What Kind Of People Would Join The Trumpanzee Regime? Joe Manchin, The Democrats' Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

When Pelosi and Ben Gay Luján cluck to the media that they're proudly, defiantly recruiting and financing Blue Dogs, anti-Choice fanatics and "ex"-Republicans to run as congressional candidates, they're talking about political opportunists like Jim Justice and Joe Manchin, two arch-conservatives from West Virginia. As well as right-wing fake Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party like Charlie Crist (Blue Dog-FL), Tom O'Halleran (Blue Dog-AZ), Kyrsten Sinema, Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ), Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX), Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA), and candidates like Gil Cisneros and Brian Forde in Orange County and Joseph Kopser in Austin.

Friday night, media started breaking the story that Señor Trumpanzee is schlepping back from Bedminster to Kings Landing to a White House under renovation for a "special press conference." What's special about it is that it is meant to give the Senate Republicans the ability to throw 20 or so million Americans off healthcare by picking off one of the most Republican-like Senate Democrats, Joe Manchin, and replacing him with a Republican. It's not magic. The Rick Perry-bot replaces General Kelly as Homeland Security Chief, opening up the Department of Coal And Oil Bribes Energy, which West Virginia conservative Joe Manchin gets, allowing "ex"-Republican/ex-Democrat Jim Justice to replace with a Trumped-up zombie politician. Voilà!, McConnell has enough votes to pass Trumpcare. Looks like Schumer's lame idea about putting Manchin into the leadership team worked out just as well as anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together could have predicted.

If Manchin were offered and accepted the position, that would allow West Virginia’s Governor Jim Justice-- a newly minted Republican-- to appoint a GOP successor and bring the party a vote closer in the Senate to being able to repeal Obamacare. The idea is in the early stages of consideration, and it’s unclear whether it has support within the administration, according to the people, who described the conversations under condition of anonymity.

A spokesman for Manchin declined to say whether the senator would take the Energy secretary job-- currently held by former Texas Governor Rick Perry-- if offered.

“Senator Manchin has not had any recent conversations with the Administration about the Secretary of Energy position. He remains committed to serving the people of West Virginia,” said Jonathan Kott.

Manchin, who faces a tough re-election battle in 2018, was considered for the post after Trump won election in November. His nomination fell through in part because Trump wouldn’t assure him he could pick his own staff, according to two people familiar with the staff selections, who described them on condition of anonymity.

...Perry has not been a seamless fit with the Energy Department, where the two most recent secretaries had Ph.D.s in physics. Perry was an animal science major at Texas A&M, and he advocated abolishing the department during his own presidential bid. The Air Force veteran was initially under consideration to lead the Pentagon under Trump.

With an annual budget of about $30 billion, the Energy Department’s work ranges from safeguarding nuclear weapons to the research into carbon-capture technology and maintaining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Perry has expressed a deep interest in the nuclear security and intelligence aspects of the post, and has become a vocal advocate for the national laboratories and for U.S. energy exports.

The ultimate goal of such a Cabinet shift would be to jump-start Trump’s agenda in Congress, particularly repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

Yet to execute the idea and pass an Obamacare repeal, Republicans and the administration would have to pull off a highly choreographed series of events. Perry would have to agree to take another job, the Senate would have to confirm Manchin as Energy Secretary, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would then have to bring a repeal bill back up without losing any of the 49 Republican senators who voted for the so-called skinny repeal.

Some of those senators, however, like Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said they were only voting for the bill to bring it to negotiations with the House. Other Republicans, like Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, are working on a bipartisan fix.

Moreover, Manchin would face intense pressure from fellow Democrats not to leave the Senate and bear some personal responsibility for a repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Manchin has said in interviews that he warned Trump personally that people in his state who gained insurance under the law don’t know who gave it to them, but would surely know who took it away.

Earlier this month, Trump appeared at a political rally in Huntington, West Virginia, where Justice announced that he was changing parties from Democrat to Republican.

Manchin has sought to position himself as a political independent. In a recent interview with the Charleston Gazette-Mail that he won’t commit to Democratic policy positions just to win re-election.

“The bottom line is, if it doesn’t help West Virginia, it doesn’t make sense to me,” Manchin told the newspaper. “Just because there’s an election doesn’t mean I sign on or don’t sign on.”

The great Tom Lehrer, at 89, is retired now but this song seems as relevant today as it ever was, more so actually with Trumpy-the-Clown and his menagerie of misfits and trolls in the White House.