itshappening
04-10-2013, 06:00 AM
Good to see this fraud being exposed.
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Conrad Lucas, chairman of the Republican party of West Virginia, who describes Manchin as a “pretty irrelevant United States senator,” suggests two possible explanations. “Either he is showing his true colors” by speaking out on gun control, or else he is “simply trying to suck up and gain favor with the powers that be in the Democratic party,” Lucas says. “And when you’re sucking up to Harry Reid and Barack Obama, you are spitting in the face of West Virginians.”
That’s the looming Manchin question: Is he signaling moderation on guns in order to win liberals’ admiration, or is this self-styled moderate actually a liberal?
Since joining the Senate, Manchin has walked a fine line politically, supporting (or declining to oppose) the Reid-Obama agenda while avoiding significant backlash in a state that voted 62 percent for Mitt Romney in 2012. That same year, Manchin was reelected with 61 percent of the vote. A fresh six-year term, aides note, gives him the flexibility to speak out on gun control, whereas red-state Democrats facing reelection in 2014 have been silent.
Manchin, who in January was recognized as a “national leader” for the No Labels movement, has accumulated one of the most distinctive voting records in the Senate. In some cases, his support for Obama’s policies is unequivocal; he voted for the so-called Buffett Rule, a proposed tax on millionaires that failed in the Senate in April 2012. “We need to put fairness back in the tax system to get this country on solid ground again,” Manchin said at the time. He also supported the Democratic bill to replace sequestration in February, a plan the White House had endorsed.
Sometimes Manchin’s support is more nuanced. When Obama’s $500 billion American Jobs Act came to the floor in the fall of 2011, he voted in favor of ending debate on the bill, but said he would vote against final passage. However, because the initial vote was unsuccessful (a predestined outcome), he never got the chance to follow through.
But Manchin’s signature move is still the good old-fashioned no-show. He began his Senate career by missing a series of high-profile votes — on the DREAM Act and repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” — in December 2010, telling reporters he had a “holiday gathering” with family that he couldn’t get out of. More recently, he was the only senator who abstained from a vote on a measure to fully repeal Obamacare. Manchin had previously voted against Obamacare repeal in February 2011, a move that cost him the endorsements of a number of pro-life organizations.
West Virginia sources say Manchin’s considerable personal charm has allowed him to avoid serious blowback over his erratic voting behavior in Washington. A popular governor from a political family, he has lived up to the old saying that “everything in West Virginia is political except for politics, which is personal.” But Lucas argues that Manchin will not be able to survive on charm alone forever. “He was perceived as a conservative before actually having to vote on issues,” the Republican says. “All he’s doing is building an incredibly liberal record that he’ll have to run on in 2018.”
Rumors abound that Manchin might not make it that far; he is believed to be unhappy in the Senate, and possibly contemplating a return to West Virginia to run for governor again in 2016. Known on Capitol Hill for his reluctance to speak with reporters, particularly on high-profile issues, Manchin is said to be extremely sensitive to criticism, even to the point of calling up the West Virginia GOP offices to complain about disparaging press releases. “It’s pretty bizarre for a politician to take offense to being criticized by people whose sole job it is to criticize you,” Lucas says.
Whether or not Manchin can ultimately help forge a compromise on gun-control legislation, Republicans are confident that his Senate career will be brief and forgettable. “If you ask 100 Senate staffers about their impression of Joe Manchin, 99 of them will probably say ‘he’s tall,’” an aide says of the towering lawmaker. “When he shows up ten years from now as a former senator, nobody will remember he was here.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/345155/gunning-center-andrew-stiles
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Conrad Lucas, chairman of the Republican party of West Virginia, who describes Manchin as a “pretty irrelevant United States senator,” suggests two possible explanations. “Either he is showing his true colors” by speaking out on gun control, or else he is “simply trying to suck up and gain favor with the powers that be in the Democratic party,” Lucas says. “And when you’re sucking up to Harry Reid and Barack Obama, you are spitting in the face of West Virginians.”
That’s the looming Manchin question: Is he signaling moderation on guns in order to win liberals’ admiration, or is this self-styled moderate actually a liberal?
Since joining the Senate, Manchin has walked a fine line politically, supporting (or declining to oppose) the Reid-Obama agenda while avoiding significant backlash in a state that voted 62 percent for Mitt Romney in 2012. That same year, Manchin was reelected with 61 percent of the vote. A fresh six-year term, aides note, gives him the flexibility to speak out on gun control, whereas red-state Democrats facing reelection in 2014 have been silent.
Manchin, who in January was recognized as a “national leader” for the No Labels movement, has accumulated one of the most distinctive voting records in the Senate. In some cases, his support for Obama’s policies is unequivocal; he voted for the so-called Buffett Rule, a proposed tax on millionaires that failed in the Senate in April 2012. “We need to put fairness back in the tax system to get this country on solid ground again,” Manchin said at the time. He also supported the Democratic bill to replace sequestration in February, a plan the White House had endorsed.
Sometimes Manchin’s support is more nuanced. When Obama’s $500 billion American Jobs Act came to the floor in the fall of 2011, he voted in favor of ending debate on the bill, but said he would vote against final passage. However, because the initial vote was unsuccessful (a predestined outcome), he never got the chance to follow through.
But Manchin’s signature move is still the good old-fashioned no-show. He began his Senate career by missing a series of high-profile votes — on the DREAM Act and repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” — in December 2010, telling reporters he had a “holiday gathering” with family that he couldn’t get out of. More recently, he was the only senator who abstained from a vote on a measure to fully repeal Obamacare. Manchin had previously voted against Obamacare repeal in February 2011, a move that cost him the endorsements of a number of pro-life organizations.
West Virginia sources say Manchin’s considerable personal charm has allowed him to avoid serious blowback over his erratic voting behavior in Washington. A popular governor from a political family, he has lived up to the old saying that “everything in West Virginia is political except for politics, which is personal.” But Lucas argues that Manchin will not be able to survive on charm alone forever. “He was perceived as a conservative before actually having to vote on issues,” the Republican says. “All he’s doing is building an incredibly liberal record that he’ll have to run on in 2018.”
Rumors abound that Manchin might not make it that far; he is believed to be unhappy in the Senate, and possibly contemplating a return to West Virginia to run for governor again in 2016. Known on Capitol Hill for his reluctance to speak with reporters, particularly on high-profile issues, Manchin is said to be extremely sensitive to criticism, even to the point of calling up the West Virginia GOP offices to complain about disparaging press releases. “It’s pretty bizarre for a politician to take offense to being criticized by people whose sole job it is to criticize you,” Lucas says.
Whether or not Manchin can ultimately help forge a compromise on gun-control legislation, Republicans are confident that his Senate career will be brief and forgettable. “If you ask 100 Senate staffers about their impression of Joe Manchin, 99 of them will probably say ‘he’s tall,’” an aide says of the towering lawmaker. “When he shows up ten years from now as a former senator, nobody will remember he was here.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/345155/gunning-center-andrew-stiles