Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on Wednesday doubled down on his opposition to blowing up the filibuster or even weakening it, striking a blow to Democrats hoping he could be swayed to do so to advance their sweeping voting rights bill and other major legislation.
I hope Biden is leaning on this twerp, hard.
Manchinās self-righteous, sanctimonious twaddle becomes more annoying by the day.
Itās hardly surprising. Sen. Schumer, change the goddamned filibuster to a talking filibuster already, and mandate that as the purpose of the filibuster is to encourage debate on the issue of the legislation, talking about issues other than the legislation will be considered yielding the floor.
That would be nice ā except that Manchin would be respond by being very vocal about how heās resisting the pressure to cave on his principles: āOh, look, West Virginians! See how Iām sticking up for you by resisting my own party!ā
If Democrats really want pressure on Manchin, they should try to get West Virginia voters to see how much infrastructure spending and other economic benefits the state is likely to lose out on because of Manchinās resistance. That would get his attention.
You know Joe, WV is almost certainly going to replace you with some Trump-loving nut job. The least you could do is actually try and help your constituents on the way out the door. But no. You have to keep playing your own middle-of-the-road bullshit games instead.
Just a waste of fucking space.
Not necessarily. WV w/2 Republican Senators is taken for granted, and the WV voters know that.
what the hell is wrong with him? and ME for voting for him
A straight Christian white male from one of the whitest states is not about to destroy the most important weapon in the Christian White Male supremacy arsenal.
OT: I hate doing this but hereās the latest on Wisconsin politics.
I mentioned yesterday that the State overwhelmingly elected a Democrat as the new State Superintendent of Schools/Public Instruction. While the election wasnāt all that well attended, she did manage to win by about 140,000 votes - 57.7% to 42.3%.
Last night, the Assembly Speaker (same guy who removed the governorās powers the day after his election) had this to say:
The guy is threatening to de-fund the entire department because his candidate didnāt win. We canāt vote this guy out because of gerrymandering. I donāt know if someone could start litigation against such a move, should he make it, but with a conservative court that seems to be just enough in lock-step with the GQP leadership, we may find ourselves descending deeper into the ignorance morass.
Someone last night at Target, who was born and raised here, lamented that Wisconsin used to have the best education system in the country. She acknowledged that it was long gone and is about to get worse, should this go through.
So the good news is, the State went solidly Democrat for an important position (please note, this was the position our current governor had held previously!). The GQP in a fit of pique has decided we donāt know enough to vote the right person in.
Yep. Place some ads in Manchinās strongholds that tell the voters how much they will lose because of the Republican filibuster.
āUrge your Senator to end the filibusterā¦for the good of WVā¦for the good of your children.ā
There are pockets of blue around the state who are doing what they can to make more purple but the āpowerā here is pretty thickly intertwined on itself.
āShift the groundā
Make an effort to get guys who could be looking at tough senate races or who donāt want to be on the bad side of history.
If Manchin and Sinema want to continue this, then thatās their choice. However, they arenāt the only senators who are against changing the legislative filibuster.
You mean in the same way that the WI GQP decided no mask mandate when the decision cost the State millions in food support for its citizens?
Some Wisconsinites to lose food benefits due to mask mandate repeal (wkow.com)
Our representation doesnāt represent us anymore. Manchin has somehow become a turncoat to the Democratic party. Heās a GQP in Dem clothes anymore. The Senate majority is seriously in jeopardy with him and Sinema. Iām not sure there is anything to be done to fix this scenario. Going to WV voters is probably a losing proposition because he doesnāt care what they want.
Subtext is that the WV SoS came out against the For the People Act (HR1/S1):
Manchin is vulnerable to homestate pressure (just see when the WV Gov supported the COVID-19 aid bill). However, with even the local WV GOP against voting rights, its hard to see how to pressure Manchin to vote for this bill.
āThe time has come to end these political games,ā¦"
Thatās rich coming from him, because that is exactly what he is doing.
Iām not pretending to know, but his last election was the closest heās had, and with Trump taking nearly 70% of the vote there last time, I think heās toast.
You forgot the part that comes after
āby making sure all the things you need never happenā
Manchin is just fine with Senators who represent a minority of the population having control over all legislation.
And as for bipartisanship ā¦ why donāt you just bring those Republicans onboard to pass voting rights, infrastructure, health care, and legislation to help reduce gun violence, and to pay for it all as the Democratic plans do. Will you do that for us, Joe?
Oh, yeah ā¦ you should start working on your op-ed for when the Republicans regain control of the Senate in 2022 because the Democrats didnāt get anything done, and they immediately eliminate the filibuster.
The problem is that heās not entirely wrong. End the filibuster, and a Democratic Senator in a state w/a Republican Governor drops dead, and McConnellās giddy. Ending the filibuster does remove a check on the ability of a dangerous majority (like the one we had a year ago) to run unchecked. Dropping the threshold doesnāt really change the process, either.
Heās signaled heās open to making the filibuster āmore painfulā, when asked about a talking filibuster. Thereās no reason not to go that route, except for Democratic leadership trying to make sure their guys donāt have to stand up there talking, either.
If your Senator is a Democrat, call their office, and tell them to let Chuck Schumer know itās time to get off his ass and pull the trigger on a talking filibuster. Put in the safeguard that the matter discussed must be the legislation at issue, and allow people to call points of order whereby the speaker has 30 minutes to demonstrate that what theyāre talking about is relevant to the bill.
This isnāt just Joe Manchin being entrenched, itās also Democratic leadership being unwilling to take the damn win thatās right in front of them. All they have to do is reach out and grab it.
