So here\u2019s an old tale from the British Isles. Viking raiders landed in Scotland in 867 A.D., and were headed south. Saint Ebba was the Mother Superior of the convent at Coldingham, and was desperately worried that the Vikings would \u201cdefile\u201d her nuns when they arrived. So, she urged them to cut their noses and upper lips, so that the Vikings wouldn\u2019t find them attractive, and wouldn’t take their virginity. It worked; the Vikings found the disfigured nuns disgusting. So instead of any defiling, they trapped them all in the convent, and burnt the building, and them, to the ground. (I’m hoping getting her nuns immolated wasn’t how Ebba earned her sainthood, but I bet it was).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So that horrible tale is how we got the expression that my English mother often used: \u201cDon\u2019t cut off your nose to spite your face\u201d. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell must not have had an English mother. Last week, he found the perfect way to \u201ccut off his nose\u201d, and, like the tragic nuns of Coldingham, he managed to burn his whole Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sequence of events went like this. Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made a deal with the House Progressives back in October. The Progressives agreed to vote for the Biden infrastructure plan. In return Schumer and the Senate Democrats agreed to pass the Progressive supported Build-Back-Better plan by \u201cbudget reconciliation\u201d. That allows the fifty Democrats in the Senate and the Vice President to bypass the inevitable Republican filibuster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The House Progressives voted, and the infrastructure bill became law. But when Build-Back-Better reached the Senate, Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia balked and refused to vote for it. Since the Democrats have exactly fifty votes and depend on every Democrat to pass legislation, Manchin\u2019s refusal meant that Build-Back-Better was dead. The House Progressives, got left holding \u201cthe bag\u201d. (So that\u2019s another expression from England \u2013 when a bunch of thieves stole things and got caught \u2013 there was always one in possession of the stolen stuff \u2013 left \u201cholding the bag\u201d. That was the one the went to jail or the gallows.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Progressives were, to use a more modern expression, \u201csalty\u201d, but still continued to support the rest of the Democratic agenda.\u00a0\u00a0Their noses \u201cremained intact\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0(\u201cSalty\u201d is a US expression, supposedly from the 1920\u2019s referring to sailors with hot tempers who become \u201cunexpectedly enraged\u201d. They worked in the sea, therefore they were “salty”).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Schumer, Manchin and Biden continued to negotiate to find some way to pass parts of Build-Back-Better, even if Manchin couldn\u2019t agree to the whole package. Several times in the past few months they\u2019ve been close to a deal, but Manchin always \u201ctorpedoed\u201d it in the end. Democrats all over the country began to look at Manchin as the biggest block to the Democratic agenda, though there were fifty Republicans who also served that purpose. But somehow Manchin always was the one \u201cthrowing a wrench in the works\u201d. (I figure torpedoes and wrenches are pretty self-explanatory). <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n That all came to a head a few weeks ago.\u00a0\u00a0Biden publicly rebuked Manchin, but Schumer remained quiet, still trying to get something done.\u00a0 Then Schumer and Manchin had a public rupture, each angrily telling the press their side of the story.\u00a0\u00a0It seemed, this time for sure, all the pieces of Build-Back-Better were done for, at least until after the November elections.\u00a0\u00a0That put a black cloud over the entire Democratic Congressional body.\u00a0Historically, the Party that wins the White House loses ground in the Congress two years later.\u00a0\u00a0With the Senate tied, and the House narrowly Democratic by five votes, any losses would mean Republicans take control.\u00a0\u00a0 No Build-Back-Better, No possibility of a Democratic majority, at least in the House. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Democrats desperately needed some legislative \u201cwins\u201d to campaign on.\u00a0\u00a0But Manchin seemed entrenched in his opposition to any Build-Back-Better proposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to solidify Manchin\u2019s intransigence,\u00a0\u00a0McConnell made it clear that Senate Republicans wouldn\u2019t support anything, even bills they themselves wanted to pass, if Schumer tried to pass any Build-Back-Better proposals by budget reconciliation.\u00a0\u00a0So Manchin and Schumer went silent.\u00a0\u00a0The Senate passed the Pact Act, a bill for US veterans who were victims of the military \u201cburn pits\u201d in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it went to the House for approval.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Schumer then proposed the \u201cChips Act\u201d, giving companies incentives to build computer chips in the United States.\u00a0\u00a0It was a \u201cno-brainer\u201d bill for both parties.\u00a0\u00a0Democrats got jobs in the United States, Republicans got money to corporations.\u00a0\u00a0Everyone was happy.\u00a0\u00a0They could go out and tell their constituents they \u201chelped\u201d. (No Brainer – a problem or situation that does not require any thought or use of brain matter to come to the correct conclusion<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then Manchin and Schumer pulled an \u201cupset\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0The day the Chips Act passed the Senate, they reached an agreement for a $700 billion \u201cbaby\u201d Build-Back-Better.\u00a0\u00a0It was written as a finance bill, making it eligible for the fifty vote budget reconciliation process, and was exactly what McConnell wanted to prevent.\u00a0\u00a0But Chips was already going to the House for confirmation.\u00a0\u00a0This time McConnell was left \u201cholding the bag\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n So it was McConnell\u2019s turn to be \u201csalty\u201d. Now McConnell is known as a brilliant tactician, and no one; not Schumer, not Biden, not Manchin expected McConnell to \u201ccut off his nose\u201d. But that\u2019s what he did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The House made minor changes in the Pact Act, requiring the Senate to reconfirm its passage. McConnell had forty-one Republicans vote against it, filibustering its approval. He got Republicans to vote against American veterans who were disabled because they were in contact with poisonous fumes during war. To be clear: the Leader of the Republican Party led his Senators to vote against American warfighters, as those veterans, dying of cancer, stood on the Capitol steps. McConnell didn’t just slit a nostril, he removed the entire orifice.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHolding the Bag<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Wrench in the Works<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
No Brainer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Who\u2019s Salty Now<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Burn It Down<\/h3>\n\n\n\n