Free Republic

Gov. Joe Manchin is tapping his former chief counsel and a member of a prominent West Virginia family, Carte Goodwin, to succeed the late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, Democratic officials told The Associated Press on Friday. Three officials familiar with the governor's pick spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment ahead of an official announcement. ...The 36-year-old Goodwin, a Charleston lawyer, would hold the seat until November. That's when the governor wants general election voters to decide who will serve the final two years of Byrd's term. The Legislature has...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia's attorney general says Gov. Joe Manchin can put the late Robert C. Byrd's Senate seat on the ballot this November. Manchin requested a legal opinion from Attorney General Darrell McGraw, who issued it Thursday.

The death of West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd (D) will trigger a fierce battle to replace him, although the timing of that race remains an open question. West Virginia law states that if there is a Senate vacancy more than 2 1/2 years before the incumbent's term ends, a special election would be called for this November. That 2 1/2-year mark is July 3 -- four days from now. But, as the Post's Paul Kane notes, the language of the law is unclear as it sets up a schedule that would begin the special election process after the "primary next."...

Ah, the Obama water-carriers at the NYTimes never fail to disappoint. They describe the Obama White House decision to bypass the Senate and make 15 recess appointments while the Senate is on spring break — including radical SEIU labor lawyer Craig Becker’s appointment to the NLRB, which was rejected by the Senate last month on a 52-33 cloture vote — as a “muscular show of his executive authority.” When that authority was exercised by GOP President George W. Bush, of course, the NYTimes editorial board called it a “constitutional gimmick.”And when Bush used it in particular to appoint John Bolton...

U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg taken to area hospital after fall By James Queally/The Star-Ledger February 15, 2010, 9:51PM U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg was taken by ambulance tonight from his Cliffside Park home after suffering a fall, his spokesman said. The 86-year-old Democrat was conscious when he was taken to the hospital "as a precautionary measure," said the spokesman, Caley Grey. Grey said he did not know if Lautenberg had fallen inside the Bergen County condominium or whether he had suffered any injuries. Lautenberg was elected to his fifth term in the Senate in 2008, defeating U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews with...

Reuters makes it sounds like Sen. Scott Brown is guilty of robbery: Republican Scott Brown's formal arrival in the U.S. Senate on Thursday robbed Democrats of their crucial 60-vote supermajority and set the stage for a bitter November election fight for control of the 100-member chamber.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a key vote Monday afternoon on a controversial Labor Department nominee, even though Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown has not yet been sworn in yet. The vote has riled at least one watchdog group, saying Reid is just trying to ram through the nomination of Patricia Smith for Labor Department solicitor before Republicans have enough votes to block her. And a spokesman for Sen. Mike Enzi, the Republican senator who had put a "hold" on Smith's nomination last year, said Enzi would prefer "all controversial nominations" be put off until Brown is seated. Enzi,...

House members returned from their recess over the holidays today, and health care legislation was the number issue on the agenda. The Senate race in Massachusetts, though, could change the dynamics of the debate, should GOP State Senator Scott Brown prevail next week. The Democrats risk losing their 60-seat filibuster proof majority with a Brown win. However, while the special election for the Massachusetts Senate seat previously held by Ted Kennedy has yet to be decided, the Brown campaign has already charged that Massachusetts Democrats will find a way to keep Mr. Brown from being certified, should he win, before...

BOSTON — A family confidant says the sons of Edward Kennedy want the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee to replace their father in the U.S. Senate. A confidant, who demanded anonymity...says both Edward Kennedy Jr. and Rep. Patrick Kennedy have urged Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to pick Paul Kirk. Massachusetts lawmakers are expected Wednesday to give final approval to a change in the Senate succession law so the governor can temporarily fill Senate vacancies. The interim senator would serve until the seat is filled through a special election in January. The 71-year-old Kirk is a Boston attorney and...

The audacity of one final act of political corruption August 21, 9:04 AM · Leo Shishmanian - Ada County Conservative Examiner My heart goes out to Massachusetts senior Senator Ted Kennedy as he battles fatal brain cancer.  No one should have to suffer slowly toward their demise.  That said, Kennedy's latest--and perhaps his last--major act as a senator constitutes nothing short of blatant political corruption. Usually, politicians try to keep their wrongdoings shrouded from view in darkened rooms.  It's easier to get away with what you want when the lights are off.  For example: South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford...

Cancer-stricken Sen. Kennedy asks state leaders for speedy process to replace him in Congress BOSTON (AP) — A cancer-stricken Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has written a poignant letter to Massachusetts leaders asking that they change state law to allow a speedy replacement of him in Congress. The note to Gov. Deval Patrick and the state's Senate president and House speaker acknowledges the state changed its succession law in 2004 to require a special election to fill any vacancy. At the time, legislative Democrats were concerned Republican Gov. Mitt Romney would be able to fill any vacancy created as Sen. John...

Just when you thought things couldn’t get more farcical in our nation’s capitol, the Al Franken Circus heads to town. Franken was declared the winner yesterday of the long-contested Senate race by the Minnesota Supreme Court with a razor-thin margin of 312 votes out of over 2.9 million votes cast. Norm Coleman chose to bow out of the race rather than continue the contest taking the fight to the federal courts. It is estimated the two camps have spent more than $1.7 million in legal fees through March, the end of the last FEC reporting period. Rumors abound that Coleman...

DENVER -- Stop wallowing, the primary election is over. That was the message House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered this morning even as she acknowledged that reconciliation between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton camps was not yet complete. She told reporters before addressing the California delegation that women will be the key to beating John McCain, and she considered it a personal mission to get more women behind Obama. A majority of women support Obama, according to recent polls, but recent polls also suggest as many as one in four Clinton supporters would vote for Republican presumptive nominee John McCain. "There's...

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland is the latest supporter of Hillary Clinton to accuse the media of bias in its coverage of the Democratic nomination battle. At a dinner with Washington Post reporters and editors, Strickland called the coverage "almost shocking at times" and unfair it the treatment of both candidate Clinton and her husband, the former president. "Quite frankly, some of the people that I had most previously admired as commentators I have a remarkably different opinion toward right now," Strickland said. Strickland was the second big-state governor and Clinton supporter to sound off about the press at the convention....

Deal: Clinton's Name Will Be Placed in Nomination at Dems Convention August 14, 2008 11:09 AM ABC News' Kate Snow reports: A deal has been brokered between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that will allow Clinton's name to be placed in nomination at next week's Democratic nominating convention, sources close to the Clinton camp told ABC News. "Both sides agree that it is in the best interest of party unity and making sure that everyone's voice and vote is honored to make sure her name is put into nomination," a person close the negotiations said. "It's to honor everyone...

DENVER, Colo. -- An e-mail sent from the Political Director of the Colorado Democratic Party threatened the status of a national delegate, alleging she made "disparaging public remarks" about Sen. Barack Obama. Sacha Millstone of Boulder told CALL7 Investigator John Ferrugia that her comments were critical, but they were not public. Millstone acknowledged she was frustrated over how the Obama campaign was treating delegates who supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and told a fellow delegate, in what she believed was a private e-mail exchange, that she was not sure she could vote for Obama at the Democratic National Convention later...

There was something sort of fun about watching the folks at CNN squirm when they were asked a slightly tough question. "Why did it take a skit on 'Saturday Night Live' to change the tone of the Democratic primary coverage?" asked a member of the Television Critics Association. "Did it take a skit to change the coverage?" replied David Bohrman, the head of CNN's Washington bureau who heads up the network's political coverage. Well, after an "SNL" sketch depicted a debate in which Hillary Clinton was asked tough, unfair questions while Barack Obama was tossed softballs, things did seem to...

Not much love between the Obamites and the Hillary PUMAs..to say the least! See thread content below: (7-28-08) Negative Super Responses to PumaPac (PumaPac) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PumaPAC is collecting all responses from Supers and the DNC that are ..hum...less then respectful to the voter expressing their opinion and/or asking that they continue to, or switch, support to HRC, as well as work to allow her name to be placed in nomination. Plans are being made to use them as the GE draws closer. If you are a PumaPAC member you have the addy they asked these types of responses be mailed...

Well, they got her.Debra Bartoshevich, the duly elected Democratic Party delegate for Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin who vowed undying loyalty to the former first lady, has been dumped by the state party and barred from attending the Democratic National Convention in Denver next month.According to the Associated Press, the state party's administrative committee has officially whacked Bartoshevich from the 92-member delegation.(snip)"No self-respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her," Bartoshevich told a local journalist. "That's by Susan B. Anthony."

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) introduced a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College on Friday, less than a week after the Democrats settled on how to handle delegates from Florida at their national convention. “It’s time for Congress to really give Americans the power of one-person, one-vote, instead of the political machinery selecting candidates and electing our president,” Nelson said in a release announcing the amendment. Nelson had announced he would offer the legislation in an address to his state’s senate in March. Nelson said his principal argument for making the change is that the Electoral College permits a candidate...