I keep thinking of that picture of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the State of the Union, glaring at Manchin. At the time, conservative Jonah Goldberg wrote that “Manchin is a much more important and influential Democrat than” AOC, despite everyone “paying more attention to her.” AOC ended up as one of the handful of progressives, including several of her fellow “Squad” members, who voted against the infrastructure bill late Friday night, telling a reporter “this is bullshit.”

But it was the timing that seemed like bullshit to many other Democrats. While it’s impossible to know whether passing this bill a week earlier would have been enough to get Terry McAuliffe over the top, it certainly wouldn’t have hurt.

For one thing, the bipartisan bill includes billions for Virginia. More importantly, it would have changed the narrative about Joe Biden’s impotent presidency, and it would have changed the conversation—at least for a news cycle or two—from the culture war that was raging in Virginia…

It’s baffling to me why progressives ended up holding out just long enough to help torpedo Democrats’ chances in the Virginia governor’s race—and then acceded to this vote just days later. My only theory is that they feared being blamed for the loss (which explains why Jayapal started signaling the decision to back down on Monday), but couldn’t get the votes in before Friday.