Politico reports that Democratic senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who is retiring at the end of this session of Congress, is “sick and tired” of President Biden’s bad judicial nominees. In protest, he has adopted a new practice of voting against any judicial nominee of President Biden’s who doesn’t have the support of a single Republican senator. In Manchin’s words:
Just one Republican. That’s all I’m asking for. Give me something bipartisan. This is my own little filibuster. If they can’t get one Republican, I vote for none. I’ve told [Democrats] that. I said, “I’m sick and tired of it, I can’t take it anymore.”
And:
If they don’t have a Republican, I’m opposing. That’s my way of saying: “I’m leaving this place, I’ve tried everything I can. Don’t tell me you can’t get one.” If you’ve got a decent person you can at least get one. Just go ask Lisa [Murkowski], go ask Susan [Collins], even Lindsey [Graham].
Given that the Democrats have 51 seats in the Senate, Manchin’s new practice won’t itself lead to the defeat of any judicial nominees: If all other Democrats support a nominee and Manchin and all Republicans vote no, Vice President Harris will have the tie-breaking vote. But Manchin’s position threatens to doom the controversial Third Circuit nomination of Adeel Mangi, whom Democratic senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada is already opposing.
More broadly, Manchin’s position means that Republican senators Graham, Collins, and Murkowski need to be very careful not to toss their support to bad nominees. It’s much easier to do so when you figure that they will be confirmed anyway. That is no longer the case.
If Manchin had taken this position when it would really have mattered—during Biden’s first two years, when the Senate was divided 50-50—a dozen or so bad nominees would have been stopped.