[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Hey, let's start a Novena for West Virginia NOW! Can't we get Byrd in bed with some hot chiquita with pics? (Oh, how stupid of me...we don't have enough money in this whole country to pay anyone to do that !)

[AmishDude]

we have three Republicans from overwhelmingly Democratic states and 11 Democrats from states Bush carried handily.

One day West Virginia and Louisiana will crack. Morris is right from a numbers standpoint, but Byrd is a fixture. The only way for him to lose is medical. Most mountaineers will say, "oh, the old coot's been in this long, why not let him go one more?"

[LostInBayport]

"He’s up for election in 2006, and the latest polling in West Virginia indicates that an attack of sanity and judgment may, at last, be hitting an electorate that has routinely elected the 87-year-old Byrd to the Senate eight times with never less than 59 percent of the vote. "

Next Massachusetts...next Massachusetts...next Massachusetts...if I say it enough, might it not come true? Could we finally dump that rotund disgrace from Hyannisport? And then Monsieur Kerry...!

[Grim]

Don't anybody get too excited about Dick Morris' wishful thinking. Byrd is still the champ at bringing home the bacon and that counts for a lot. All politics is local as they say.

Morris is an interesting read during elections but off-season he's kind of a blow-hard with a crappy track record.

[speedy]

Man, it would be even sweeter than beating Daschle on the off-chance we could knock off Byrd (unlikely, but apparently not completely impossible anymore.) I would just love to see Biden and Kennedy trying to explain to him that he doesn't work in the Senate anymore, and Sheets forced to stand on a street corner in Wheeling making speeches about Henry Clay or the Punic Wars.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

...the latest polling in West Virginia indicates that an attack of sanity and judgment may, at last, be hitting an electorate that has routinely elected the 87-year-old Byrd to the Senate eight times with never less than 59 percent of the vote.

I implore anyone who suspects that they may be carriers of this disease, PLEASE VISIT MASSACHUSETTS IMMEDIATELY!

[MinuteGal]

Bye, bye, Byrdie.....tra la

Leni

[onyx]

He really needs to be retired.

[MikeA]

BYE BYE BYRDY! And Shelley Moore Capito knows how to win elections in overwhelmingly Democratic areas, TWICE having won her congressional seat in Dem. territory. And Moore Capito's political consultants are the best in the nation. I use to work for them, Public Opinion Strategies. These people win nearly every election they put their hands on. Senile Bob is toast!!!

[shiva]

[HallowThisGround]

Byrd, who still boats a 62-28 favorable-unfavorable ratio, may have met his match and master in Capito, who has a statewide rating of 57-35.

Shelly Moore Capito has a family name as strong as Byrd--follow the bold and you'll get the point. Her father, Arch Moore, is incredibly popular in WV, even with his indictment, conviction and jail time served for vote buying. Problem is, she isn't Robert Byrd. She (or anyone else for that matter) will have to earn it. West Virginians will break toward that with which they feel comfortable. They felt comfortable with a Texan over an East Coast Liberal in 2004. Will they feel equally comfortable with an up-and-coming "young lady" over the stalwart force of the "dependable" Byrd? The jury is out on that.

One thing Shelley does well is humor. In most of her campaign appearances in 2004, she announced her late arrival thus: "I tried to get here on time, but because I try to avoid roads named after Robert Byrd, it took me a while to get here."

It was well stated and, as they say, "many a true word was spoken in jest."

Nevertheless, West Virginia went for President Bush by 56-43 in 2004 and 52-46 in 2000, and voters who back the GOP nationally are getting less and less forgiving of their Democratic representatives and senators in Congress. As party-line voting increases in Washington and the well-publicized partisan feuds animate the body, voters are getting the point that as long as the legislators vote a straight party line, so should they.

There is some truth to this, but remember, the Democrat Gubernatorial candidate in 2004--and current Governor, Joe Manchin won with 62% of the vote while Bush was getting his 56%. For those of you who have run political campaigns like myself, that is solid statistical proof that West Virginians still have a HUGE block of swing voters.

Change is coming to WV sometime in the future but with a recent meltdown in the State GOP (read here and here--registration required), Republicans are not in a very good position to support any candidate unless support comes from outside the state which will not be favorably looked upon by the general voting population.

[AFPhys]

The Senate would realign 62-38 if every state elected senators from the same party as the presidential candidate they supported,...

[Jess Kitting]

His defense of the filibuster was natural, since it was he who conducted a lonely 14-hour attempt to kill the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Byrd filibustered against the 1964 Civil Rights Act?

Does his party know about this?

If he had been a Republican, he would have been castigated as racist, sexist, inhuman, etc., and the filibuster as a Senate procedure would have been discontinued right then and there.

[jmaroneps37]

Little dick can make sense here and there. The keagle will be beaten next year and it will be by 5 to 7 points. His dirty era will end with him being thrown out on his ash.

[AFPhys]

A bit of a formatting change for emphasis with election date included ... do what you like with this...

The Republicans in deep-blue states are Olympia Snowe (2006) and Susan Collins (2008) of Maine, which Kerry won by 54-45, and Lincoln Chaffee (2006) of Rhode Island, which Kerry won by 60-39.

The Democrats who represent bright-red states are Mark Pryor (2008) and Blanche Lincoln (2010) of Arkansas (Bush carried it by 54-45), Evan Bayh (2010) of Indiana (Bush 60-39), Mary Landrieu (2008) of Louisiana (Bush 57-42), Max Baucus (2008) of Montana (Bush 59-39), Ben Nelson (2006) of Nebraska (Bush 66-33), 2002’s narrow escapee Tim Johnson (2008) of South Dakota (Bush 60-39), Kent Conrad (2006) and Byron Dorgan (2010) of North Dakota (Bush 60-36) and Jay Rockefeller (2008) and Byrd (2006) of West Virginia (Bush 56-43.)

[CaptRon]

Byrd, who still boats a 62-28 favorable-unfavorable ratio, may have met his match and master in Capito, who has a statewide rating of 57-35

More likely the voters in W. Va. have figured he has met his match in Father Time.