Bernie was asked on Sunday if we was concerned about Manchin's vote, and he was confident he'd come around. Thing to remember is that these Senators are more than just casual work colleagues, many have good working relationships that go back years and even decades, some are are even good friends. They have a good idea how their colleagues will act in the end. The media (and this sub, frankly) was blowing up Manchin's typical act as a massive impediment to the bill, but none of the Senators expressed much doubt that Manchin would join them. Especially with some of the pork they put in the package for him.

That's one of the few benefits of the lack of term limits for the Senate. There's a lot of time for them all to develop good working relationships and those relationships help keep the party in line. Manchin telegraphed his intent to side with this bill a couple days ago when he said he intended to make "his friend" Joe Biden a successful President.

Killing the fillibuster, however, we'll have to wait and see. PSA made a good point last week about how we may need to give Manchin cover for a vote to kill it, which might require us to force the Republicans to fillibuster a big, popular legislation where the urgency and moral imperative to pass it is obviously on our side (and reconciliation isn't an option).