Goodwin's first vote a big winner

It took the newest and youngest member of the U.S. Senate to tip the scales in favor of sanity and compassion in Washington today.

Sen. Carte Goodwin (D) of West Virginia cast a key vote in favor of unemployment-extension funding within minutes of being sworn in. The 36-year-old succeeded the late Sen. Robert Byrd. His vote was met with applause.

While the state will hold a special election in November to fill the Byrd spot, Goodwin's interim appointment by the governor of West Virginia means that millions of Americans who are still looking for work will receive some financial assistance from a benefit program they helped fund while they were employed. As a result, the economy should see modest improvements. I should add that contrary to Republican propaganda, one actually has to be able to prove they are seeking work to qualify for benefits. They have to do so on a weekly basis. This is not welfare. It is a benefit acquired while working. Extensions have been routinely funded by both parties in hard times until current Republicans began suspiciously blocking the latest measure several weeks ago.

Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh went on the radio today once again misrepresenting the unemployment debate. He called the extension another "welfare" program and failed to recognize that well-intentioned Americans are facing unprecedented obstacles in finding work.

I predict that the more Limbaugh portrays unemployed Americans as enemies of the state, the more backlash the GOP will feel in November. He may even lose some of his audience. Too many people are out of work or know people who lost their jobs for voters not to realize that Limbaugh and the right wing are on the absolute wrong side of this issue. They want the economy to fail in order to win seats in Congress in November. And if that means more jobless Americans on the street, that seems to be fine with the Grand Old Party for now, particularly if it creates more voter discontent.

Of course, it's hard for people like Limbaugh, broadcasting from his waterfront mansion/compound in Florida, to relate to the hardships that have fallen upon average Americans. People who are learning the facts tend to believe that the Republicans tried to the block the unemployment extension for their own gain. This was a cold and calculated political stance. A selfish, manipulative position that had little to do with the deficit.

Democrats need to remind voters in the fall who stood for average Americans down on their luck and who tried to halt unemployment benefits while continuing to be advocate spending billions on wars that can't be won and tax cuts for the wealthy -- wealthy like Limbaugh.