Unequivocal statements from Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia on Sunday that he would oppose a broad voting rights bill and never vote to end the legislative filibuster cast a cloud over a Washington tenuously controlled by Mr. Manchin’s party. They forced Democrats to weigh a two-track strategy in which they would be reduced to holding symbolic votes to spotlight Republican intransigence on their highest priorities and limiting their legislative hopes to whatever could be muscled through under fast-track budget reconciliation rules.

...they were rethinking how to move forward in a 50-50 Senate where their most important swing vote had effectively declared that he would not support any measure that lacked Republican support.
...
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, has set up a series of votes in the next three weeks that he says will test Republicans’ willingness to compromise, including on pay equity between men and women and the voting rights measure. Leaders will also take up Mr. Manchin’s suggestion that they proceed on a more limited voting rights bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, though that measure lacks the support of the 10 Republicans who would be needed to advance it past a filibuster.
...
“We do need to start testing this idea that the filibuster promotes bipartisanship,” said Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, who is trying to find 10 Republicans to back legislation imposing universal background checks on gun buyers. “I would hope that everyone is open to having their theories proved wrong if they don’t have evidence to prove their theories right.”

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, dismissed Democrats’ strategy as “an agenda transparently designed to fail — and fail they will.”

For several months, work on a range of issues beyond voting rights, including climate change, immigration and pay equity, was proceeding as if the Senate could change the rules on the filibuster if necessary. A separate effort was underway to bring Mr. Manchin on board as the 50th vote for the voting rights measure.

[That's weird.]
...
“My colleagues need to be put on the record and held accountable,” Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, said on Monday.
...
Democrats had to concede that their initial efforts to sway Mr. Manchin on perhaps their highest priority — the voting rights measure — had fallen flat after a weekslong effort...small groups of senators reached out to him privately to identify his substantive concerns with the voting rights bill and what could be tweaked or jettisoned to win him over.

But Mr. Manchin did not lodge any specific policy objections that could be resolved. He simply wanted at least one Republican to support the bill — effectively handing a veto to the minority party.

Democrats do have options. They could, for instance, break the For the People Act into separate measures to expand voting rights, rein in campaign finance abuses and restore ethical standards and transparency in the executive branch shattered by Donald J. Trump.

[Then do that! Blumenthal doesn't want to do that. What does he want to do? You better have a brainstorm, Blumenthal.]
...
Another option would be to expand the reach of the voting rights law that Mr. Manchin says he does support, the John Lewis Act, which would restore federal oversight of state voting laws to protect minority groups that might be targeted.

[Bullshit, Quasis. Your just wrote...What carpel tunnel afflicted wretch wrote this?...Bullshit, Jonathan Weisman and Katie Rogers. You just wrote, "Leaders will also take up Mr. Manchin’s suggestion that they proceed on a more limited voting rights bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, though that measure lacks the support of the 10 Republicans who would be needed to advance it past a filibuster." What, did one of you write "Leaders" and the other "Another option"?
...
“The stakes are really high right now; this country is having a conversation with itself about whether we want to be a democracy,” [Senator] Murphy said.

“Do we have to pass every single provision in the For the People Act to save democracy?” he added. “No, but we’re getting closer to a scenario in which we do none of it, and that is potentially cataclysmic.”
...
But liberal Democrats and voting rights groups on Monday flashed frustration, not just with Mr. Manchin but with the White House, which they see as insufficiently engaged in an issue that they believe has democracy in the balance. The nightmare scenario liberals are putting forward is that Republicans seize control of Congress and expand their control over state governments next year, in part because of restrictive voting laws. Then they use their new power to nullify the results of close state contests in 2024 to deliver the White House back to the G.O.P.

[No sane person can doubt that that is exactly what the Grand Old Phasicists will do, and what they have been up to since the presidential election in passing restriction after restriction after restriction in state after state after state.]

Last week, Mr. Biden directed Vice President Kamala Harris to pursue voting rights protections. She promptly headed to Central America...

[That is pretty funny in a grim way.]

“He said he’d use every tool at his disposal and he would ‘fight like heck.' Now is the time.”-Stephen Spaulding, Common Cause on POJO.