The Daily Mail’s Ry Rivard today previewed stepped up campaigns by Rep. Nick J. Rahall and his Republican challenger, Spike Maynard. The article highlighted a new television spot in which Maynard brags about being “for coal” and attacks what he calls the Obama administration’s “war on coal.” Says Maynard:
I’m for coal, that’s what this election is about.
Not mentioned? Maynard’s close relationship with Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship … or Maynard’s stance on whether workers in the coal industry ought to be able to go to work every day without being hurt or killed on the job.
Remember that Maynard criticized then-Supreme Court candidate (and now Justice) Menis Ketchum for suggesting that coal miners Don Bragg and Ellery Hatfield didn’t have to die in the January 2006 fire at Massey’s Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine. Wrote Maynard, in an e-mail to Blankenship:
This one you gotta see — Aracoma is mentioned — you could have prevented it if you had only operated the mine properly according to Menis.
We now know, of course, that Massey’s Aracoma Coal Co. subsidiary pleaded guilty in federal court to 10 criminal charges, including one felony, and paid $2.5 million in criminal fines. In the plea agreement, Aracoma admitted that one of the violations — the failure to replace a key ventilation wall — “resulted in the deaths” of Bragg and Hatfield.
And years later, 29 miners were killed in a massive explosion at another Massey mine. Federal regulators and mine safety experts say the deaths at Upper Big Branch were also preventable.
Rep. Rahall has co-sponsored tougher mine safety legislation in the wake of Upper Big Branch … will Spike Maynard say if he supports this legislation? Or, does he believe — like his friend Don Blankenship — that sometimes these things just happen?
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Will candidate Maynard release copies of his credit card receipts, showing just who paid for the many expensive meals, drinks, etc. that were enjoyed by Maynard and his companion, in the company of Don Blankenship and his companion, on the infamous Monaco trip?
That might depend on whether the reporters who cover West Virginia politics request those receipts, and ask Maynard serious questions about the details of the trip.
And how about those e-mails that Maynard sent to Blankenship, that Maynard refused to release when he was a Supreme Court Justice? Will he release them now that he’s a candidate? And how about the Monaco pictures that were filed under seal and have never been disclosed? What’s being hidden here?
Go, reporters! Public — stay tuned!
If Maynard (R-Blankenship) is “for” coal, are we to understand his opponent, Nick Rahall (D-Coal)? From my perspective, that’s a ludicrous claim, even if only by allusion.
Where mountaintop removal is concerned, there’s no appreciable difference between Rahall and Maynard. I wish I could be at the upcoming “debate” in order to ask “OK, fellas: which one of you loves mountaintop removal MORE?” The result could be almost humorous, if the topic itself wasn’t so odious, as the two fell about swearing allegiance to the Friends of Coal and composing ad-lib paeans to ruined mountains, poisoned streams and depopulated communities.
As the town of Welch can attest to, “pro coal” is only a temporal condition. When the coal is gone, the people who live in the “coal fields” (if even able to) will be left with poisoned streams, lopped off mountains bared of trees and valleys filled with waste. The jobs will be gone and what business will want to pursue an area where water is polluted and ground subsidence is a problem? As a collective, the community will be saying, ” when we go to heaven, the land of our dreams, we won’t have to worry about losing our jobs to bad times and big machines”. Procoal is not pro miner and has never been pro miner.
Elizabeth, your points are unrefutable. It is a truly tragic situation.
But we have to find a way to handle this sort of tragedy without losing our humanity and our sense of humor — and our unflinching willingness to see the good in everyone.
Tough assignment, ain’t it?