Manchin sits with Republicans during State of the Union

[calimary]

22. THIS.

This is how you make him irrelevant. The "look at me!" reference farther upthread, I think, is spot-on. He gets to be a star, the center of attention, the one everybody's always talking about. And I think he likes that. I think he CRAVES that - probably more attention than he's ever gotten before in his whole life.

The feigned "bipartisanship" of that seating choice is bullshit, nicely pointed out upthread, too, that we certainly didn't see any Republicans going over to sit with Democrats to demonstrate "bipartisanship," did we? That would ONLY have worked IF he'd made a deal with some Republican that they were both gonna demonstrate bipartisanship by sitting with the other team on the opposing side. That's the ONLY way it would have worked. Instead, it was a one-way gesture that I think fell flat. NOBODY got the point. The point I think a lot of people DID get was "fraternizing with the enemy now, dude?" Looked like a traitor to me. He's picked a side, and it's not mine.

That tells me all I need - or want - to know.