Joe Manchin absent for two major Senate votes

[Lasher]

Joe Manchin absent for two major Senate votes

When the Senate took two of its most highly anticipated votes of the lame-duck session on Saturday, West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin was nowhere to be found.

Manchin, who was sworn into office last month after winning a special election for the seat of the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), was the only Senate Democrat to miss Saturday's votes on two of his party's signature pieces of legislation, the DREAM Act and the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" law banning gay people from serving openly in the military.

Sen. Joe Liberman (I-Conn.), who spearheaded the "don't ask, don't tell" repeal effort, told reporters Saturday afternoon that Manchin told him he'd be out of town for "a family thing."

A Manchin spokesperson told the Charleston Gazette that the senator and his wife had "planned a holiday gathering over a year ago with all their children and grandchildren as they will not all be together on Christmas Day."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/12/joe-manchin-absent-for-dream-a.html

Joe would have voted against both measures, had he been present.

[davidinalameda]

1. not sure if him missing these votes was a bad thing

he would have voted no

better for him to miss them than to vote no

but missing them was completely uncalled for

I'm sure his family could have waited a few hours until he was done voting

[Lasher]

2. Right, but a cowardly thing.

The family thing as an excuse as you have noted. This way he somewhat escaped national exposure as the DINO he truly is, while at the same time avoiding the wrath of many West Virginians who didn't want him to vote yes.

[MadAnne]

3. He's on the front page of the Huff Po

not sure he's escaped attention. He pissed off conservatives by not voting no and the rest by not voting yes. I've always thought Manchin had good political instincts, but it doesn't look like it now.

The very least he could do is vote.

[davidinalameda]

4. there's a story on the front of the Wheeling paper too

they did endorse him over Raese

[MadAnne]

5. And here and here.

http://news.google.com/news/story?ncl=http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/12/027952.php&hl=en&geo=us

[davidinalameda]

6. smack!

:rofl:

[Lasher]

7. I guess you're right.

He was trying to be cute and ended up stepping on his tallywhacker.

[Kurmudgeon]

8. ...ended up stepping on his tallywhacker.

Better Manchin stepping on his private parts than another WV politician like Capito goosestepping to the right wing. If it had been Raese, I'm sure the "liberal" media wouldn't have even noticed.

[Kurmudgeon]

9. Dubya was cowardly, this was real politik.

[WVRICK13]

10. Nothing New Here

Manchin is an ASS, always has been always will be. We had a choice between swimming in the septic tank or wading in the septic tank. Either way we had shit to vote for in the last election.