The Senate’s power brokers

November’s election brought the government under the full control of the Democrats, but not by much. Because of the 50-50 split, any Senate Democrat can join with Republicans to defeat a Democratic agenda item or to vote down a priority of President Joe Biden.

So it is with Sen. Joe Manchin, a “dark purple” Democrat from West Virginia, who is the Senate Democrat at the figurative “center” of American politics. Whether because he is a bit of a maverick or because he is adept at leveraging his otherwise weak hand, Manchin has become a pivotal senator in the confirmation process for several Biden Cabinet nominees.

For example, Neera Tanden could be the first woman of color to serve as Office of Management and Budget director, if her nomination is confirmed. But Tanden, president and CEO of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, left a Twitter trail (now removed) in which she castigated members of Congress in both parties. Manchin announced he will vote against her nomination, citing her barbed tweets. He could join a unified Republican contingent that is eager to defeat the nomination of Tanden, who was an aide to Hillary Clinton.

Some Republicans are quite clear about the reason for their opposition: For example, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said: “I think there is concern by both Republicans and Democrats that she will be overtly political and that her allegiance is not to America and it’s not to President Biden. It is to Secretary [Hillary] Clinton.”

Get vaccinated now; the Torah commands it

DAVID LAU

During my visits to coronavirus wards at hospitals across Israel, I encountered a most worrying statistic. All of the hospitalized were relatively young people who had not been vaccinated. A few minutes after one such visit, I learned that a childhood friend of mine, a healthy individual with no pre-existing conditions, had died. That morning, he had found it difficult to breathe, and by 5 p.m., he headed downstairs to the ambulance waiting to take him to the hospital. By 2 a.m. the next morning, he was gone. These visits and this news have led me to call on all of you to get vaccinated.

We have the incredible fortune afforded to us by God to have a vaccine, but many of us still contemplate the move, despite the fact that halachah [Jewish law] mandates that we inoculate against the virus.

According to senior physicians in Israel and around the world, the vaccine is the best answer to the virus. The risk of the virus is certain. The risks posed by the vaccine are in question. These doctors’ unequivocal position has been that we must vaccinate unless instructed otherwise by a doctor.

I wonder who gave certain individuals the courage to play with people’s lives. How can irresponsible people try and undermine something that has been proven to save lives?

Unfortunately, this phenomenon of convention-breaking is not just typical of our battle with the coronavirus; we see this in many other fields. Those same people who work so hard to prevent people from getting the vaccine bear no responsibility for the public. While they say that they want to preserve their rights, they are in fact harming their fellow man.

Our obligation to be careful is not a choice. One cannot harm one’s own body or others’ bodies. Those who do not get vaccinated are not just putting themselves at risk, but more importantly, they could cause harm to others. More than a year ago, I made clear that beyond an individual’s need to make sure one is safe, one must also ensure not to inflict physical or emotional harm on others.

We aren’t at all moved by that stale critique. Indeed, we suggest that someone remind Kennedy that we are now five years beyond the Trump-Clinton race, and point out the hypocrisy of criticizing Tanden for her tweets while continuing to forgive the online excesses of the former Tweet Abuser in Chief.

Nonetheless, arguments like Kennedy’s could matter to Manchin and other more conservative Democrats, like Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Jon Tester of Montana, who now play a pivotal role. Whether they lean right or left will determine the vote. “Each and every one of these members has the ability to be the king- or queen-maker on Capitol Hill,” said Jim Manley, a longtime aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “If they stick together, and flex their muscles — especially given the tight margins in both the House and the Senate — they can have a real impact.”

Republicans are also looking to Manchin to help defeat the nomination of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for health and human services secretary. Becerra’s support of abortion rights and Obamacare are anathema to his Republican opposition. So, on the Democrat side, strategists hope to entice Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowsky (Alaska) or even Mitt Romney (Utah) to substitute for potential Democratic defectors.

Each of these “fence-sitters” has outsized influence in the Senate, which makes the math behind 50-50 more complicated than it seems. JN

Hope and willpower are the solutions to many illnesses. One of the Torah’s commandments is to visit the sick. The intention here is not to ask the ill how they are doing but to see what they need. Those who undermine the vaccines weaken public resilience, and that’s a shame. The Torah’s command that we take care includes the obligation for preventative medicine, and the existing vaccine helps with that.

To my mind, anyone who doesn’t fulfill this commandment is being ungrateful that merciful God gave his world and us this vaccine to exit this pandemic. JN

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