You know, for the most part, up until now, it’s been kind of easy to write off the shenanigans of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. Hell, he was just being Manchin. Manchin has always been something of a strange duck, but he was Manchin, and was almost never in the position of holding any actual influence over events. But what’s going on now defies political logic and common sense.
I’ve said it before, congress is the best part time job in the world, with insane bennies. And once you’re in, you’re basically bulletproof. The retention rate for congress is 94.3%. As a result, politicians have a great degree of latitude in their conduct. As a result, the popular axiom is that politicians hold a finger up into the wind to see which way it’s blowing, and then run to the front to show that they’re leading the way.
But that’s not what Joe Manchin is doing right now. And he should be susceptible to that. Manchin won reelection in 2018, a Democratic wave year, with no presidential candidates on the ballot by only 3 points. Trump won West Virginia in 2020 by almost 40 points, and Manchin is back on the ballot in 2024, when there will be a GOP Presidential candidate on the ballot. So it’s easy to say that he’s pandering to his home state GOP constituents by playing hardball against a progressive agenda.
But that can’t be the case, for one simple reason. Because Manchin isn’t just bucking his constituents in his positions, he’s bucking them hard! Rachel Maddow showed West Virginia polling tonight that showed that Manchin is flouting the sentiment of his own constituents. When it comes to the filibuster, which Manchin opposes, there is a 64% approval rating in West Virginia to reform or eliminate the filibuster, including a plurality of Republicans. And when it comes to the For The People Act, which again Manchin opposes, it holds a whopping 72% approval rating, including a majority of Republican voters. And while Manchin is currently mired with a 30% popularity in his own state, a majority of West Virginia voters say it would make them more likely to vote for Manchin in 2024 if he votes to pass the For The People Act.
When you look at this polling, Manchin’s public response to the Democratic agenda is not only incomprehensible, it is self destructive. Manchin is no dummy, he got reelected in a solidly red state. But he is going to require GOP voter support to get reelected in 2024, and his stance is flying in the face of either plurality or majority GOP support in in state polling.
Manchin’s stance makes absolutely no common or political sense, he is bucking his own constituents. This can lead me to only two possible conclusions. First, Manchin has looked at his internal West Virginia polling, and since he won’t cross the aisle to become a Republican, he has decided to burn the house to the ground. The other is that Manchin thinks that somehow or other he can leverage his position to gain greater influence within the Democratic party. I can’t for the life of me figure out what that is. But all I know is that the current scenario makes no sense at all. Don’t touch that dial.
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Manchin’s daughter is Heather Bresch, the CEO of the drug company, Mylan. In 2016, Mylan, under Bresch’s direction, increased the cost of the EpiPen by more than 460%, from $100 for a pack of two, to $600. This was a clear case of price-gouging.
But Bresch was never prosecuted for it. The general belief is that Manchin did a deal with Trump’s DoJ to protect his daughter in return for him voting with the GOP when they required it. McConnell is calling in the debt and Manchin is paying.
The former guy’s administration was more corrupt than a week-old dead whale.
Here’s a helpful timeline of Heather Bresch’s career:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/24/how-a-senators-daughter-became-ceo-of-the-company-at-the-center-of-the-epipen-controversy/
I’m intrigued by this possibility, though far from convinced. Manchin voted against Neera Tanden to lead the OMB, and it was rumored that this was because Tanden had criticized his daughter Heather Bresch for massively raising the price of EpiPen when she was CEO of Mylan, the manufacturer. But what Tanden criticized (in a tweet) was a pay raise Bresch received. This was cited in a Newsweek article, 2/24/2021. Since the Republicans also voted against Tanden, allegedly for other reasons as well, she did not get the post.
https://www.newsweek.com/neera-tanden-criticized-joe-manchin-daughter-heather-bresch-1571531
But the DOJ & SEC did investigate the company and they paid a $30 million settlement in 2019. But this was far less than the $416 mill settlement they announced in 2016.
In August 2016, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, as Ranking Member of the Antitrust Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing on EpiPen price gauging. She also called on the FTC to investigate the price increases. Her own daughter used EpiPen for her severe allergies.
Manchin responded to the pressure by criticizing “his daughter’s use of an inversion to renounce Mylan’s corporate citizenship, saying that such tax dodging should be illegal. He has not, however, made any public statement about EpiPens since the scandal came to light, and his office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Intercept.” (David Dayen, “EpiPen Uproar Highlights Company’s Family Ties to Congress,” Aug.24, 2016.)
Bresch had been CEO since January 2012, so she was very much involved in all of this.
https://www.alamy.com/rep-elijah-cummings-d-md-holds-up-an-epipen-as-he-questions-mylan-incs-ceo-heather-bresch-during-a-house-oversight-and-government-reform-committee-hearing-on-capitol-hill-in-washington-dc-september-21-2016-the-committee-is-investigating-the-sky-rocketing-price-of-the-life-saving-childrens-allergy-medicine-photo-by-mike-theilerupi-image258557483.html
Then perhaps Manchin is taking his revenge on congressional Democrats for investigating his daughter.
No, it’s way worse than that. See my comment June 8 at 3:30 pm.
Is it ever possible that the actions of two long-time adults are independent. Manchin’s actions may be one thing, and Bresch’s actions another? I agree with your reluctance to latch onto an get-go assumption that Bresch is the motivation for Manchin’s actions.
OK, but something really IS missing here. And it’s not about Bresch, it’s this:
The website that has been following the story of Manchin and the Koch bros. for quite a while, etc., is
exposedbycmd.org
Check it out. Especially the stories “Right-Wing Groups Unite in Campaign Against Democracy” and “The Koch Coup: Charles Koch’s Political Machine Bankrolled Senators Who Will Attempt to Steal Election for Trump Tomorrow” … dated … January 5th 2021.
Here’s another website. In relation to Trumpism and January 6, Koch Industries has been flying under the radar too long. We need to end that.
Here’s another poll that shows similar results for the whole country:
https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2021/1/22/majority-support-hr1-democracy-reforms
Michelle, that is a very interesting “general belief,” but it seems to be just a rumor or a suspicion. I admit, Manchin’s behavior is consistent with somebody having leverage over him, because it doesn’t make sense on its own. But if there is evidence for it, then whoever has that evidence – and you would think Biden’s DOJ would be on to this — would have even more leverage over him, because making a deal like that is highly corrupt on all sides.
That’s all general beliefs are. They’re never based on any hard and fast evidence.
Manchin’s behavior is consistent with a sort of idealism that believes that there is any good faith left among Republicans. I can understand it because until Trump I thought so as well. Over at Daily Kos, I always objected to their broad brush constant denigration of anyone just because there was an R after their name. I expect that from the view of most Zoomers, I was a pretty slow to get to the place of wholesale condemnation of anyone who is a Republican NOW, and it is with much sadness that I have drawn the conclusion that the GOP is beyond redemption. Manchin may well be even slower than me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etSd4nE0xnE Even if he is a realist about the GOP, I am not sure that the GOP descent intlo authoritarianism is a reason to pass HR 1 if Manchjin is correct that reauthorization of The Voting Rights Act and passage of the John Lewis Act will accomplish the same purpose while avoiding HR1’s flaws. And do Dems really want to bequeath a filibuster-free Senate to the GOP when the electoral cycle returns the majority to them? There is a genuine conundrum here, and ad hominem of Joe Manchin is a deflection, not a solution.
Whoa!
https://www.rawstory.com/2016/08/epipen-ceo-awarded-mba-with-grades-pulled-out-of-thin-air-because-of-her-powerful-connections/
More on Manchin’s daughter:
https://www.businessinsider.com/mylan-ceo-heather-bresch-west-virginia-university-mba-scandal-2016-8
A minor point about your polling numbers, Murf: We’re still a good 3 1/2 years out from Manchin’s next election cycle. Poll numbers can swing dramatically within a single month just prior to an election (not to mention the “I’m telling the poller what I think he wants to hear instead of my real opinion” aspect that seems to be increasingly the norm over the past couple of years) not to mention over the course of 3+ years.
You wrote “a plurality of Republican voters” but there’s a “plurality” and a “plurality.” If you’re looking at the polls and you’ve results showing “a plurality of Republicans support filibuster reform/elimination,” which of the following “plurality” results do you like more? A plurality of 45-44 or 48-44? The former is almost certainly going to be within the margin of error so the support is weak while the latter might fall within the margin of error (though not likely) so support is no better than fair (you’ll still have a sizable percentage–9 in the first set, 8 in the second–of people who can easily shatter that “support”).
The same thing about the “For the People Act” numbers. Is the “majority of Republican voters” a sizable majority (55%+) or razor-thin (50-54%)?
And, finally, that “majority of voters” saying they’d be “more likely” to vote for Manchin in 2024 if he votes for the “For the People Act” is pretty much a “meh” polling question since his election in 2012 was a bit of a fluke. Remember: He ran in 2012 without endorsing his own party’s incumbent President. In that election, 660,000 people voted in the Senate race and Manchin received just under 400,000 votes while 670,000 people voted in the Presidential race and Romney received more than 417,000 votes (roughly 10,000 more votes cast in the Presidential race but Romney outperformed Manchin by some 17,000 votes). Manchin’s main opponent, John Raese, received just under 241,000 votes (the Mountain Party–the state’s Green Party affiliate–pulled in 19,000 votes in the Senate race; it only got 4000 votes in the Presidential race).
But, move forward to 2018 and the numbers are far more distressing. True–there wasn’t a presidential race to attract the voters but that makes Manchin’s win all the more precarious. With only 586,000 votes cast (roughly 84,000 fewer than the 2012 race with a Presidential contest at stake), Manchin only got 290,000 while his GOP opponent (current state AG Patrick Morrisey) got 271,000 and a Libertarian candidate got 24,000. Manchin lost 110,000 votes (well more than the decrease in overall cast votes) while the GOPer added 30,000 votes (despite the change in third parties, the third party share increased by 5000 votes).
Manchin is toast no matter what he does and no matter what *current* poll numbers on any subject may say. Again: WE’RE STILL 3 1/2 YEARS AWAY FROM MANCHIN’S NEXT RACE.
Then there’s this tweet (and quite a few others saying the same thing):
“It’s stunning really. On October 1 2018, Trump basically says in public that he’s blackmailing a Democratic Senator. And on October 5th and 6th Manchin is the sole Democrat who votes with Republicans to end debate, and to confirm Kavanaugh.”
While both sentences separately may be facts, together they may be imply a not-a-fact. That is the sort of “correlative” “facts” that the right wing builds their propaganda on. That is the sort of speculation that comprises their “evidence” for the Big Lie.
Or maybe there is a third choice. Maybe he is taking a principled stand. To those who say he has not coherently explained his stand, I agree. He says that HR1 confers unfair electoral advantage upon Dems, but in his recent oped he does not explain how it does so. This Bulwark writer implies the same thing when he says “HR 1 was designed very specifically to bring the coalitions that make up a majority of the country together. ” https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/p/joe-manchin-just-killed-hr-1-how It sounds like the bill was designed to give each component of the coalition something to like when it should be focused on fair, secure elections.
Or… Manchin is representing his donors, not his constituents.
Follow the money…
So there are at least four choices.
This is no principled stand. Nor is it naivete. Hoe is beholden to a few billionaires and he is not only willing to sabotage Biden for them, he also is willing to betray the makority of his constituents who are sorely in need of the jobs the infrastructure plan would provide and the right to vote that the voting rights act would protect. He has had plenty of time to see that bipartisanship is a dirty word to the right and they will never kow-tow to anyone but the Toad McConnell as long as he survives. Manchin is also a political spoiler at heart. Like too many politicians ie thinks he is in the catbird seat and will use it for all it is worth. He , like too most pols cares for nothing more than to keep his “career” as a leech intact.
Manchin is acting like a spoiled child and a stupid one at that. Apparently Trumpty Dumpty is not only narcissist in politics. Does Manchin honestly think this asinine behavior will get him re-elected? There are, I’m sure, several little Trumpty wannabes waiting for Manchin’s re-election attempt and W.V. has become a red state. Manchin cannot move any further right without outright becoming a G.Q.P. member…and espousing their idiot beliefs. He stands no chance to be re-elected. Why he’s doing the scorched earth thing is moronic behavior on such a level it is astounding.