I recently sat down with Ben Weyl of POLITICO Magazine to give my take on what Congressional Democrats are in for as they seek to pass a(nother) multi-trillion dollar reconciliation package, and, somewhat cheekily, my advice for how they can pull it off. The billing:

In a wide-ranging conversation, Republican lobbyist Liam Donovan offers Democrats some friendly advice on how to avoid screwing up Biden’s agenda.

Here’s a taste:

Professionally, Liam Donovan is a lobbyist and former GOP political operative. But he’s also known as a keen, clear-eyed analyst of legislative maneuvering on Twitter (@lpdonovan), and he’s got some friendly advice for Democrats, if they’re willing to listen.

“The key for these guys is don’t lose the plot. You have to fight your battles with the proper perspective. You have to go in knowing that you’re not going to get all of what you want. There’s going to be a half loaf involved,” he says.

“Don’t put yourself in a position where you can’t save face at the end of the day, because that’s what the bottom line is. Everybody has to save face,” Donovan adds. “Give yourselves off-ramps, give yourselves opportunities to take the win. And I think it’s ridiculous coming from a Republican lobbyist, but I think that’s how you get it done.”

Read the full piece here, including “seven takeaways from our conversation on how Democrats got to this point and what they need to do next.”

I spoke to Sam Brodey of the Daily Beast about the bipartisan infrastructure bill, former President Trump’s opposition, and why that has seemed to matter more in the House than the Senate.

But House members, who represent smaller, more ideologically polarized constituencies who decide their fates every two years, are more vulnerable than senators to those kinds of pressures. Liam Donovan, a GOP strategist, explained that dynamic magnifies the apparent disparity in Trump influence that’s on display between the House and Senate.

“The House is a majoritarian institution, and both sides play their role accordingly,” said Donovan. “And the politics are reinforced by its structure—you’re always in cycle, answerable to a narrower constituency, and rarely have the opportunity to forge an independent brand you can fall back on.”

Read the full piece here.

I spoke to CNN for a piece on the impact of former President Trump and his endorsement on the 2022 campaign.

“Trump’s presence looms over every race in ways that have a profound effect on the field, eliciting allies and rooting out foes, but the nod is diminished when every Republican is effectively running as a Trump-aligned candidate,” GOP strategist Liam Donovan said.

Read the full piece here.

I spoke with McClatchy‘s Alex Roarty about Democrats’ Manchin problem as they struggle to sort out a strategy to pass major infrastructure legislation.

In coming months, the leader of the Democratic Party must decide whether he can cajole Manchin with a mixture of schmoozing and arm-twisting that eventually convinces the lawmaker to relent — a process that threatens to further delay Biden’s agenda if it fails — or instead capitulate and move on to other issues, a decision that would anger the president’s liberal base and reduce the size and scope of his potential accomplishments. 

Either approach carries risk, political veterans say, in dealing with a lawmaker whose opposition to any legislation can single-handedly stop it from becoming law in an evenly divided Senate.

“We’re all trapped in this choose-your-own-adventure book where Joe Manchin is the narrator, and he’s the only one who knows how this ends,” said Liam Donovan, a Republican lobbyist. “In the meantime, you either roll Manchin or you co-opt him by doing what he wants.”

Read the full piece here.

Amy Wang of the Washington Post quoted a tweet of mine in her piece on the fallout from Joe Manchin’s Sunday op-ed declaring his opposition to S. 1 and affirming his support for the filibuster as currently constituted.

Manchin’s op-ed would allow Republicans to argue that, regardless of a filibuster, the legislation doesn’t have enough Democratic votes to pass the Senate, highlighting a point of intense tension within the Democratic Party.

“Can’t very well blame GOP intransigence/outmoded process if you can’t produce a majority,” former GOP operative Liam Donovan tweeted.

Read the full piece here.

The tweet was also picked up in the Post‘s Daily 202 tipsheet, citing the Wang piece:

As our colleague Amy B Wang reports, Republicans used Manchin’s argument to point out that regardless of a filibuster, the voting rights legislation doesn’t have enough Democratic votes to pass the Senate: