There’s such a thing as a left handed compliment and I think that now we’ve seen the birth of a left handed good news announcement. Kind of like if your spouse says, “Sweetie, I’m not filing for divorce — yet.” Oh, thank you for these glad tidings. Now I feel so reassured. Joe Manchin says he has no intention of leaving the Democratic party. For now. The Hill:
“I’ll look at all of these things. I’ve always looked all these things but I have no intention of doing anything right now,” he told reporters Monday.
“Whether I do something later, I can’t tell you what the future’s going to bring. I can only tell you where I am and my mindset” now, he said.
Manchin, who is up for reelection in 2024, added, “I want to work with Kyrsten everyday, the same as I have before.”
He later said “I tremendously respect her decision and wish her the best.”
Manchin teamed up with Sinema to defeat an effort by Democratic colleagues to weaken the Senate’s filibuster rule.
He has not yet made a decision about running for fourth term in a state that former President Trump won with 68.6 percent of the vote.
Que sera sera. We’ll see if Manchin runs. We’ll see if he runs as a Democrat. At least he did say, back when all the heat over the Build Back Better plan was pouring out of the kitchen, that if he did leave the Democratic party that he would caucus with the Democrats.
Maybe that’s still on the table. If so, things are about as good as they’re going to get.
If I recall, he won his special election (to replace Robert Byrd who had died) with less than 55% although there were three candidates. In 2012 I (I lived in WV at the time) held my nose and voted for him. He won with 61% of the vote, in no small part because in that racist, overly white state he refused to endorse Obama. But in 2018 he only got 53%. He’s gone come 2024. Toast. Even if Jim Justice doesn’t run for the seat there are other Republicans who can and will beat his ass. He once claimed (when pressed during a debate) he didn’t care if he lost (total bullshit of course) that he didn’t care. But he’s an attention whore, corrupt to the bone (as is his family) and though he’s enirched himself via his shady dealings the stature of Senator in a state where there’s so much corruption there are plenty of other targets for any ambitious (for political office) prosecutors helps shield him. Of course if he retires (and he’s 75 now) he wouldn’t be an inviting target anyway.
But he’s a corrupt sumbitch. And an asshole. I keep saying he can semi-retire and pull in bucks lobbying if he wants/needs to and leave WV behind. It’s not like he’s well-liked there. But he’ll get his ass handed to him. And he’s got as much chance of winning a GOP primary there as I do. That’s if I moved back! He’s toast and he knows it. The only question that matters is can he collect more filthy lucre for his retirement by remaining a Democrat and his position as Chair of the Energy Committee or leaving the Party? The GOP would love to have him switch sides but if he did Schumer could have him removed from that committee entirely and that would make him not worth much to his private paymasters. McConnell might leave him in place in a deal to control the Senate IF he can convince Sinema to go along but that’s an awful lot of gambling. I’m guessing Manchin will huff and puff and piss in the soup but in the end will not at all gracefully retire, holding off on the announcement as long as he can. Or, if he feels he can earn enough bribes by staying and getting his ass kicked he actually won’t care much about going out a loser.
Pretty much my take on Manchin and so what when it comes to him? He’s who Sinema thought she could be and failed miserably at.
Him and his “yacht” and his Maserati can all go floating into Chesapeake Bay. Or down the Ohio.
Manchin will make a last ditch effort to stay in office the same way that silly twat from AZ did. He has no chance of winning running as a democrat but what he obviously hasn’t twigged onto yet is the fact he will not win his next election regardless of what he runs as. Were he to run under the “I’m a corrupt asshole” ticket, while being honest, he will not win. He’s out and good riddance. Of course the problem is in WV just like it will be in AZ is that these seats will be handed to the ‘pubes on a silver platter.
Well, he’s probably toast if he does switch to the GOP and then tries to run for reelection. Parker Griffith, formerly a US Representative (AL-5), had been a Democrat when elected to the office, switched to the GOP in 2009 (just 11 months into his term) and ran for reelection in 2010 as a newly-minted Republican.
He lost in the primary even after having been assured by the State’s GOP that they’d back him the whole way. The Party barely acknowledged him as they worked to help Mo Brooks (hmm–that name sounds awfully familiar) win the primary with a solid 51% of the vote (there was a third candidate in the primary who took 16%).
Manchin’s odds of being reelected are slim-to-none, no matter his party affiliation. He *might* win a Democratic primary but not seeing a GOP primary win, much less the general election.