exactly, he's a dinosaur, if not THE dinosaur being the longest serving senator, hence the smiley at the thought of it :) He had to be mentioned though as one of the only democrats with a spine.

We are facing an almost parallel situation here, the only reason the leader of the federal "liberal" opposition is still leader is that they're waiting till after the state election is over, as a change at federal level would impact the current state office holder "liberal" government's campaign during the current election.

currently the federal government is conservative and the state governments are liberal.. it tends to happen that way.. I think the public hedge their bets that way.

there are only 3 concievable replacements, one is a former opposition leader that lost the last two elections by slim margins but would be perfect to mop up our current mess, but he has ruled out coming back to the front bench.
Another who is probably the most realistic chance is not populist enough and doesn't have the profile and the third is a loudmouth member of the right side of the party that has poisoned his chances by being too brutal, if only honest.
so theres really only one possibility and I don't think he's going to be able to do it as the conservative replacement is more liberal that the current leader and will benefit from a "softly softly" approach back to centre politics

Dubya will be re-elected.. Nobody else has a candidate!

My poor misinformed friend. I live in West Virginia - We are the state that had kept Byrd in office for the last 50+ years.

So trust me on this one.... There was a day, many many years ago, that Byrd was a saint to the people here.

Over the last 10-12 years - the ol boy has pretty much lost his mind. He pissed off everyone in this State when he started in on Bush and the war a month or so ago. West Virginia was overwhelmingly for Bush. It's a sad fact - Byrd does not represent the people here when it comes to Bush or the war.

West Virginia had more men, per capita, than any other state in Korea. - You won't see any "peace demonstrations here".

The only person that compares to Byrd is Kennedy - and there's another one who's time has come and gone.

But it's funny you picked a former KKK leader to stand behind.

:thumbsup doesn't suprise me a bit.

You must not be talking about the same West Virginia because Byrd keeps getting re-elected and everything I've seen says he's extremely popular locally. :1orglaugh

Here is a quote about Byrd:

Senator Byrd has carried all 55 West Virginia counties three times (1970, 1994, and 2000), making him the first person to do so in contested statewide general elections.

In the most recent election he was in, he carried every county in the state. That's a lot more than Bush can say about his election situation.

I did a search on Google and found plenty of anti-war stuff about West Viriginia, including a small peace protest on the day when the other anti-war protests were going on.

Maybe you're just out of touch? :1orglaugh

Allow me to explain...

As far as the "peace march here".... 18 people standing in front of the courthouse isn't really a movement.

The reason Byrd keeps getting relected is the same as Kennedy - it's called power and money - so much power and money you run basicly un-opposed.

I wonder myself... but this is one of those cases where it's power and money - he hasn't campaigned in 20 years - no one here knows or cares what he stands for.

He is what we call a yellow-dog democrat - he votes 100% democratic without regard to one other single factor.

I realize a google search makes you an expert on West Virginia politics - but respectfully - take my word on this one.

I think I heard on Larry King one night that some poll said that the only democrat that a possible chance of beating Bush was Hillary Clinton, and she says she doesn't want to run.

But Bill Clinton ran the Government by polls. :1orglaugh and if anyone think's he didn't just ask him.:Graucho

I stand corrected.....


:winkwink:

Ok n/p:thumbsup

Actually, Hillary ran the Gevernment by polls - the pole she had rammed up Bill's ass.....

But that was when it was verified that it should never be run that way....

:winkwink: