Earlier this week, WV’s Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, pulled his energy bill from consideration after it became clear that it would not reach the 60 votes needed for passage. Here is how Politico headlined it:

Senate advances funding bill after Manchin punts his energy plan

And here is the sub-headline:

The West Virginia senator removed his permitting proposal from the government funding bill after Republicans made it clear they wouldn’t back it.

From that article:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had encouraged Senate Republicans to take down Manchin’s effort in a floor speech Tuesday afternoon, saying that adding the West Virginia Democrat’s permitting plan to the bill amounted to a “poison pill” . . . .

“I’ll be voting no and I would urge all my colleagues to vote no as well,” McConnell said.

On the other hand, today’s Wheeling News-Register editorial begins:

There’s plenty of blame on this.

“Plenty”? You wouldn’t know it from what follows: the word “Republican” never appears, and the blame falls squarely on the Democrats:

[B]ut here’s a fact: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could have done more. Schumer, if he had so desired, could have delivered all 50 Democrat votes in the Senate — without question.

Okay, Democrats Bernie Sanders and Tim Kaine had indicated that they would vote against the legislation. This raised the number of Republicans needed for passage under filibuster rules from ten to twelve. Hey, editor, if this was such important legislation, couldn't you explain where the Republicans were on this legislation?

Under the papers’ previous editor, who blamed Democrats for everything that went wrong in the universe, I sometimes joked that one of the rules in the Ogden Newspaper Stylebook and Policy Manual was that editors should remember that “it is always the Democrats fault.” Hmmm. Perhaps my attempt at humor was a lot closer to reality than I realized.