Well, I guess that’s it:
I have said it before and will say it again to remove any shred of doubt: There is no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster. The time has come to end these political games, and to usher a new era of bipartisanship where we find common ground on the major policy debates facing our nation.
That is an unequivocal statement which just gave away all his power to the Republicans. No more guessing, no more worrying. They know that all they have to do is stage a little kabuki dance pretending that Biden and the Dems are rejecting their good faith efforts and that’s the end of that. Even if Biden were to whittle down his plans to be so small they could fit on a matchbook cover they will never get 10 Republicans to vote for it and not even one would vote to push it through reconciliation. Not even Mitt or Susan. It simply will not happen.
The only way they will be able to get 10 Republicans to vote for Democratic legislation is to agree to repeal Obamacare, defund Planned Parenthood, cut taxes on the wealthy and require every American to be armed at all times. In other words, there can only be “bipartisanship” if the Democrats agree to enact the Republican agenda. And even then, I don’t think they’ll be able to get 10 votes. Recall that Obama offered them cuts in Social Security and Medicare, their Holy Grail for 60 years, and they walked away. Of course, that was because the Democrats wanted some minor tax hikes in return and they simply won’t stand for that.
The deal is that Democrats get nothing.
They must bend the knee, beg the Republicans to please, please help them out and then they will walk away anyway, triumphant that they owned the libs. That’s how this works.
Supposedly, the White House isn’t concerned:
White House communications director Kate Bedingfield on Thursday brushed off concerns over Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) reiterating his opposition to eliminating or weakening the filibuster in a Washington Post op-ed, as Democrats work to push their sweeping voting rights bill and other major legislation forward.
In his op-ed published Wednesday night, Manchin argued that the filibuster, a Senate procedure that requires 60 votes to pass legislation, is “a critical tool to protecting that input and our democratic form of government.”
Manchin, a moderate Democrat who plays a key role in the 50-50 Senate, also signaled that he opposes using budget reconciliation to pass Democratic legislation, and that he will not make an exception for his fellow Democrats’ voting rights bill nor President Biden’s massive infrastructure package.
Asked to respond to Manchin’s vehement defenses of keeping the filibuster as is, Bedingfield denied that the West Virginia senator poses a threat to the President’s agenda. She asserted that senators raising their concerns is simply part of the process behind advancing legislation.
“Absolutely not, he remains a key partner,” Bedingfield said when asked whether Manchin’s comments were a blow to Biden. “Look, this is how the process works. Senators will come forward. They’ll raise their concerns, they’ll raise their issues.”
Bedinfield emphasized that Biden wants a “collaborative process” where Democrats and Republicans put their concerns on the table.
“I mean, what the President has said is that the only thing he finds unacceptable here is inaction,” Bedingfield said. “So he knows this is going to be a process where there are going to be compromise. There is going to be negotiation.”
Bedingfield reiterated that Manchin remains a key partner and that the White House is working on outreach to members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, especially when it comes to Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan.
Don’t be surprised to see Manchin destroy Biden’s agenda and then have the Republicans take him out in 2024. It’s how they roll.
I’m reminded once more of my favorite lines from Lincoln’s Cooper Union which remain relevant to this day:
The question recurs, what will satisfy them? Simply this: We must not only let them alone, but we must somehow, convince them that we do let them alone. This, we know by experience, is no easy task. We have been so trying to convince them from the very beginning of our organization, but with no success. In all our platforms and speeches we have constantly protested our purpose to let them alone; but this has had no tendency to convince them. Alike unavailing to convince them, is the fact that they have never detected a man of us in any attempt to disturb them.
These natural, and apparently adequate means all failing, what will convince them? This, and this only: cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right. And this must be done thoroughly – done in acts as well as in words. Silence will not be tolerated – we must place ourselves avowedly with them. Senator Douglas’ new sedition law must be enacted and enforced, suppressing all declarations that slavery is wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, in pulpits, or in private. We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our Free State constitutions. The whole atmosphere must be disinfected from all taint of opposition to slavery, before they will cease to believe that all their troubles proceed from us.
I think he may have been too generous. Mitch McConnell, the gravedigger of democracy, figured out that total obstruction actually works better for them than gaining the opposition’s acquiescence. The pre-civil war South cared about something — slavery. They wanted to preserve it and because it was a disgusting, immoral institution, they wanted everyone to join them enthusiastically in preserving it. The congressional Republicans today care about nothing but maintaining power and they are totally shameless. They know that to pass anything on a bipartisan basis, even their own agenda, means that the other side will share the credit and that means they may share the power too.
There are always one or two Democrats who think they are powerful in these situations, too, and they get high on it and do the kind of thing Manchin is doing today. But they are silly fools. They’re actually handing it over to the Republicans who laugh and laugh at them behind their backs.