Tancredo: Can Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema be Liberated?

By: Tom Tancredo

The day of my liberation came when, after months of warnings and threats from the leadership of my party, I was called into Majority Leader Tom Delay’s office for a “final reprimand.” The issue was my continuing criticism of him, the Speaker, and President Bush because of their refusal to do anything about border security and illegal immigration. With his finger in my face and steam coming out of his ears, Delay screamed out the most ominous threat he could muster:

“If you keep this public criticism up, you are going to ruin your career in this place!” 

It was all I could do to not laugh in his face.

“Tom,” I replied, “I don’t know how to break this to you but I don’t want a career in this place. I don’t even like this place.”

That was the moment of my liberation. From that day on, there was no more harassment, no more threats, and essentially no more communication with the leadership. 

Not much else changed, though. They had already stopped helping me with bills I introduced, already stopped all support for my campaigns and, Karl Rove had already famously told me “never to darken the doorstep of the White House” again. There was literally nothing left for them to either threaten me with or promise me; I was a “free agent.” 

Eventually, there were no more bridges left to burn and probably little more I could do for my district as a congressman, so I began planning my exit. We decided to go out with as much of a bang as we could muster, so, with the encouragement of what few friends I had left, Bay Buchanan and I planned to make a run for president my swan song. She had run her brother Pat’s campaigns and was a dynamo. True immigration reform would be my only issue, and I would try to force all other Republican candidates to address it. That was the plan we carried out.

I relate this story – and the following one – to bring to light what happens to you in Congress (Republican or Democrat) if you get too far out of step with your leadership. 

As Bush’s second-term campaign approached, Florida loomed large, as always – and given what had happened in 2000, the president wanted to ensure there were no more hanging chads or other such… irregularities. And so, a bill was proposed to appeal to that small segment of the retired population that had no prescription drug coverage. It was a lousy bill with huge costs, but the House leadership began a full-court press to get Republicans on board. When the bill reached the House floor, there were still too many Republican holdouts to get to the magic 218 number needed for passage. That’s when the arm twisting started. Calls came in from every cabinet member to the representatives in their respective states. Members who were sympathetic to the bill were assigned “buddy” duty to lobby holdout members of their delegation – no matter how long it took. 

And it took all night. Sometime in the early morning hours, Bush himself began calling holdouts. They got to 217, but it seemed they could not get that final vote. Then, about 6:30 am, the threat of removal from his committee chairmanship led a member to walk down to the Clerk and change his vote from no to aye. The hammer slammed down, and the bill passed. I was sick to my stomach. Those of us who had held out received a letter from Mike Pence that I have attached. 

I relate these two stories because I want you to try and understand what must be happening to Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. They are not just stopping a controversial bill with their refusal to vote to end the filibuster of HR1. They are literally the left’s last obstacle to imposing the “thorough transformation of America” articulated by Obama but begun by Lenin. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez and the “squad” are sharpening their claws and tongues already, and they will not let up. But know this: For every attack and personal insult directed at these two stalwarts, the attacks, the threats, the bullying, and the blackmail that happens out of camera range, out of hearing range, and out of sight behind the closed doors of the power-mad power brokers on Capitol Hill and in the White House are ten times worse.  

Perhaps it was as a result of that pressure that Senator Manchin introduced a substitute to HR1 that is definitely no better and arguably much worse. It won’t pass, and maybe it is, as a friend called it, “woke smoke” to get the lunatics – excuse me, “progressives” – off his back. I do not know the motivation for introducing such a bill, and I don’t know why the two of them are standing so strongly against the filibuster, that key element in a republic and unwelcome obstacle in a democracy. Are they driven by simple political calculus, or do they stand firmly on the shoulders of the Founders and their conviction that we must be a republic that endures and not, as John Adams warned, a democracy that destroys itself as all democracies do?

I am sure the Republicans have tried to give Manchin and Sinema cover and made it clear that a welcome mat (and lucrative committee chairmanships) would greet them should they change parties. Either way, I can assure you that they are already enduring a horrendous bludgeoning that will not stop – and if they win this round, it will start all over again next session and continue as long as the lunatics – excuse me, the Democrats – are in control. Prayers for Senators Manchin and Sinema and their families are certainly needed. The same goes for the Republic.

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