OPINION:
On Nov. 3, 2020, Republicans lost the presidency, but their gains in the House of Representatives pumped the brakes on a congressional lurch to the left. However, across the Capitol in the U.S. Senate, the result was a slight Republican majority on Election Day until the final results — including a run-off election in Georgia — revealed that Democrats would take control of the deliberative body.
How did that happen? Aided by the tie-breaking vote from Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Democrats were able to pass an organizing resolution cementing their majority of the Senate along with setting committee membership and other agreements between the parties governing its business.
Normally, the resolution is routine and approved by a unanimous consent agreement. But in 2021, Republicans were able to delay handing control of the Senate to Democrats until they received assurance from Democrat Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona that they would not repeal the filibuster rule that enables the minority party to slow legislation without first attaining a 60-vote supermajority.
Republicans were helped greatly by Mr. Manchin. That is unsurprising. The day after President Biden was inaugurated, Mr. Manchin became the most powerful man in America, even eclipsing the new president. Mr. Manchin — a moderate Democrat from a state that twice overwhelmingly voted for former President Donald Trump — doesn’t suffer fools lightly. And foolish far-left liberals in Congress give Mr. Manchin ample opportunities to register the limits of what he’ll suffer.
Mr. Manchin is no liberal. He’s a political moderate who is mindful of West Virginians who share his impatience with socialist Democrats who want to change America into something it was never designed to be, nor what the majority of voters want. Mr. Manchin’s politics are more akin to former Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan than former President Barack Obama and Mr. Biden.
After all, West Virginians of the past adored both Kennedy and Reagan. Since Mr. Manchin entered politics in 1982, his state has voted for Republican presidential candidates seven times, only opting for Democrats on three occasions. And since 2000, only Republicans have prevailed there. Mr. Manchin knows that record, having been elected as West Virginia’s governor from 2005 to 2010.
Mr. Manchin is very popular in West Virginia. Despite their recent preference to place Republicans in the White House and Republican Shelley Moore Capito to serve as one of their two senators, West Virginians have kept their senior senator, even when Mr. Manchin was challenged by Republicans in 2012 and 2018. This suggests that while West Virginians are disinclined to change their conservative views, they are open to changing their votes.
In truth, Mr. Manchin hasn’t been very comfortable in the Democratic party. In 2012, he refused to endorse Mr. Obama, having found his leadership lacking. In 2014 he declared to The New York Times that his relationship with Mr. Obama was “fairly nonexistent.” That discomfort continues, particularly with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
On Oct. 7, 2021, when Mr. Schumer mocked Republicans for an agreement to extend the debt limit, Mr. Manchin — sitting behind him — was visibly disgusted, stood up and walked out of the Senate chamber. He really does not suffer fools well.
Since he was elected to the Senate, Mr. Manchin has been a thorn in the side of Democrats on liberal legislation, particularly when it comes to finances. Mr. Manchin is most assuredly a fiscal conservative and social moderate, more in line with swing-vote Republican senators than Democrats he serves with who slobber obsequiously over the progressives in Congress.
Which brings us to the present.
Having finally announced that he wouldn’t support Mr. Biden’s $4.7 trillion spending boondoggle, Mr. Machin has come under withering attacks from his own party. One wonders why he is still a Democrat and has not chosen to caucus as an independent with the Republicans.
Should he do so, that would allow Sen. Mitch McConnell to offer a new organizing resolution. And that process could begin with a simple resolution nominating Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley to be president pro tempore of the Senate. That proposal would likely be filibustered by Democrats, which would be sweet irony since they want to end the filibuster rule.
Nevertheless, in the meantime, Mr. McConnell would be the de facto Senate majority leader to prevent Mr. Biden and his progressive acolytes from upending the republic.
Closing the Manchin deal might require his continuance as a Senate committee chairman along with some modifications to Senate rules to be more accommodating in getting legislation to the floor without killing the filibuster. That said, Mr. Manchin may well be willing to cast his vote in another presidential election for his friend from Iowa. Merry Christmas and happy new year, Mr. Schumer.
• L. Scott Lingamfelter is a retired U.S. Army Colonel, a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates (2002-2018) and author of “Desert Redleg: Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War.” You can read his weekly blog update at www.copybookwarrior.com.
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