Deft handling of mine disasters propels popularity of W.Va. governor

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- For nearly a month, Gov. Joe Manchin has been a fixture on front pages and television news shows, handling back-to-back coal mining tragedies with care, compassion and a commitment to action.

It took him a day to usher a landmark mine-safety bill through the state legislature. Then the Democrat went to Washington to urge federal lawmakers to do the same.

"I'm a Republican, but if I ever meet the man, I will shake his hand because he has done a great job," said Donald Boylen, a retired coal miner who knew some of the 12 men who died after a Jan. 2 explosion at International Coal Group's Sago Mine.

Manchin spent nearly 90 hours with miners' families over three weeks, first at Sago, then at Aracoma Coal's Alma No. 1 mine in Melville, where a conveyor belt fire on Jan. 19 killed two men.

"There's no other governor who's done that. There's governors who came and left, but he came and stayed," said Boylen, 66. "The miners I've talked to praise him for that. ... He's the best governor we've ever had."

Even Republican leaders are won over by what Gary Abernathy, former executive director of the state GOP, called an "excellent political response." U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., dubbed Manchin "comforter-in-chief."

Manchin, 58, a former legislator and secretary of state, was born into a prominent political family but says he's not thinking about taking his career to a national level.

"The only job that I'm interested in is what I do now. This is the greatest job in the world," he said. "You can do something. You can make a difference. ... I've never thought about another job."

Some say he should.

As the leader of a swing state in presidential races, Manchin could be an appealing vice presidential candidate in 2008, especially with his handling of the mine safety legislation, said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

"The legislation might have passed if he had waited, but it would have been on Page 8 of the nation's newspapers," Sabato said.

Instead, it was Page 1.

"For some reason, we have a perfect politician coping with a perfect storm of tragedy and national attention," said Robert Rupp, a political science professor at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, near the Sago Mine.

Manchin's statesmanship bodes well for him, although there are many contenders for 2008, said Amaya Smith, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee.

"If it's something he's interested in, he could be a good candidate," she said.

State Democratic Party Chairman Nick Casey is happy the rest of the nation now knows what he's known for years. He says Manchin, who lost an uncle in the 1968 explosion that killed 78 coal miners at Farmington, acts from the heart.

"That was just Joe Manchin's character showing itself through," Casey said.

"He's always been a compassionate, caring and very effective communicator," Casey said. "We've got a person who is the right stuff, if you would, for leadership."

In his online political column this week, Abernathy wrote that Manchin is one of the "purest political animals" he's ever met.

"You have to be a permanent enrollee in the School of Naivete to think Joe and his brain trust are not considering the future political opportunities that are availing themselves to the governor based on his post-Sago activities," Abernathy wrote. "It's how politicians think. It's frankly how politicians should think."

Whether Manchin can maintains the momentum remains to be seen, but to the families of 14 dead miners, his new law is already his legacy, and he's only in his first term.

"Manchin is doing what he said we would do," said John Groves, a Republican whose brother Jerry died at the Sago Mine. "The governor, in the long term, will be responsible for saving lives."