Steve Clemons has a write-up about his discussion with Manchin:
The other evening, I spent some time discussing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell with Senator Joe Manchin and his wife. Democratic super donor Connie Milstein did the same.
While these kinds of conversations are privileged, I will share one comment the Senator, who was extremely open and not defensive at all in the discussion, made to me which is consistent with some of his other public comments.
Senator Manchin said that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was complicated for him and said “there were a lot of military in my state.”
As I told the Senator, I was a gay man who grew up on US military bases and had a father who served in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations — which in my dad’s time of service regularly sought out, spied on and court martialed gay members of the uniformed services. Fortunately, times have changed — and so have attitudes in military families, even those from small towns in West Virginia or in places like Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
***Please reconsider, speak to the military in your state, read the report the Pentagon assembled, listen to the Republican Secretary of Defense as well as to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and ask whether you are going to put West Virginia on the crest of history’s wave or put it behind progress.
If Steve is asking him to reconsider, then pretty clearly his off the record remarks indicate he is going to vote against. Am I missing something here? Thes “on the record” and “off the record” shenanigans are just silly.
chopper
more proof that obama’s a failure.
General Stuck
I believe that’s code for a lot of retired military, who also happen to be bigots and homophobes, and I’m not sure yet if that will hurt me in my next election.
Understandable for souless calculating politicians just called up from the minors for “the show”
The Dangerman
Fixed.
chopper
“and i was all, ‘this is hard.'”.
Davis X. Machina
Joe “Nighthorse” Manchin? Zell Manchin?
This mook bears watching. I don’t think he’ll leave the Senate a Democrat.
John - A Motley Moose
What prevents him from voting for cloture and then voting against the bill? Has anyone asked him that?
kdaug
Wait, let me get this straight – Senator Man-Chin is worried about his “complicated” relationship with the military retirees in his state?
This shit just writes itself, no?
lol
Like I said before, he’ll be vote #60 if the bill needs it, but if it’s going to fail regardless, he won’t vote for it, and if it’ll pass regardless, he won’t vote for it.
If he was straight-up against it, he would’ve said that already. The ambiguity screams “I’m waiting to see which way the wind blows”.
MAJeff
Does anyone else get the sense that Manchin hates us gays but sort of realizes that this isn’t a wholly acceptable position for a Dem and is therefore reaching for ANYTHING that’ll draw attention away from the fact that he’s little more than a bigot?
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
You want weird:
Kent Conrad voted for the DADT repeal last week, now he will probably vote against the stand alone bill tomorrow.
He was for it before he was against it.
I wonder what excuse he’ll come with for flip flopping.
NO GayTM for you!
Nate
Lots of military in West Virgina, eh? He means the state with one National Guard Facility and a Coast Guard Operations Center?
And yet this problem doesn’t seen to affect the resolve of the Democratic Senators from California (Camp Pendleton, Naval Base San Diego, et al) North Carolina (Fort Bragg, Camp LeJuene), New Jersey (Fort Dix), Virginia (Quantico, Pentagon), Colorado (USAFA), etc etc etc.
Not meant to belittle the many West Virginians who serve, but blaming “a lot of military” is a cop out. Not that that’s a surprise at all.
MAJeff
@Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century):
I live in North Dakota. Kent Conrad is, quite simply, worthless…on pretty much every issue. The only semi-valuable thing about him is the D for procedural votes. Utterly worthless.
General Stuck
@Nate:
WV has a large number of seniors per capita, though Cole can correct me if that’s wrong. And among them, likely large numbers of veterans and retired military.
jnfr
@John – A Motley Moose:
This. His vote on cloture is all that matters, not his vote on the bill.
Chris
Can we please, pretty please have a Senate Democratic caucus that doesn’t hemorrhage votes on *cloture*? Nobody’s asking Manchin to vote in favor of gays in the military; we’re just asking him to let us have a fucking vote on it, instead of helping Republicans kill it.
Bonus request: can someone explain to Manchin this will not, in fact, make him gay? (Unlike, say, blowing Mitch McConnell or Lindsey Graham)
AAA Bonds
Look, way off topic, but what if you discovered a redaction in a newer version of a Wikileaks cable that removed a phrase in an earlier mirror that you think might be of significance?
As in, they redacted a bigger chunk on a second pass, but the first one’s still floating around out there, and you can link to both of them and display the difference in the redaction and make an educated guess about what’s being blacked out? And it might be a news story?
What would you do?
General Stuck
@Chris:
No, democrats are democrats, and in their natural habitat, are about as faithful as rabbits in the briarpatch. Such behavior would be considered unnormal.
MMM
What happened to our Senator that carried around a copy of the Constitution? I liked that guy.
robertdsc-PowerBook
What a bitch.
Punchy
Wait……..Clemons is gay? Wha? Really? Or did I read that wrong?
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
@Chris: speaking of gay republicans, how come nobody has outed Lindsay and McConnell?
General Stuck
@MMM:
He’s playing checkers with Abe/
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
@Punchy: you didn’t know that?
better take your gaydar into the shop
S. cerevisiae
“how shall we fuck off, oh Lord?”
suzanne
What a fucking weasel. And he’s still better than both of my Senators. GOD.
I’m not sure if I pimped “Disciples” yet. This is a movie about three gay ex-Mormons directed by a longtime friend of mine who’s an aspiring (good) journalist. I know he’s love any feedback anyone has to offer.
Punchy
@Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century): How doeth one utilize a gaydar w/r/t a blog? His writing doesn’t ooze gay. He doesn’t pine for nites with Sully. He appears to be tall. Had no idea.
If Liebs pulls this off, mad props to the crazy fuck.
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
@Punchy: if you’ve ever seen him on tee vee, you’ll notice that he blinks in morse code.
Anya
Senator Joe Manchin is going to be worse than Lieberman, Landrieu, Conrad and Nelson put together. So far, he is nothing but a showboating asshole. Why didn’t he let the cute Senator finish Byrd’s term?
arguingwithsignposts
Hello, you fucking idiot! what are you doing, and you call yourself a fucking journalist? Godamn muthafuckin bullshit.
Art
I remember when folks used to respect a certain seat in the Senate held by the elected representative from West Virginia. Now they see our representative as a weasel.
Thanks, Joe.
FlipYrWhig
Manchin is going to run for president some day. He’s got the stank all over him, like Evan Bayh.
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
@FlipYrWhig:
Of what country?
FlipYrWhig
@Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century): Dumbfuckistan.
HiMom
Optimistic take: he’s just covering his ass AND testing the waters by leaking a non-commital position to a journalist, it’s nothing unusual.
Hell, it may be a hint that he’ll vote for repeal, but that he needs to keep his bona fides with the “values voters” by making a big show of spending 40 days and 40 nights in the desert first, consulting with the warriors
Wow that sounds dirty