Breaking Out of West Virginia

It was a done deal that there wasn’t going to be an election to fill Robert Byrd’s seat until 2012. But now it’s not so done. West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) just held a press conference and announced that he would try to hold a special election this year — which is what Republicans have been dreaming of and pressing for. Manchin still says he won’t appoint himself to the seat. But he says he may himself run in the special.