Leave Joe Manchin ALONE!

[Celerity]

58. Sander's never came out and said nope, no way, like Manchin did. Manchin blocked Neera Tanden for

OMB head and forced Biden to pull the plug on her nomination when he went public, on the record, as a no vote for her nomination.

Sen. Manchin opposes Neera Tanden as Biden's budget chief, imperiling nomination

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/joe-manchin-comes-out-against-neera-tanden-biden-s-omb-n1258387

White House pulls nomination of embattled budget chief pick Neera Tanden

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/white-house-pulls-nomination-embattled-budget-chief-pick-neera-tanden-n1258738

Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., clashed with Tanden, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton, during his two presidential runs. He did not take a position on her nomination.

Sanders overall has been VASTLY more supportive of Biden and his agenda overall than Manchin and Sinema have. Sanders has not blocked any bill from passing, has not gutted any bill.

Sanders voted against Vilsack (he and others wanted Marcia Fudge there) in February for Secretary of Agriculture, at the urging of multiple progressive (concerned about corporate consolidation of farming that Vilsack did little to stop his first go-round as AgSec) and black farmers/civil rights groups who vehemently opposed his track record, especially over the Shirley Sherrod case. (Vilsack was easily confirmed, 92-7 and afterward, Sanders said "I think he'll be fine, but not as strong as I would like." )

His other No vote, from late spring, was against the Endless Frontier Act, when Maria Cantwell tossed in an amendment that was a $10 billion giveaway to Bezos via Blue Origin and then actively worked to scupper his amendment that would have pulled it out. The Act past easily, 68-32.

Sanders materially blocked nothing via either protest vote.

Unlike Manchin and Sinema, Sanders (and the vast majority of other Dems) has been tirelessly trying to get as much as is possible of Biden's agenda passed intact.


It is pure sophistry to try and posit some sort of material equivalence between Manchin and Sanders in terms of deleterious actual outcomes when it comes to Biden's agenda. Manchin (and Sinema as well) have done a shedload more actual damage.