Manchin Given Standing Ovation from West Virginia Legislators for Defending the Filibuster

Thank you, West Virginia. There was much concern about Senator Manchin’s vote. Alas, politicians perform best when kept on short leashes.

According to a new poll, 72 percent of West Virginians support Manchin’s decision to tank Biden’s Build Back Better bill, as one would expect in a state as conservative as theirs.

This from hotair.com.

West Virginia’s House and Senate are heavily Republican, as you might expect, so this applause is driven by partisan interest at least as much as it is by admiration for Manchin’s stand on principle. But even so, you can see how this guy has somehow managed to win two terms as governor and two terms as senator as a Democrat in a blood-red state. He’s good at politics, full stop.

James Carville was asked a few days ago by Vox whether democrats should be mad at Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for thwarting Biden first on BBB and then for refusing to end the filibuster to pass voting-rights reform. And, love him or hate him, Carville speaks his mind and is often right on the money.

Damn right they should be mad at Sinema, Carville said. But Manchin? Are you joking?

Understand that Joe Manchin is a Roman Catholic Democrat in a state in which not a single county has voted Democrat [for president] since 2008. I repeat: not a single county has voted Democrat since 2008.

Politics is about choices, and he’s up for reelection in 2024. If Manchin runs for reelection, I’ll do everything I can to help him because it’s either going to be Joe Manchin or Marsha Blackburn. It ain’t Joe Manchin or Ed Markey. You got to understand that. It’s really that damn simple…

Look, I’m a liberal Democrat. Always have been. But some of these people bitching about Manchin can’t see political reality straight. Six percent of adults in this country identify as “progressive.” Only 11 or 12 percent of Democrats identify as progressive. So let’s just meet in the middle and say something like 7 or 8 percent of the country agrees with the progressive left. This ain’t a goddamn debate anymore. Someone like Manchin is closer to the mainstream than a lot of these people think, and pretending like he isn’t won’t help the cause.

In all of the public debates in which he’s played a key role lately, Manchin has been scrupulous about projecting reasonable centrism.

That’s a smart play, reminding the left that it really is better off with him as the party’s nominee in West Virginia than with a liberal who’d get slaughtered by a Republican, no matter how mad at him they might be right now.

He walked away from BBB—but only after negotiating with Biden for months.

He stood by the filibuster—but made clear that he supported the underlying voting-rights bills.

He won’t guarantee that he’ll vote for Biden’s SCOTUS nominee—but he won’t obstruct the process and won’t hold ideological differences against her.