First Congratulations on your daughter's engagement. Secondly, my only comment is some distress that Biden can talk tough with Putin about interfering with our election, while neither he or AG Garland (as you have been saying over the past few weeks), is taking an aggressive position, in either words or action, with the Republicans who are destroying our democracy and voting rights from within. Where is that tough talk?
As to Putin's shout-out, it's hard to believe that Republicans would take the bait, but then again a lot of them have not shown a high level of intelligence over the past few years. The one thing I would add--and it's hardly original with me--is that it's rich for Putin to criticize the US for putting down an insurrection when any dissent from his rule is suppressed brutally. (And kudos to Biden for warning the other guy about harming Navalny.)
The short of it is he's looking for 3 Republicans (probably retiring, Roy Blunt) who will join the other 6 + Pat Toomey (who he thinks would have voted for the Jan 6 commission if he had not missed the vote) to take the wind out of the liberal Democrats kill-the-filibuster sail and prove bipartisanship is still alive or he will support modifying the filibuster either by making it a talking filibuster or reducing the # of votes to end the filibuster:
“What I’m asking for, I need to go back, I need to find three more Republican, good Republican senators that will vote for the commission. So at least we can tamp down where people say, ‘Well, Republicans won’t even do the simple lift, common sense of basically voting to do a commission that was truly bipartisan.’ It just really emboldens the far left saying, ‘I told you, how’s that bipartisan working for you now, Joe?’”
“I looked back … when it went from 67 votes to 60 votes, and also what was happening, what made them think that it needed to change. So I’m open to looking at it, I’m just not open to getting rid of the filibuster, that’s all. . . .”
The other interesting thing to note is the forum in which Manchin is speaking: A group of major donors called No Labels that pushes millions of dollars into the pockets of politicians. You can definitely discern why Manchin does not support campaign financing reform from this article!
Excellent “concluding thoughts,” and congratulations on your daughter’s engagement!
First Congratulations on your daughter's engagement. Secondly, my only comment is some distress that Biden can talk tough with Putin about interfering with our election, while neither he or AG Garland (as you have been saying over the past few weeks), is taking an aggressive position, in either words or action, with the Republicans who are destroying our democracy and voting rights from within. Where is that tough talk?
Congratulations!
As to Putin's shout-out, it's hard to believe that Republicans would take the bait, but then again a lot of them have not shown a high level of intelligence over the past few years. The one thing I would add--and it's hardly original with me--is that it's rich for Putin to criticize the US for putting down an insurrection when any dissent from his rule is suppressed brutally. (And kudos to Biden for warning the other guy about harming Navalny.)
Robert, congratulations on your daughter's engagement. A wonderful new chapter in life full of joy and happiness.
If you want to understand where Joe Manchin is coming from, I suggest reading the following in The Intercept:
https://theintercept.com/2021/06/16/joe-manchin-leaked-billionaire-donors-no-labels/?utm_campaign=theintercept&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
The short of it is he's looking for 3 Republicans (probably retiring, Roy Blunt) who will join the other 6 + Pat Toomey (who he thinks would have voted for the Jan 6 commission if he had not missed the vote) to take the wind out of the liberal Democrats kill-the-filibuster sail and prove bipartisanship is still alive or he will support modifying the filibuster either by making it a talking filibuster or reducing the # of votes to end the filibuster:
“What I’m asking for, I need to go back, I need to find three more Republican, good Republican senators that will vote for the commission. So at least we can tamp down where people say, ‘Well, Republicans won’t even do the simple lift, common sense of basically voting to do a commission that was truly bipartisan.’ It just really emboldens the far left saying, ‘I told you, how’s that bipartisan working for you now, Joe?’”
“I looked back … when it went from 67 votes to 60 votes, and also what was happening, what made them think that it needed to change. So I’m open to looking at it, I’m just not open to getting rid of the filibuster, that’s all. . . .”
The other interesting thing to note is the forum in which Manchin is speaking: A group of major donors called No Labels that pushes millions of dollars into the pockets of politicians. You can definitely discern why Manchin does not support campaign financing reform from this article!