Joe Manchin Is a Walking, Talking Advertisement for the Real Consequences of Citizens United

We’ve long known what Senator Joe Manchin is, and now we don’t even have to haggle about the price. From the New Republic:

He exhorted CERAWeek attendees to provide leadership in Washington and look for a “return on investment” from politicians who solicit campaign donations from them, or “mother’s milk,” as he called it. “There’s not one of us,” he said, now apparently referring to his fellow politicians, “that doesn’t come to you, ‘Will you help me, can you help me get the finances I need right now?’ … You all have been very successful. You make great decisions, and you’ve done very well in life for yourself and your family and those around you. Use the same type of approach, when you have politicians that come and ask for support, that you do when you make a financial decision for yourself and your family: You want a return on investment.”

That’s the good senator, speaking to a conference of energy executives. The remarks come hard after Manchin helped doom the nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin to become the top enforcement executive at the Federal Reserve. As far as Manchin was concerned, Raskin’s primary disqualification was her belief in the obvious fact that the climate crisis is going to have inevitable and deleterious consequences for the nation’s economy. This self-evident truth gave the miseries to the people of whom Manchin is happy to admit he is a sublet.

“We haven’t been good at … you know, I say, ‘we,’” Manchin said, stumbling a bit, seeming to count himself among the assembled fossil fuel executives. “The energy—the leadership of energy in our country. We haven’t told our story. There’s an old story in politics: Tell your story before someone tells one on you. It’s hard to play defense. It’s much easier to run an offensive play, then make your adjustments.”

Don’t worry, Senator. The oceans are telling “your” story clearly enough, and so are the thirsty rivers and the combustible forests and the increasing numbers of climate refugees. Certainly, we can all agree that if Miami is underwater, that will take quite a bite out of Florida’s tourist economy.

What should not be lost in Manchin’s stunning recommendation that members of Congress should all be considered big old ‘ho’s for campaign cash is the tacit condemnation of how the Supreme Court managed to legalize influence peddling way back in the Before Times, when Justice Anthony Kennedy penned those immortal words in his opinion in Citizens United v. FEC:

We now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption…

The fact that speakers [i.e., donors] may have influence over or access to elected officials does not mean that these officials are corrupt….The appearance of influence or access, furthermore, will not cause the electorate to lose faith in our democracy.

Joe Manchin has declared himself proudly to be a walking, talking dissent with regard to this part of the opinion. In so many ways, there no longer is a quiet part. Everything is said out loud. And lost to memory is the truth once spoken by the late Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Son, if you can't take their money, drink their whiskey, and then vote against 'em, you don't deserve to be here.

Och, thim was the days, as Mr. Dooley told us.

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