(02-10-2020 04:23 PM)mrbig Wrote:  

(02-10-2020 12:11 PM)tanqtonic Wrote:  Funny, I never saw any laudatory paeans to Manchin for his vote in support of Kavanaugh against his party line. His 'conscience' there as well.

Manchin took the easy political vote for Kavanaugh. He faced no real repercussions (either electoral or within his party) for voting to confirm Kavanaugh.
Romney took the hard political vote for impeachment. He certainly faced in-party repercussions, though I doubt he will face significant electoral repercussions since he has 4.5 years left on his term and Utah isn't a big Trump state (even though it is conservative).
No reason to applaud someone for taking the politically easy vote. No courage in that. Doesn't mean it is a good vote or a bad vote, just an easy vote.

I actually see it as the opposite. Romney’s vote was 20 away from enough to find guilty and remove (and he voted not guilty on the other charge). Manchin’s vote was only 4 or 5 away from reversing the result. One was totally irrelevant to the outcome, the other not quite so much so. In the end, neither really mattered, so I wouldn’t call either profile in courage material.