The apocryphal Book of Ecclesiasticus cautions one to “never trust thine enemy: for like as iron rusteth, so is his wickedness.” West Virginia senator Joe Manchin might want to revisit this timeless passage.
As a condition for the recalcitrant moderate’s co-sponsorship of the Inflation Reduction Act boondoggle, Democrats enticed him with a promise to enact energy-permitting reform, a top priority for the Senator from the coal-rich Mountain State, by streamlining the environmental-review process, among other things.
Now, House progressives are reneging on that promise, making a concerted effort to stop Democratic leadership from fulfilling their end of the bargain. This effort comes as Manchin finds himself among the motley crew of the least popular politicians in America. One can assume that this has something to do with his support for the signature Democratic legislation in an R+22 state.
Liberals have been lambasting Manchin since Democrats retook the Senate majority in 2020 for his refusal to shut up and get in line. Ironically, he’s probably the only Democrat who could get elected in a state that President Trump won for a second time in 2020 by a gargantuan margin of 38.9 percentage points. And after he forsook his reputation as a maverick to toe the party line, his fellow Democrats seem intent on throwing him under the bus.
Manchin shouldn’t have been so naive. The old aphorism that “you’re only as good as your word” has long been dead on the Hill, and his detractors have been transparent in their hatred of him for months. Next time, when his intraparty political rivals pronounce their intentions, he ought to listen.