West Virginia Democratic Senate Candidate Joe Manchin, the current governor who is running in a tight race to fill the vacancy left by the death of Senator Robert Byrd, really loves dirty coal. No really, like a lot. So much so that he brandishes a firearm in a new campaign TV spot to “take aim” at (already deader than a door nail) climate legislation. 

Either Mr. Manchin doesn’t realize that the cap-and-trade bill he slugs in the ad has been dead for months, or he doesn’t care and just wants to shoot a gun at some legislation in a TV ad to appeal to his NRA backers. 

“I’ll take dead aim at the cap-and-trade bill,” Manchin says while firing a bullet from his rifle. “Because it’s bad for West Virginia.” 

Watch it:

The New York Times Green blog wonders:
“Exactly what more Mr. Manchin can do to appear pro-coal, short of grabbing a pickax and heading down into the mines himself, remains to be seen.” 

With the endorsement of Massey Energy’s Don Blankenship and the West Virginia Coal Association, it looks like Joe Manchin is a one-shot cowboy, hitching his hopes for a Senate seat on an all-out blitz to maintain West Virginia’s deadly and dangerous coal addiction.