WASHINGTON — I could swear Sen. Mitch McConnell smiled at me just before he froze like a statue at the Tuesday party lunch press conference. It flashed quick as a lightning bug.

You hear he’s cynical, relentless, even ruthless in his quest for power and winning the Washington long game. That he stole a Supreme Court seat from former President Barack Obama — who surrendered without a fight.

I come not to praise McConnell but to shed some light on the reserved man himself. My fellow liberals can’t stand him. I offer a more nuanced view here.

The Senate Republican leader speaks in composed words with a Kentucky drawl. But for 23 seconds, he couldn’t complete a sentence at the weekly ritual with a gaggle of reporters. A scare, given he’s 81, and had a few bad falls this winter.

The medical mystery set off a call for stepping down amid concern about aging warhorse leaders, notably President Joe Biden, 80. He is McConnell’s friend from old Senate days.

There’s something to be said for cross-party cordiality.

The New York Times noted, “His (McConnell’s) diminished state has been evident in his role in the Capitol.”

True, though McConnell aims to serve out his term as Senate Republican leader until early 2025. History will record him as the party leader who served longest, a laurel he won despite a clear lack of charisma. He doesn’t poll well in his own state.

Yet next to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his wild brand of Republicans, McConnell looks like he’s guarding a fortress of reason.

Unlike supine McCarthy, who bows to former President Donald Trump, McConnell spurns the former guy, since the horrifying Jan. 6 attack. But he failed to vote for conviction in impeachment trials, twice.

The Republican leader joined a recent bipartisan rebuke of a Republican congressman who cursed Senate pages.

Even foes say McConnell plays the clubby Senate with finesse, like a dealer of the house. The formidable figure often wins with well-honed strategy.

Since he was nine years old.

In high school, actually, he became student body president and was bitten by the bug of politics. I know, because he once showed me his high school yearbook with pride.

As a young man, he opened mail for Kentucky Sen. John Sherman Cooper. Then his slow march to the Senate began.

First elected in 1984 as a moderate Republican who favored civil rights laws and admired Democratic Senate Leader Mike Mansfield, over time McConnell changed to conservative colors with the party’s prevailing winds.

What Democrats can’t forgive about McConnell is that he stocked the federal judiciary like a fishpond as Majority Leader during the Trump reign. That is a lasting mark McConnell cherishes.

The arch-conservative Federalist Society, a darling of dark money, was his ally. The “FedSoc” gave White House counsel Don McGahn and McConnell name after name for judge nominations.

They all got confirmed, and all Senate Democrats could do was watch.

Then came a murder of crows: the trio of Trump Supreme Court nominees.

To refresh: McConnell had refused to hold confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland after Supreme Court member Antonin Scalia died in February 2016. Why? An election year, he said.

A donnybrook defying Obama — whom McConnell privately called “Professor Obama” — was in the air. McConnell felt Obama knew less about art of politics than he professed in his “soliloquys.”

Here is where Obama faltered and emboldened McConnell. When you’re president, you can’t let the opposite party leader put you down so easily.

McConnell, as an older Southern pol, wished the wunderkind president would face him on that front.

But hey, perhaps with a shrug: “Hillary will win anyway.” Famous last words of 2016. Obama lost the war of succession, too.

In four years, Trump named three young members of the John Roberts Court, changing the line-up to 6-3. The Republican majority quashed reproductive rights for women and girls.

McConnell’s psyche was formed by having polio as a child. It’s said polio survivors develop iron wills. My mother is evidence of that.

McConnell walks with a limp, but it’s not a sign of weakness.

Soon after the scare, McConnell walked to the Ohio Clock and beamed. “The president called me,” he said. “I’m fine.”

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Jamie Stiehm may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. Follow her on Twitter @JamieStiehm. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit Creators.com.