Manchin, a Democrat from a rural and increasingly Republican state, keeps charting a bipartisan course

NYT photo by Gabriella Demczuk

Centrist Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who hasn't even served the equivalent of half a term in the U.S. Senate, has placed himself at the tipping point of several public-policy debates in the last year, most recently with his proposal to delay and change parts of the federal health-reform law, writes Jonathan Weisman of The New York Times. He's also been at the center of debates on guns, Syria, student loans and prescription-drug abuse, a big bipartisan issue in his "increasingly Republican state," Weisman notes.

"To some of his colleagues, his iconoclasm, industry and impulsiveness can be taxing. He springs his latest enterprise on the public with little or no consultation with leadership — or even staff," Weisman reports. "But Mr. Manchin’s jovial penchant for taking on serious tasks without seeming terribly serious brings senators along."

“You rarely see any senator get involved in more issues so quickly and yet so effectively,” Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, told Weisman. That's no surprise to folks back home, who remember him as a hands-on governor. “There wasn’t anything going on in any part of the state that he wasn’t involved in,” state Sen. Jack Yost told Weisman. “It doesn’t surprise me that he has his hands in everything there, too.” (Read more)