Why are Manchin and Sinema begging Republicans to vote for the 1/6 commission?

McConnell knows that any investigations will show the GOP as complicit. He's not going to let it happen.

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It was pretty pathetic seeing Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona issuing a joint statement, saying they “implore” their Republican colleagues in the Senate to vote for a bipartisan commission to investigate January 6th.

“We implore our Senate Republican colleagues to work with us to find a path forward on a commission to examine the events of January 6.”

You couldn’t help but wonder what planet they’ve been living on as democracy burns, as if people who are intent on destroying our country to protect themselves and gain authoritarian control are going to succumb to begging.

The Senate once again devolved into Kabuki theater as we learned from The New York Times how the two Democrats, “Behind the scenes…were working to tweak the legislation in hopes of attracting the 10 Republicans needed to advance it.”

They are “working with Senator Susan Collins” of Maine, the Times reported, to bring in the 10 Republicans. That means, in translation, Collins as usual is engaging in a stalling tactic, sent out by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who came out in opposition to the bill last week, to make sure to drag this out as GOP senators scramble over taking a vote that some of them don’t want to take.

But one good sign is this: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer isn’t having it. He scheduled the vote for this week, perhaps Thursday, and definitely before the Senate’s Memorial Day recess. That means Sinema and Manchin — and Collins and company — have a deadline by which to come up with their mythical 10 Republicans.

And that’s not going to happen. McConnell, as Senator Elizabeth Warren rightly points out, is reveling in having “veto over” anything Joe Biden and Democrats put forth. But the game is to make it look like there’s bipartisan action taking place — even though it always breaks down — and string Manchin and Sinema along. We’re seeing the game play out on the George Floyd police reform bill as well — which Biden set a deadline to be passed yesterday, on the anniversary of Floyd’s killing, but it missed it — and we’re seeing it on Biden’s infrastructure bill.

McConnell does seem, however, to be in a bit of a bind. If he were playing it more smartly he might allow the bipartisan commission on January 6th to get passed, as it has broad public support and will be the first big showdown regarding ending or reforming the filibuster, as there will be a lot of outrage if the bill is blocked.

And none us thought that showdown would come down to this bill, banking on voting rights or another important piece of legislation down the road that would cause a reckoning regarding the filibuster. But it underscores how much Donald Trump is directing all, and how the Big Lie will be exposed further by a commission and continue to implicate Republican House members and senators — something the GOP is determined to keep from happening.

So this vote adds yet another in which “bipartisan talks” collapse, and McConnell can’t afford too many of those, as pressure will further build on Manchin and Sinema from the base regarding the filibuster, and could break them.

Sinema is under intense pressure from Democratic activists in Arizona. Manchin has said, even as he expressed disappointment about Republicans blocking the commission, that he won’t end the filibuster over this vote. But he did tell Politico on Tuesday, regarding McConnell: “That is extremely frustrating and disturbing. I know he’s an institutionalist. I would like to think he loves this institution. There’s a time when you rise above. And I’m hoping this would be the time he would do that. What I’m hearing is, he hasn’t.”

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Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, Joe Manchin support creation of Jan. 6 commission

azcentral.comSens. Kyrsten Sinema, Joe Manchin support creation of Jan. 6 commissionThe call to Republicans by the centrist Democrats is a test of bipartisanship in the evenly divided chamber.

It’s of course laughable to say McConnell “loves the institution.” McConnell only loves power, full stop. Anything to further frustrate Manchin, however, isn’t bad. So, again, if it’s not this vote that will push him over it could be another.

And it gives Joe Biden and the Democrats more impetus to get infrastructure and perhaps even immigration reform done via budget reconciliation (51 votes), as the GOP further defines itself as obstructionist. It sets up further filibuster showdowns for Manchin and Sinema over much more important legislation. (I’ve thought the commission has always been risky, giving the GOP too much power, when Democrats in Congress and the Department of Justice can carry out much more thorough investigations.)

And the begging of GOP senators by Democrats Manchin and Sinema, as pathetic as it is, further reveals for the public the intransigence of the GOP. Schumer did the right thing, however, in not allowing the begging — and the Kabuki — to slow things down, thwarting McConnell, making them all put up or shut up this week.