While speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) rejected his party’s notion that tougher state-level election laws would obstruct voting rights, a bad sign for Democrats hoping to sway Manchin into weakening the filibuster. After a string of policy failures for President Joe Biden before Congress’ winter recess Democrats, looking for some victory in advance of a midterm season that is expected to go in Republicans’ favor, made a frantic push to finally pass election legislation. Because all 50 Senate Republicans have opposed Democratic election proposals, the majority party had little hope of passing any partisan elections bill through the normal processes of the Senate. To get the bills through the Senate without GOP support, Democrats recognized that they would have to weaken or abolish the filibuster. After a week of what filibuster-proponent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) described as “harried discussions” on how to achieve this end, …