All The Usual Suspects

No Labels – all things to anyone or nothing to everyone?

No Labels, Traitor Joe Lieberman’s third way think tank that does remarkably little thinking, had a meeting of similar minds in Florida (motto: Where The Debris Meets The Sea), per Tiger Beat on the Potomac (thanks Charlie!) other morning email thingie, and you’ll never guess who was there:

PUT AWAY THAT LABEL MAKER— No Labels is back on the scene and making a play in divided government. The centrist group held a policy conference in Florida over the weekend, with current and former lawmakers in attendance.

Because the Fascist Republic of Floriduh is where centrism is. Got it.

Anyway, the cast of thousands, er, hundreds, er, tens  included:

Burgess talked to Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) during the events as the pair navigates how to take their bipartisan dealmaking into the new Congress.

“Bipartisan Deal Making” from the cinderblocks-on-the-freeway caucus.

COLLINS: “We’re more focused on issues. Now, in focusing on issues, we obviously discuss the possibility of political agreements and negotiations,” Collins said in an interview. “In some ways, No Labels is designed for dealing with divided government.”

Try to untangle that reasoning before you move on to…

MANCHIN: “The center is still going to be where people are going to have to gather around in order to get anything done,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Sunday. If Senate Democrats “can’t find basically nine centrist moderate, reasonable Republicans who want to accomplish something in the next Congress here … then it will be just basically a stalemate,” he added.

Joe, Joe, Joe: there are no Centrist Republicans. You should know this: you couldn’t find any, either, but destroying the Biden Agenda was really doing their bidding, you gormless tool.

And then they shivved you, too. Just for fun.

Who else was there?

Who else was on hand? Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) were scheduled to attend the Florida meeting, as were Texas Reps. Henry Cuellar (D), Tony Gonzales (R) and Vicente Gonzalez (D), with immigration a big focus among the House members and Sinema. Collins attended via Zoom. (Sinema was posting on Instagram from the Mesa Marathon this weekend, so it’s not clear if she was also in Florida or attended virtually.)

Where’er Manchin goes, can Sinema be far away? Apparently, yes. There’s not a chance she ran a marathon in Mesa AND attended a meeting in Floriduh. I’d be surprised if she even attended via zoom.

In recent years, No Labels has faced criticism for its internal culture and for being a landing pad for political insiders credibly accused of sexual misconduct. The group hired Mark Halperin after he was accused by nine women of sexual harassment, unwanted touching and physical assault. It also hired former Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), who resigned following accusations of sexual misconduct by a lobbyist.

Frankly, I think No Labels has effectively labelled itself.