Washington's hottest club is Joe Manchin's houseboat: It has everything: moonshine, covid scares, Lisa Murkowski spontaneously breaking into song… via WaPo’s @bterris: https://t.co/OHxzAvwSo5
— Dan Balz (@danbalz) August 6, 2021
The Washington Post‘s Ben Tetris (remember Aaron Schock?) does his needle-ninja work:
Generally speaking, the first rule of visiting Joe Manchin III’s houseboat is don’t talk about Joe Manchin’s houseboat.
Last week, however, when Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) tested positive for the coronavirus after attending a weekend cruise on Almost Heaven — named after the opening line of John Denver’s elegy to West Virginia, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” — it’s all anyone in Washington wanted to discuss…
So far, nobody beyond Graham has reported a positive test. But the notion that Almost Heaven might become the Diamond Princess of the Potomac put a spotlight on what has become a crucial destination for members of Official Washington.
At the ideological center of a 50-50 Senate, Manchin, a Democrat, has found himself in the captain’s seat for much of what gets done, or doesn’t get done, in Washington. This means that the Room Where it Happens is often a large pleasure craft/domicile floating on the capital waterways. At least three Biden Cabinet secretaries have spent time on Almost Heaven, as have the White House chief of staff and dozens of senators…
This is the promise of Almost Heaven: Anyone who scores an invite can loosen up for a few hours in a Washington precinct with no candid cameras or nagging aides or nosy reporters, and maybe get to see their colleagues as real people. It’s a place for Hawaiian shirts and shorts (Manchin’s go-to boat attire) instead of suits and ties, where senators dine on pizza from Harris Teeter or pasta platters from Nostra Cocina. Moonshine is available for drinking, and if the gatherings go late you can be sure there will be dancing and singing — and not just patriotic hymns from the likes of Murkowski. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), an Almost Heaven regular, has regaled fellow passengers with “American Pie.” Manchin, who declined to be interviewed for this story, has been known to crank the music and sing along to “SOB,” by Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, whose chorus begins: “Son of a b—-, give me a drink!”
Stay late enough and you might even catch Manchin cheerfully cleaning up after everyone. “He’s a neat-freak,” said a guest who has been on the boat many times. “You could eat off that floor.”…
Sounds like someone who used to post around here!
Ruckus
I’m going with Manchin likes to be the center of attention.
Ivan X
How do I score an invite? All tease, but we plebes are on the outside of the velvet rope. Maybe it’s one of the new Amex Platinum benefits.
Padraig
Entirely unimportant but, having literally been aware of SoB for two days at most, this humanises Manchin.
it’s a damn good song.
karen marie
I’m understanding from this story that Manchin’s senate career is to give him cover to pretend he has friends. Seems pretty fucking juvenile to me.
Revrick
You could eat off the floor in our house, too… Cheezits, Cheerios, cashews, an occasional cherry or raisin.
MomSense
Fuck Manchin!
Sitting around a fire playing music with all my boys!! Heaven.
ronno2018
Ok, I have a wet suit, I have cordless waterproof drill. I know how to swim. (FBI please note this is joke!).
Another Scott
@karen marie: Washingtonian (from February):
Heh.
Another story says its anchored around 8 miles south of the Capitol, so it probably isn’t too hard to find if people want to.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t know which of these would make me want to shove sharpened pencils in my ears more
“patriotic hymns”….
Old Dan and Little Ann
@Revrick: I call them Floorios.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.?☠️
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Revrick
@Ruckus: I’m going with they all are. How can you not be a huge narcissist in an exclusive club of one hundred?
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Could’ve been worse, could’ve been Susan Collins dance of the seven veils…
EWWWWWWW!
Revrick
@Old Dan and Little Ann: I like that!
Anoniminous
@Adam L Silverman:
uff-da
(Like “oy-vey” but on lefse with ligonberries)
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
the usual suspects carped “you’re doing it wrong”, “it’s taking too long”, “it’ll never happen this way” and low and behold it’s complete by the August recess, a little over six months into office.
Touchdown, Biden (photo)
NotMax
We’re all Rebozos on this bus.
//
Adam L Silverman
@Anoniminous: I’m familiar with the expression.
Steeplejack
@Adam L Silverman:
??????
Wag
@Adam L Silverman: That’s a visual that I’ll never unsee.
MomSense
@Adam L Silverman:
NONONONONO!!!
Adam L Silverman
@Steeplejack: @Wag: @MomSense:
via GIPHY
MomSense
@Adam L Silverman:
Her uncle was a close friend and mentor to my dad. Our families are very close. It’s personal. I loathe her.
encephalopath
A sing along to a song about delirium tremens. Cool, cool.
CaseyL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The GOP Senators who voted to advance the bill (per Manu Raju) are: Roy Blunt, Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, Capito, Susan Collins, Cramer, John Hoeven, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman,Jim Risch, Romney, Thom Tillis, Deb Fischer, John Cornyn, Roger Wicker, Dan Sullivan, Mike Crapo.
How many of those have enjoyed evenings on Manchin’s boat?
Haydnseek
@NotMax: For the win!
Ken
@CaseyL: I wonder how long it’ll be before they’re run out of the Republican caucus.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m sure Trump is fuming atm
zhena gogolia
@MomSense: I have rarely seen anything more loathsome than her response to Jake Tapper about the 1/6 committee.
Ruckus
@Revrick:
Likely not easily. Hell just to run for national office I’d think a bit of narcissism would be standard equipment.
CaseyL
@Ken: Fine with me if they are (Murkowski’s just about out now, though she clings to her Party membership) – that would reduce the size of their Senate caucus considerably.
But the fact that they voted to bring the bill to the floor doesn’t mean much, unless they also vote to pass the bill. I expect a lot of them will vote No then.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@zhena gogolia:
What did she say? Collins has always tried to portray herself as a moderate. Did she shred that image with what she said?
geg6
@ronno2018:
I have a wetsuit and tanks. And much experience with river diving, what with the low visibility and interesting currents. I have a drill, too. Ready to suit up when you are.
geg6
@Another Scott:
#3 is bullshit. We did Pittsburgh to Cincinnati/Covington and back in two weeks. 11 locks each way.
MomSense
@zhena gogolia:
I’m actually grateful her uncle died and never had to see how low she has fallen.
Firebert
SOB is a great song, but the lyrics aren’t exactly party-positive.
apocalipstick
@encephalopath: Yes. “SOB” is right up there with REM’s “The One I Love” in the category of ‘That Song Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means’.
Ken
And six months later will be photographed with a hardhat and little shovel, at the groundbreaking for some project funded by the bill they voted against.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@geg6:
Ohhh, that sounds like it was fun. Did you go on a riverboat cruise?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@CaseyL:
Did you hear that Palin was interested in running for Murkowski’s seat? Imagine her in the US Senate. Senator Palin, god help us all. Though if we’re lucky maybe she’ll resign after 3 years ; p
dexwood
@Revrick: No way you can eat off the floor in my house. The dogs will always beat you to it.
Suzanne
@Revrick: I can lend you my dog to take care of that floor.
Hunter Gathers
The fact that the future of the country rests on a group of upper-class losers whose genitals haven’t worked since Barney Miller went off the air getting trashed on $300 bottles of wine on a houseboat owned by a sentient chub of ground beef does not exactly fill me with optimism.
Ken
@Hunter Gathers: Worst system of government except for all the rest.
Brachiator
Sounds as though Manchin is reveling in his role as power broker. He clearly intends on making the most of it.
Crass and despicable, but it is useful to see how things really work.
frosty
@dexwood: Boy, is that the truth. In our house at mealtime with the dogs in the dining room the food didn’t get a chance to hit the floor.
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Huh. Infrastructure Week comes at last.
James E Powell
@apocalipstick:
Like Ronald Reagan’s favorite patriotic rock song, Born in the USA?
L85NJGT
It’s…. immaculate perfection….
Another Scott
@geg6: He’d have to get around Great Falls and I don’t know if they let house boats actually use those locks. Otherwise, I assume he’d have to rent a trailer or something…
Seriously, I don’t know how navigable the river is from where the boat is to where he would need to go in WV. It’s almost assuredly just posturing.
It’s a beautiful park, with the usual water-level signs – “3 feet above your head here in 1932” (or whatever).
Cheers,
Scott.
James E Powell
Manchin should only serve pizza from Comet Ping Pong.
L85NJGT
SDPB drop Lawrence Welk Show
This pull quote is a thing of truth & beauty:
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@James E Powell:
That’s right up there, too. As music journalist Matty Karas described it (according to Wiki), it is “a quintessential pop album that was also a perfect distillation of the anger and bitterness seething beneath the surface of Reagan-era America.”
No surprise the lyrics were overlooked by an empty-headed moron like Reagan
Another Scott
@L85NJGT: Ack! Paywall!!
Fortunately, there’s YouTube (3:48)
Cheers,
Scott.
L85NJGT
@Another Scott:
Shakes fist at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.
Maybe Joe got the funding to finally complete the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.
Kelly
Update on a classic video game…
https://twitter.com/Nivekian13/status/1424407105621184512
Kent
So Manchin’s houseboat is the new tire swing? Sigh….
Major Major Major Major
Oh god, Schumer is an American Pie guy? ??♂️
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Could be worse. Could be a MacArthur Park guy.
;)
Tehanu
Is this for real? Are we sure it’s not just some kind of media joke?
James E Powell
@NotMax:
Could be worse than that, it could be that Lee Greenwood song.
Morzer
The Man Who Would Be Chin…
geg6
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
No, with friends on their boat. We almost took our boat but theirs was slightly bigger and had more amenities. A 36 footer with two staterooms and two heads. A full kitchen and washer/dryer. It was fun.
lowtechcyclist
I’ll give Manchin points for being familiar with a song as recent as Nathaniel Rateliff’s “S.O.B.” I’m used to people of his generation not being familiar with any songs recorded after 1979.
lowtechcyclist
@NotMax:
Back to the shadows again!
Revrick
@Suzanne:
@dexwood: We used to have mini dachshunds. Dropped food seldom even made it to the floor
apocalipstick
@James E Powell: Another strong contender.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@CaseyL: all of them, katie!
justsomeguy
@Hunter Gathers:
Here is how Biden gets Sinema & Manchin to support huge infrastructure, voting rights/election security, and a huge Reconciliation bill.
Tell Sinema that in return for her vote, Biden will get her invited onto Manchins boat so that she will be one of the “cool kids”.
Tell Manchin that in return for his vote, Biden will keep Sinema away from Manchins boat.
Of course, it would only work once.
See, plenty of cause for optimism ;-)