Joe Manchin, a Touchy Guy, Needs to Release Biden
The Ragin Cajun James Carville is a Protector of Selfish White Men With Too Much Power
When I was Judith A. Herndon Fellow in the West Virginia Legislature a long time ago, James Manchin, uncle of Joe Manchin, was the Secretary of State. And they were both a delight to watch perform.
Joe, like West Virginia’s former powerful U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, is now enjoying outsized power in the U.S. Senate, delighting in disrupting President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, which is rather tame. But like his uncle James and tons of other politicians, it is ego that controls.
For months as a fellow for a state senator, a pleasant guy and true progressive, I got an up-close look at the state’s legislature in action. I spent more time in the senate chamber where Joe was new, a back-seater at the time. Joe was also much younger, and creepy. On more than one occasion he would rub up against me, grab my arm, pull me close, and talk about how powerful he was in the state. I’m a tall man, and on the third time he grabbed my arm to pull me close, I yanked it from him, and gave him a sharp knee to the groin, telling him never to touch me again. He couldn’t respond because he doubled over in pain. The senator I was a fellow for, told me it would be wise to not get near Joe again or report the incidents to Marshall University, where I was a journalism major.
Nevertheless I had already seen plenty of Joe and his uncle James in action. I took copious notes, a journal of my time there.
James Manchin, as treasury secretary, would make appearances often in both chambers, and was hard to ignore, a large man with a large head and taste for outlandishly foul clothing. Think used-car salesman suits with a fedora on top of a big, odd-looking head. Beyond James Manchin’s outlandish appearance, his utterances, actions, non-action, and ongoing theatrics would define him. A kind writer described James Manchin as a “Pleasant Parody of a Politician.”
My recollection is different. James Manchin was a carny barker not doing much good for West Virginians, he was entertaining and outlandish too often. Legislative committees, and other tentacles of the state government, produced work.
Yet, little progressive action ever came out of the legislature. As the state senator, I had the fellowship with, would explain, the Manchin family was a coal enterprise first.
The Charleston Gazette, where I would later intern, covered — under the leadership of Don Marsh — the coal industry’s ongoing efforts to scuttle and undermine coal unions and collective bargaining in the state. The Gazette was also devoted to covering the environmental and health damage the coal industry was doing to the state’s landscape, let alone its creeks, rivers, animals, and people. Under Marsh, the Gazette was onto the corruption of the Manchin family — its coal ties and profit-earnings from its coal interests.
James Manchin would resign as Treasury Secretary after financial boondoggles were exposed by reporters, but a gaggle of Manchins were still in power in the state government. Joe being the most powerful, with his sight on higher offices.
Joe Manchin is not much different from his uncle or the late-Robert Byrd. Joe is expert at posturing for his audiences in West Virginia and the national stage. But like the late-Sen. Byrd, a former grand wizard of the KKK, it is always about the senator, not the constituents. Byrd knew best for his constituents as does Manchin.
There is nothing redeeming about the Manchin family. Jacobin magazine, wrote “The Manchins are truly the worst family in America.”
And it is a selfish lot. Ayn Rand, author of a pamphlet, “The Virtue of Selfishness,” and Atlas Shrugged, the worst book ever written outside the Bible, would be proud.
For more about the Manchin family’s debauchery, see Jacobin’s article on Joe’s daughter, former Mylan CEO Heather Bresch, who lobbied to keep EpiPen costs sky-high.
But looking more closely at the details of her career, Bresch has had a remarkably horrible impact on society, even by the usual standards of American capitalists.
You can always tell something about politicians by the connections of their close family members, spouses, and friends, as we argued here two years ago. Such people influence the way they think — all things being equal, we’d much rather elect a politician married to a nurse or a teacher, for example, than to a fossil fuel executive. Of course, humans aren’t wholly responsible for their family members, thank goodness, and in not every case will a relative’s questionable line of work affect a politician’s capacity to govern sensibly.
It is not stunning that neoliberal founder James Carville is shilling for Manchin, urging West Virginians to keep supporting him and warning fellow national Democrats to leave Manchin alone.
The Ragin’ Cajun as Carville likes to call himself has always been a big fan of men who cannot keep their hands to themselves and who happen to be ruthless capitalists.
West Virginians have two rightwing U.S. senators, and they both need to retire. Joe needs to go first. He has enjoyed far too much time fucking with poor President Joe Biden. Good gracious, Biden needs to enjoy a bit of his presidency.
