Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

10 Things for Liberals to Do Before Ousting Manchin and Heitkamp

Republicans are suffering the consequences of purist politics. Democrats shouldn't be emulating them.

March 31, 2017 at 5:09 PM UTC

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

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Liberals are upset with Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, moderate Democrats in very Republican states who have decided to back Neil Gorsuch's nomination to the Supreme Court, so some of them are going to urge the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to get revenge.1490981901224 HuffPost's Jennifer Bendery nails it:

I'll be generous (okay, and perhaps a little sarcastic). Defunding Manchin and Heitkamp -- or perhaps trying to defeat them with very liberal primary opponents -- is a great idea for progressives! I'd just suggest they think about where it should rank on their priority list. Before they take on that challenge, I'd suggest they: