He’s one of the few Democrats I personally like. He’s a throwback to when this party had some resemblance of reason. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is still a member of the party, though very much beats to his own drum. The irony is that he can do so because his state’s rapidly changing politics permit him to operate in areas that would be frowned upon from voters bases of his more ‘woke’ colleagues. Manchin won the 2010 special election. He was governor of West Virginia but was pro-coal, more anti-abortion than most other Democrats by a long shot, pro-gun, and literally shot the Cap and Trade bill in one of his old ads. You’d think he’s a Republican. Nope—just a Democrat cut from a more conservative cloth. Sure, he might have had some votes that might have been in line with Chuck Schumer and others, but Manchin is a reasonable Democrat. We can work with Manchin for sure and his latest remarks on court-packing and the filibuster only reinforces that notion (via Daily Caller):
Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin said Wednesday that he opposes packing the Supreme Court or ending the Senate filibuster and urged his Democratic colleagues to be “bipartisan.”
“I do not believe that would help anybody,” Manchin told “Fox & Friends” when asked if he would favor adding more seats to the Supreme Court or ending filibusters in the Senate.
“Basically, no one is working together,” the senator said, noting that packing the Supreme Court could be a chronic game of tit for tat: “you have 11 or 13 [seats] it’s going to flip the other way no matter who comes in power. So why would you go down that path?” Manchin asked.
With Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, Senate Republicans are moving quickly to fill the vacancy and have the votes to not only get whoever Trump nominates out of committee but through a final confirmation vote as well. All the loose ends are tied. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), an early ‘no’ vote, is changing her tune. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said he wouldn’t oppose the nomination. It’s over. Manchin voted to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He could do so again with this nominee. We’ll see.
As Schumer takes the course of action outlined by the ‘woke’ Left, he may heed the advice given to him by Manchin who has longed told the Senate Minority Leader that without red-state Democrats, the party will be in the minority forever. His decision to not run for his old governor’s seat helped his party maintain their position in the Senate for the 2018 midterms, but unlike in 2012, where he won 60 percent of the vote, he only clinched a little over 49 percent in his latest re-election effort. He’s still the canary in the coal mine for a party hell-bent on becoming something out of a neo-Marxist mold. With his state’s hard right turn, it’ll be interesting to see where Sen. Manchin rests in this upcoming SCOTUS fight. I think he can be a wild card, in which Democrats really are powerless to stop Trump from filling RBG’s seat.