Democratic Senator Joe Manchin says he's undecided between Obama and Romney

By Richard K. Barry

Joe Manchin, Democratic Senator from West Virginia, has locked horns with President Obama frequently. I get the fact that he has to maintain a respectful distance from the President in order to have any chance at re-election in his home state. He can do that on any number of issues, but when it comes to musing about voting for the Republican presidential nominee, that has to cross the line.

I understand that there are a lot of very conservative Democrats. They have a special name, Blue Dogs. There even used to be some liberal Republicans. For a while we called them things like Rockefeller Republicans, which meant they were fiscally conservative, and socially progressive. Of course, the GOP has purged their ranks of anyone who looks like that by now.

And I also understand that the Democrats want to hold onto the Senate in 2012 and have to put up with some shit in their ranks to try to make that happen. But actually saying, as a sitting Democratic Senator, that you could vote for the Republican nominee strikes me as too much.

Phil Ochs, at the height of the civil rights movement, had a song with a line, "Mississippi, find yourself another country to be part of." Well, Senator Manchin, maybe you should find yourself another party to be part of.

Either political parties mean something or they don't. That ought to be non-negotiable.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)