Senate Democrats grow less confident in Manchin

[left-of-center2012]

Senate Democrats are growing less and less confident about whether Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) wants to strike a legislative deal with President Biden. The lack of negotiations with Manchin since Congress returned from the Christmas recess and Manchin’s definitive statements of opposition are raising serious doubts about whether he would be willing to support any version of the Build Back Better Act, which would provide new funding for health care, child care and a host of other initiatives.

Manchin says he has tried to be as clear as possible about where he is, but fellow Senate Democratic colleagues feel confused about whether the West Virginia senator can be counted on to support some version of Biden’s sweeping agenda. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he has “no idea” whether Manchin wants a deal and that he has no more clarity about whether Manchin can get to “yes” than when the negotiations began in August. “Still in the dark,” he said when asked about Manchin’s endgame strategy.

Other Democrats are growing skeptical of Manchin’s motives and wonder if he’ll ever get pinned down to something specific. “It’s not like a normal negotiation and that’s what is frustrating Biden and frustrating everybody,” said a Democratic senator who requested anonymity to discuss doubts about whether Manchin is negotiating with a real end goal in mind. The lawmaker described the process as “a dance” and said Manchin regularly tells colleagues that he likes certain provisions in the bill or at least has an open mind about various proposals but still doesn’t seem any closer to signing off on a deal than he was months ago. “You expect people to sit in a room and hash out the details,” the senator added.

Other senators agree that there’s been little evidence Manchin wants a deal. “I have no reason to think that he does, literally no reason to think that he does,” said a second Democratic senator, who also pointed out that Manchin hasn’t showed any serious intention to pass Build Back Better or change the Senate rules to overcome a GOP filibuster against voting rights legislation. “All the evidence is to the contrary,” the source added.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/588806-senate-democrats-grow-less-confident-in-manchin

[Scrivener7]

1. Why, oh why, would they ever have had ANY confidence in Manchin?

Seriously, time to dig up whatever his dirt is and twist his arm.

[FalloutShelter]

2. Duh...

[bullwinkle428]

3. We're now a week away from the self-imposed deadline on a voting rights bill.

[Mad_Machine76]

4. Everything seems to have flown out the door

the instant the bipartisan package passed, which is all he (and probably Sinema) cared about. BBB seems DOA right now. Guess we need to cut our losses and elect more Senate Democrats so as to make both of them irrelevant.


Just.........

[CrispyQ]

6. Interesting how we are the only ones who have to be bipartisan.

No complaints from Manchin that the 50 repubs aren't being bipartisan. He's a right-wing tool, bought & paid for.

[Mad_Machine76]

13. +100

So tired of this double standard.

[doc03]

5. He is not going to support anything. The COC had another full page ad in

WV papers this weekend thanking him for opposing the Democrat's socialist policies. You know
whatever it is he wants bi-partisan support so that rules out protecting our right to vote. He is happy with WV being
49th or 50th in everything.

[CrispyQ]

7. COC?

Clash of Clans is what comes up first in Google search.

[doc03]

8. Chamber of Commerce

[CrispyQ]

9. Duh. I should have guessed that.

LOL that a video game beats out the Chamber of Commerce. Actually, Chamber of Commerce doesn't even appear on the first page.

[doc03]

11. What pisses me off there is the COC among other Koch Brother sounding

generic groups things like West Virginians for Prosperity and such running ads supporting Manchin. I have yet to
see any ads telling people in WV what they are losing out on.

[CrispyQ]

12. I don't think our side believes in marketing.

I read George Lakoff's book Moral Politics. He thinks dems suffer from the misconception that most people vote based on intellect when really there is a ton of emotion involved. Our side doesn't try to appeal to emotion, & the other side only appeals to emotion. Our side says, "Here's our platform page. Go read it to find out what we're about." The other side didn't even have a platform last election. They've been distilled down to a four-word slogan & still, 11 million more people turned out to vote for the orange POS than in 2016, even after seeing what a disgusting, incompetent train wreck he is.

Oh well. Marketing isn't going to save us now. We're 40 years behind the 8-ball. Any ads we did would be a drop compared to the ocean of right-wing money & media influence the other side has. Let's hope that enough people really do vote on intellect & that they give a shit enough to get to the polls. We need 2018 turnout this year. Maybe more.

[Celerity]

16. Clash of Clans deffo sounds more West Virginian though.

WV peace treaty

[Progressive Jones]

14. Or, early 90s Metal band "Corrosion Of Conformity"... nt

[UTUSN]

15. Note to Ourselves: Uh, he's already said multiple times he doesn't/won't.