From that Manchin profile I posted earlier:
What does seem clear is that Mr. Manchin is not going to switch parties.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen, although we’d welcome him with open arms,” said Ms. Collins, who has tried in the past to persuade her friend to join Republicans.
It’s not difficult to see why Mr. Manchin remains in his forefathers’ party. A Catholic of Italian descent, he sought John F. Kennedy’s desk when he arrived in the Senate, displays a picture of the slain president in his office lobby and can recall hearing that Massachusetts accent in his kitchen when Kennedy’s brothers came to his parents’ house during the West Virginia primary in 1960.
“Joe reminds me a lot of the old conservative Democrats in Texas,” said Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas. “They were born Democrats. They’re going to die Democrats.”
Why in the world would he switch parties? He’d be a pale imitation of Mitt Romney in the GOP a man without any power at all. As a Democrat in a 50-50 Senate he’s the most powerful man in the country. How silly.
As for the filibuster, Mr. Coons, who was sworn in alongside Mr. Manchin in 2010, said liberals shouldn’t get their hopes up.
Recalling a conversation with somebody who knows Mr. Manchin well, Mr. Coons said this person told him: “If the ghost of Robert Byrd came back to life and said the future of West Virginia itself is on the line he might … think about it.”
I think this might be a ghostly visitation of the old Senator telling Manchin something:
Legislation that could make it more difficult for West Virginians to participate in future elections, including by revoking a 2016 automatic voter registration law, passed the Senate without debate Wednesday on a 29-5 vote.
Championed by then-Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, the law to automatically register voters at Division of Motor Vehicles offices when they obtain driver’s licenses has been on the books for nearly five years but has yet to be implemented.
Under Senate Bill 565, people obtaining or transferring driver’s licenses could opt to register to vote at the DMV, but the process would not be automatic. That is the policy currently in effect.
The bill also pushes up deadlines for early in-person voting and for submitting applications for absentee voting by mail.
Under the bill, the window for early in-person voting — currently 13 days to three days before Election Day — would shift to 17 days to seven days before Election Day. The move would eliminate one available Saturday from each election cycle. State law prohibits voting on Sundays.
It also would move the deadline for requesting an absentee ballot from six days before Election Day to 11 days.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Trump, R-Morgan, said Secretary of State Mac Warner had requested the change based on warnings from the U.S. Postal Service of slower delivery times for U.S. mail.
As the Senate was taking up the bill, Warner was in Washington, D.C., testifying before the U.S. Senate Rules Committee in opposition to the federal For The People Act of 2021.
“We want to keep a tight rein. I want to get my guidance from the state Legislature, and not go toward automatic voter registration, mail-in ballots, same-day registration and the other provisions in this bill,” Warner said.
Golly, I think the Republicans might just be going after old Joe himself. Is he cool with being a human sacrifice for the cause of bipartisanship.