As has been going around all day, it has been reported that Sen. Robert Byrd has been hospitalized and is reported to be “seriously ill”.

Doug Powers reports via the West Virginia Secretary of State’s site that some dates are coming up very shortly when it comes to the governor appointing Byrd’s possible successor.

If the vacancy occurs less than two years and six months before the end of the term, the Governor appoints someone to fill the unexpired term and there is no election. If the vacancy occurs two years and six months or more before the end of the term, the Governor appoints someone to serve until the unexpired term is filled at the conclusion of the next candidate filing period, Primary Election, General Election and certification. The winner of that General Election fills the balance of the unexpired term. The election for the full term will be held as scheduled regardless of the date of the vacancy.

Over at Salon.com, Steve Kornacki explains these the dates:

As others have noted, the key date here is July 3 — next Saturday. Under West Virginia law, were a vacancy to be declared before then, an appointee would hold the seat through this November, when a special election would be held to fill the final two years on the term Byrd was elected to in 2006. The winner of that special election would presumably seek a full term in 2012. Were a vacancy to be declared after July 3, an appointee would hold the seat through the 2012 election, when the full six-year term would be up.

Also, as Powers mentions, the Saturday date seems like a non-starter:

A glance at Byrd’s laundry list of missed votes since late March is evidence that his Senate seat has in fact been mostly vacant for some time, so the odds that the seat would be declared “vacant” by next Saturday no matter what happens are very slim indeed.

This also brings up something that Mark Levin has mentioned several times over the last several months. That of how the Democrat’s majority in the Senate is very tainted. As it stands, out of the 59 current Democrat senators (including Byrd), five of them were appointed by their state’s governors, one is completely illegitimate due to naked vote fraud (Franken) and now we face the prospect of a sixth one being appointed. In reality, the Dems would then have only 52 sitting senators who were duly elected. (again I am not counting Franken as duly elected)

This type of gerrymandering has made it a LOT easier both for Obama and Reid to get their leftist agenda passed and made it much, much harder for the GOP to mount filibusters. Especially when there are turncoats like McCain, Snowes, Collins and Graham who have to be politically babysat whenever there is an important vote.

Granted, that will change in spades come November, but so much damage has already been done to this country at all levels with a tainted President and a tainted senate that it is enough to make a one a lifetime subscriber to Tums.com.

UPDATE:

Byrd has passed.

From the New York Times:

Robert C. Byrd, who used his record tenure as a United States senator to fight for the primacy of the legislative branch of government and to build a modern West Virginia with vast amounts of federal money, died early Monday. He was 92.

His office said he died about 3 a.m. at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Va. Senator Byrd, who lived in McLean, Va., had been admitted to the hospital late last week with symptoms of heat exhaustion and severe dehydration as temperatures in the Washington area approached 100 degrees. Though he was initially expected to be released after a few days, his condition deteriorated. He had been in failing health for several years.

• 

• Tweet

Not much else to say about this. Prager nails it all on the head.

• 

• Tweet

As the Obama/Biden Mirror Universe Porkulous Tour continues, you knew it would be just a matter of time until we would get another “Joe the Plumber” moment.

As Old Plugs was at a local custard shop earlier today, the following transpired. (Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin via Weasel Zippers)

[Biden] was appearing with Democrat Sen. Russ Feingold. The two were eating custard there, and when Biden approached the manager with some money and asked, “What do I owe you,” the manager just responded, “Lower our taxes and we’ll call it even.” Biden later jokingly called the manager a “smart-ass,” telling him, “Why don’t you say something nice?”

Notice that Plugs does not even know he was in a custard shop and had to be told that he was NOT in an ice cream shop. He then returns to the manager and starts being the pompous ass he has always been by getting nasty with the manager and saying, “Why don’t you say something nice?”

The RNC for once, had a good response:

Ryan Tronovitch, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, issued a statement criticizing the vice president’s visit to Wisconsin.

“Knowing Vice President Biden and Senator Feingold, it wouldn’t surprise me if they called Biden’s time behind the counter at Kopp’s Frozen Custard a job saved or created in Wisconsin.” Tronovitch said. “Biden probably decided not to take questions today because he didn’t want to fess up as to why Wisconsin has lost over 73,000 jobs since the stimulus was enacted and why the state’s unemployment rate has jumped from 7.7% to 8.2% when it was promised that the stimulus would be the savior to our economy.”

Doug Powers sums it nicely:

In the end though, the custard shop manager said that Biden “had a good personality” — a “compliment” usually reserved for a blind date that turns out to be a double-bagger. In a similar sense politically, it’s also the perfect description for the steaming pile of “stimulus” Biden’s charged with convincing us is a real looker.

• 

• Tweet

Just like his fellow comrade-in-arms, John “It takes a long a time…to put legislation together to control the people” Dingell, Rep. Paul Kanjorksi (D-PA) has uttered a nice juicy Joe-Biden-Foot-in-Mouth quote.

Hat Tip: Creative Minority:

The quote:

We’re giving relief to people that I deal with in my office every day now unfortunately. But because of the longevity of this recession, these are people — and they’re not minorities and they’re not defective and they’re not all the things you’d like to insinuate that these programs are about — these are average, good American people,” Kanjorski states.

So does that mean that according to the Congressman that someone like Obama is defective? The stupidity and arrogance of the small Democrat mind knows no bounds.

• 

• Tweet

You know things are bad when you have to start having a yard sale to pay for your overspending ways.

From the UK Guardian:

There’s little that shouts “seriously rich” as much as a little island in the sun to call your own. For Sir Richard Branson it is Neckar in the Caribbean, the billionaire Barclay brothers prefer Brecqhou in the Channel Islands, while Aristotle Onassis married Jackie Kennedy on Skorpios, his Greek hideway.

Now Greece is making it easier for the rich and famous to fulfill their dreams by preparing to sell, or offering long-term leases on, some of its 6,000 sunkissed islands in a desperate attempt to repay its mountainous debts.

The Guardian has learned that an area in Mykonos, one of Greece’s top tourist destinations, is one of the sites for sale. The area is one-third owned by the government, which is looking for a buyer willing to inject capital and develop a luxury tourism complex, according to a source close to the negotiations.

Potential investors also looking at property on the island of Rhodes, are mostly Russian and Chinese. Investors in both countries are looking for a little bit of the Mediterranean as holiday destinations for their increasingly affluent populations. Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea football club, is among those understood to be interested, although a spokesman denied he was about to invest.

Greece has embarked on the desperate measures after being pushed into a €110bn (£90bn) bailout by the EU and the IMF last month, following a decade of overspending and after jittery investors raised borrowing costs to unbearable levels.

Wow, even parts of Mykonos are on the block. That would about the same as putting parts of the Hawaiian islands on CraigsList. Granted, with the way this President and Congress are pissing away the entire national treasury, the only thing left here will be one of John Kerry’s mansions and a ham sandwich.

• 

• Tweet

Since I mentioned Rep. Mike Castle in my previous post, this is the perfect time to mention his GOP opponent in the September 14 primary. That being Christine O’Donnell.

To be honest, I personally had little to no knowledge of Mrs. O’Donnell prior to her appearance about an hour ago on The Mark Levin Show. (listen to the interview here)

However, after listening to her, she looks to be another in an ever-growing line of solid, Reaganite, small-government Constitutionalists that are needed so desperately on Capitol Hill right now.

As for Castle, he voted for TARP, the so-called “stimulus”, Cap and Trade, Cash for Clunkers, the Omnibus budget resolution, taxpayer funding for Planned Abortionhood, voted against missile defense, the Iraq War surge and has an F rating from the NRA, among many other lowlights. And now he has just cast a deciding vote that enabled passage of the greatest attack on the First Amendment in modern times. The Orwellian named “Disclosure Act”.

It is past time to remove this menace from the Hill and elect a solid conservative like Christine McDonald.

Please go here to donate to her campaign.

• 

• Tweet

This is certainly a low point in the history of Congress. Stalin, Lenin and Mao would be proud.

From Bloomberg:

June 24 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. House, responding to a U.S. Supreme Court decision removing limits on corporate-and union-funded campaign spending, approved legislation requiring groups that air political ads to disclose who paid for them.

The legislation, passed 219-206, was spurred by the court’s decision in January that overturned a decades-old ban on companies using general-treasury money to run campaign ads supporting or opposing a candidate. The ruling, in effect, lifted such limits on union spending.

Two Republicans, Michael Castle of Delaware and Anh “Joseph” Cao of Louisiana, joined 217 Democrats in backing the bill. Voting no were 170 Republicans and 36 Democrats. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration, where its prospects are unclear.

Lawmakers supporting the bill said advocacy groups that receive corporate or union money to run ads should disclose the funding sources.

“This legislation restores transparency and accountability to federal campaigns and ensures that Americans know when Wall Street, big oil and health insurers are the ones behind political advertisements,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.

Republican Criticism

Republicans portrayed the measure as an assault on the First Amendment. They said the measure favored some groups, like unions, over others, rendering it unconstitutional.

“We’re so cavalierly dealing with the First Amendment,” said Representative Daniel Lungren, a California Republican. “We’re so cavalierly dealing with free speech.”

The bill would affect all political advertising, including so-called issue ads designed to elect particular candidates without directly asking voters to support or oppose them.

It would require corporations and unions to disclose all political spending, including contributions to outside groups that now would also be required to disclose their donors.

Corporate chief executive officers would have to appear in ads run by the company and say they approve of the message, as candidates are required to do.

In short, free speech would be licensed and parceled out according to the whims whoever is sitting in the offices of the FCC. And if you are not a member of a favored group that has been given special consideration for exemption (i.e. Unions) then you are out of luck. Especially if you are small business or a conservative grassroots organization, such as your local Tea Party.

Nope, just like East Germany 1957 or North Korea 2010, speech is to be codified and given out like a bowl of soup in a Dickens novel.

And you can thank one, Mike Castle, for helping to prove the margin of victory for the Leninists. Truly a menace and one who needs to be and very well could be removed from office in the GOP September 14 primary. (More on that coming up)

• 

• Tweet