Free Republic

If only this were a coalition of the left and the right working out differences. But alas, it’s just a coalition of mostly liberal politicians who used to label themselves by a political party and now would rather fly stealth. Sigh. If you are not familiar with “No Lables”, no worries, it’s brand new and they certainly deserve a Hat Tip for brevity. Here’s their declaration: We are not labels – we are people. We care deeply about our country. We are frustrated and concerned about the tone of politics. We are passionate about addressing America’s challenges. We are Democrats,...

Gay-rights activists on Friday booed the mere mention of newly sworn in Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the only Democrat to join Republicans in blocking a repeal of the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. At a Capitol Hill rally, two West Virginia natives took to the stage and condemned Manchin’s vote on Thursday, issuing veiled threats that they would work against his 2012 reelection if he did not reverse course. “I was disappointed yesterday in Senator Joe Manchin from the state of West Virginia,” said former Army Sgt. Pepe Johnson, a Clarksburg, W. Va., native who was discharged under the...

The National Republican Senatorial Committee Saturday quickly jumped on Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-W.Va.) vote in favor a proposal to extend the Bush-era tax cuts only for families making up to $1 million a year.   The committee accused the centrist Democrat of breaking a campaign pledge to not cast a Senate vote in favor of anything other than an across the board extension of the tax cuts.  In a news release, the committee said Manchin "toed the line for his Democrat Party leaders in Washington once again today when he voted to impose a massive tax hike on American job...

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint (R) is turning his attention to 2012 and using the vote this week on an earmark moratorium to pick his Democratic targets. DeMint sent an email to the supporters of his Senate Conservatives Fund early Wednesday highlighting four Democrats who voted against the earmark ban, are up for re-election in 2012 and sit in states that John McCain (R) carried in 2008: Sens. Jon Tester (Mont.), Ben Nelson (Neb.), Kent Conrad (N.D.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.). In the email, DeMint called for unseating Tester, Nelson, Conrad and Manchin. "These senators are nice folks but...

We knew that it wouldn't take too long for Joe Manchin to shed his conservative camouflage and leave it behind in the Mountain state.  Well, it turns out that he has gone all in for the job killing, socialist agenda on his first day in the Senate.  After voting to make anti gun, cap and trade supporting Harry Reid Majority Leader, Manchin voted with Reid on two other measures yesterday.  He voted for the job killing FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) and the Paycheck Fairness Act(S. 3772). We already detailed some of the egregious provisions of the food...

Republicans are offering Sen.-elect Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., his choice of committee assignments to switch parties and join the GOP caucus, according to a Fox News report. If Manchin were to cross the aisle, he most likely would land on the Energy and Natural Resources Joe, Manchin, Republican, Party, Energy, Natural, Resources, CommitteeCommittee, and could even gain support for one of his pet projects –– a coal-converting plant in West Virginia –– that has stalled under Democratic leadership in Congress. Other Democrats reportedly being wooed to caucus with the Republican Party are Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Independent Joe Lieberman of...

Most people only expected hardball efforts to get party switchers in the Senate if it wound up closely divided, either 50-50 or 51/49 in either direction. However, Fox reports today that Senate Republicans have greeted special-election victor Joe Manchin (D-WV) with a big push to get him into the GOP caucus. And they may well have found a way to convince him to join the minority: Republicans are making some big promises to try to lure West Virginia Senator-elect Joe Manchin to cross the aisle.Aside from his pick of committee assignments (likely the Energy and Natural Resources Committee), Manchin might...

One can only imagine the behind-the-scenes stresses accompanying West Virginia's Governor, Joe Manchin, these days. For starters, Manchin finds himself in a surprise, neck-and-neck race with Morgantown businessman John Raese, now the political contest of the Governor's life.   But unlike Raese, Manchin also has to deal with the serious legal and public relations problems associated with a federal investigation into his administration that is getting increasingly close to the Governor himself. The Charleston Gazette's Phil Kabler put it succinctly in last Saturday's piece, "Two factors could play key role in election":   "From the administration's perspective, two troubling events...

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) is an unabashed proponent of labor laws foisting union monopoly bargaining on public employees and government agencies. As recently as this June, in an interview with the Charleston Daily Mail, Mr. Manchin endorsed a state law forcing local school boards in West Virginia to grant a single teacher union the power to speak for all teachers in their district, including those who don’t want to join.According to the Daily Mail’s account, the governor actually said that such a monopoly-bargaining law would constitute a “solution” to “West Virginia’s education woes”! Fortunately for independent-minded public employees...

(Martinsburg, W.V.) West Virginia governor Joe Manchin once supported Obamacare, saying days before it passed in March that he'd vote "for it" if he were in the House of Representatives. Now, in the midst of a tight Senate race with Republican John Raese, the very popular Manchin has run away from the very unpopular health care law. He's called for for "repealing the things that are bad," such as the individual mandate, the federal funding for abortion coverage, and the 1099 reporting requirement for businesses. But he hasn't gone into great detail about what, exactly, he supports in the law.  Asked Friday night if he wants...

Here is video of University of Virginia Professor Larry Sabato this morning saying he believes the GOP will win the House by “a wide margin.” Sabato said the latest polling shows the Washington Senate race is going to be “extremely close,” and may be trending Republican, which would be an additional GOP gain to what he had as his final projection last week. Sabato said only West Virginia seems to be moving in the Democrats’ direction. He said that early on Election Night, if West Virginia winds up going to the GOP, he believes the GOP “will win the Senate...

CHARLES TOWN - From the Ohio River to the Eastern Panhandle, West Virginians are fed up. They're disappointed in their politicians and disgusted with how they're behaving. They're frustrated their taxes helped fund bailouts they'd never get. They're tired of career politicians, yet wary of those who want to replace them. But that anger makes them unpredictable: Interviews with dozens of would-be voters from Parkersburg to Charles Town suggest that many are just as likely to cast a protest vote on Election Day as they are to stay home. "We need some Americans, instead of Democrats and Republicans,'' says Ed...

The Senate contest in West Virginia is between Joe Manchin's popularity and Barack Obama's unpopularity and in the end it looks as though Manchin's popularity will win out. Manchin leads John Raese 51-46 in PPP's final look at the race. Manchin is the most popular politician we've polled on anywhere in the country this year and it's by a wide margin. On this final poll his approval rating hit the 70% mark with only 22% disapproving of him. Usually you would expect someone with those kinds of numbers to have an easy time of it but Manchin's been hampered by...

NEWELL, W. Va. — Governor Joe Manchin is running what seems to be a classic Republican campaign for the US Senate in West Virginia. He blasts “Obamacare,’’ files a lawsuit against environmental laws, and — literally — fires a bullet at a mock-up of climate-change legislation. He boasts of his endorsement by the US Chamber of Commerce, his A rating from the libertarian Cato Institute, and his conservative fiscal credentials. The catch: Manchin is the Democratic nominee. And even this effort to distance himself from President Obama and his own party hasn’t assured him of victory in the Mountain State....

A federal investigation into West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin’s administration has taken a disturbing turn for his Democratic supporters: agents reportedly have subpoenaed the director of the state Aviation Division, along with flight logs and records for official government aircraft. The news comes just after federal prosecutors privately asked a judge to delay the sentencing of a contractor who got a no-bid contract to redecorate Manchin’s office. And the developments are set against an ongoing government probe reportedly involving state Democratic Party chairman Larry Puccio, Manchin’s former chief of staff. It’s highly unlikely the federal investigation will be resolved before...

An ongoing federal grand jury investigation of the Manchin administration took a new turn Monday, with sources confirming that federal subpoenas were issued for the state Aviation Division director and for records maintained by the Aviation Division. The subpoenas were issued for director Keith Wood and for division flight records. Department of Justice investigators first issued subpoenas in August 2009, seeking records from the Division of Highway's Right-of-Way Division. That sparked speculation that the investigation might have something to do with then-Manchin chief of staff Larry Puccio, co-owner of Puccio and York LLC, a Fairmont-based real estate appraisal firm. The...

Gov. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, declined over the weekend to endorse Barack Obama for a second term for president or Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) as Senate majority leader in interviews with Politics Daily. "That's such a hypothetical thing, but basically I think there's two more years that have to play out," Manchin said when I asked him if he expects to endorse Obama for a second term. "Things have got to change. People will have time to evaluate and make a decision over the next two years and four years. I just think...

So what was the reaction at the Huffington Post to the admission  by West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin, who is now running for a U.S. Senate seat from that state, that he would now oppose ObamaCare despite his earlier support for that same legislation? Brutal scorn as can be seen in the very title of Huffington Post political writer Sam Stein's article, "Joe Manchin Does 180: I Would Have Voted Against Health Care Reform." Stein, as well as the comments from the Huffington Post readers, are now slamming Manchin for blatant political opportunism on this topic. It's not a pretty...

After a bad couple of weeks, Republicans worried that Joe Manchin might have overtaken John Raese in the race to replace the late Robert Byrd in the US Senate. A new Fox News poll shows that Manchin made up ground on Raese, but the Republican still holds a narrow lead over the Democrat in West Virginia. Barack Obama’s agenda worries voters more than a casting call for a political ad, apparently: Republican John Raese still leads Democrat Joe Manchin in West Virginia’s rough and rowdy Senate race despite a pair of controversial television ads, according to the latest Fox News...

WEST Virginians must soon choose who will represent them in the U.S. Senate for the next two years. The issue in the race is how Democrats have used their 59-41 majority,  and whether West Virginians want to see more of the same. The Daily Mail endorses Republican John Raese. Make no mistake. That choice is painful. Gov. Joe Manchin is one of the most engaging and effective governors in the state's history. He has tackled many of the state-erected barriers to economic growth - a broken workers' compensation system, uncompetitive tax rates, an unfair legal climate. The governor also has...