Biden’s “Bipartisanship”

You gotta hand it to Da Prez. Biden came into office with an aggressive plan, and a message. He has largely followed the plan, and has been damn near monolithic on the messaging. And now he can sit back and reap the benefits of both of them when it matters the most.

From the get-go Biden has preached bipartisanship, and largely he has stayed the course. In giving the GOP multiple chances to participate in the massive Covid relief bill, he showed good faith. And for once the Democrats didn’t wimp out, loudly publicly calling out GOP  incumbents that voted against the bill, and then tried to take credit for the benefits to their constituents. The meaning was welcome and clear, If you want your cake for dessert, eat your damn Brussel sprouts at the dinner table. 

Biden also scored a relations coup, and put Mitch McConnell in a box. Rather than rush things, Biden gave Manchin’s Senate bipartisan negotiations start and sputter, and then hosted an Oval Office meeting with 5 Senators of each party, and proudly marched out the the microphones to announce an agreement had been reached. If it all falls apart now, it will be McConnell and the GOP that tank it. And that would be terrible for the GOP.

Because Biden has also been aggressively pursuing bipartisanship outside of the Beltway. Starting with the Covid relief bill, Biden has aggressively hit the road to pitch the benefits of the bill, even before all of the details have been worked out. And he hasn’t been shy about going into GOP strongholds to pitch it. As a result, he has GOP Governors and Mayors, and even state legislators doing his work for him, singing the praises of the benefits that the bills will bring to the state, and putting pressure on national GOP lawmakers.

And the best part of this is, it isn’t a one way street. Democratic voters and activists are also hearing every word that comes out of Biden’s mouth, and they’re loving it. Especially in the human infrastructure bill, there are wish list items in there that climate change and Medicare activists have been drooling over for years. Biden is expressing confidence that it’s all within reach, and smart enough to butt out and let his caucus figure out how to get it over the finish line. Hell, here in Vegas, we’re already seeing Super PAC ads urging people to call their representatives and Senators to pass the human infrastructure plan.

It seems to me that Biden has played an almost flawless hand against insane odds. And now he is at the cusp of getting it done. I have faith in the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Mainly because I think McConnell burned his last bridge with his caucus in asking them to vote down the 1/6 commission. These guys are up for tough reelections, and they’re going to follow their own best interests for once, and have something to bring home to their constituents.

Likewise, I am cautiously optimistic about the human infrastructure bill. Simply because, as I wrote earlier, the Budget Committees, the committees that will have to actually have to write the bills, both have members that span the spectrum of Democratic principles. And Sanders and Manchin talk to each other every week at Schumer’s Leadership meeting. My bet is that by the time Sanders has something ready for the floor, it’s already been “pre approved” by the House.

And I’ll close with a personal prediction. Right now the For The People Act is dead in the Senate due to Manchin’s slavish devotion to the filibuster. But Manchin has also expressed support for several portions, such as automatic voter registration, 30 days of mail in voting, 15 days of early in person voting, including Sundays, and making election day a national holiday. Watch for the Democrats to fold some or all of those into the human infrastructure bill. The Senate Parliamentarian will likely reject them as having no budgetary or debt ceiling impact. And Schumer will lay a motion on the floor, which only requires a simple majority for passage, to overrule the Parliamentarian. Harris breaks the tie on a straight party line vote, and the provisions stay in. This will allow Manchin to get through sections he supports without violating his beloved filibuster. Just something to stick a pin in.

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