Quivering Chin

No matter how much he tries to slither out from under it....

....or gun it down in bloodthirsty hillybilly gusto, John Raese is not going to remove his "you were for ObamaCare before you were against it" boot from Joe Manchin's helpless throat:

Clearly the Chin let his ambition overpower his strategic political judgment when he lurched at the seat Sheets Byrd vacated to go to hell.  Far shrewder it'd have been for him to let Raese have it for now and then challenge him in 2012, which one would think couldn't possibly be as apocalyptic a cycle for Democrats as this one, even if it proves almost as bad.

Of course, he'd also have to give up his governorship to run for Senate two years from now, which suggests he's not awfully confident of winning next cycle, either.  But the very act of jumping into this sudden special election race while the Kleagle's carcass was still warm can't have had an endearing effect upon West Virginas who had heretofore considered him so overwhelmingly popular.  Indeed, at this point losing to Raese this time looks like the best thing that could happen to Manchin whether he tries again or runs for gubernatorial re-election.

And a Raese win would mean an immediate Republican pickup against the Lame Duck ambush, as would a Mark Kirk win in Illinois, which is the best thing that could happen for everyone else.

Nothing like a win-win, I always say.

UPDATE: Here's the Chin's pro-ObamaCare rant from a year ago.  Looks to me like he's gonna need a bigger gun than he used on cap & tax.