Today, Rand Paul, the GOP nominee to replace outgoing Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning (R), weighed in on the disaster:

“We had a mining accident that was very tragic,” he told Good Morning America. “But then we come in and it’s always someone’s fault. Maybe sometimes accidents happen.”

Sometimes accidents happen? The Associated Press notes the safety history at the mine since 2009:

Records show inspectors from the Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing have issued 31 orders to close sections of the mine or to shut down equipment because of safety violations since January 2009. Those records also show an additional 44 citations for safety violations that didn’t result in closure orders.

MSHA records show the mine was cited 840 times by federal inspectors for safety violations since January 2009, and 11 times closure orders were issued.

Here at TWI, we tallied the safety violations at Dotiki this year:

Since the start of the year, the mine has tallied 214 citations for federal safety violations, according to data compiled by the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Sixty-five of those were deemed “significant and substantial,” indicating that they are “reasonably likely to result in a reasonably serious injury or illness.” Eleven of them are related to roof-support systems, the failure of which is the likely cause of last night’s collapse.

And the Charleston Gazette’s Ken Ward Jr. pointed out the not-so-wonderful record of fatal accidents that Alliance Resource Partners has accumulated in recent years:

We don’ t have any idea yet what caused the massive roof fall that has left two miners missing at Craft’s Dotiki Mine in Western Kentucky … But we do know that in recent years miners have died in Alliance’s non-union operations because the company violated mine safety laws. …

A quick check of U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration reports revealed seven such incidents that claimed nine lives in the last five years alone:

The mine’s record hasn’t been lost on Kimberly Freeman Brown, who heads American Rights at Work, a pro-union group. She issued a statement Friday blasting Paul’s comments as “simply bizarre.”

“Obviously,” she said, “he hasn’t read the published reports about the mine disaster in his own state.”

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Republican National Committee identifies ten (10) key public policy positions for the 2010 election cycle, which the Republican National Committee expects its public officials and candidates to support:

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership; and be further

RESOLVED, that a candidate who disagrees with three or more of the above stated public policy position of the Republican National Committee, as identified by the voting record, public statements and/or signed questionnaire of the candidate, shall not be eligible for financial support and endorsement by the Republican National Committee.

It’s a moderate’s world on Capitol Hill right now, and the latest evidence arrived yesterday when the Democratic sponsors of a controversial labor-friendly proposal dropped the bill’s central tenet: A provision allowing unions to organize by getting a simple majority of workers to sign cards in support. Under current law, workers organize unions by secret ballot. The Democrats’ proposal would have given workers the additional option of a public ballot, making it easier to unionize.

The so-called “card check” bill — supported by President Obama — has been labor’s biggest legislative priority this year, prompting a fierce battle with business groups that have spent bill millions to kill the measure. Moderate Democrats like Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) have come out squarely in opposition to the bill, making the party’s 60-member majority irrelevant. Yesterday, those moderates won an enormous concession with the removal of the card-check provision. From The New York Times:

In its place, several Senate and labor officials said, the revised bill would require shorter unionization campaigns and faster elections.

While disappointed with the failure of card check, union leaders argued this would still be an important victory because it would give companies less time to press workers to vote against unionizing.

The move might have changed the support dynamics on Capitol Hill, but it hasn’t changed the lobbying dynamics. Indeed, labor groups are still supporting the underlying bill — the Employee Free Choice Act — while many businesses are still opposing it. The Workforce Fairness Institute, a business group formed to fight EFCA, just shot out an email announcing its continued opposition based on language that forces government arbitration when workers and employers can’t agree on a union contract.

“The most damaging aspect of the bill — the binding arbitration provision, will remain intact,” the group rued.

With Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) suffering poor health, there’s no guarantee that even the diluted proposal can win 60 Senate votes.

Arlen Specter had the right position on Card Check for a grand total of six weeks … this kind of power-hungry flip-flopping is exactly the kind of behavior that upsets Pennsylvania voters — regardless of their party affiliation.

The Toomey campaign hasn’t really tweaked its issue menu or its messaging since this stopped being a primary.

I have known Senator Specter for more than a quarter-century.  He has always been a man of honor and integrity, and a fine public servant.

Senator Specter and I have had a long dialogue about his place in an evolving Republican Party.  We have not always agreed on every issue, but Senator Specter has shown a willingness to work in a bipartisan manner, put people over party, and do what is right for Pennsylvanians and all Americans.

I welcome Senator Specter and his moderate voice to our diverse caucus, and to continuing our open and honest debate about the best way to make life better for the American people.

The news, of course, is causing pandemonium in Washington, where the knee-jerk reaction has been one of wild optimism among Democrats that the switch will somehow be the magic wand that automatically means success for the party’s legislative priorities. Reid’s tempered statement seems to recognize that this won’t be the case on all issues. Indeed, Specter has already made clear that he still plans to oppose the union-friendly Employee Free Choice Act.

Indeed, in his statement, Specter ruled out revisiting his opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act.

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With the 100-day anniversary just one week away, it’s notable that almost all of Obama’s accomplishments so far have been rhetorical, rather than policy-based.

Let’s see … there was the passage of the stimulus bill, the passage of the SCHIP bill, the Afghan surge, the various abortion and stem cell executive orders, etc. and etc.

Now, there have been high-profile setbacks, like the Employee Free Choice Act stalemate and the slow-walking of health care as (in part) a function of President Obama’s troubled nominees, and a case can be made that President George W. Bush had a better first 100 days (the Jim Jeffords switch did not happen until May), but any attempt to equate Obama’s huge rhetorical PR blitzes with a lack of accomplishments is sort of foolish. Republicans are getting rolled on most of the president’s priorities.

“He doesn’t believe this is the appropriate time to introduce this legislation or to be debating it,” Webb spokesperson Jessica Smith confirms to me. “He’s always been a strong supporter of the right to collective bargaining, but as written, he would look towards improving the legislation in a way to make it more fair and equitable.”

As Sargent explains, Webb’s decision could be the dagger that slays the legislation, which would make it easier for workers to organize into unions.

That could be a big deal, because the initial “cloture” vote to allow the bill to be debated, thus overcoming the GOP’s filibuster, is the one that requires 60 votes in the Senate. Labor, obviously, can ill afford to lose another Dem like Webb, particularly with another reliable backer, Senator Dianne Feinstein [D-Calif.], also refusing to say whether she’ll back it.

So fear not, corporate America, if you thought that the labor movement, behind President Obama, would have its way in Washington this year. You were forgetting the power of the Senate filibuster.

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From her statement released yesterday:

I consider both the labor and the business communities to be my friends. However, now that we need all hands on deck, including business and labor, to get our economy moving again, this issue is dividing us. While I may not have been clear about my position in the past, I am stating today that I cannot support Employee Free Choice Act in its current form and I can’t support efforts to bring it to Senate consideration in its current form.

It must be a coincidence that Arkansas-based Wal-Mart — which has donated $38,500 to Lincoln over her career, according to the Center for Responsive Politics — is among the loudest opponents of both the estate tax and card check, right?

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