Joe, how much do we hate thee? Let me count the ways. And provide some links.
Manchin wrote an op ed headlined “Why I’m voting against the For the People Act.” Some reactions to this op ed and Manchin’s stated policy of putting “bipartisanship” ahead of everything else follows.
Eugene Robinson, Joe Manchin retreats to fantasyland and sticks America with the consequences.
“Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) has the right to live in a make-believe wonderland if he so chooses. But his party and his nation will pay a terrible price for his hallucinations about the nature of today’s Republican Party. And even this sacrifice might not guarantee that Manchin can hold onto support back home.
“Manchin’s declaration Sunday that he will vote against sweeping legislation to guarantee voting rights nationwide and that he “will not vote to weaken or eliminate” the Senate filibuster is a huge blow to President Biden’s hopes of enacting his ambitious agenda. There’s no way to spin this as anything other than awful.”
On the plus side, Robinson cites some polls that show Manchin’s voter base in West Virginia isn’t pleased with him, either.
Jonathan Chait, Joe Manchin’s Incoherent Case for Letting Republicans Destroy Democracy. In brief, Manchin’s op ed makes absolutely no sense.
James Downie, Joe Manchin’s mighty delusions.
“Manchin has become the Senate’s Walter Mitty: a man who believes himself the champion of a fantasy and who has hope but no plan. He believes he will save the country by recruiting “10 good Republicans,” even though dreaming doesn’t will into existence that many Republicans who will cast a fair-minded vote. Anything that would snap him back to our partisan reality he either ignores or treats as divisive. Meanwhile, McConnell and the rest of the Republican Party laugh all the way to the ballot box.
“That’s what makes Manchin so infuriating. In his mind, he’s the hero of this story. In truth, he’s the patsy. And the country pays the price for his delusions.”
Jennifer Rubin, Time to call Manchin’s bluff
“It’s time for Manchin to put up or share blame for Republicans’ subversion of democracy. Let him come up with 10 Republicans for H.R. 4 and for a slimmed down H.R. 1. Let him find four more Republicans to support the Jan. 6 commission. If he cannot, then his thesis that the filibuster promotes debate and makes way for compromise collapses and his role in promoting the tyranny of the minority is laid bare.”
Alexandra Petri, Joe Manchin and the Ten Good Republicans Joe sees them everywhere! But nobody else does. And the photos are blurry.
Charles Pierce, Joe Manchin’s Argument Is as Far Removed From Reality as West Virginia Is From Neptune.
“The Reverend William Barber, official preacher man here in the shebeen, has announced that, on June 15, he plans to lead his Poor People’s Campaign in a march on Senators Joe Manchin and Mitch McConnell. By now, Manchin’s appalling decision not only to continue to embrace the filibuster—the primary barrier to any attempt by Congress to counter the national campaign by the Republican Party to destroy the franchise for millions of American citizens—but also to vote against the For The People Act even if it ever came to a vote, has been chewed up and spat out by practically everyone who’s read his misbegotten op-ed in a West Virginia newspaper. …
“… It is more than possible that Joe Manchin simply has got his, and the hell with the rest of us. His support for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, a less sweeping bill, is primarily camouflage, since I can’t see enough Republican senators supporting that to get it passed, either. His op-ed is so threadbare that it’s compelling evidence that he’s not even really trying anymore. He cannot be so myopic and detached not to be aware of the political reality. Just last week, he pronounced himself baffled by the Republican refusal to authorize an independent investigation into the events of January 6. He’s just a babe in these woods.”
Greg Sargent, How Joe Manchin’s awful new stance could blow up in his face.
Blowing up in his face sounds good to me. How would that work?
“In his CBS appearance, Manchin hailed the handful of “brave Republicans” in the Senate who voted for the failed Jan. 6 commission, and said this suggests Democrats can still get 10 Republicans to vote for the John Lewis bill….
“… once it becomes clear that 10 Republicans will not support any voting protections, Manchin will have to say whether he believes Democrats cannot act alone to secure them when the alternative, by his own lights, will be disastrous.
“At that point, Manchin may dodge and obfuscate, to be sure. But, if he does continue holding out, that will inevitably be his position. And it’s untenable.”
That’s it? So we’re just screwed.
That’s it? So we’re just screwed.
Have we not been screwed since January 21, 2010 when the Roberts court ruled in favor of unlimited dark money with the Citizens United decision?
IMO:" It's not fer nuthin' there ain't a whole lotta MENSA members in West Virginia.
And I believe that Joe's a representative example of WV's "intelligentsia."
Gettin' a hint of what I'm not at all implying about him and that's that Sen. Joe Manchin of the grating state of West Virginia is about as bright as tar?
Regarding Sen. Manchin cranial capacity, I refer you now to two of America's greatest philosphers, Dr. Bugs Bunny, and Dr. Foghorn Leghorn, for a few of their thoughts on the status of dumbitude:
Dr. Bugs Bunny: "What a dope! What s MAROON!!!"
And Dr. Leghorn: "That boy's 'bout as sharp as a beachball!!!"
I'm reminded of the southern preacher who swore to his congregation that if you prayed hard enough, water would run uphill. One devout member tried for six solid days and told the preacher he was wrong. The evidence proved you can't make water flow uphill n matter how hard you try. The preacher said, "No, it proves you ain't praying hard enough."
Joe believes if you pray hard enough, ten Republicans will vote for democracy… for the common good. Joe says we ain't praying hard enough.
There's an election in 2022. Democrats don't need to fight with Joe. Add two more Dems in the Senate and hang on to the House. That's doable – but we have to convince voters that democracy hangs in the balance. It does.
There's no way that Dems will gain seats when they have nothing to show for their efforts in '22. This will be yet another 2010 debacle.
Politics does not take common sense nor horse sense. Politics is an art more related to ducks and getting them to line up. The ducks are simply not forming enough of a proper row as to allow progress. Such are the problems which beset politicians.
Their are way too many people quacking to follow the lead of backward pants. They seek the way to Mar-a-la-la-land. The land of unbridled power and rampant irresponsibility.
Responsible elements of the Republican party cannot even get these ducks in their row because so many are all off quacking behind the unenlightened one. Right now the epicenter of their Chaos appears to be in Idaho. Devoid of almost even token Democrats, it is a zoo of power grabbing Republicans. By they are done fighting, all of Idaho will resemble large parts of places like the Gaza Strip and Syria. Like most wars though, it will probably settle nothing and destroy much. What ducks are left, when the fighting subsides, will be in trenches, and this will just add another layer of political problems for the state which cannot get even it's Republican ducks in a row.
It is times like these when one might conclude that the United States is just too big and too diverse to exist under one government and that this problem is one too big for a democracy to solve. It is if your politicians cannot do their job, and their job is to get their ducks in a row. Perhaps they just need a reminder of their job description. So many of them today appear to think of their job as more akin to prostitution than one of duck herding. I wonder who gave them that stupid idea?
The people of West Virginia may have reasonable positions on important matters, but when it actually meant something, they voted overwhelmingly in favor of Manchin over Paula Jean Swearingen. The people of West Virginia suck.
Manchin seems a bit delusional in his understanding of the situation that is facing our nation. Maybe he should heed some of Donald Rumsfeld's wisdom with a slight modification.
You fight for (save) democracy with the senators you have, not with the senators you wish you had.
It's almost beyond belief that Manchin can be so naive after all that has transpired to think the repugs are going to separate themselves from the lies and corruption they have so openly embraced in defending Donald Trump.
Another thought that occurs to me is that of Gen. Milley's apology for his failure at Lafayette Square. He mentioned the importance and the need for "situational awareness", which he lacked at the time. Manchin needs to get ahold of some of that situational awareness, pronto.
In regard to his appeal for bipartisanship, it can best be said by…Elvis has left the building.
Even if Manchin and Sinema said today they'd vote to kill the filibuster, its questionable whether the democrats would have enough votes to do it, because there are other democrats in the Senate opposed to killing it. For whatever reason, probably narcissism, they decided to make themselves the face of collaboration with the GOP on the filibuster as they provide cover for others in the party that don't want to go public with removing what they know is necessary in order to deliver on popular legislation, not to mention its the best motivation to get our voters out in 2022 and 2024. As Chris Wallace suggested to Manchin on Sunday, why not use your position as leverage with the republicans and tell them, get on board with the 1/6 commission or any other legislation Biden has plans for, or else. But McConnell surely knows, even if he did the dems still couldn't whip up enough votes to kill it.
At this rate, democrats lose the House in 2022 and possibly give up ground in the Senate, hamstrung by GOP voter suppression laws and a lack of motivated voters. With a four seat difference and the history of off year elections, that's far from a conspiracy theory and a likely possibility. Republicans put up a Trump clone like DeSantis and then use their new state "laws" to throw the election to the House and install DeSantis, as a popular AND electoral college loser in the white house. That's not only not farfetched, its exactly what these new state laws are designed to give them the ability to do. Will the public raise up sufficiently? Maybe not, since the democrats, while some have spoken sufficiently in raising alarms to this possibility, they've done little else to alert the public as a party to the seriousness of what's at stake. Even if they did, the republicans will tell us what we've told them: its our system, accept it. And it will be, because voter suppression will have become law of the land and "we" didn't muster a response when we had the chance.
At which point, the experiment in democracy is deader than a doornail. And then the master of adding insult to injury, Mitch McConnell, will make it his first order of business to kill the filibuster.
Do the democrats think that far ahead? Do they even care? Are they naive, or just comfortable? Increasingly my money's on the latter.
I suspect about a half dozen democratic Senators are happy to keep the filibuster in place. They get to avoid votes that would either alienate their voters or their donors. It's the ideal situation for them
All the and-wringing about Joe Manchin being stuck in some fantasy of Bi-Partisan Institutionalism is misdirected. Far more likely, he's looking ahead to a cushy job on the Board of Directors of some big company when he "retires" (loses next election). I think he knows which side of his bread is buttered. I ran across an article today which explains his actions better than any "analysis" of his "political philosophy" can:
The Dark Money Influencing Senator Manchin’s Right-Wing Agenda (truthout.org)