Joe Manchin's latest scheme

Senator Joe Manchin, D-Joe Manchin, has a very poor chance of re-election next year as West Virginia’s Republican Governor Jim Justice wants the job.

Justice is a billionaire willing to spend what he needs to in the campaign.

Manchin is a multi-millionaire willing to spend whatever someone gives him in the campaign. He tarnished his credentials among Democrats by giving them a hard time in Biden’s first couple of years in office. Oh sure, eventually he voted for the New Green Deal — its official name is Inflation Reduction Act — but he annoyed the ultra-extremists left-wing of the one-wing party.

Plus, Democrats really don’t like West Virginia. It’s old, white and poor. It is annoying. Remember the Princess and the Pea? She couldn’t sleep because there was a pea underneath the 19 mattresses on which she slept. Democrats are all Princesses now and you had better not annoy them

Manchin wants money to run for the Senate next year so he is threatening to run for president next year as a No Labels party candidate. The narrative from the DNC to the DC press is this will re-elect President Donald John Trump.

Jeff Bezos’s Washington Post said, “No Labels group raises alarms with third-party presidential preparations.”

After a bunch of gibberish about Ralph Nader costing Al Gore the presidency — Al Gore cost him the presidency — the Bezos Post quoted Gore’s running mate Joe Lieberman about forcing Joe Biden to have a Republican senator replace the eloquent and competent Kamala Harris as vice president.

Lieberman said, “You know, it might be that we will take our common-sense, moderate, independent platform to him and the Republican candidate and see which one of them is willing to commit to it. And that could lead to, in my opinion, a No Labels endorsement.”

Sure Biden will do that. And we might be ice-skating outdoors in Las Vegas this summer.

Down in Paragraph 12, the Bezos Post finally gets to what Democrats fear: “Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), who has not declared whether he will run for re-election next year, and former Maryland governor Larry Hogan (R) are also supporters of the effort, and both said they have not ruled out participating in a No Labels presidential ticket, if it happens.”

Manchin said, “If enough Americans believe there is an option and the option is a threat to the extreme left and extreme right, it will be the greatest contribution to democracy, I believe.”

The story then said, “When asked whether he would participate in a No Labels ticket, he said, ‘I don’t rule myself in and I don’t rule myself out.’”

Now I have followed Senator Manchin and his career for, oh, 30 years. While I once liked him, I learned he is as crooked as Route 47 and everything he says is a lie with a little truth sprinkled on top. Some conservatives like him because unlike most Democrats, he is not crazy.

Not being crazy, Manchin is no more running for president than he is keeping his word. But No Labels is rattling cages, which I like.

The Bezos Post said, “The group has already gained ballot access in Arizona, Colorado, Alaska and Oregon, with signature-gathering efforts underway in many other states.”

In his story on the group, Judd Legum ran a slide from No Party which shows it can win 279 Electoral College votes. I flipped it to put it in perspective.

Anytime you believe we will elect a third-party president, you need to put the bong down.

Third parties do serve a purpose to push policy in their direction. H. Ross Perot forced Washington to balance the budget back in the 1990s. The closest anyone came to winning was Teddy Roosevelt who drew more Electoral College votes than President Taft did in 1912.

In this case, the purpose is to raise money for Manchin’s Senate campaign. Florida and Texas are no more going third party than California and New York are. But the southern states were colored yellow because the target is Democrat donors who know their states won’t flip but believe red states will.

For his part, Manchin is playing the role right. He went on Meet the Press and did a fine job as the reluctant candidate. Maybe he’ll get an Emmy.

And he told CNN, “We cannot basically have a divided country, and we cannot withstand that. There’s a movement going on that people want, to bring the extremes back to the sensible and reasonable, responsible middle.”

As I said, he tells lies with sprinkles of the truth. There is no middle. In the 21st century, the middle disappeared as the media waged wars against the truth, which pushed the middle in one direction or the other, depending on whether they believe the media or not.

Legum demonized No Lapels — excuse me, No Labels — as people who did not follow the official one-party line.

He wrote, “No Labels publicly opposed Biden’s Build Back Better legislation, the signature legislative proposal of the Biden administration. The package, which originally included efforts to combat climate change, increase the corporate tax rate, expand the Child Tax Credit, and improve healthcare, was copiously cut down from Biden’s original proposal, largely due to opposition from Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ).”

Oh no! The Princesses felt the Pea of Compromise. Where is that picture of AOC crying at the border like she was Iron Eyes Cody?

No Labels helps Manchin because it increases the odds that the DNC will pay him off not to run just as it did Buttigieg, Sanders and Pocahontas in 2020. Plus it gives the political press something to whine about.

The deadline for Democrat donors is next January 15, the final day to petition for public office in West Virginia’s 2024 election. I believe the donors will give him enough money to run a credible race for the Senate because after FJB, I do not believe Americans will elect another President Joe for a long, long time.