Mr Manchin stays in Washington

EVER since Joe Manchin, an old-style centrist Democrat from West Virginia, arrived in the Senate in 2010, he found himself puzzled by colleagues who adore the institution, when its partisan paralysis drives him to despair. He spent much of this year weighing whether to quit Washington and head home to run for his old job of governor in 2016. He even commissioned a poll which showed him winning a gubernatorial contest handily. As he pondered, he confronted a veteran senator with a (not wholly serious) hunch. Is there some hidden club in this place, and that’s why you’d sell your souls to stay, Mr Manchin asked him: because if so, I haven’t had the secret handshake? His colleague murmured about the Senate being more productive in the old days, when members were less afraid to cross party lines. “Well it sure as shit isn’t working well now,” Mr Manchin observed.