POLITICO Playbook: Why the left is quiet about Manchin’s reconciliation deal

WHY THE LEFT IS QUIET — Normally, just as Senate Dems begin to untie the final knots presented by the parliamentarian and any caucus holdouts, progressives in the House would start making noises about why they can't support the bill. But so far, those voices have been muted. On Wednesday, we talked to Rep. RO KHANNA (D-Calif.) about why Democrats in the House, and especially progressives, this time seem ready to swallow whatever is sent over.

A few highlights from our chat, which took place while Khanna, who is from Silicon Valley, was touring Midwest industrial towns:

— The left catches bipartisan fever: "The CHIPS bill and the reconciliation deal are about showing that the progressives can build a governing coalition and that it's not just aspiration — that it's actually possible to compromise to get things done."

He added, "The knock on progressives is we put out these ideas, but what are we doing to govern? What are we getting done? Here [on CHIPS], we compromised. … We didn't lose a single progressive vote in the House."

(This is more notable when you consider that Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) vehemently opposed the CHIPS bill in the Senate.)

— The progressive Manchin whisperer? Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) called Khanna on New Year's Day, not long after Manchin killed Build Back Better. Khanna made him a promise: "I will assure you that if you come up with something reasonable, that we can get the environmental groups behind it and we can get the progressives behind it."

He told Manchin that as long as there was "massive climate spending" in the bill, there was lots of room for other things progressives detested. Manchin outlined much of what ended up in the recent deal with Schumer. "He said," Khanna recalled, "I want deficit reduction, I want to make sure that we have some permitting reform, I want to make sure that there's gonna be some things for fossil."

Khanna told him, "If you can get the massive climate portion in, it will be 10-to-1 in terms of the positive impact, and I think you will be seen as helping make history as having ushered in, from the state of West Virginia, the most aggressive climate legislation in the history of the world."

— What Ro learned about Joe: Khanna said he learned three things about Manchin, the most studied man in Washington during President JOE BIDEN's first 18 months in office:

1. "He's a relationship person. He'll call you up, and he wants to just chat for a half hour. I think that is underestimated. You have to build a trust and a rapport with him to engage."

2. While many Senate Dems and top White House officials have cursed Manchin for being unreasonable and inscrutable through the long negotiations, Khanna argued he was consistent. "He's been pretty clear, from my perspective, in the year that I've dealt with him, about what he wants. You may not like what he wants — I don't like certain things he wants. But I've never found that he's not clear about it. It's not like he hasn't said what he's for and what he's against."

3. "The third thing is people watch their press clips. He's got a thick skin, but you go on television and say things, and people pay attention to that." Khanna said the attacks on Manchin's "integrity" and "calling into question his character" backfired. "If the goal is to get his vote, that was not going to do it. … I tend to think you get more with honey than vinegar."

A final surprising shoutout: Before he hung up, Khanna gave one other key player some credit for landing Manchin. "This deal likely would not have happened," he said, "without LARRY SUMMERS making the case to Sen. Manchin and others about the bill not having inflationary impacts."