President Biden brought the months-long infrastructure negotiations with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) to an end on Tuesday, formalizing the conclusion of talks with the Republican senator that were widely seen to be going nowhere.
Continue reading “Biden Ends Public Show Of Negotiations With Capito”
A brief addition on Manchin. A number of you have written in to cite a segment on Rachel Maddow’s show, apparently last night, which showed a bunch of polls that suggest the laws in question – infrastructure, voting rights, etc. – are actually very popular in West Virginia. So either Manchin is just confused or is doing something other than following the lead of his constituents’ more conservative views. I didn’t see the segment. The results as relayed to me do not surprise me. But these polls don’t necessarily mean what you think. You can’t really take them at face value.
Liberals or various people on the left will often point to polls which seem to show that Republican voters actually support liberal policies. We’re not winning elections but we’re winning on the issues. The answer is usually to push liberal policies more aggressively.
There are a lot of cases where Democrats should push liberal policies more aggressively. The COVID relief and infrastructure bills are good examples. But again, you can’t make a straight line between these polls and that end point.
A 22-year old Pennsylvania man raked in thousands of dollars by impersonating various members of the Trump family, Manhattan federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Continue reading “22-Year Old Who Successfully Impersonated Lesser Trumps Charged With Fraud”
In the middle of his speech at the Republican National Convention last year, then-Vice President Mike Pence referred to Dave Patrick Underwood, a federal officer who was shot and killed on May 29 last year.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday signaled that the Biden administration hasn’t given up hopes of working with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to push voting rights legislation through Congress, despite the centrist senator’s very public opposition to the sweeping “For the People Act” that his Democratic colleagues have been pushing. Continue reading “WH Isn’t Giving Up On Manchin Despite Voting Rights Logjam He Created”
An Alaskan state legislator who attended the Jan. 6 Trump rally in Washington, D.C. that turned into a violent attack on Congress got a tour Tuesday of the shady “audit” of Maricopa County, Arizona’s 2020 votes. Several legislators from other states are also expected to get tours of the audit this week.
Continue reading “Alaska Legislator Who Was In DC On Jan. 6 Gets Tour Of Arizona Audit”
The Biden administration filed a defense on Monday of ex-President Donald Trump’s claim that he was working in his official capacity as president when he smeared writer E. Jean Carroll, who has accused Trump of raping her. Trump claimed Carroll was lying, and said she wasn’t his “type,” in 2019.
From TPM Reader MW …
Re Josh’s post this morning, which includes these sentences:”There are a lot of people who are super mad at Joe Manchin. They say he’s a closet Republican. That’s not where I am. It’s more confusion because his points are contradictory.”
To give Manchin some (but not too much) benefit of the doubt, his contradictory statements may be a reasonably accurate reflection of the views of West Virginia voters. As we continually remind ourselves, in 2020 Trump won every county in West Virginia, and won the state by 38 points.These days that fact is usually brought up in reference to Manchin thinking he knows what he needs to do – and not do – to keep getting elected senator in WV. But those numbers might also be emblematic of a confusion that Manchin is playing (pandering?) to.
From TPM Reader NR …
Being angry with Manchin is like being angry with the spouse you love – eventually you are going to have to get over it. The quickest way resolve that anger is ensuring that you have really tried to understand where the other person/party is coming from – and that your position has been heard as well.
In general I don’t think I wholly agree with TPM Reader GT’s take here. This is likely right as a general matter. But what makes me very leery of underestimating Manchin is that he has managed to win three Senate elections (2010, 2012 and 2018) during a period when West Virginia has gone from being a very to an overwhelmingly Republican state in terms of national politics.
Here’s GT …
I like your point on Manchin’s position is simply confusing. Here is how I resolve that. I’ve been minorly active in my small state’s Democratic party. I’ve met state legislators and similar. And, not to be mean, but a lot of these people are simply not that talented. Being in small state politics is kind of the boobie prize for the provential elite. Your friends make all the money in real estate and other while you play student council in the state legislature where the majority leadership does everything.
