I woke up late today and then left on a photographic mission of great importance. Because of this, I missed all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over Joe Manchin's announcement that he wasn't going to vote for the BBB bill no matter how it was tweaked or cut down.
In other words, my mission was perfectly timed. If I have anything profound to say about this turn of affairs, Monday is soon enough to let the world know about it.
One small correction, mr. Drum: What happened isn’t news.
Mendacity, Perfidy, Thy name is Manchin.
How surprised will anyone be at the inevitable stories detailing just how wounded poor senator Manchin's feelings are about getting the cool shoulder and a couple of WTFs at the caucus lunches? What kind of way would that be to treat a valued colleague who acted only from principled concern? /s
this is exactly the sort of messages Manchin aides are sending out....
How can you expect him to discuss with people that said such nasty things...
He is no McCain for sure. More of a Liberman 2.
Nah, Ol' Holler Joe prolly has some Mc Cain in him, & can dish the nastiness right back.
He's prolly said Ella Emhoff looks like Janet Reno's other daughter.
Usually nastiness personified, but he did turn his thumb down when it counted.
Who is the lucky man who made the grade?
Also, I appreciate when The Clash are referenced.
According to CNN, Manchin didn’t even have the decency to inform the White House himself; he had aides call some staffers there. Then he went on Fox News to announce he was screwing over the country for some imagined personal benefit. I was one who thought he was at least preferable to a Republican because he often votes for Democratic initiatives, while a Republican in his seat likely never would. Now, I don’t see that it matters. Primary him.
He feels Biden left himself to hang on the climate parts. Which Biden did, mainly because Sanders was a lose cannon. Biden tried to play it down the middle and lost a short term battle. But is winning Indies back. BBB had plummeted in popularity to other parts of the agenda which had passed.
One can find scores of dishonest politicians who are ensuring us climate breakdown is under control, we don’t need to hurry, things are under control.
Biden is one of them
They are promising us to reach “net zero”(net zero is a scam) in some distant future and that will be sufficient to save the future of the human race . If some politicians or some activists are implying we need to scale down , pay a little more for gas or electricity, in order to save the future for all coming generations are we freaking out and calling them prophets of doom and we are instead turning to politicians who are ensuring us that they are going to handle climate without demanding us to sacrifice anything
You seems to be one of those voters.
What’s the use of winning elections when the price is sacrificing the future of all coming generations. Biden’s plan was insufficient but at least something but now it has turned into nothing.. just as I expected
I prefer politicians who are telling it like it is not politicians who are lying out of tactical reasons
A comment from a disillusioned Swede
That was my initial reaction, too. But it’s not as if Democrats would be able to get this bill enacted with only 49 votes in the Senate. The reality is they need 53 or so to get anything done. And, as worthless as Manchin is, at least the president can get judicial and executive branch appointments confirmed.
But those appointments will almost certainly come at the cost of losing the Congress in 2022 and the White House in 2024. I see almost no path to the Democrats gaining control of anything ever—they have transformed themselves into the Washington Generals.
My thought, too. Getting consent on judges and agency heads doesn’t inspire high voter turnout among Democrats. Manchin may be headed for some cushy sinecure in the fossil-fuel industry anyway. I’m starting to think Ds should swing for the fences and nominate a progressive. If Sherrod Brown can get elected in Ohio, maybe WV is not out of reach for the right candidate.
I think West Virginia is eventually gettable. One thing I noticed is how much he freaked out when Democrats wanted to campaign there. He wouldn’t even allow the sitting Vice President of his won party to campaign in his state.
I think a part of it is that he can take Democrats for granted and the Republicans aren’t going to attack him for tanking the Democratic agenda even though it has an immediate amount of goodies for the benefit of West Virginians. So the dynamic with Manchin keeps Democrats permanently locked out because to advertise their agenda is to sink Manchin.
Now that Manchin has revealed himself so openly, the Democrats should move to smash him and begin building local support by campaigning on the agenda. It might take many years but I see no reason why West Virginia can’t be moved back into blue America.
He voted for the BIF & has not stonewalled any of El Pepe Maximo's judicial appointees, so on balance he's better in Dem caucus than having him do a Jeffords & pitch control to Mc Connell (who would put a freeze on all judge openings until Pres. Hawley & VP Gabbard's glorious Orbanist American Restoration starts in 2025).
The stuff of nightmares. Manchin would be a fool to cross the chamber; Trump won’t forget his vote to impeach, so he would be a pariah, until getting primaried by a cult zombie.
Joe Manchin wins his seat in West Virginia campaigning as a Democrat. Does anybody realistically think he wouldn't win is as a Republican?
Reality is not usually as we would wish it to be. Thanks to Joe Manchin swimming against the tide in WV, we do not have Mitch McConnell running the senate this year or next year. You clowns who think it doesn't make any difference are the same clowns who voted for "neither of the above" because "there's no difference between Hillary and Trump," or because "there's no difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party." Thanks to Jill Stein and the flower children who ignore the realities of politics, we had four years of Trump. What next for you perfectionists who assume anything less than perfect doesn't count?
Try to estimate how many votes AOC would get in West Virginia. Here's a hint--if you lost a hand in an industrial accident, you've still got enough fingers to count her votes.
Yes, I think he would have a lot of difficulty winning as a Republican. I think he’d have a lot of difficulty even getting the Republican nomination. There’s no reason to think established Republicans would be willing to step aside for him.
I think the political dynamics of life as a Republican would be quite difficult for Manchin. As a “dog in the manger” Democrat, he’s popular and lauded by Republicans and his denial of Democratic goodies to West Virginians is neither here nor there as far as they’re concerned. If anything, his sabotage of the parts of the Democratic agenda that would benefit West Virginians is a huge plus for Republicans since they can rightly point out that the people are being screwed by a Democrat.
And that same dynamic benefits all Republicans in West Virginia. Democratic candidates necessarily shy away from promoting the Democratic agenda because doing so harms Manchin by stress how bad he’s been for the vast majority of the people. That means the a Democratic Party with better leadership can begin to run on their agenda and, without Manchin’s help in stopping aggressive campaigns by Democrats that’s potentially disastrous for the GOP—maybe not immediately but certainly within two or three electoral cycles.
Bottom line: If Manchin thought he could win as a Republican, he’d already be a Republican. The Democratic Part is better off with him as a Republican than as a “dog in the manger” wreaking the the party’s agenda and electoral chances.
West Virginia has two senators, elected statewide, and three representatives, elected within their own district.
All three Representatives are Republicans, which (of course) means that all three districts lean Republican. The other West Virginia Senator was elected with an electoral majority of 70%.
Swimming against that tide, Joe Manchin was elected to the Senate again in 2018, for the third time. So I'd be very interested to see a detailed campaign plan that would make it clear how " Democratic Party with better leadership can begin to run on their agenda..." and can win any elections there in my lifetime.
Joe Manchin is the finger in the dam of Republicans having the power to totally estop all constructive action by congress. You think he would have difficulty getting nominated as a Republican??? Remember, McConnell is no Trumpista; he's a professional politico. My money says if Manchin goes to dinner on Tuesday with Mitch McConnell and tells him he wants to run as a Republican next time, then on Wednesday morning McConnell notifies his caucus that Manchin is totally, without exception, off limits to any criticism or any plans for any Republican to try to "primary" him in the next election. And in 2024 Manchin wins the Republican nomination for the Senate in WV unopposed.
I think you’d lose your bet. Mitch McConnell has a lot of power in the senate because of the way the institution is structured and because the Democrats are too weak and to traumatized to effectively fight him. But outside the senate, Mitch McConnell is a vassal not a king so I really doubt whether he could win the nomination in the first place or (having voted to impeach Trump) could unify the Republicans behind him.
There was a time when West Virginia was very solidly Democratic and if the Republicans had accepted your approach to politics it still might be. Even with a massive effort, it would undoubtedly take years to retake the state; just as it took decades for the GOP to take it away from us. Perhaps not in your lifetime or mine but politics doesn’t end when we’re no longer here.
Manchin won re-election in 2018 with only a plurality, with a Libertarian candidate taking almost 5% of the vote; mostly from the Republican candidate, one may surmise. I think he’s serving his last term. Sinking BBB is about the climate provisions, and pleasing the fossil-fuels industry, from whom he is expecting more goodies.
Just like his fellow (former) Democrat Jim Justice!
Not even an estimate.
Just look at Paula Jean Swearingen's result against Shelly Marie Capito.
Wrong, I supported Sec. Clinton wholeheartedly. Yes, as long as Manchin stays on the D side, the Senate can get a few things done, vs. nothing under Moscow Mitch. But going forward, Democrats need to win multiple additional Senate seats in purple states to avoid being held hostage by one or two prime donnas. WV is probably gone, even if Manchin runs again. The trouble is, he is creating the conditions for losing the majority, when he will revert to insignificance for his last two years. What’s smart about that?
Incorrect. Manchin wanted cuts to environmental programs and that pretty much sunk it.......for now. If they moved that out, the rest would pass on a breeze after a hour of negotiation, but that was a deal breaker in several directions. I think it's also a sign Manchin is running again in 2024. Unpopular programs in a neoliberal globalist, Chinese loving state is killer.
Shame on Democrats for trying to take advantage of Manchin's dementia. If it hadn't been for his staff, he might have signed onto BBB.
/S
I’d like a laugh, so maybe Kevin will show us the photograph.
Assuming Manchin doesn’t give a hoot about the welfare of his constituents, his party, or his president, the political calculus overwhelmingly favors killing this legislation, in my view. In the off-chance Biden is highly popular in 2024, Manchin will have a strong pro-incumbency wind at his back no matter how he votes on BBB, and might be able to eke out a win. But if Biden is mired in bad approval numbers, having prominently opposed a signature bill of the White House will reverberate to Manchin’s advantage. Manchin hasn’t done as well as he has in such an (increasingly) blood-red state by being stupid about electoral politics.
The problem isn't that Manchin put himself in the no column; the problem is that he's been negotiating in bad faith for at least four months (which was obviously to, well, everybody and his dog) dand wasting everybody's time instead of saying where he stood from the start. I think the tell for everybody was when Manchin insisted that the BBB and BIL bills be decoupled, from which I deduce that he would have voted for both because he was told the latter had to pass. It didn't help any that he insisted on being a good faith negotiater and had screaming meltdowns when anyone was so crass as to suggest that this wasn't the case.
And yes, the 'progressives' were right -- dead right -- about this despicable putz. I think that should be publicly acknowledged by this administration and blared from every media outlet for the next few months, at the very least. Not that this will ever happen.
We don’t usually agree on much but I think you’re absolutely right about this.
Scent is correct on this one for sure.
Although, things are so bad now in terms of the ability of a politician like Mancin to get free publicity for all we know its just grandstanding to get something dropped this week that will ensure he gets even more TV time.
What I really don't get is why our environmental bills aren't coupled with over the top, ridiculous retraining or severance payments to the unbelievably small number of people working in, say coal mines. I mean, according to Google there are only 11k coal miners in WV! YIkes! Just give each of them $100k and a mule or something! That's only like a billion dollars - and its not even like they all need to be fired tomorrow and then we have the votes to save the planet.
Its not their fault that the one job they qualify for has to go, so pay them off.
Gaaaak! And I thought it was bad that one union in California who works in gas plants was able to stall a solar array project, even though the solar project was going to save not only the planet, but everyone money.
And one suspects that these small groups do consist of a number of uninformed who are simply against liberals.
Tomorrow morning, the Democrats need to open a lot of offices in West Virginia and begin explaining to the people there exactly what Manchin has cost them in preparation for an all out primary battle.
And, it seems to either way, the Democrats are better off with Manchin as a Republican than with him inside the party as a saboteur. Politically, it’s a win for the Democrats. They’ve got an agenda to run on and, hopefully, they’ll be a better opposition party this time.
Why should Manchin give a hoot about the welfare of his constituents, when his constituents don't give a hoot about their welfare.
Indeed.
As long as the white man has it over the white woman & nonwhite people socioculturally, money doesn't matter.
I am not clear why Schumer (and Biden et al) dragged this out for so long. It's hard to believe they didn't know, or couldn't have at least guessed, like I did, a long time ago that Manchin was going to be a no. It's not like Obama who had 59 votes in the Senate. So, this news isn't surprising. The question remains: why waste so much time on it over the past four, five months? More-or-less it's a lame duck Senate and has been since spring. I suppose they had to make it look like they were trying to do something. Funny, but they did get our mayor here in Milwaukee approved for a move to Luxembourg as Ambassador. He's never been there. Hope he likes it.
It's hard to believe they didn't know, or couldn't have at least guessed, like I did, a long time ago that Manchin was going to be a no.
I don't find it all hard to believe they thought (and definitely hoped), in the end, they could secure Manchin's vote. I doubt anyone every believed Manchin's vote was guaranteed, though.
How do you explain he want to Fox news to make his show!
apparently the network wasn't even aware of the move.
What a dope.
Um, maybe he went to Fox because that's what his constituents in WV watch?
So, now, Milwaukee officially has an acting-mayor of enhanced melanin distribution.
How scared does that make you?
Hey, great. The future is long past due here.
LOL.
Is Susan concerned ? /s
Just as expected!
Your Senate is an abomination in a country claiming to be a democracy
This is the work of 50 GOP Senators representing 20 million fewer Americans than the 50 Dem Senators and Manchin who receives the largest coal, oil and gas industry donations of any current senator
USA is the only country where bribing politicians is protected by the Constitution
I never expected we could trust the United States of America when it comes to handling climate breakdown and we will most likely once again be fighting a two front war on democracy and freedom after your next presidential election thanks to the Electoral College
A comment from a Swede accustomed to democracy
Your contempt is justified and I share it. If the USA is the leader of the free world, then it is reasonable to argue that those 20 million people are driving the world agenda. Of course, it is an even smaller number of billionaires and financiers who are manipulating this abomination of a political system for their personal gain too.
I don't like the fact that some drug addled losers and barely illiterate religious fanatics from West Virginia, Kentucky, and Mississippi have such outsized influence, but it appears they do. Good for them I guess. Perhaps your government should make a visit to West Virginia to meet these freaks who are deciding your fate. Who knows, maybe they are just like poor folks from Sweden. Though I'm hoping you all have the good sense to ignore their silly beliefs. Good luck!
Sweden and the EU are welcome to lead the way on climate change and defending democracy... the EU is even larger than the US in terms of its economy and population, so there's no reason why it can't speak up more.
I was born in Sweden 1954 , well after the end of WW2 but at the onset of the Cold War .
I was protected by the United States of America when I grew up during the 60s and 70s . I benefited from Pax Americana . It was a very calm and secure period for this planet despite the threat of nuclear war and extinction of the human race .
Americans and everything coming from America was our guiding stars.
Rock-n-Roll , Coca Cola , Jeans, Hollywood, Hamburgers.
… and the fact that the United States of America was world leaders if one was talking about freedom and democracy , a commonly acknowledged truth spread by Hollywood and your politicians and believed by all of us.
American exceptionalism was a truth and the American dream was only existing in America.
I have in retrospective understood it was all a myth, my Sweden and our neighbors had surpassed USA in everything that had to do with freedom, democracy and social progress for decades
Biden is a nice guy but it gets a little weird when he is saying The United States of America will once again take the lead on fighting climate breakdown, and it’s a little weird when US mainstream media is repeating it .
You never did lead, far from it. It’s more correct to say you has always been at the bottom of the list if we are comparing emissions.
Americans was strutting around in Glasgow talking loud but carrying empty briefcases
My criticism against both Sweden and EU on handling climate can be devastating .. but we are still de facto world leaders over here
https://ccpi.org/
(Your ratings isn’t just caused by Trump)
One could say the same on democracy. It’s nice of Biden to have a summit on democracy but one has to , also on this issue, sadly state that you are at the bottom of the list if one is checking the opinions of unbiased international experts. The epicenter of democracy is Europe, especially the northern parts
USA is still speaking up … but
So, you finished your advanced language training in Swedish & English in the early to mid 1970s at KGB in Moscow.
Monty, how do you spell moron in Swede?
It sure seems like this BBB agenda lacked the public support it needed to push some GOP senators to support it. I might like some of the provisions and think they would be helpful, but this debate long ago turned into just another partisan war. Its failure is the logical result of a dysfunctional political system and a country that has no ambition beyond hurting those we hate.
But look on the bright side... the congress decided to increase defense spending with bipartisan support! Killing people is popular! Saving people not so much.
This wasn’t about public support, your politics is rarely (never?) about the will of “we the people”. The situation on issues like guns , abortion, healthcare, taxes would look very different if it was up to the majority to decide… but it’s never about the opinions of the majority in your country
A small reminder from a Swede accustomed to democracy
Well, the founders didn’t want the people to have a real voice… slaves and women had to be excluded. And Native Americans had to be exterminated. But they were enlightened for their time I suppose.
Many still think like it’s 1787.
Re: "the bright side"
Yes, the Congress bipartisanly and overwhelmingly passed an EIGHT TRILLION DOLLAR defense bill** with no dithering, public hand wringing, or any comment at all. Yet, trying to save the environment, helping beleaguered families with small children, building stuff, and suitably taxing those who can most definitely afford to pay, is now off the table. (Thanks, Senator Manchin.) What does this say about our government and our priorities?
______
** Well, it'll amount to $8T over ten years, which is how Build Back Better is always billed. Fair's fair, and it's past time for the news media to start covering military spending in the same manner they do for things that actually help people.
Emphatically agree. Allowing BBB to be described as ‘a 2.5 trillion-dollar bill’ was the big mistake, not the name. And it’s factually false, as no Congress can constrain a future Congress; that’s why we have recurring fights over appropriations and CRs.
Maybe if they called it something other than Build Back Better? I mean, come on. That really is Veep level cringe.
Totally. It was really awful. Democratic messaging for the most part has been since Bill Clinton left the White House.
+1 Bridge to the 21st Century* of Reinvented Government**
*Never mind that regardless who won in 1996, their term would have ended in 2021.
**Always upset new that was algore's consolation prize for losing out on health care to Shrillary. At least he got to smash an ashtray with a hammer on Letterman.
I think Manchin just did Biden a favor.
Biden is going to address the nation regarding COVID - Omicron on Tuesday night. It is reportedly going to be a somber speech. By taking the onus off of BBB Biden can concentrate on COVID.
Trumps failure on addressing COVID were his UNdoing - it defined his presidency, and not in a good way. Biden can now warn the nation on what is about to happen
Covid is tragic but climate is an existential threat
BBB was insufficient on climate but at least something…
Sture-
I agree with you regarding the environment - the BB was "something".
Your freedoms and "social progress" are only available to you because we invested in our military so heavily. (Never mind the Marshall plan etc). But YOU have a democracy we have a representative republic. Our Senate was devised to that the coastal elites could not over run the more sparsely populated farm states when it came to national policy. At the time it was formed most of our Founding Fathers were afraid of the tyranny of the minority - the coastal wealthy states running roughshod over the poorer rural state. That has not changed, in fact we made it worse with our implementation of the filibuster which then resulted in the level of obstructionism we see today.
But this is all optics, as politics seems to be more about these days.
It was ALWAYS a stretch early on to believe that we would get both an infrastructure plan and the BBB plan. Even Kevin Drum had articles relating to this.
So, what happened? Well conservatives made all this about inflation, all about debt and all about partisan politics. Instead of being satisfied with half a loaf, the public was made to think we need the whole loaf right now, or we're toast. So optically Biden's Presidency has failed in less than two years because we only got half a loaf? While our economy is booming? While we are dealing (like the rest of the world) with a pandemic?
Our republic remains strong, and we are sure NOT a democracy. Its just the fact that our population centers are not spread into other parts of our country. They are still situation along the coastlines.
But, if the world is expecting the United States to turn on a dime after over a century of developing things like autos, like fuels, like nuclear power, and a food supply that feeds the world because we use that coal, and that oil to make preservatives to make it last longer, and package it so it stays fresher, so we can feed our own population along with MILLIONS of others through exports?
Sorry but that's not happening. It is impossible. We could cut our emissions in half and STILL that might not be enough. I WISH we could be like Sweden and get the bulk of our power through sources OTHER than fossil fuels but we have a very testy population when it comes to nuclear power.
Since the end of WWII the population of the world exploded which lead to us producing, refining and using more oil to sell to the world our jeans, our hamburgers and the like that consume an awful lot of electricity to make.
Are we at fault for what we develop[ed in the early 1900s? Which lead to the world being what it is today? Are we at fault because the worlds population multiplied by a factor or 3 or 4? If we had said NO to supplying ANYONE in the world with food we would have been ostracized in the international community for being uncaring!! WHy? because of optics - it makes us look bad.
So is the failure of BBB a good thing? Or was it the all or we'e doomed optics that everyone seems to have put forth? I am grateful for what we've accomplished already. BBB would have been nice, but it's not the calamity everyone fears - they just want to make it appear that way.
I am a registered Ind and have not had a party affiliation for over 50 years. To this day I split my vote. Not all republicans are bad, and not all Democrats are good.
But we are not a democracy. I wish we were.
Many Americans don’t understand the concepts of democracy, constitutional and republic and you seem to be one of them
Let me help you.
“Constitutional” simply means you are having a written constitution, not that rare on this planet. Most countries are having a written constitution.
Republic simply means you are electing your head of state it’s not a hereditary title. That’s also quite common although you are handling it a little different since your head of state (president) is more or less having the power of a sovereign monarch from times gone by , all in accordance with the values of the 18th century, the values of your founding fathers.
One cannot find individual persons with that much power in any other country claiming to be a democracy .
USA is presently having a benevolent president but we all remember the downsides of your system when you aren’t…
Democracy simply means having elections and you are … although you are still using a very archaic version of it
This means you are a democratic constitutional republic , just as countries like Finland and Germany. Difference is that elected representatives in those countries are truly representing the will of “we the people”
Your Constitution was drafted by a small group of slave owning upper class Britts who feared the “uneducated masses “ and who wasn’t prepared to give up on their privileges
A small group (9%) of Americans was granted the right to vote but the Founding Fathers made sure they could control the will of “we the people” ( or those 9% ) through the Senate and the Electoral College and that’s why all kinds of progress still is impossible
There is no basis for saying that the United States is somehow “not a democracy, but a republic.”
.. by the way, you aren’t feeding the world out of benevolence and neither are you protecting us out of benevolence.
US export of food is business , if we are talking about aid are you at the bottom of the list
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/08/foreign-aid-these-countries-are-the-most-generous/
US military spending is about protecting your foreign markets
Also remember that my Sweden wasn’t a member of NATO even if the cooperation was more intense than what was official. Swedish military personnel died on intelligence missions you couldn’t handle yourself .
We was a regional superpower at the height of Cold War having the fourth biggest Air Force on the planet building fighters second to no one
We kept the northern front calm
sture-
The differences are stemming from the fact that Sweden has a unicameral for of "parliment" whereas we have a bicameral Congress with.
You guys also were quicker to see a mistake and change whereas it took us centuries to give women the vote and blacks. It does take us forever to change, it seems.
But it always goes back to the rural states versus the industrialized states (or coastal states. At some point ALL our goods for export end up along a coastline - the founders saw that and needed to rectify that.
But just because something is popular doesn't make it right. Popular opinion before WWII was solidly anti-intervention. Heck, if it weren't for a drug crazed Hitler unilaterally declaring war on US I wonder if FDR would have been successful in persuading Congress to declare war on anyone OTHER than Japan?
You were a monarchy when we declared independence. You have made several large changes to how you are governed - we have not.
We have to deal with what we have.
Vog, you have a very interesting theory: "Our Senate was devised to that the coastal elites could not over run the more sparsely populated farm states when it came to national policy. "
Could you mention for me the original states that were not coastal?
Vermont.
Oh, & Pennsylvania.
Vermont was NOT part of the 13 original colonies. It split off from NH in the late 1700s - Pennsylvania was the only non coastal state.
The point here is that our population centers are still for the most part along the coast lines. And at that time our thinking was not along party lines but along the lines of how can we survive as a NATION.
Philadelphia was and is is a port - the Delaware is navigable up to Trenton, NJ.
Biden and his admin have been warning the nation about covid for months now. How exactly would "concentrating" any more on covid make a difference, especially with the ~third of Americans who literally ignore everything Biden or his admin says?
Yry declines in hospitalization reaching 55%. Omicron is nothing. It's isn't even a real coronavirus. The January/February correction in asset markets is going to be epic. 2% 10 year by March 1st.
+1
Yes. Because everybody knows getting a large spending package signed into law would render the president incapable of making a speech about the pandemic.
Omicron is nothing. Nobody cared.
I think Biden could walk and chew gum at the same time. No need to ignore other problems to deal with Covid as well.
The Manchin news definitely calls for more cat photos.
It looks to me as if Manchin is planning a jump to the Republican Party, if not soon then once they've taken control in January 2023. He's likely got a deal worked out with Moscow Mitch to get a number of committees and even chairmanships, while retaining all his seniority as a "Democrat." Manchin sounds bought & paid for.
I'm with sturestahle: the United States Senate is a carbuncle on the arse of democracy. Moreover, because of it, and the way Repubublicans are playing it for maximum advantage, it's going to be really hard (if not impossible) to make any changes.
I wouldn't be surprised if he declares himself an independent or something and caucuses with the Republicans. Becoming a Republican would be completely pointless because he'd lose his seat to an even crazier Trumper in two seconds. He'll lose it in three as an independent, and four if he stays a Democrat. West Virginia has simply lost its mind. It should simply join Mississippi at this point and get it over with.
He voted twice to convict at impeachment trials of El Jefe.
No way he can Richard Shelby/Ben Nighthorse Campbell his way into the GQP.
Going Jeffords might even be tricky given the support of the two fakenews Trump witch trials.
I'll bet good money he'll become an independent who caucuses with the GOP IF they take control of the Senate next year, then leave the chamber in 2024 to run for governor. His political viability is his main focus and nothing else.
If there is any long-term fallout from this, it's that I hope we stop trying to ram through these massive omnibus bills with eyewatering pricetags that are so complicated people can't really grasp what's in them. And I'm saying that as someone who understands how critical BBB was. Manchin's in the pocket of the energy companies, which would have been more obvious had this been primarily a climate action bill, but the way this was packaged, he could get away with his opposition to the energy stuff by claiming he was against all the welfare bennies.
That, of course, makes sense. Sadly, it's impossible because of the Senate. Also the Senate's filibuster rules. The majority only gets to exercise majority rule once or twice A YEAR, and then they're further constrained by the senseless "Byrd Rule" -- or should that be "Bird Rule", as in shoot the bird at democracy?
At any rate, any smaller bill would, of course, fail, because of the filibuster and Republicans being such bloc-heads.
I think it would be wise for Democrats to hold their fire. Rather, ask Manchin to show EXACTLY what he would support. Maybe, some version of the bill can rise from the ashes.....
Sounds plausible, but you just know that "what Manchin wants" would change the very next day. All he wants are the headlines and the power. Very "former guy".
If you don't like it go win more elections.
Yup.
I blame Cal Cunningham's zipper & Maine voters's gullibility.
Or let Maine Democrats vote on who they want. Don't force feed candidates.
Sara Gideon rigged the Democrat primary?
Is it 2016, again?
I also blame Iowa voter's stupidity. But these are trifles.
Our nation's motto now is "Confederates R Us". Might as well accept reality and bow down to our new masters.
Nope. Keep on muttering dialectics. How about not running Greenfield, a affirmative action candidate???
C'mon Monty he was just following in John Edwards footsteps
John Kerry winning Ohio in 2004 would have saved John & Elizabeth Edwards's marriage.
Wally O'Dell is a homewrecker.
Sadly, this is spot on.
I wouldn't disrupt any plans you've made for Joe Manchin of all people. The only good news is that he said this now instead of. say, September of 2022. Bottom line he doesn't like the bill and what's in it period and best he say so now, at Christmas Time when no one is really giving a shit, instead of going through months tortured negotiations with him. At least that's out of the way.
"instead of going through months tortured negotiations with him"
You do realize that hundreds of staffers, dozens of senators and representatives and the entire White House team wasted thousands of work hours already negotiating with him since the beginning of summer.