Manchin and the business community made this bed March 17, 2008
If you remember during the 2006 election, Joe Manchin flexed his political muscle.
And, with Joe, the business community flexed its muscle as well.
At the time, Don Blankenship had made clear his intentions for the 2006 elections. To defeat every Democrat running for the House of Delegates in areas of the state where Brent Benjamin defeated Warren McGraw.
Maybe there was a miscalculation on his part to come out so strongly and announce his plans early, but the fact is, it wouldn’t have taken very long to figure out what Don was trying to do.
Plus, Don was trying to make a statement. He was smart enough to realize if the state doesn’t do something bold soon, we were headed for disaster.
So, Don announced the unthinkable. That he would use his muscle and money to defeat as many Democrats as possible and turn the House of Delegates over to the Republicans.
You would think the entire business community would jump for joy. After all, they would be getting a huge boost for a business-friendly state.
Their reaction?
(that’s crickets chirping)
My guess is Don would have given the Republicans a term or two and had the Republicans failed as miserably as the Democrats - he would have tried to oust them as well.
But, that being said, with Blankenship on the warpath, the Democrats all turned to Mojo for some help.
And, Mojo responded.
And, NOW, Mojo is reaping the whirlwind of that decision by trying to control a crazy House of Delegates with leaders like Mike Caputo, Nancy Guthrie, Carrie Webster, and the rest of the liberal band of crazies.
Now, the business community also deserves some blame.
In some cases, they simply sat idly by and allowed Blankenship to do all the heavy lifting. In the worst cases, they were on the dias with Kenny Perdue of the AFL-CIO and the Governor raising the hands of the incumbent Democrats in this race.
The reason?
Well, the business community thought they would be able to keep control of the Democratic asylum and elect Scott Varner, the “business” candidate, as Speaker of the House succeeding Bob Kiss.
See, this is what makes me scratch my head about the business community.
To them, they made the calculation it was a better bet to try to elect even MORE Democrats, defeating Blankenship’s efforts, currying favor with Mojo and TRYING desperately to get Varner elected Speaker than to join Blankenship in his efforts to oust some of these crazies in the House.
As a quick aside, the “business” candidate Scott Varner actually voted for the insane, labor-backed Captive Audience bill in the House.
Ouch. That one caused even my jaw to drop.
That had to be the final kick in the throat to he business community.
Here, the person they had banked on as their savior actually sided with the labor nazis in the House to pass one of the most anti-business laws in the last generation.
Double ouch.
Needless to say, the move to back Mojo’s efforts completely blew up in the business communities’ face with the election of trial lawyer Rick Thompson as Speaker.
And, while Manchin was the hero to the Democrats, he now reaps what he sowed in trying to hold off the lunatic-fringe of his party that now controls one half of one branch of government.
With the departure of at least 7 Senators and maybe as many as 10, the labor forces are licking their chops.
After all, the Senate has been the bulwork against major pieces of labor-backed legislation for the last decade. Labor now sees it as their time to get back on top and run the Legislature based on their whopping 8% of the workforce that they have unionized.
Of course, Speaker Thompson was also savvy.
He invited in the business community to meet. The business community left near giddy.
The Speaker assured them that they would have a seat at the proverbial table. (the business community always loves hearing that)
Of course, the Speaker failed to mention at the head of the table would be one of the most anti-business Delegates as chair of the Judiciary committee - Carrie Webster.
What a slap across the face.
Of course, Carrie quickly proceeded to try to take over the newly private workers’ comp plan. Then of course, when everyone flipped, including the Governor, Carrie went to every major business group saying she was just kidding around and simply wanted Insurance Commish Jane Cline to come to the Legislature and let them know what is going on (never mind that she already does that).
Then, the business community ran to the Speaker again and the Speaker again insured them that everything was going to be Ok. After all, he appointed Charlene Marshall as Economic Development Chair.
Another slap in the face.
Of course, Charlene Marshall, as Economic Development Chair mind you, voted IN FAVOR of the Captive Audience bill as well.
Holy moley.
How would you like to be the business community or Mojo and the HEAD of your Economic Development committee just voted in favor of a bill that would disallow people from speaking to their employees about union drives and sent every single major employer in the state (and those who EVER considered locating in the state) jumping jack-legged?
Even without passage, this legislation sent cold chills down the spines of businesses in the state who quickly went into a frenzy hiring every lobbyist they could find to defeat the bill.
Then, the Speaker, to calm the nerves of Wall Street bond holders and all those concerned about Pensions turned to the most qualified person to take care of our billions of dollars of unfunded liability… yep, that’s right. Heck, maybe THE most qualified person to ever head the Pensions Committee of either House… possibly ever…
Who did he appoint?
Delegate Sharon Spencer.
Geez Louise.
You have to love it.
Here’s hoping I can get a photo of Spencer, in one of her nuttier outfits with a big ol’ hat, leading our Legislature’s and Mojo’s delegation into Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s on Wall Street to calm the nerves of the ratings agencies about the Legislature’s sudden genuflection at the Altar of Labor.
In fact, maybe she should make the trip alone and ’splain the situation to these NYC big-shots.
Wow.
So, instead of jumping in to help the Blankenship effort, the business community sat idly by and allowed the effort to fail and even jumped into some races to protect Democratic incumbants/ Their efforts produced a leadership team including the likes of Mike Caputo, Charlene Marshall, Nancy Guthrie, Tim Manchin, and Mike Burdiss.
Mojo was a hero and now has to be scratching his head.
But, this is a bed of his own making.
Mojo just didn’t realize it would be full of jackrocks.
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9 Responses to “Manchin and the business community made this bed”
Vic,
Your column today would seem perfectly reasonable, if it were not for the fact that the business community does not have the same goals of the Republicans or Don Blankenship.
The Republicans want to see lower taxes, less government, and more individual liberty for our state’s citizens. It seems like Don Blankenship wants the same things, in addition to a fair court system.
The business community though struggles to find ways to get tax breaks for their individual companies or industries, or minor modifications to regulations to help them achieve an advantage over their competitors, if there are any. They do this all under the guise of being “pro-jobs.”
In reality, only the free market will actually create new jobs and new investment in our state. The other 49 states recognize that we are in a GLOBAL economy, while our state struggles to compete in a regional one. The only jobs being created by the business community are at quasi-government agencies like Brickstreet. The only jobs being saved are their own lobbying positions and those of Democrat legislators.
For the business community to not understand that their only hope for true success is a viable two party system is proof that they don’t actually want to achieve the goals they claim to possess.
Businesses in our state get exactly what they deserve for allowing this to continue. They deserve Governor Joe “all of the prosperity we are having” Manchin, Justice Menis Ketchum, Speaker Rick Thompson, and Senator Randy White, among about three dozen other fools that squeeze every last dime out of our taxpayers and spit in the face of any prospective company that may want to do business in West Virginia.
Except for the climate–West Virginia is beginning to resemble Haiti w/ Papa Doc Manchin in charge. Seems that the legislature and business community are his enforcement troops to totally gut whatever economy we had left.
Remember, it is all about THEIR power. Nothing is really about the state or its citizens.
I suggest reading Russ Weeks’ book: “No Strings Attached” (available from Amazon–surprise, surprise, not easy to find IN WV). No wonder he and several others were targeted for removal from the WV Senate and House of Delegates. Joe and his colleagues in the decades of corruption are not about have anyone suggest reform to them.
The problem with west virginia is that we have a majority of NON THINKERS!
It doesn’t matter if you call yourself democrat, republican, independent or not. We are more bound by tradition than thinking.
Tradition is good in a moral, spiritual and family sense but not in a voting sense. Vote democrat or for certain names, etc. With a large part of our state not thinking thing thru made BLANKENSHIPS effort pointless.
Don was right in what he did, but it feel on DEAF BRAINS!
Yes, we have too many DEAF BRAINS in WV. With that I don’t know if the state can be changed.
I like Don Blankenship.
Maybe if the Democrats earned their money the same way that he has (he worked for it) instead of stealing it from the taxpayers they’d have a better appreciation of how the rest of the people in the state feel.
It’s not about what’s best for WV overall. It’s about what benefits the good-ol’-boy network. That’s why there is this incestual relationship between WV business and the whacked-out Democrat legislators. As long as the good-ol’-boy network is sustained or advanced, all else is moot.
Seems like business isn’t doing too well anywhere in this country. Matter of fact seems like we might be facing a recession. Manchin’s fault?
I got an email with these details, for what its worth:
LAST NIGHTS SESSION WAS ONLY THE FOURTH TIME IN 176 YEARS THAT CONGRESS CLOSED ITS DOORS TO THE PUBLIC!
Word has begun leaking from last nights special, closed-door session of the United States House of Representatives.
Not only did members discuss new surveillance provisions as was the publicly stated reason for the closed door session, they also discussed:
the imminent collapse of the U.S. economy to occur by September 2008,the imminent collapse of US federal government finances by February 2009,the possibility of Civil War inside the USA as a result of the collapse,advance round-ups of “insurgent U.S. citizens” likely to move against the government,The detention of those rounded-up at “REX 84″ camps constructed throughout the USA,the possibility of retaliation against members of Congress for the collapses,the location of “safe facilities” for members of Congress and their families to reside during expected massive civil unrest,the necessary and unavoidable merger of the United States with Canada (for its natural resources) and with Mexico (for its cheap labor pool),the issuance of a new currency - THE AMERO - for all three nations as the proposed solution to the coming economic armageddon.
Members of Congress were FORBIDDEN to reveal what was discussed. Several are so furious and concerned about the future of the country, they have begun leaking info. More details coming later today and over the weekend.
A major problem with the WV Legislature is the need for most Democrats to “vote with leadership.” It would be a great project, if anyone were willing to take it on, to look at the voting records and see how many times the Democrats vote with leadership and compare that to the Republican votes. I doubt you would find many Democrat NO votes. Has anyone read the book, “Animal Farm?”
Sounds to me like more articles will be written about West Virginia in the Wall Street Journal.
Ever notice how Toyota came here and has never been bothered by Unionization drives, got a new bridge in Buffalo and we suddenly got funding to 4 lane Route 35 only from I-64 to the new Buffalo bridge ?
Also notice how the Union hall on route 35 between John Amos plant and Winfield changed their sign from “Foreign Cars NOT Welcome” to “Buy Union”