That would be Carte Goodwin.
Gov. Joe Manchin today appointed Carte Goodwin, a Democrat, to replace the late Sen. Robert Byrd as the second U.S. senator from the Mountain State. Goodwin, 36, a Charleston lawyer who served as Manchin's general counsel for three and a half years, will serve from his swearing in in Washington, D.C. next week until November, when the winner of a special election will take over.
The significance of this new Senator can be easily noted by the Senate schedule:
At 2:15PM on Tuesday, Goodwin will be sworn in.
At 2:30PM on Tuesday, Reid will schedule a Senate vote on the stalled unemployment extension bill, which failed by a single vote last week.
There are 11.8 million more unemployed people than there are available jobs.
There is no historical precedent for unemployment extensions to be cut off when the unemployment rate is still so high.
Of course, none of this will help the 1.4 million Americans who have exhausted all 99 weeks of unemployment benefits. Nor will it help the 52% of unemployed people who aren't eligible for unemployment benefits.
On the other side of the aisle, Republicans are increasingly concerned with the budget deficit...at least when it comes to unemployment benefits. Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) clearly listed his priorities this week.
WALLACE: We’re running out of time, so how are you going to pay $678 billion just on the tax cuts for people making more than $250,000 a year?
KYL: You should never raise taxes in order to cut taxes. Surely congress has the authority and it would be right, if we decide we want to cut taxes to spur the economy, not to have to raise taxes in order to offset those costs. You do need to offset the cost of increased spending. And that’s what republicans object to. But you should never have to offset cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans.
That's pretty clear. We don't have to cut spending to offset $678 Billion in tax cuts for the wealthy, but we do need to offset $33 Billion in unemployment benefits to the desperately poor...and not by raising taxes on the rich. The spending offsets would need to come from other services for the working class.
Kyl has intentionally and specifically blocked unemployment benefits unless he gets his way over the expiring estate taxes measure.
Americans disagree with Kyl and the Republicans in the Senate by a 2-to-1 margin.
Meanwhile, 71% of Americans think the economy is still in recession. They aren't buying the "recovery" meme. Consumer sentiment took a huge drop today and leading indicators dropped to recessionary levels.
It's hard to see how an economy based on consumer spending can bounce back with these sorts of numbers.
It's impossible to see how an economy based on consumer spending can bounce back without those unemployment extensions.
All the people suffering without even an unemployment check welcome Goodwin and eagerly await his "yes" vote.
[Update: Goodwin says that he won't run for re-election in November, and that he's unlikely to vote for an energy bill that includes a cap and trade system.