Joe Manchin’s West Virginia values: ‘No’ means ‘no’ | Washington Examiner

Yet since January of this year, thousands of stories have been written by hundreds of reporters asking, when Manchin says no to repealing filibuster, if that no is a hard no or soft no, or if no really meant never. No one seems to remember this is the same guy who had a pithy answer in 2017 about his own reelection chances when critics wanted him to commit to Democratic policy points.

I don t give a s***, you understand? I just don t give a s***, Manchin said , to the Charleston Gazette-Mail about being pressured into taking positions he disagrees with just to win an election. Don t care if I get elected, don t care if I get defeated, how about that? If they think because I m up for election, that I can be wrangled into voting for s*** that I don t like and can t explain, they re all crazy.

The unwillingness to accept no in Washington is one of the many differences between people who live and work there and the people here in West Virginia. When someone says he isn’t doing something, it means he won’t do it.

In Washington, even if politicians or lobbyists tell you they aren t doing something, it remains likely they can be persuaded otherwise by day’s end.

Since last weekend, when it finally sunk in that Manchin would not nuke the filibuster, he has been called a racist, a Jim Crow enabler, a white supremacist (by a reporter for the Atlantic), blamed for untold suffering and death on Twitter, and had his intellect questioned by one of the top Democratic spokeswomen in the Senate.

Even President Joe Biden gave him shade. But Manchin still hasn t changed his mind.

via www.washingtonexaminer.com

Sounds like my kinda guy.