re: #357 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Can’t Biden promise him some sort of juicy defense contract or something?

From what I’ve read, the administration and Dem colleagues have been trying to do what they can to actually get him to budge. Let him draw up a compromise, threaten and bully pulpit him, offer him juicy pork to get in his good graces, etc. The problem is that by Manchin’s own admission, he doesn’t want to see anything done. He’s happy where things are now and refuses to budge, and his status as vote #49/50 means he absolutely knows he represents the tipping point. He sees himself as having all the leverage so what’s the point in not lording it over the Dem establishment because it gives him basically all the power. He is a negotiation brick wall because he doesn’t actually seem to want anything.