What is Joe Manchin's Game?

 

A basic rule of thumb with politicians is that when they start blabbering from a soap box about ‘principles’, you can bet that they’re basically talking through their anus.

‘Follow the money!’ should be the SOP whenever a pol starts soap-boxing. Case in point is Joe Manchin, who has been stamping like a child on the soap box labeled ‘filibuster’. He’s gone so far as to state, "I'm not willing to destroy our government," by ending the filibuster. 

WTF? As if the filibuster was the lynch-pin by which the entirety of our Constitutional Republic hinged.

So, what is Joe doing? Playing political games, of course, as the Palmer Report has explained. Yes, Joe is playing a power game by holding off from voting with the other Dem Senators. But what is he actually hoping to gain from such faux recalcitrance? It must be for more than some marker for a favor to be done at a later date.

Let’s be clear; curtailing the filibuster will in no way end the government. The filibuster was not present at the beginning of the Republic and has gone through several variations since. It’s also clear that Joe Manchin is not trying to preserve and protect the cinematic heroism portrayed in ‘Mr Smith Goes to Washington’. 

It must be admitted that the filibuster is a functional tool. Yet, it is a tool that has been over-used inappropriately; akin to the maxim that to a hammer every problem looks like a nail. In this case, Mitch McConnell – the self-styled ‘Grim Reaper’ -  has used the hammer to bash in the brains of bills presented in the Senate.

So, what is Joe Manchin’s game? He’s certainly playing hard-ball politics but for what end? What personal gain does Manchin see as the outcome for his soap-boxing?

Whatever  Joe's angle might be, it will become known sooner or later. As adroit Joe Biden is at playing the senatorial game, I'd bet on sooner, rather than later. I'd also wager that Joe Manchin will rue the day he chose to play hard-ball with Biden.