The election minestrone is being stirred and some Italian ingredients have reached their boiling point.

All of a sudden, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) got so hot that he attacked fellow Dem President Joe Biden just the other day.  Seems that Biden is “divorced from reality” according to Manchin (orig: Mancini) – a constant claim of the Republican opposition.  Manchin has demanded a public apology from his party leader for condemning coal power (West Virginia’s main export) in the middle of an energy crisis.  Says Manchin of Biden’s loose lips: “[they] are the reason the American people are losing trust in President Biden… It seems his positions change daily depending on the audience and politics of the day.”

“Let me be clear…Being cavalier about the coal jobs for men and women in West Virginia and across the country who literally put their lives on the line to help build and power this country is offensive and disgusting,” fumed Manchin; adding that “it is time [Biden] learn a lesson that his words matter and have consequences.”

Wow!  Don’t expect to hear this anti-Biden blast on corporate media, where ‘news by omission’ is their cure for “misinformation”.  Caught off-guard, and in shock, the White House back-peddled saying Biden’s words had been “twisted to suggest a meaning that was not intended” and that the president “regrets it if anyone hearing these remarks took offense.”

Manchin, himself, depends on coal for his own investments and political fundraising, but he clearly feels his state was betrayed by fellow Dems who talked him into voting for a renewable energy bill this year with the bogus title “Inflation Reduction Act.”  His vote was crucial, and he traded it for a Biden promise to allow a controversial gas pipeline in West Virginia. He may now sense he’s been snookered.

Another pot boiler was the October hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in his San Francisco home.  It was immediately politicized by corporate media.  According to that narrative, the attacker was inspired by anti-Democratic rantings of the “MAGA Right”.  No such media narrative attended the past attempted murders of Republicans: minority whip Steve Scalise, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin.  A political motive for the Pelosi attack may be credible, but the home invasion has so many strange levels to it that the Truth may also be a victim.  The attacker is an illegal Canadian alien, homeless in a city now in the throes of rampant crime.  Moreover, the attacker is clearly a mental case and of mixed political persuasions.  For Democrats the attack is evidence of right-wing political violence.  For Republicans it is yet another example of what sanctuary cities and a broken criminal justice system are doing to America.  Meanwhile, an 82-year-old battered Italian American has become election fodder.

More pot-boiling comes from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.  The Wall Street Journal reminded its readers this week that election laws haven’t all been fine-tuned since the 2020 contests.  Mail-in and absentee ballots are still wild cards in election voting.  For example, leaving out a date or ID number can negate a ballot in some counties but pass muster in others.  After the 2021 local elections in Pennsylvania prompted a lawsuit over such missing items the case reached the Supreme Court.  That court refused to intervene despite Justice Alito’s warning that mail-in votes can’t be treated loosey-goosey with typos and omissions subject to different standards within states and among states.  “If left undisturbed, it could well affect the outcome of the [2022] election.”  In Pennsylvania thus far, 70% of mail-in ballots for this Tuesday’s election are from registered Democrats.  You can be sure that Republicans will be inspecting those ballots for “typos” and “omissions”.  But, what then?  Will Alito’s words come back to haunt us?  Not having a definitive, standardized ruling on mail-in ballots truly undermines election integrity.

Last word on mail-ins.  Milwaukee reporter Jason Calvi just wrote of a local election official who wanted to demonstrate how vulnerable absentee military ballots are.  That official created three fake names and received three ballots, all without providing photo IDs.  That official may have proved her point but she has been charged with election fraud for her publicity stunt.

Let’s hope Tuesday’s voting will not be another pot-boiler. -JLM