Welcome to the Ted Talk for Cutting Off Your Nose to Spite Your Face, Performative Progressive Outrage Edition. Today’s lecturer will be Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary for Bill Clinton, back when Democrats could still do math and knew something about Washington. Reich proposes to purify the Democrats into minority status, where they can accomplish … nothing at all.

Reich wants Chuck Schumer to strip Manchin of his committee chair position after balking again on Democrats’ big-spending plans, which he acknowledges would likely prompt Manchin to cross the aisle and take the chair back as a Republican:

If the Democratic party had any capacity to discipline its lawmakers or hold them accountable (if pigs could fly), it would at least revoke Manchin’s chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

To continue to allow this crucial position to be occupied by the man who has single-handedly blocked one of the last opportunities to save the Earth is a thumb in the eye of the universe.

I’m told the Democrats don’t dare take this step for fear Manchin would leave the Democratic party and switch his allegiance to the Republicans.

Why exactly would this be so terrible? Manchin already acts like a Republican.

Oh, no! they tell me. If Manchin switches parties, Democrats would lose control over the Senate.

Well, I have news for Democrats. They already lost control over the Senate.

No, actually, they haven’t — they will soon, it appears, but they still control it for the next few months. When Democrats lose control of the Senate, they’ll know it because with it goes any opportunity to confirm Joe Biden’s appointees. With it goes any hope of using reconciliation for party-line passage of anything, even that which Manchin might agree to support, because Mitch McConnell will control the Senate floor at that point. And let’s not forget that a party switch by Manchin wouldn’t just mean a GOP chair for E&NR, but for every Senate committee.

And for what? To satisfy Reich’s ridiculous, hyperbolic outrage over Manchin’s refusal to ignore inflation and take “one of the last opportunities to save the Earth” and thus stick “a thumb in the eye of the universe”? Do we now have universal warming due to carbon dioxide emissions? What role does John Kerry’s private jet play in warming Saturn?

Biden’s special envoy for climate has used his family’s private jet to travel the globe in pursuit of pushing a green agenda — while the plane has emitted more than 300 metric tons of carbon dioxide since he assumed the post, according to a new report.

The jet, a Gulfstream GIV-SP, has made 48 trips lasting more than 60 hours and released an estimated 715,886 pounds — or 325 metric tons — of carbon dioxide since Biden entered the White House in January 2021, Fox News reported, citing data its obtained through flight-tracker FlightAware.

The jet belongs to a charter company, Flying Squirrel LLC, which is owned by Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz-Kerry. …

For comparison, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year.

But but but the eye of the universe! But … the doooooom of Earth!

Reich apparently didn’t learn much from his former boss Bill Clinton, who had a lot more cleverness and wisdom in dealing with Washington than Reich demonstrates here. The master of triangulation would have used Joe Manchin in a 50/50 Senate to steal the GOP’s biggest issue strengths and deliver Democrat-flavored solutions in such a situation, allowing the Democratic president to claim enough credit to sail to re-election. Clinton pulled that off with Republican majorities in the second half of his first term, in fact.

Democrats would be better advised to kick Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi out of leadership and find replacements who can do math and understand physics. The universe’s eye will get a lot less damage, and the global meltdown of Democratic credibility would at least get reversed. And perhaps Manchin should change parties at this point, especially since it’s clear that (a) he’s not appreciated, (b) he’s not consulted on policy until it’s too late, and (c) Democrats are doomed in this cycle and likely forever in West Virginia.