It looks like Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin are going to be thorns in the side of Chuck Schumer on the issue of getting rid of the filibuster:
DAILY CALLER – Democratic Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema will not support eliminating the filibuster and her mind cannot be changed, according to a spokesperson.
As Democrats now control the House, Senate and White House, there has been discussion about possibly voting to eliminate the filibuster. Abolishing the filibuster would allow any legislation to pass with a simple majority. With Sinema coming out against abolishing the filibuster, it makes it highly unlikely it could happen, as Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has also said he will not vote to do so.
“Kyrsten is against eliminating the filibuster, and she is not open to changing her mind about eliminating the filibuster,” a spokesperson for Sinema told the Washington Post on Monday.
Sinema sounds adamant that she won’t change her mind, which in this case is a good thing. Once we lose the filibuster, we’ve lost the Senate completely.
There’s no doubt that both she and Manchin, both red state Democrats, are under tremendous pressure from their colleagues. They are effectively taking away big time leverage from Schumer, as he and McConnell work on their agreements to ‘share’ the Senate. I expect Democrats are already talking about ‘primarying’ both of them.