Democrat Joe Manchin Defends Koch Brothers, Dings Reid

by JASmius

An intervention, perhaps?:

West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin has defended the conservative Koch brothers while apparently taking a swipe at Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for calling them "un-American."

On Fox & Friends Thursday, Manchin made it clear that he thinks people should back off attacking billionaire industrialists and philanthropists Charles and David Koch, who pay their taxes and provide jobs to Americans.

"You don't beat up people," said the senator. "I mean, I don't agree with their politics or philosophically, but, you know, they're Americans, they're paying their taxes."

He added, "They're not breaking the law. They're providing jobs."

Seeing as we don't have to bother entertaining the silly notion that this is just Joe Manchin offering his honest opinion with no calculation or machination lurking behind it, we can get right to reading between his ample lines.

1) It could be that other Senate Democrats are reaching the conclusion that Reid's obsession with the Koch brothers has long since passed its point of diminishing returns - if, indeed, it ever produced any "returns" to begin with in terms of rousing the dispirited Donk base - and has deputized Senator Manchin to obliquely deliver that message to Pencilneck through the media.  Of course, that media being Fox News won't exactly help in that regard, but it's doubtful any Obamedia outlet would have allowed Manchin on to deliver it at all, so those choices were likely decidedly limited.

2) It might also be that Senate Dems have the same concerns about Dirty Harry's having splinters in the windmills of his mind that we discussed here a while back, and this is a doubly oblique means of starting a literal intervention.  Or perhaps that combined with his latest familial corruption expose has raised his stink factor to a sufficient level of concern that they would, in other circumstances, simply remove him as Majority Leader in favor of Schumer or Durbin, but given what their circumstances actually are - a desperate uphill battle to retain Senate control - feel they can't afford to display that level of public disarray, and are thus having to walk a very thin tightrope over a mountain of eggshells while juggling two mutually exclusive political liabilities like running chainsaws.  Which is to say, Machin drew the short straw.

3) Another possibility is that Manchin is simply trying to steer Reid away from his relentless Koch-flogging before he can spoil that "punchbowl" before anybody else can more effectively "drink" from it:

Manchin's defense of the Kochs, which is likely to cause some consternation from Reid, came on the day it was revealed that a new book is due out next month attacking the brothers, called "Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America’s Most Powerful and Private Dynasty."

Written by liberal author Daniel Schulman, a senior editor at the Mother Jones website, the biography purportedly tells how the Kochs "devised an ambitious, decades-long strategy to catapult their Libertarian-tinged ideology upon the nation."

It's like in football if a team enjoys initial success with a particular running play - maybe a big touchdown run or two - at first, and decides to call that play exclusively.  Eventually - and probably sooner than later - the opposing defense will key on it and start stuffing it with regularity.  That's why offenses have playbooks with more than one play.

Of course, it won't matter all that much if multiple offensive players carry the ball in that same offensive play, but that minimal level of variation can't hurt.  Even if it will result in your original starter wondering around the sidelines muttering vacantly to himself.

Either way, I wouldn't expect Harry Reid's tenure atop the Senate Donk caucus to survive the year - and perhaps his Senate career, either.