The Democratic majority isn the US Senate is one…..
Vice President Kamala Harris…
BUT?
Oh, yea there IS a BUT?
West Virginia Democratic Senator Joseph Manchin….
The Democratic pivot man on Energy in the Senate and the party majority in general in that legislative body….
Now the fate of the most ambitious climate agenda ever proposed by an American president rests in his hands.
Sen. Joe Manchin III, who is set to become chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is a conservative Democrat from one of the reddest states in the country. In a Senate split 50-50, Manchin is also a crucial swing vote on contentious legislation, defining the limits of what President Biden and the Democrats can accomplish. Over the weekend, he led a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers in talks with the White House over its proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirusrelief package..
…
In a bitterly divided Washington, Joe Manchin is a rare breed. A habitual aisle-crosser, he maintains strong friendships with Republican colleagues like Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), the Energy Committee’s outgoing chair. He attacked Barack Obama’s environmental policies and voted to confirm more of Donald Trump’s Cabinet appointees than any other Democrat.
He claims to hate everything about Washington, sleeping on a houseboat named “Almost Heaven” rather than getting an apartment in the city.
But in 2018, when Manchin announced he was fed up with the Senate, party leaders talked him into running for another term, figuring he was probably the only Democrat in West Virginia who would win….
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“Everything he’s done throughout his career [is] to make sure there’s some level of economic opportunity back home,” O’Mara said. “If you understand that about him, everything else makes sense.”….
image…CNN
DINO…Democrat in name only…
But the fact is?
Schumer, Democrats and even Biden NEEDS the West Virginia Senator….
And he chairs the Senate Energy committee….
Climate change stuff for this Congress (US SENATE) HAVE TO get past him….
Whose in charge?
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) criticized attempts to eliminate the filibuster and the use of the budget reconciliation process to pass legislation that bypasses the need of an opposing party’s vote in an evenly split chamber.
“We should all be alarmed at how the budget reconciliation process is being used by both parties to stifle debate around the major issues facing our country today,” Manchin wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post.
“Senate Democrats must avoid the temptation to abandon our Republican colleagues on important national issues. Republicans, however, have a responsibility to stop saying no, and participate in finding real compromise with Democrats,” Manchin wrote….
More…
You originally suggested Biden would get things done by working with centrist Democrats and moderate Republicans?
Is that Biden comment for me?