From day one, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia has been bedeviling congressional efforts to enact President Biden’s domestic agenda. This is why suspicions that he’s a Manchurian senator are entirely reasonable.
In fact, Biden’s presidency has been defined by him and congressional leaders engaging in an all-too-public, sausage-making process to get Manchin’s vote, on item after item, invariably to no avail.
He even played them for fools on voting rights legislation. This, even though every Democrat agreed it was necessary to retain control of the House and Senate in November’s midterm elections.
But, again, Manchin made clear from day one that nobody had any reason to rely on his vote for any Democratic legislation.
Fool them once, shame on Manchin, fool them twice, thrice…?
This is why news that Manchin has now doomed Biden’s signature climate change legislation says far more about Democrats than him. Here in part is how The New York Times reported the fallout on July 15:
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Mr. Manchin led his party through months of tortured negotiations that collapsed on Thursday night, a yearlong wild goose chase that produced nothing as the Earth warms to dangerous levels.
‘It seems odd that Manchin would choose as his legacy to be the one man who single-handedly doomed humanity,’ said John Podesta, a former senior counselor to President Barack Obama and founder of the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.
Privately, Senate Democratic staff members seethed and sobbed on Thursday night, after more than a year of working nights and weekends to scale back, water down, trim and tailor the climate legislation to Mr. Manchin’s exact specifications, only to have it rejected inches from the finish line.
‘Rage keeps me from tears,’ Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts and a longtime advocate for climate legislation, wrote on Twitter late Thursday.
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If Biden had only listened to me…
In commenting on US politics, I often have just cause to say, I told you so. But my mummy taught me that saying this is impolite.
There are times in the course of human events, however, when it becomes necessary to be impolite. And Lord knows these are those times.
Therefore, I feel constrained to share that, just four months in, I wrote an open letter to Biden explaining the simple steps he should take to prevent Manchin from hijacking his presidency. The title to that open letter and other commentaries that followed speak volumes:
- “To Joe Biden: On Cutting Joe Manchin Down to Size,” May 3, 2021
- “Every Dem Senator Can Play Kingmaker. So Why Is Manchin the Only One Playing It?” June 9, 2021
- “Manchin Betrays Democrats. I Warned He Would,” December 20, 2021
Enough said?
Except that, given all the seething, sobbing, rage, and tears the Times reports Manchin caused this time – among Democratic staff members and senators alike, I feel obliged to share just a little more.
Because, reading that Times report, you’d think Manchin blindsided them. Whereas, even I knew enough to sound an incredulous note nine months ago. I did so in the comments section to a Times report on the “climate dilemma” Manchin was facing in negotiations on the pending legislation he just doomed:
What “climate dilemma”?! Isn’t it clear that Manchin does not give a damn about how climate change affects his own constituents? He’s only beholden to the corporate donors who fund his campaign. That’s why Democrats like Bernie Sanders, who care far more about the welfare of West Virginians, hold Manchin in such abiding contempt.
Evenly split congress gives Manchin unprecedented influence
Congress has not been this polarized since the years preceding the Civil War. This has given fence-sitting moderates like Manchin unprecedented influence.
Because it only takes one saboteur on either side of that partisan divide to undermine a tribe’s, er, party’s entire agenda. The problem for Democrats is that, instead of negotiating in good faith, Manchin has been negotiating all along in Charlie-Brown-and-Lucy-with-the-football fashion.
That said, I maintain that the only thing explains Manchin’s willful betrayal of President Biden and congressional Democrats. And that is his intent to emulate Ronald Reagan’s famous defection by announcing:
I didn’t leave the Democratic party; the Democratic party left me.
Except, instead of doing so with Reaganesque charm and sincerity, Manchin will be doing so with Trumpian narcissism and venality.
But God help him if he stays and Democrats lose the House and Senate in the red wave so many pundits are predicting. Because Democrats would treat him like such a skunk in their political party, it would make that proverbial skunk at the garden party feel feted…
Related commentaries:
Podcast: Manchin and Biden presidency…