What exactly would you say you do here? It’s the classic line from the film Office Space. That line should be directed at Joe Biden because the man is just a waste of space at this point. The only successful part of his trip to the Hill was that he didn’t trip going up the steps. Biden made one last-ditch effort to get support to tweak the filibuster rules to ram through the Democrat’s shoddy elections bill. It’s not about the integrity of our elections. The bill federalizes the races and makes sure the tilt is always to the Left. It’s a ‘Democrats can only win’ elections bill. Period. For weeks, both Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) were quite adamant that they were not keen on nuking the filibuster for this bill. Manchin did his usual no, but I’ll hear out the arguments bit. Sinema was a clear ‘hell no.’ And that didn’t change after today. In fact, both had ice in their veins after Biden’s visit. They’re not budging. Sinema took a machete to the plan in a floor speech yesterday, with Manchin once again delivering a kill shot from the tall grass (via Axios):
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) reiterated his stance against reforming the filibuster in a statement Thursday, saying, "I cannot support such a perilous course of action."
Driving the news: President Biden earlier in the day attended the Senate Democratic caucus lunch to make a case for reforming the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation.
The backdrop: The House of Representatives earlier Thursday passed a voting rights bill that combines the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Amendment Act.
[…]
What they're saying: "I will not vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster," Manchin said.
"The filibuster plays an important role in protecting our democracy from the transitory passions of the majority and respecting the input of the minority in the Senate," he added.
The best part is that Biden’s visit made things worse. Manchin and Sinema doubled down on their filibuster positions. And they weren’t the only senators who were uneasy about this move.
Replies