{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.manchin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=0e68930e-7913-4d16-bc9c-7fb586178a48", "Party lines invisible to Sen. Manchin of West Virginia | Pittsburgh Tribune-Review", "2013-11-17", "2013", "2013-11", "Democrat", "House", "WV", "Joe Manchin", "M001183", "www.manchin.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "November 17, 2013\n\t\t\t Party lines invisible to Sen. Manchin of West Virginia | Pittsburgh Tribune-Review \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWASHINGTON \u2014 Joe Manchin didn't set out to become a Senate power broker when he arrived in Washington in 2010.\r\nYet he is suddenly that.\r\nPeople outside his home state of West Virginia are talking about the Democrat who doesn't follow party lines, and his ability to get colleagues to sign on to legislation, including a bill that likely pressured the White House to change its response to the Affordable Care Act.\r\n\u201cI don't have all of the ideas, but I have a few,\u201d Manchin, 66, told the Tribune-Review. \u201cI am not always right, but I am not always wrong, either. I think with that approach, I can fix things.\u201d\r\nBowing to criticism from millions of Americans who received cancellation notices for individual insurance policies since the law went online in October, President Obama on Thursday said consumers can keep plans that don't meet requirements for one more year.\r\nHis proposed fix \u2014 to delay requiring that insurers end policies that don't meet minimum coverage standards \u2014 is not enough, Manchin said.\r\nHe will keep pushing legislation he co-sponsored with Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., to reinstate any canceled policies.\r\n\u201cOur fix is permanent; the president's is temporary,\u201d Manchin said.\r\n\u2018A VERY LIKABLE GUY'\r\nIt's not the first time the plain-speaking former governor emerged in an unlikely Senate leadership role.\r\nIn April, his national standing soared when he forged a compromise bill with Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Lehigh County to expand background checks for gun purchases to online sales. The bill did not pass, but Manchin \u2014 who famously shot a hole through Obama's cap-and-trade bill in a TV campaign ad \u2014 gained notice.\r\nIn July, the Senate passed his bipartisan student loan bill, which cut rates for the year and based them on Treasury bonds instead of a fixed number, despite pushback from progressive Democrats such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.\r\nTwo months later, experts credited his proposed resolution to give President Bashar al-Assad 45 days to sign an international chemical weapons ban with cooling the White House at the height of the Obama administration's push for military action in Syria.\r\nAnd Manchin was the guy who cut a deal with Fisher House Foundation, a veteran\u2019s charitable organization, to help pay death benefits to families of fallen troops when the government shutdown in October halted payments.\r\nToomey said Manchin is \u201cin the center of a lot of important issues\u201d because he wants to get things done and \u201cis willing to break with his party orthodoxy to do that.\u201d\r\nManchin has won the trust and confidence of Senate colleagues, Toomey said: \u201cHe is a very likable guy. He is not faking it when he tries to bridge issues. \u2026 Personalities matter in the Senate, and his is definitely conducive to making progress.\u201d\r\nManchin has no patience for critics who attack him or others for crossing party lines.\r\n\u201cI could give two hoots about that,\u201d he said. \u201cThe bottom line is the extremes on the right and left are trying to control the dialogue and the policy, and if we let that happen, God help us now.\u201d\r\nWILD, WONDERFUL W.VA.\r\nManchin grew up in Farmington , W.Va., a town of fewer than 400 people best known for its 1968 coal mine disaster that killed 78 miners. The grandson of Italian and Czechoslovakian immigrants who own grocery stores, he and his wife, Gayle, live in Fairmont. His uncle, the late A. James Manchin, was a colorful politician in the state House of Delegates and its secretary of State and treasurer.\r\n\u201cI love my home state,\u201d Manchin said. \u201cThere is no other place like it in the world, and it is where I am at home.\u201d\r\nWhen governor, he advocated returning to the state motto \u201cWild, Wonderful West Virginia\u201d when people hated his \u201cOpen for Business\u201d slogan.\r\nWhen he is home, he likes to fish for trout and learned to fly-fish a year ago.\r\nHe keeps moonshine \u2014 the legal kind \u2014 in his office to offer during after-hours toasts.\r\nHis Capitol Hill suite is reminiscent of the office of a popular school principal, not a button-down shirt-wearing elected official.\r\nA football scholarship got Manchin into West Virginia University, but an injury during practice ended his playing days. He graduated in 1970 with a degree in information management. In 1982, at 35, he was elected to the Legislature.\r\nHe took the seat of Robert C. Byrd, the longest-serving U.S. senator, in a special election after Byrd's death, and he won a full term two years later.\r\nOn a recent Wednesday, staffers put out a spread of doughnuts, muffins, pastries and coffee to welcome any West Virginian who wanted to drop by. More than 50 constituents came to chat, including actress Jennifer Garner, who lived in the state capital, Charleston, in her youth.\r\nHe talked via Skype to an honors American history class in Shinnston, W.Va., and promised to visit Lincoln High School sometime.\r\nNot every West Virginian is a fan.\r\nMelody Potter, 58, of South Charleston, the state's Republican national committeewoman, doesn't trust that Manchin is as conservative as he projects.\r\n\u201cHe won the Senate seat because he tells people what they want to hear, but his actions are contradictory,\u201d Potter said, citing cap-and-trade legislation he signed in 2009 as governor. \u201cI believe that most of what he does is for his own political gain.\u201d\r\nHOPING FOR HILLARY\r\nOn the underground train ride from Hart Office Building to the U.S. Capitol, Manchin takes credit for another policy change.\r\n\u201cSee this?\u201d He points to \u201cNo Running\u201d signs on the electric people movers. \u201cThis is my fault,\u201d he said, explaining that he often ran alongside the train to its next stop if he missed his ride.\r\nThe Washington press corps mobs him at the Capitol, thrusting recorders as reporters ask his opinion of Obama and his delaying his signature health care law.\r\nNo one knew him for the first year or so, Manchin said. That changed when his frustration with divisive politicians inspired him to cross the aisle.\r\n\u201cThey put you on the spot; you say one wrong word, and they crucify you,\u201d he said of the reporters, once the scrum was out of earshot. \u201cSometimes you can't even go to the bathroom.\u201d\r\nWhen he steps off an elevator moments later, more questions and flashbulbs greet him.\r\nThough he breaks ranks with ease in the Senate, he will support his party's presidential nominee in 2016 and hopes it will be Hillary Clinton, a friend since he was a state senator.\r\nShe might reverse West Virginia's recent trend of voting Republican for president, Manchin said.\r\n\u201cI can't make people change their minds on social issues, but if she runs on governing and performance and her ability to reach out and get things accomplished, she will win West Virginia,\u201d he said.\r\nHe is less sure about his own ambitions for a presidential run.\r\n\u201cI can't say. I mean, you never know,\u201d he said.\r\n\u201cI will help my country any possible way that I can. I really would,\u201d he said, adding that his \u201cburning desire is to be the best I can be to represent West Virginia. That is what drives me.\u201d\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t\t    By:\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t    Salena Zito", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.manchin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=0e68930e-7913-4d16-bc9c-7fb586178a48"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5039590653032064, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}