From the WaPo

You don’t keep getting elected as a Democrat in West Virginia — a state Donald Trump won by a 39-point margin in 2020 — unless you’re a pretty shrewd politician. So while liberals are mad at Sen. Joe Manchin III for what he did to limit the covid-19 relief bill that passed the Senate over the weekend, Manchin is playing a long game.

It’s one that’s very good for him, and might also be good for President Biden and the Democratic agenda. Even liberals might one day find themselves giving thanks for Manchin.

The strategy Manchin seems to be executing will certainly restrain liberal ambitions in ways that are good for him but not so good for the country. But it may also make the realization of much of the Democratic agenda possible, through the long-overdue reform of the filibuster.

Manchin, who is now by some measures the second-most-powerful person in Washington, became the key player in the brief drama around passage of the hugely popular relief bill. Showing his constituents that he is both conservative and effective, he engineered modifications to make both its stimulus checks and its extension of unemployment benefits less generous. His importance was so universally acknowledged that over the weekend he appeared on four Sunday shows

And while he has angrily insisted for months that he will never agree to do away with the filibuster (“What don’t you understand about ‘never’?” he recently shouted at reporters), he is now dropping hints that he is open to filibuster reform — which is necessary for almost any legislation at all to pass the Senate.

Here’s what he said on Meet the Press:

And now if you want to make it a little bit more painful, make him stand there and talk, I’m willing to look at any way we can. But I’m not willing to take away the involvement of the minority.

The reference is to the fact that filibustering a bill doesn’t actually require the minority to do anything, apart from sending an email announcing their intention to filibuster. One proposal for reform is to bring back the requirement that to filibuster the minority would have to keep talking uninterrupted; eventually they might tire themselves out and the bill in question could receive a vote.

So Manchin opened the door to reform. He still says he won’t eliminate the filibuster, but changing it is now a possibility. If you can do so in a way that gives the minority a chance to extend debate but ultimately allows the majority to prevail (there are a number of ways to do that) it would mean something like majority rule could come to this most undemocratic institution.

Time will tell if his actions are about Manchin or the Democratic Party.