"I respectfully request the opportunity to serve as a member of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction created by the Budget Control Act of 2011...If selected, I will commit to working across party lines to achieve commonsense solutions, and I believe that my record demonstrates a strong capacity to accomplish these goals."

So wrote West Virginia's junior senator Joe Manchin to Majority Leader Harry Reid last week.  In support of this application, and in an appearance with Neil Cavuto on Fox, Manchin cited his practical experience as a Governor, commitment to fiscal responsibility and capacity to work with Republicans.

Reid's response was to name three hacks: two high-profile Senate budget and finance committee members distinguished for their role in the Senate's failure to deliver a budget since the 2008 fiscal year began, and the finely tailored and coiffed John Kerry, who like Manchin' s equally insufferable senior colleague from West Virginia, owes his lifestyle of the rich and famous to the exertions of others.

So how about it Joe? What lesson do you draw from the bum's rush from Harry about the possibilities for a centrist Democrat in the Party of Obama? You might want to consider the failed promise of a neighboring Democratic Senator, who talked and wrote a great game about the rugged independence of the liberty-loving Scots Irish who crossed the mountains and made what is now Virginia and West Virginia. Unfortunately, that Senator failed to rise to the occasion and vote "no" when the ObamaCare juggernaut made a mockery of the individual freedom and independent spirit he so eloquently celebrated. Now that you have been dismissed will you just get back in line and accept that your senior colleague's brand of orthodox paternalism and contempt for the economic system that keeps him in Chambertin really represents the best interests of West Virginians?  Or will you join the new majority?