Manchin is the Ben Nelson of Current Year + 6. For those who don’t know or remember, Ben Nelson was the “60th vote” in the Senate in 2009 and 2010. 60 Democrats in the Senate effectively gave them a supermajority that did not require a filibuster but Ben, a conservative Democrat, often dithered about. What he was after was lots of pork barrel spending and carve outs for Nebraska. Sometimes he’d “take a stand” about dumb shit but in the end, he made sure he got his pork and his corporate buddies (insurance in particular) always won out so they could have cloture.
Ben met his end when he was up for re-election in 2012. His antics pissed off a lot of Democrats and Independents (what few there were in Nebraska lol) so rather than lose to corporate teabagger Deb Fischer, he decided not to run for another term. He went back to the insurance industry after 2012.
A mini history lesson and proving history repeats itself if not rhymes. Manchin isn’t baste or any shit like that, he just realizes he’s in the catbird seat and demands pork barrel spending and his corporate cronies are taken care of. However it usually doesn’t work out well for them in the long term. It’s very interesting how many parallels there are with Manchin and Nelson.