Culturally, WV should be most blood-red Republican state in the country at every level of elected government.

Government subsidy programs and the image of the Republicans being the party of the mine owners, 100 years ago, is the only reason it isn't.

Manchin is as leftist as any other Dem in Congress, but his party overlords have always allowed him to posture and "vote his conscience" because they know how precarious he'd otherwise be in WV... but only when they knew/know they've got the votes locked on an issue to allow for him to play to his constituency.

This is no different. He's still in their pocket.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
If he was really serious he would have changed to the Republican Party to actually make a statement.

Becoming an independent changes nothing.

That's exactly what I was thinking.

quote:

Originally posted by DennisM:

Manchin is as leftist as any other Dem in Congress, but his party overlords have always allowed him to posture....
This is no different. He's still in their pocket.

Actually Joe is fairly conservative and pro business, but he does cater to labor as well. Word around here is when Obama became president the previous justice department had been investigating Joe, from back when he was Governor, and was about to come down on him. Obama and Holder shut the investigation down and leveraged Joe to vote along the party line on a couple key pieces such as Obamacare.