Time to cut ties with Manchin

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) drew a hard line Wednesday on voting to weaken or eliminate the legislative filibuster, pushing back on hopes to pass President Joe Biden’s agenda by limiting Senate Republicans‘ legislative power.

“The filibuster is a critical tool to protecting that input and our democratic form of government,” Manchin wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. “That is why I have said it before and will say it again to remove any shred of doubt: There is no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/07/manchin-voting-kill-fillibuster-479936

Since Joe is more interested in his own political fortunes than he is in the agenda of his party and his prez I think the DNC should deny him any support in a re-election bid. If he chooses to go it alone, so be it. Does that mean a Repub will take his place? Probably.

He is one of two Dem senators who insist on playing by the kinds of rules Mitch McTreason has routinely broken in pursuit of power. He's one of two Dem senators keeping the majority of Americans from seeing their will result in the passage of legislation. All while he pretends to care about preserving the voice of the minority (the Repubs already have an inordinate amount of power) when in fact what he really cares about staying a senator.

 

In his op-ed published Wednesday night, Manchin argued that the filibuster, a Senate procedure that requires 60 votes to pass legislation, is “a critical tool to protecting that input and our democratic form of government.”

Jeeez Joe, don't be such an idiot. The filibuster is an archaic rule that has morphed in to the minority's ability to block bills favored by the majority. Rather than "protecting that input and our democratic form of government” it is antithetical to democracy.

 

You realize that the democrats can do nothing to him? He’s untouchable by them because all he has to do is go independent like Jeffords did 20 years ago and caucus with neither party and control of the senate flips to the other party as it did then. Manchin represents a red state so he has no fear of upsetting his voters by doing that. Democrats have no leverage on him just like Republicans didnt with Jeffords when the roles were reversed.

 

I suppose they could change parties or go independent. But partisan bills should never become law and Manchin seems to understand that. Smart man. I can just imagine your screaming if the Republicans tried to destroy the fillibuster.

 

Now we see how not marching lockstep with the DNC is received...and keep regaling us about those dastardly partisan Repubs!

 

Very true.

That is the Elephant in the Room and that is exactly why the Dems can do NOTHING to leverage Manchin (or back him into a corner).

 

That's part of my point. Do you really doubt McTurtle would end the filibuster if he saw it to be to the Repub's advantage? After all, he ended it when it comes to confirmation of SC justices.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/senate-neil-gorsuch-nuclear-option-236937

 

Do you mean like they did with judicial nominations?

The Democrats just need to bright about it and return the filibuster to it’s original form: force the minority to operate in the light of day.

 

Judicial nominations aren't bills and they aren't subject to the filibuster because the democrats ended the filibuster for nominations back in the Obama administration. Apparently they have come to regret that.

Why? Do you see some value in taking the senate's time to allow politicians to speak endlessly for hours. The purpose of the filibuster is to prevent partisan bills from becoming law and that is a good thing. Partisan bills from either side should never become law because they aren't best for the country.

 

The democrats should kick him out of the democratic party.

 

Of course. He didn't do it when he had a majority.

He extended the death of the filibuster for judicial nominations to include the supreme court. The original death of the filibuster for judicial nominations was at the hands of the democrats. It is up to the senate to work out senate rules. But I think the senate would be better with a filibuster for everything it does. I don't like what either side did to weaken the filibuster. Politics is politics.

 

He's a maverick, courageous in the face of adversity and bad media. He's principled and loyal to his constituents. The man needs to have that award Romney been offered for spitting in the face of Trump voters.

 

It would cause them to lose the Senate majority. Why would they do that?

 

Good. Note tyranny of the majority is but slavery once removed. Note please drive Manchin into the arms of the Republicans.

 

The real reform in need of enacting is something such that the views of the majority are reflected by majority representation in the Senate.

 

He's self-serving. There is a point at which when the things at stake are important enough so senators need to acknowledge not only what the majority wants but what the country needs. And what the country needs is to not regress from the gains made by the Voting Rights Act.

 

I was hoping that they were not smart enough to figure that out.

 

The irony here is Manchin's allegiance to what he sees as something preserving comity and respect for the views of others even as his refusal to budge on the filibuster ensures Repubs will pass voter suppression laws all over the country designed to enable disregarding the views of others.

 

This is how Manchin keeps winning in a red state. He publicly challenges the Democratic majority, but in the end, usually votes for the Democratic bills. Schumer would rather be majority leader with Manchin than minority leader without him. And the more low information Democrats bitch about him, the more that helps him back home.

 

Joe Biden was saying the same thing as Joe not too long ago.

 

That was a valid sentiment 80 years ago, but these days bi-partisanship is a punishable offense.

When the leader of the minority party says "we will not work with the other party at all", then there is no hope for bi-partisanship and it is time to get rid of the rule and go back to how our founding fathers intended the Senate to run

 

You mean like he didn't do it, despite Trump asking him to do so many times? Had he done so, you would've screamed(and Repubs would've been horrified with a Trump defeat.)

 

Manchin is in deep red West Virginia which voted for Trump in 2020 by a whopping 40% margin. Manchin was almost unseated in 2018 during a blue wave and even having some GOP positions. If you primary him and run a left winger instead, the GOP will win and take the Senate. Bad bad idea.

 

With his refusal to support bills of any real import, he’s made sure they’ve lost that majority anyway...

 

So, instead you prop up a faux Democrat who only votes with his colleagues on inconsequential bills...?