[Reily]

Rockefeller actually understands very little!
His record as Governor there was remarkably poor.
He is very much a dim bulb, when I was living there way back in that era I knew Rats who worked in his office who despaired about how slow witted he was.
The argument you constantly heard as to why you should vote for him were the following:

1. He is too rich to steal. (Prior to him we had a series of Rat (mostly Rat!) politicians who were corrupt!)

2. He has all that money he will help the state. The implication being he will spend his personal money to cure state ills.

Many WV Rat voters bought (and probably still do!) those two points hook, line and sinker!

[RobbyS]

Right on the head of the nail. My wife is from West Virginia, and so I am familiar with the problems of that State. A high school classmate of my wife was a long-time Republican operative who helped lead the Bush effort in 2000. Anyway, Jay came in as president of a small college in Buchanan and built a house there. That’s before he ran for governor. He followed the example of his uncle who suckered Arkansas with the same I-am-too-rich-to-steal” thing. Likewise his uncle who sold the same pitch to New York. He bought his senate seat, hoping to use it a perch from which to run for president. His inadequacies were quickly realized. Much has been said about Robert Byrd, but Byrd at least cared about WV and was able to bring the bacon home. Rockefeller is useless.

[samanella]

My father had business dealings with Jay. Jay couldn’t even write a check. When Dad sees someone or something totally stupid, he’ll say “that’s not dumb, that’s Rockefeller dumb!”