The Senate votes Wednesday on the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that would protect and expand abortion rights in the wake of a leaked draft Supreme Court opinion showing that a majority of justices has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
No hope of passage so next steps must certainly be on the horizon for this important issue…?
If every single Dem Senator does not vote for this won’t it arm the GOP with the argument “See, even all Democrats don’t agree abortion should be legal.”?
Minority Rule. It didn’t have to be this way.
Voting was underrated at the worst time we could have ever indulged that idiotic notion.
It means a heavier lift, which is doable but, in this case, we are our own worst enemy.
Manchin is just daring the Democrats to disown him. His attitude is “If you guys don’t need me, I’ll just go over and hang out with these other people on the right. I seem to get along better with them anyway.” It’s all about getting attention and maximizing influence.
Or something equally fatuous and absurd . . .
The Democrats need Manchin more than he needs the Democrats.
If Manchin were a Republican, McConnell would have been the Majority leader.
R’s=51 (with Manchin)
D’s=49 (and Kamala gets the 50th vote–versus 51)
The thing I love about the filibuster is the absolute, craven cowardice of it all. “We’re not even going to take a vote on this issue, so there!” Once again, fucking Republicans. Don’t get me started on Manchinema, but if even one Rethug had a spine…
There was a spell in which Manchin was amenable to a vastly reduced BBB. We should have taken it then.
Exactly.
The grand, empty gesture, and be sure to do something that alienates the fence-sitters.
Biden is going to have to get more creative…I have high hopes for a change in atmosphere with the start of the J6 Hearings.
In point of fact, the salvo from the Right is being launched to soften us up and get us into Handwringing Mode going into 7 June 2022.
And, as I stated yesterday, salvos from the Right fluster us better than an Iverson crossover.
Dems need to keep pushing on this and get everyone on the record. Get Collins and Murkowski to vote against a filibuster carveout and then get every Democrat on TV repeating the talking point that they voted to kill the filibuster to install anti-abortion judges and won’t limit the filibuster to protect abortion, showing that they have no principled take on the filibuster and are simply anti abortion rights. This argument mostly works for Sinema as well, who should face primary voters as an anti-choice candidate, because that is what she is.
This is the honest truth and we have the perfect opportunity to cut through the bullshit here. People can’t just say they are pro-choice and pretend it’s true if they are never there when it counts.
It’s still the decisions of Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema that will live in infamy.
Whee, Moscow Mitch just said no one cares about a problem affecting at least 50% of the population.
AbORtion ON deMAnd! WoMEn shOULDn’t be ALLOWed TO deMAND anYthing, inCLUDing decisiONS between theM and THEir babY murdering DOctors.
Weird.
Someone must have woke McConnell up from his fever-dream that he should make sure abortion is criminalized.
And now, he just doesn’t want to talk about it.
Is it senility?
But do it quietly please. We don’t need daily news coverage of Democratic defeats in the Senate again. The failure of BBB – and constant breathless discussion of Manchin and Sinema’s ability to blow the house down – did not help the cause, and will not now.
And this can’t be fixed legislatively anyway so no need to get splashy. What we need to do loudly is decry the corrupt Supreme Court and the decision. But please let’s not feed the Democrats are weak narrative. Let’s please not do that.
Always get the GOP on record for their policies that the public hates.
If Democrats like Manchin go along, so much the better for the possibility for improving the pool of Democratic Senators in the future.
Sometimes the only way to force the public to focus is for them to be hit flat in the face with the issues. But you cannot leave that to chance, so have the vote.