senate.

The chamber can't even come together to pass a bill tackling the scourge of sex trafficking -- which has wide bipartisan support -- because it has become derailed in a partisan fight over abortion. The result is that President Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general, Loretta Lynch, is being held up. If things were not bad enough, Lynch's confirmation process has degenerated into an ugly row over race.