John Cole

There are two easy ways to fail as a Democratic politician. The first is to listen to the bobbleheads in the media, and the second is to listen to the online left on twitter and elsewhere. The Biden campaign famously ignored both of them, including yours truly, who consistently lobbied for him to not run. So when you see the Politico writing that Biden and Harris fucked up by having Harris speak to West Virginians, or you see the dumbest man in American politics call it a mistake, ignore it.

There is a reason VP Harris spoke directly to West Virginians, as I noted the other day, and here you have the fruits of that labor:

“Well, first and foremost, I wish we’d all come together,” Justice responded. “But, on the flip side of that, we’ve got a lot of people in West Virginia that are still struggling with paying their power bill because they got laid off because this pandemic just swept their job away from them.”

Justice continued: “What we need to do is we need to understand that trying to be, per se, fiscally responsible at this point in time, with what we’ve got going on in this country, if we actually throw away some money right now, so what?”

The governor added that “we have really got to move and get people taken care of and get people back on balance. I want to work with the Biden administration, just like I worked with the Trump administration, and I want us to move forward.

That was Republican governor Jim Justice, when asked by the state’s biggest political radio guy, Hoppy Kerchival, whether or not the COVID stimulus needs to be bipartisan. The only people who give a fuck about Joe Manchin and whether or not this was a mistake by the Biden team are Joe Manchin and the beltway morons. Governor Justice and the people don’t give a fuck about process or procedure or whose feelings were hurt, they want results. They don’t give a shit about bipartisanship or Rand Paul’s feels about the budget, they want to feed the kids and keep the power on and make sure grams doesn’t die from the ‘rona.

And for those of you who are unaware how much of a big deal this is, Jim Justice was a Republicans who switched to Democrat and was Manchin’s hand picked successor to run, blunting a challenge from the left with Democrats Booth Goodwin and Jeff Kessler, eventually defeating Republican Bill Cole (no relation) in the general election. So this is Manchin’s boy ignoring him.

And you know what? Pelosi and Schumer just did this:

As President Joe Biden attempts to pass his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal with Republican support, Senate Democrats are working to move ahead without the GOP using an obscure, but powerful, procedural tool known as reconciliation.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Monday that they have filed a joint budget resolution — the first step to potentially enacting a budget reconciliation bill.

“It makes no sense to pinch pennies when so many Americans are suffering,” Schumer said in floor remarks Monday. “The risk of doing too little is far greater than the risk of doing too much.”

Pelosi and Schumer would not do this if they did not have the votes, so what you can bank on right now is that Manchin is one of those 51 votes in the Senate. So no, Biden and Harris didn’t fuck up by going directly to the people of WV and Arizona. They got Manchin and Sinema in line.

I Think That Biden Team Might Know What They Are DoingPost + Comments (60)

Oh, you sweet, innocent child:

After airing Thursday evening, WSAZ’s exclusive interview with Vice President Kamala Harris drew national attention.

Friday morning, the White House answered questions about the vice president’s appearance on two stations — one in Arizona, the other on WSAZ.

The interview even took U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., by surprise. Friday morning, Manchin visited one of West Virginia’s COVID-19 vaccination clinics. His visit comes just one day after the vice president spoke with WSAZ’s Amanda Barren about the proposed “American Rescue Plan” (ARP).

“I saw [the interview], I couldn’t believe it. No one called me [about it],” Manchin said. “We’re going to try to find a bipartisan pathway forward, but we need to work together. That’s not a way of working together.”

During a press briefing at the White House, Press Secretary Jen Psaki answered questions around a number of topics, including the vice president’s appearance on two local television stations Thursday.

“We want to make the case to the American people across the country (…) This is a way to do just that,” Psaki said.

I know I have spent a lot of time defending Joe, but part of that defense has always been he’s not perfect. And while he’s smart enough to figure out how to stay alive politically in West Virginia, he’s not always the sharpest tack.

To be clear, Joe, this was not an accident or oversight. This is a professional comms team and professional legislative staff and Joe Biden was doing this shit while you were THINKING about running for the House of Delegates in WV. What they did here was politely put you on notice.

Yes, you have spent two weeks hearing about how you are now the most powerful man in Washington, and you may very well have come to believe your own bullshit, but here’s the drill. Yes, you’re on the bus for this road trip, but Joe is driving and Kamala is shotgun, the hotels and route have been picked and booked, and you’re not the one setting the itinerary. Sure, Joe and Kamala will listen to your opinion on which fast food joint y’all stop at for lunch, but you’re not the head dick in charge.

That’s what happened last night, Sen. Manchin. On top of that, the WH gets good press for reaching out to often ignored areas, all while applying a gentle nudge to you.

That’s how this game is played, and at the age of 73, you should have figured that out by now.

This Fucking Guy- Joe Manchin EditionPost + Comments (228)

Worth your time.

Again, there are a few things you need to know about Manchin to understand him.

1.) He honestly, truly, 100% believes that the key to anything is negotiation. He came up in the good ole boy/girl system and totally thinks that there is nothing that can not be accomplished after you build the right relationships.

2.) He will always have as his primary focus getting money and jobs to WV.

3.) He knows that WV is a small state and that things like the filibuster give us outsized political power, and he is not going to give it up.

He can be infuriating, but this is who he is. At least he is open about it.

Although I wish they would stop calling us (WV) a coal state. We’re not. Coal accounts for less than 2% of state employment. We’re a tourism state, if anything.

Interesting Profile on ManchinPost + Comments (76)