When Joe Manchin fought against entitled brats

With Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) ahead by as much as 12% in his reelection bid, make no mistake: It would help him even more if he votes against the disgusting Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation, which every other Senate Democrat has pledged to do. There's no denying that. Rejecting a spoiled bully like Kavanaugh would be the right thing to do, and it would be a political advantage.

Manchin fought against entitled brats once before. Even if it was just a few sentences in a speech, it was still more than what almost any other politician was willing to do. Some years back, when Manchin was Governor of West Virginia, he gave a speech in which he quite rightly endorsed revoking the driver's license of high school bullies.

If enacted, Manchin's proposal would have been the very epitome of justice. For years, legislators and agencies had been falling over themselves to find ways to take away licenses and other privileges from victims - never the perpetrators. They didn't come up with those laws because they had some compelling positive interest to do so. They did it because they were rotten people. Manchin's plan would have at least reduced some of the sting of giving special rights to rich bullies.

Sadly, I don't think Manchin's idea was ever enacted. If it ever is, I'm sure there's some right-wing legal foundation with an army of lawyers ready to pounce about how unfair the world is to entitled bullies. Hardly anybody went to bat for their victims. But with perpetrators, it's different. We live in a society where crime pays.

This is somewhat comparable to an earlier story when Congress voted on a commonsense bill to stop schools from overprescribing Ritalin. One of very few legislators to vote against the bill was one who was ostensibly more liberal than most others. But there's no way I'd endorse that lawmaker after that.

Of course, none of this would excuse voting to confirm Kavanaugh - who is the very personification of the rise of entitled brats being allowed to enjoy limitless privileges. So, if Manchin votes to confirm, feel free to support his opponents in the future. Just make sure it's somebody credible and not a joke like Patrick Morrisey.