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Senate Democrats balk at ending Bush-era tax rates for wealthyBy Alexander Bolton - 06/19/12 05:00 AM ET A growing number of Senate Democrats are signaling they are not prepared to raise taxes on anyone in the weak economy unless Congress approves a grand bargain to reduce the deficit. At least seven Democratic senators have declined to rule out supporting a temporary extension of the Bush-era income tax rates, breaking with party leaders who have called for letting the rates expire for people earning more than $1 million per year. That gives Senate Republicans a chance to push a temporary extension...

Three high-profile Democrats from West Virginia are not planning to attend the Democratic National Convention in September. Sen. Joe Manchin, Rep. Nick Rahall and Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin have opted not to go to the convention in Charlotte, according to a West Virginia Democratic Party press release. President Barack Obama is not popular in the state, and in 2010, Manchin ran a TV ad openly attacking the administration on cap-and-trade. Manchin, who is on the ballot again in November and does not face a difficult race, had already said this spring he wasn’t sure he would vote for Obama’s re-election.

Tuesday's Results: The Tea Party shows it's alive and well, Wisconsin's embattled governor gets more votes than the top two Democrats and a federal inmate gives the president a primary battle. The natives are still restless. Conservative pundit and IBD contributor Ann Coulter once said she, like many Americans, would rather vote for Jeffrey Dahmer, known for his unusual culinary choices, over President Obama. Federal prisoner Keith Russell Judd, 49, is not quite in Dahmer's league, but for a substantial portion of West Virginia Democrats, he is also preferable to our campaigner-in-chief. Judd is serving time at the Beaumont Federal...

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia says he’s unsure whether he’ll vote for President Barack Obama or likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney. In a statement Friday, Manchin said he has real differences with both Obama and Romney. He also said many West Virginians believe the last 3 ½ years have not been good. One of the more moderate Senate Democrats, Manchin is seeking re-election this year in a state Obama lost to Republican Sen. John McCain, 56-43 percent, in 2008. Obama fared worse in the Democratic primary against Hillary Rodham Clinton, losing 67-26 percent.

Dem Keystone support creates tougher fight for Reid, ObamaBy Alexander Bolton - 12/16/11 04:08 PM ET Republicans want to jam Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on the Keystone oil sands pipeline and the Democratic leader will have a tough time resisting, given support within his caucus for the project. GOP leaders have made clear to Reid that they will not approve an extension of the payroll tax holiday unless it includes language to speed up construction of the pipeline. Senate Republicans estimate as many as 14 Senate Democrats support the project. Labor unions have also voiced strong backing, complicating...

Sen. Joe Lieberman was treated like an outcast back in 2008 when he broke from the Senate Democratic Caucus and openly opposed Barack Obama’s bid for the White House. Asked last week if he’d back Obama in 2012, the Connecticut independent said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do.” This time around, there may be more Liebermans. A number of moderate Democrats like Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar and liberals like Sen. Bernie Sanders are declining to give their unqualified support for the president, saying they’re either too focused on their own races or are calling on the White House...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Democrat-controlled Senate on Thursday rejected a Republican attempt to block a regulation intended to curb power plant pollution that blows downwind into other states. By a 56-41 vote, senators defeated a resolution by Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who said the step was needed to rein in what he called the Obama administration's overzealous job-killing approach to environmental protection. "We are simply asking that the clean air regulations already on the books stay in place and we do not make the regulations so onerous that they put utility plants out of business and we have an...

Freshman Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Tuesday announced his support for strict spending caps, which put him at odds with his party's leadership and President Obama.  Manchin told an audience in South Charleston, W.Va., he would endorse the "CAP Act," which sets a tighter spending limit than what the president's budget calls for, as well as a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. The senator suggested the legislation could help Republicans and Democrats agree to a deal to raise the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.  "Today, I will be announcing my support for two proposals that I believe provide a good...

Republicans appear to be winning the budget battle on Capitol Hill as well as with the electorate. Senator Joe Manchin, who has to face his constituents again next year after winning a special election to fill out Robert Byrd’s term of office, has announced that he will split with his Democratic party leadership to support major structural reforms to the federal budget: Freshman Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Tuesday announced his support for strict spending caps that put him at odds with his party’s leadership and President Obama.Manchin told an audience in South Charleston, W.Va. that he would endorse the...

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin ripped President Barack Obama on his budget proposals in a Senate floor speech Tuesday, a rare rebuke from a freshman Democrat who clearly is worried about the politics of deficit spending as he faces a tough reelection in 2012. Manchin charged the president with failing to lead the way in reducing spending, while also criticizing Republicans for offering “partisan” and “unrealistic” budget proposals. “Why are we doing all this when the most powerful person in these negotiations — our president — has failed to lead this debate or offer a serious proposal for spending and...

Major Surgery Ahead for Obamacare "We're running numbers to see how many new people we can get into the pool with something less than a mandate, something that would be more limited enrollment periods with severe financial penalties for not signing up." -- Sen Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., talking to Politico about her efforts to repeal the provision for mandatory health insurance in President Obama's national health care law. Democrats are getting on the record with their opposition to the controversial provision of President Obama's national health-care law that requires all Americans to purchase private insurance or be enrolled in an...

West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin is wasting no time attacking the Obama administration’s energy policies. The senator will use his maiden speech on the Senate floor today to trumpet legislation he is introducing that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from revoking Clean Water Act permits that have already been finalized, his aides tell POLITICO. Manchin was livid in January when EPA pulled the plug on a massive mountaintop-removal coal mine in West Virginia that the George W. Bush administration had signed off on in 2007. The move was the agency’s first-ever retroactive veto of a coal mine permit, and...

Energy: Keeping a campaign vow to bankrupt the industry, the administration revokes the permit for an approved, working coal mine in West Virginia. Guess those electric cars will have to get their energy elsewhere. We and others have warned that in the wake of November's "shellacking," the Obama administration would attempt to implement its agenda through regulations and rule making. As West Virginia's coal industry has found, it matters not even if you follow the rules. In pursuit of this agenda, the rules can be changed on the fly. The Environmental Protection Agency has revoked the coal mining permit for...

Rep. Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania was the first House Democrat to stand and defiantly call out his vote against Nancy Pelosi’s bid for minority leader on the first day of the new Congress Wednesday. But Altmire’s willingness to defy the liberal Democratic leadership does not translate into support for the Republican drive in the House to repeal President Obama’s health-care bill next week, even though Altmire voted against the bill last year when it passed. Rep. Heath Shuler, the North Carolina Democrat who challenged Pelosi for the minority leader position and received 11 votes, also voted against the health overhaul...

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...