When I first read that Joe Manchin was sitting with the Republicans…
…during Biden’s SOTU speech last night, I assumed it was a metaphor.
Turns out he actually was sitting with them:
Mr. Manchin, a moderate West Virginia Democrat, opted to sit on the side of the House chamber traditionally reserved for Republicans rather than with members of his party.
Mr. Manchin was seen sitting next to GOP Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Roger Wicker of Mississippi. He was the only Senate Democrat to sit with Republicans.
Of course, Romney was sitting with the Democrats (that’s my attempt at a joke).
I don’t see Manchin as having any plans to actually change parties, however. I see his seating choice as a way to emphasize his rift with his own party as well as his power to change parties if he decided to do so.
More power to Manchin. His thinker still works, and isn’t polluted by the Democrat/Media mandatory groupthink – which is just the WuFlu in another form, but more contagious.
Maybe that’s just where he could find a seat, or maybe he and Wicker were out pub crawling before the speech.
Laundered, Green, intermittent/renewable energy, catastrophic environmental footprint throughout its life from recovery to reclamation in Peking to DC, a model, a a cargo cult, and people without a a productive outlet hoping to escape the welfare Ouroboros. Presumably a common cause for all Americans.
Where you sit depends on where you stand.
They crossed a lot of personal lines with him in the last year and I don’t blame him.
I don’t always like their choices or their decisions, but Congressmen, particularly Senators, that express their independence of thinking have my respect and undying gratitude for having some moral courage. Manchin (sometimes), Collins, Paul, Cruz (infrequently), Kennedy (sometimes) and Sinema are the examples that I’m thinking of. A person that shows moral courage is a person that is also more likely to argue in good faith, and maybe occasionally can convincingly present a better idea.
he can caucus with the Reps without switching parties
He has more power being the 50th democrat vote than he would being the 51st Republican vote.
The voters of West Virginia should be applauded for their good sense in returning him to the US Senate.
Manchin will not switch parties (or ‘pull a Jeffords’ and go independent but caucus with the other side) before the midterms. Not a chance. After that? He *might* ‘pull a Shelby’, if the GOP wins back the majority.
Honestly, what I would most hope for is his resignation from the Senate, allowing Governor Justice to appoint a GOP replacement…before the confirmation vote on Jackson. Assuming Romney, Collins and Murkowski toe the line (granted, not a safe assumption), the nomination tanks.
Then Manchin returns to now deep red WVa. to a hero’s welcome. In his mid 70s, he could simply retire on his laurels. Or, he could announce he’s running for governor again, as a Republican, in ’24, when Justice will be term limited. He’d almost certainly win in a landslide.
Well…one can dream…
An American hero.
The John Paul Jones of houseboats.
Manchin doesn’t even need to switch parties at this point. As long as Biden or Harris are in the White House, the R team can’t do much more than block that crazy stuff. Manchin is blocking most of the crazy stuff now, and I suspect that sitting with Republicans means he’s going to continue doing so for the rest of this year.
After this year, his vote probably won’t matter as much. Maybe he will see some utility in continuing to be a Romney/Murkowski/Collins type centerist voice in the Senate. Or maybe he’ll just retire to W. Va. It’s a beautiful state.
(FWIW, I suspect that Manchin will vote to confirm Jackson, and that it ultimately won’t matter because Collins, Murkowski, and Graham will too. I won’t begrudge Collins or Graham. Even if I don’t agree with their principles on judicial nominations, I can respect that they have principles and stick to them.)
@Tuvea last night-
Agree that Manchin has more power as the 50th D than the 51st R.
Respectfully disagree that “The voters of West Virginia should be applauded for their good sense in returning him to the US Senate.”
Any vote for a D, no matter how non-leftist that D may be, is a vote for Chuck Schumer (or worse) for majority leader. It’s a vote for more wide Latinxs for SCOTUS. It’s a vote against conviction of Biden when the next House impeaches him.
I agree that he’s the least worse D, but deep down, so far, he has voted with the Ds almost always. The “almost” is the reason we’re having this discussion.
YMMV
I agree that he’s the least worse D, but deep down, so far, he has voted with the Ds almost always. The “almost” is the reason we’re having this discussion.
YMMV
The function of Manchin and Sinema differs from the function of the half-dozen or so unreliable Republicans. Manchin and Sinema have been preventing the Democratic Party from rigging modes of competition between the two parties. There is no analogous program on the other side to do this, although Democrats lie and pretend there is. The half dozen or so dissenting Republicans get in the way of policy initiatives favored by the vast bulk of the caucus and (intermittently) allow themselves to be conscripted into the Democrats’ vicious PR stunts. The latter is more maddening than the former, because you do have legitimate differences of opinion on policy and some of them (e.g. Susan Collins) are up front with their electorate about their general disposition. (John McCain was not).
There should be an official switch party day in Congress.
Some demokrats can go to the Republicans ; Manchin as an example
A bunch of “republicans” can go to the demokrats; Romney, et. al. (Why do I think that in the last election, Romney voted for Bidet?)
A bunch of the republicans can go to the “anybody but Trump party;” this would be about 100 or so republicans.
(Of course, with Bidet as the president, they most likely still prefer him to Trump. Best to be pals with the enemy you know and with whom they are accustomed to genuflecting for, than with a fellow party member who will call you out for incompetence, ineptitude, stupidity and timidity).
A bunch of the demonkrats can go to the party “we really belong to,” or for short, the PWRBT.
These PWRBT’s would be the communist party, socialist workers party, the hate white folks party, the hate-America-first party, the BLM party, ANTIFA, and of course, the Mein Kampf party for….well, you know who.
I estimate this would be about 200 demokrats in the House and Senate that would sign up for a PWRBT.
(Why do I think that in the last election, Romney voted for Bidet?)
Because his conduct over the last four years makes little sense except as an exercise in spite – against Trump and against the Republican base. He’s over 70, a centimillionaire, and has 20 grandchildren. Why go to the trouble of setting up a notional residency in Utah to run for a seat in our awful federal legislature? If it’s the famous Mormon work-ethic driving him, why not stay in Massachusetts, get back into the business world, and spend more time with his ample family? That aside, he has (quite gratuitously) participated in the Democratic Party’s asinine propaganda stunts and (IIRC) appeared at a BLM demonstration. Neither is defensible.
Art Deco, the word you’re looking for is “hectomillionaire”. The “centi-” prefix is used for 1/100th, meaning most, or all, of us would be centimillionaires.
All I can say about Romney, is that while I voted for him in 2012, I am now eternally grateful that he lost. Besides, I don’t think he really wanted it. He sure didn’t campaign like he wanted it.
There should be an official switch party day in Congress.
Pin the tail on the jackass, or, alternatively, whack a rhino day. Perhaps a random distribution would produce a more effective governing, “People and Posterity”-oriented calculus.
Rick Gutleber on March 3, 2022 at 11:04 am
“… about Romney, is that while I voted for him in 2012, I am now eternally grateful that he lost.” Except that he lost to Obama; and then we had the Obama response to the 2014 invasion of Ukraine. Not sure Romney would have done anything different/ better, but he might have.
Better is the enemy of good enough – at least that is what engineers are or should be taught.
So we took a risk and voted for Mean Tweets in 2016; and felt that risk was lowered in 2020. Can’t really trust any of the latest from the media, but it seems a campaign against Trump is building, perhaps with greater justification than many/ most of us would like. And he is not helping himself, except with a base that might be able to nominate him but won’t be able to elect him.
See Scott Morefield: https://townhall.com/columnists/scottmorefield/2021/07/19/four-things-trump-could-do-to-win-back-my-support-n2592705
Besides, I don’t think he really wanted it. He sure didn’t campaign like he wanted it.
Why would he (or McCain in 2008) go to the trouble if they did not want the prize? I can see Eugene McCarthy being perverse like that, even Al Gore. Not McCain or Romney, driven men in different ways. (McCain hired grifters to run his campaign and Romney’s campaign manager was by some accounts someone who regarded issues as fungible; I’ll attribute McCain’s behavior in that regard to carelessness).