Lame duck sesion

Top 5 Lame Duck Losers For 2010

Brian Beutler | December 24, 2010, 8:27AM

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ)

Until the next Congress starts, the media will have little to prattle on about besides the Democrats lame duck accomplishments. Already lost in the coverage are two key facts: 1.) The Dems' victories came at the expense of Republicans, many of whom really blew it these past few weeks; and 2.) The Democrats didn't win everything.

Here's our list of the lame duck's top five losers.

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Barack Obama

Top 5 Lame Duck Winners For 2010

Brian Beutler | December 24, 2010, 8:25AM

President Barack Obama

Republicans attacked it as a perversion of democracy, and used it as an excuse to continue to vote against Dem priorities. Democrats recognized it as their last chance to accomplish much of anything for the next two years. People in the media mistook it for a Barack Obama renaissance.

Certainly Democrats accomplished more than most people expected they would these last several weeks. But between the victories and the compromises and the defeats, it's hard to keep track of who came out on top.

Here's a list of the lame duck's big winners to help you sort it all out.

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Joe Manchin

Manchin Apologizes For Missing DADT Vote To Attend Family Christmas Party

Eric Kleefeld | December 21, 2010, 5:31PM

Joe Manchin

Freshman Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who has been subjected to much public criticism after he was absent for this past weekend's votes on the DREAM Act and the successful repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in order to attend a family Christmas party -- which his office described as "a family obligation that he just could not break -- is now apologizing for the fumble.

West Virginia MetroNews Network reports:

"Let me apologize to anybody and everybody within our listening and reading areas. I'm very sorry for missing the two votes," Manchin said during a conference call with reporters Tuesday.

Manchin says his oldest daughter is divorced and has one child from that first marriage. She and her ex-husband take turns when it comes to custody on the Christmas holiday.

...

"Saturday was our Christmas and Saturday evening was our Christmas dinner. I got up Sunday and came back to Washington to make the votes I had to make," he said.

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Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Joe Manchin Skipped DREAM And DADT Votes For A Christmas Party

Jillian Rayfield | December 18, 2010, 5:42PM

Joe Manchin

After the Senate broke a GOP filibuster on Don't Ask, Don't Tell earlier today, Sen. Joe Manchin released a statement saying he had concerns about the "timing" and "implementation" of a repeal.

But it seems he took even more issue with the timing of the vote itself, seeing as he skipped the vote altogether to attend a Christmas party.

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Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Manchin Explains His No Vote On DADT

Evan McMorris-Santoro | December 9, 2010, 6:55PM

Joe Manchin

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), one of the Senate's freshest faces, broke with his party today and voted no on the cloture vote that would have likely moved Don't Ask, Don't Tell one step closer to an eventual repeal. After the vote, one Democratic aide said Manchin's vote was something of a stunt, coming as it did while cloture was sure to fail thanks to Republican opposition. The aide claimed that the former Governor of West Virginia wouldn't allow himself to be the vote that stops repeal from going forward.

In a statement to reporters tonight, Manchin suggested that as long as a vote on repealing DADT comes this year, he'll be more than willing to shut it down.

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Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Senate Aide: Manchin 'No' Vote On DADT Was A Stunt

Evan McMorris-Santoro | December 9, 2010, 5:40PM

Joe Manchin

For observers closely following the Don't Ask, Don't Tell proceedings in the Senate over the past several days, it's all been about Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). Her demand to hold four days of debate and allow amendments on the Defense spending bill that included DADT repeal (and do all that after a vote on the tax cuts) essentially doomed the bill to failure, a senior Democratic aide said.

But in the end, when Majority Leader Harry Reid put the bill to a cloture vote this afternoon, Collins voted yes. Republican Sens. Scott Brown (MA) and Lisa Murkowski (AK) -- who also preferred Collins' timetable -- voted no.

So did Joe Manchin (D), the freshly sworn-in Senator from West Virginia, thus helping ensure that ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell in this Congress is extremely difficult, at best.

A senior Democratic aide was unaware if Reid knew Manchin would vote no, but said that the understanding is that Manchin's vote was something of a stunt.

"If he was somehow the 60th vote, I don't think he would have voted the way he did," the aide said.

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2012 elections

DeMint Targets Red-State Dem Senators In Fundraising Email

Eric Kleefeld | December 2, 2010, 9:42AM

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)

Sen. Jim DeMint is already hitting the virtual campaign trail for the 2012 Senate races, National Journal reports, with his Senate Conservatives Fund leadership PAC sending out a fundraising email targeting four red-state Democrats who voted against the earmark moratorium.

The targeted Senators are Jon Tester (D-MT), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Kent Conrad (D-ND) and the newly-elected Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who just won a special election and is up for a vote again in 2012. All four of them hail from states that were carried by John McCain in 2008.

"These senators are nice folks but they have ignored the will of the American people and they must be replaced with principled conservatives in 2012," DeMint says in the email. "That's where the Senate Conservatives Fund comes in and it's where you can help."

DeMint then adds that his PAC will need "at least $4 million" for these four targeted races.