Just Admit You Didn't Want To

 

Sen. Joe Manchin III on Sunday said that he could not vote to proceed on Democrats’ roughly $2 trillion spending package, dealing a potentially fatal political blow to the final piece of President Biden’s economic agenda. https://t.co/6MFbuz3w7L

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 19, 2021

"I can't do it." Huh. "I tried everything humanly possible." Hah. "I can't get there...this is a no."

Sure. I didn't see any gag on Sen. Manchin's mouth or leg irons on his legs preventing him. I'm not aware of any spell he was under that might have turned him into a toad if he voted for the bill. The thing he couldn't do was look his good lobbyist friends and his good fundraising friends in the eye and say, "I'm just going to do something that benefits my constituents." 

It would have been entirely humanly possible. He didn't want to do it. Now, there is some part of me that would love if three Christmas ghosts got on his case about this to change his mind in a Dickensian heart-warmer, but I don't think I see it. But if he didn't want to, and wasn't ever going to want to, he could have said so then, and he could admit it now. 

UPDATE:  How is he supposed to eeexxxxxpppllliaaainn it to West Virginia?

But sure, Joe Manchin is just representing his constituents. Got it. pic.twitter.com/xteA0uLjy0

— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) December 19, 2021

Um. I don't know. Tell them they are right and it is good? He's been ridiculous this whole time.

UPDATE:  Wow. The message from the White House comes about as close to calling a member of the Presiden'ts own party a damn liar as they professionally could. 

The Debt Ceiling Has to Go

 

So, did you all just see this giving birth to a prize watermelon effort that was put forward to just get a two-month extension on the debt ceiling, an artificial thing that shouldn't even exist because of course a nation who prides itself in the full faith and credit of its honorable debts pays those shits? 

Well, if you visit this blog, of course you did. And if you are a long time visitor, you know why I'm heated--we are past time to abolish  the stupid debt ceiling vote since it is absolutely a necessity and has become a political football. 

And it stays incredibly stupid after all this time: after some stupidly arbitrary legislative interval, responsible people have to once again explain that this is about paying the bills already due, like deciding whether to make your car payment or put at least the minimum on your credit card bill, like we haven't already been through this bullshit before. And the political grandstanders will act like that's not what it is, but say some dumb shit about how it's about new spending, which is nonsense, because of course there will be new spending. Like in a household, you have a mortgage payment and maybe a car loan, but that doesn't mean you don't still buy groceries or pay to fix the roof leak, right?

A Bit Too Sinematic

 AZ Senator Kyrsten Sinema has offered her thoughts regarding the reason she opposes changing the filibuster rules, and the reason is--"it protects the democracy of our nation", and I don't know about that. Passing an act to ensure the voting rights of all the people eligible would protect our democracy. Relying on members of a party who have explicitly given up on the idea that that's a good thing seems badly mistaken. 

It's too easy to focus on Sinema because of her earlier, progressive-alienating antics regarding the minimum wage. She isn't alone in being a Democratic Senator who is leery of abandoning the filibuster rule, she's just very visible (and she tries to be, and I guess that's part of the pile-on, too). But there's this dodgy history. So I don't want to pile on, but I do want to make a little suggestion:

Sometimes you have to understand what your voters put you were you are for. I think we've got a cycle where people are pretty pissed off that something isn't working in our politics, and you don't want to be the person who looks like they aren't working. So not showing up to vote for the January 6 investigation was pretty bad, because Arizona is one of the states that was and is very much challenged by GOP electoral fuckery, and it would be very meaningful to Arizona Democrats to know they had someone who would fight for them, instead of pussyfooting about. This state is changing and Republicans there are not happy--but it's still happening.

Here's where I'm cutting slack, though--I don't know, besides Sinema and Manchin, who else might be on the fence about breaking the filibuster, I have worries about Feinstein, because I don't know where her head is. Angus King has been reluctant. There could be others--so just putting the whole weight on Sinema and Manchin doesn't feel right, and there is the blowback--if something gets f'd up enough, and somehow GOP gains seats, a Republican-lead Senate in a filibusterless world is gonna ssuuuuuuuuccccckkkkk. 

So, while Sinema seems kind of capricious, and yeah, I think I'm puzzled by her particular stance, Manchin's reasons are also kind of self-serving (but what if it were possible to try to generate more WV Democratic/progressive interest by bucking moderation for a bit--I did see Sanders signs down in WV during the 2016 primary and I think younger voters might be up for that), yet I don't know what other, deeper opposition exists, or what other political heads are trying to game out. 

It would be great if we could just run down a wishlist of liberal policies at the moment and get'em done, but it's always going to be a fight. This is why every election counts. But damn it--the voting rights one just feels crucial for the elections to come! And I still don't get why Sinema voted against the minimum wage thing and her absence from the vote on the insurrection investigation still sort of feels off. AZ GOP is ridiculous, but that's actually all the more reason to go about the job of US Senator for AZ very seriously. 

2020--Because Apparently We're Doing This Thing

Now, you may know that I love, but do not understand, West Virginia. I love the beautiful land and the kind, generous people, I love the immanent feeling of history that stays alive there, I love the working class values. I just don't get the way a state that votes for Trump by a huge margin, also keeps Jim Manchin going back to Washington D.C., but hell, I respect it. 

What I do kind of get is the rest of the country. Now, I can respect a man in uniform with the best of them. I kind of wanted Gen. Wes Clark to be a big deal--even to run in 2004 or be a running mate for Kerry (I didn't quite trust Edwards--there is something about an abundance of earnestness that rankles me). I value the contributions and perspectives of people who have served, because, like Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower, they have often inculcated organizational skills, discipline, and have shown personal physical and mental courage--they can appreciate the risks of putting themselves on the line for a purpose, and recognize that politics is the lesser of dangerous fields. 

That said, I am loathe to discuss 2020 yet with 2018 contests still being decided, but I feel like we are already into this thing, and somebody should just read out a particularly obvious riot act.

Not just anybody is gonna do against Trump, even if he is the in fact, word, and deed, actual worst. I can't speak to Michael Avenatti's potential 2020 race (except to say I personally, and regrettably, have a type, and he is it, and if he was auditioning for Vixen's short-term, but torrid, personal flirtation, he'd be wildly successful) but I can say a word about Richard Ojeda's.

Ojeda has a really great personal bio, as a lifelong Democrat, a veteran, and the descendant of an undocumented Mexican migrant. In many ways, his story is the sock in the mouth to people who want to shit-talk about immigration--this is a stellar individual, and he came from great people--immigrant people. He has established a charitable organization and is responsible to his community. He has also worked as an educator, and is an excellent speaker because of this. 

But he lost his recent US Congressional bid pretty sincerely. Now, you can say congressional districts in WV are gerrymandered to the fucking eyeballs, and the funny thing is, you don't get a different result no matter how you slice WV. He didn't win with populist kind of red state white folks having supported Trump and saying stupid shit about how coal is still a thing. 

This dude is toast outside of West Virginia. Gillum is getting a recount in fucking Florida, there's a run off for Espy in Mississippi and likely one for Abrams in Georgia. This white dude who voted for Trump doesn't really speak to how he's going to find the votes in these places, when he can't find them in his own district. And he won't have the name recognition or any other thing with his particulars in genuinely progressive areas, so even if he appealed to the rust belt, he might not win a PA primary because Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and so on. 

I would genuinely recommend he set his sights on Shelly Moore Capito, the WV senator, or Jim Justice, the governor who by 2020 will be fed up enough of Trump's fat jokes. He might get his shit to work statewide by 2020. For West Virginia values of shit-working.

But if it didn't work in his district, he really should not be thinking about doing a 2020 presidential run right now.

I also think Beto should be setting his cap at Cornyn, not Trump. 

I am not ready for 2020--and I think some of these here candidates are even less ready than me.