This may have started out like a grandmaster trolling exercise from Cocaine Mitch. Today, though, Mitch McConnell has begun to sound veeeerrrryyyyy serious in his courtship of Joe Manchin in the wake of the collapse of the BBB. How serious? Take a listen to McConnell’s interview with our friend and Salem colleague Hugh Hewitt this morning: Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman tweeted that this looks more like “saber rattling,” but noted that an offer for a chair puts this a bit beyond trolling status. Manchin currently chairs the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, a post from which he can protect West Virginia’s coal and other energy industries from getting wiped out by a Green New Deal. Currently, John Barrasso serves as the ranking member and would ascend to the chair if the GOP flipped the Senate back to their control. Barrasso would almost certainly make room, but he’d have to get something in return. He might want the chair of Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which is currently chaired by Patty Murray with the retiring Richard Burr as ranking member. Being a physician, that might be a perfect fit. although he’s not currently on the committee and another physician (Bill Cassidy) is next in rank. There are other committees to offer Barrasso, though, not to mention that his own leadership ambitions rest largely on winning the majority at some point.