{"id":625,"date":"2013-11-09T17:41:59","date_gmt":"2013-11-09T22:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=625"},"modified":"2013-11-09T17:41:59","modified_gmt":"2013-11-09T22:41:59","slug":"ed-rabel-running-for-congress-in-west-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=625","title":{"rendered":"Ed Rabel Running for Congress in West Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former CBS News correspondent Ed Rabel is running for Congress.\u00a0Right here in West Virginia, the state where he was born and raised. <\/span>Right here in the Second Congressional District. <\/span>For the seat being vacated by Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito.<\/span><\/p>\n

And Rabel is running not as a Democrat.\u00a0Nor as a Republican. But as an independent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Up until this year, Rabel was a Democrat.\u00a0And he says he did consider running as a Democrat.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, Rabel was asked to speak at a rally of the Kanawha County Democrats three days before the 2012 election.<\/p>\n

His speech<\/a> to the Democrats was like a slap in the face to both the Democrats and Republicans, both \u201cfriends of coal,\u201d consumed as they are with Washington\u2019s \u201cwar on coal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf our history is any guide, we should be trumpeting the rights of the working man, promoting diversity both in human rights and in the economy and jumping on the bandwagon for an environment free of pollution and the cancer it causes,\u201d Rabel said. \u201cIf we would be true to ourselves, we should be forestalling the endless theft of our patrimony by those outside our state who bear us nothing but ill will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we truly pay homage to our founding as Mountaineers Always Free, we would be about the business of freedom — freedom from a one-dimensional economy, freedom from the tyranny of political corruption in state and local government and freedom to choose progressive leaders to spur us on in the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n

After giving the speech, Rabel realized that the Democratic Party in West Virginia was not for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw that there really isn\u2019t much difference between the Democrats and the Republicans,\u201d Rabel said. \u201cVoters are fed up with them and that\u2019s why voter turnout is so low.\u00a0Last year, West Virginia was the only state where turnout was lower than 50 percent. And among the young, turnout dropped by half to less than 23 percent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m saying what Democrats ought to be saying but can\u2019t say because they are in bed with special interest groups that fund both parties,\u201d Rabel said.<\/p>\n

Last year, Rabel published his memoirs — Ed Rabel Reports: Lies, Wars and Other Misadventures.<\/a><\/p>\n

After traveling the world as a CBS news correspondent, Rabel came home to West Virginia only to find that things haven\u2019t progressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI struggle to find a balance between knowing what I know to be true on the planet of ideas with listening to the meanderings of a backwoods populace so sure there is no verity beyond grandfather\u2019s accuracy,\u201d Rabel writes. \u201cIt is tough sledding. To my neighbors, wars and rumors of wars, both military and social, are theories to be prayed away and nothing more. . .The Environmental Protection Agency is a Communist conspiracy out to destroy the coal industry on which the populace has pinned its hopes for generations despite unambiguous warnings about the industry\u2019s imminent demise. Only about 20,000 miners are at work today in West Virginia compared to 126,000 in 1948. Wal-Mart, not coal mining, is the biggest private employer in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next year, Rabel will have another book out, a historical novel, titled simply \u201cCoal.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2014, control of the House of Representatives will be up for grabs.<\/p>\n

What if Rabel does well for a third party candidate?\u00a0Let\u2019s say he\u2019s pulling ten percent and is taking away significant points from the Democratic candidate. And Rabel gets a call from President Obama asking him to pull out and throw his support to the Democrat.<\/span><\/p>\n

What will Rabel do?<\/p>\n

\u201cMy intention is to run and win,\u201d Rabel said. \u201cI don\u2019t intend to drop out under any circumstance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabel will be visiting the Eastern Panhandle this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m appealing to folks who are disgusted with the Democrats and the Republicans,\u201d Rabel told Shepherd University\u2019s WSHC<\/a> last month. \u201cIf we continue to vote time after time after time for these politicians who do not serve us well — that\u2019s a classic definition of insanity — doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting a different outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former CBS News correspondent Ed Rabel is running for Congress.\u00a0Right here in West Virginia, the state where he was born and raised. Right here in the Second Congressional District. For the seat being vacated by Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito. And … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}