The Gov Joins Marsden in Getting It Wrong

Properly wanting to fill a vacancy in the state’s Wikipedia entry, The Gov has recently come out with a new idea for a Virginia state song.  He wants to select the bluegrass classic “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?”.

Right song, wrong classification. Make it the official state bluegrass song, not the state song.

So, so very wrong. If you are a bluegrass fan, great song. If you are a follower of music that traces the roots of the country, great song. If you want a song that can be played at state events and rouse folks, or at least not depress them…so very, very wrong.

As BVBL says:

It’s a nice, upbeat song about waiting for a hearse to carry away the body of someone’s dead mother.

Shoot, may as well pick “Near My God to Thee” or “Shall We Gather at the River”.

You cannot blame The Gov for trying. Virginia has been without an official song since 1997, and without a playable state song for years prior to that. “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny”, the former state song with its lyrics of a black man waxing nostalgic for “Old Massa”, doesn’t have a lot of supporters. It seems like everyone has offered a solution. Chuck Colgan pushed for “Shenandoah”, which had the fatal flaw of not referring to Virginia at all. My puckish state Senator The Cooch suggested“The Tax Man”. My delegate David Marsden tryed to roll a log for a constituent and proposed “Virginia, Ever Enshrined”, which sounds more like a celebration of getting admitted into Canton or Cooperstown.

Better to roll with the Shad Plank suggestion of “Highway to Hell” to reflect our current transportation issues.

Now I am not one of those moaning wombats who complains about a situation and fails to offer solutions. I have before and shall again suggest there is an obvious choice. It is a song that is about Virginia, and has the organic benefit that it was written simply to be written, and not for the sole purpose of becoming the state song. As a matter of fact, I will suggest two songs.

The first, and I think the obvious choice, is “Sweet Virginia Breeze” as I argued here. I will not completely repeat my eloquent exposition here, but as I said almost a year ago:

I admit a sentimental attachment to the song…but I know whether played at the normal pace or at a more stately rate it captures the spirit of those of live in and love Virginia…

…This song is not just entertaining, easy to sing, and fun, it is a real song. It was written to be sung and performed just for the sake of doing it, and not created out of whole cloth for the sole purpose of being submitted as the state song. I like the idea of a song that has had people on their feet dancing and singing and not a prim recital piece that would not exist but for someone wanting their little piece of immortality. So, Delegate Marsden, after the pretenders flame out, put up the real thing. Made in Virginia, vibrant for years, guaranteed to please-”Sweet Virginia Breeze”.

I think that captures the situation quite nicely.

So to The Gov, The Cooch, The Colgan, and The Marsden…jump on the bandwagon, and pick the only possible and reasonable choice for the new state song.  Written as a song, written about Virginia, popular and vibrant for going on two generations.  You know it, you love it, you feel it…

SWEET VIRGINIA BREEZE

…should be the new state song.

Have a great weekend!

GOP Loyalty Oath-Silly and Ridiculous

Todays WaPo announces the Virginia GOP will have a loyalty oath in place for next years presidential primary. The language will be:

“I, the undersigned, pledge that I intend to support the nominee of the Republican Party for President.”

RPV Executive Director Charles Judd justified the decision:

“We feel we need the right to say to someone figuratively, ‘If you intend to support the Democrat candidate in the fall general election, you probably shouldn’t help us pick our candidate,’ “

And there, in a nutshell, is the recent history of the Virginia GOP-a reasonable idea carried out badly.

The reasonable idea is having party affiliated folks choose the nominee without the time and travel burdens of a convention or the potential for unreasonable influence by democrats voting in the GOP primary.

Since the GOP is already going to have a convention to choose a senate nominee, I think the GOP should choose its delegates at the State convention. But that is another topic for another time.

The real problem with this solution for a reasonable idea is that it is silly and ridiculous.  All that is needed is destructive and they hit the trifecta.

Many years ago I was putting in some volunteer time at the Vienna Jaycee X-mas Tree lot. As we closed up, I commented to my friend BFIV that they certainly had heavy security on their trees, and that short of adding concertina wire and machine gun nests it seemed exceptionally secure. BFIV agreed, and noted it had cost quite a bit to put up the fencing.  He then sighed and said it was a heavy price to pay to protect tempted people.

His answer perplexed me. He explained that on public sales projects like this there were honest people, dishonest people, and tempted people. The honest would never dream of taking something that didn’t belong them. The dishonest would just cut through the wire-if their cost benefit ratio warranted it, they would find a way to steal a tree. Then there are the tempted folks, those who would normally give no thought to stealing, but who might succumb to temptation if the trees were left unguarded.

I think the same is true here…those that want to vote GOP will, whether they be party loyalists or democrats who want to affect the outcome.  The only people who will be put off by this are those who are not dead set in their intentions.  To that end, this plan is silly.  It won’t truly do what it is intended to do…and if that is the case, why do it? 

If the GOP wants party registration, introduce the legislation.  If not, chuck the whole oath concept.  Besides, loyalty oaths carry the faint echo of McCarthyism.  Such oaths have been tried before by both parties, and never successfully.  Gosh, if you have to do it, use a different term, like “Participation Pledge”.

Oh, and remember those folks who are put off by the loyalty oath?  That is where it gets ridiculous.  These voters, likely independents, are folks you want to attract.  These are voters showing an inclination toward the GOP that might blossom into more consistent voting with the GOP…except they are being cut off from participation.

I really do not see how throwing up roadblocks to keep independents from voting in GOP primaries helps grow the party…and growing the party is what needs to be done.  Promoting participation in the GOP presidential primary is the constructive course of action-not restricting it.

H’mmmm….dang, maybe they DID hit the trifecta

Sean Taylor, RIP…and Respect

Sean Taylor, age 24, starting Free Safety for the Washington Redskins football team, died this AM from complications from a gunshot wound suffered during a break-in at his home.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Taylor family.  I cannot pretend to know what you are feeling, and only hope the peace that knows no understanding or limits will come to you in time.  The loss of a young one, and in such a senseless manner, saddens me. 

But as I flitted about the internet and read comment posted on blogs and news stories, I was stunned by how many felt the need to post comments that were suspicious of the circumstances, or urging others not to idolize the dead player, or asked why this case of a violent death deserved such special attention. Not an iota of sympathy for grieving parents and an orphaned child.

Then there were those who offered up some variation on “tragic, but not surprising.”  Leonard Shapiro’s poison pen letter offered up his words and the self righteous omniscience of Michael Wilbon with the title “Taylor’s Death Is Tragic but Not Surprising“.

I think there is time enough to hash over Sean Taylor’s life and what he did wrong and what he did right. There is enough time investigate the crime and its repercussions later. And all those who have anything to offer but sympathy…that is their right. But are we so lacking in decency that we have to begin to pile on immediately and share our schadenfreude and suspicions with the world in general and the Taylor family in particular?

I urge everyone who has the urge to post with poison pen or self-righteous tone to step back and listen to the better angels of your nature. There is a time to every purpose under heaven, and now is the time for respect. Respect for the family, respect for those who are hurting, and respect for the memory of Sean Taylor.

And, perhaps, consider that we will always remember Brother Taylor as being agile, strong, and brave. He will never wither, never grow old nor grey. But above all, this is a time for respect…and the words of A.E. Houseman

To An Athlete Dying Young

THE time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay,
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl’s.

Wild Eyed Southern Boys at Klines

Sometimes the magical combination of food and music gives you a chance to appreciate what you had and what you have…and if you catch a break, you get to share that moment…

The story really begins 30 years ago.  Like most young boys, when I got my license I was ready to drive anywhere, anytime, and on any errand for my folks.   When I got behind the wheel of the car, two things were certain…it could easily turn into a revenue enhancement opportunity for local government, and there would be Southern Rock playing for the entire trip.  My mother may have had one foot with the Beatles and one foot with Rachmaninoff, and my father liked gospel, but me…I was one with the dueling guitars. 

When I hit the road, Dickie Betts was riding shotgun and Duane Allman and the Van Zant Brothers were in the back seat.  Even as I became pals with Little Feat, Jimmy Buffett, and Thin Lizzy, my first allegiance-through stormy weather, plane crashes, and motorcycle mishaps-were the Southern Boys.

My father didn’t quite get my musical taste, and referred to the groups I liked as those “long haired Redneck Guys”

One evening while I was in college Dad and I headed out to Kline’s Drive-In for our a late evening snack of chili dogs and milkshakes.  I popped in .38 Special, and the first song out was “Wild Eyed Southern Boy”.  I don’t know if it was the music or the cover art, but something got his attention. He had me play the song again, and yet again on the way home. With windows down, warm wind blowing through the car and biting at our ball caps, the the stereo turned “up to 11″, that became our theme song for the rest of the Summer of 1981…although he just referred to it as “that blamed song”

Tempes Fugit…last Monday night my father, now 83, tripped and fell and ended up in the emergency room at PW Hospital. There wasn’t much wrong with him that rest wouldn’t fix, and I checked him out of the hospital after an overnight observation stay.

He seemed sort of wan and weak…and I made a split second diagnosis, based in my thirty+ years practicing as an unlicensed psychologist….

“Dad, there’s only one thing that is going to make you feel better. I prescribe chili dogs.”

He agreed. As we drove out, I turned on my IPod, which by good fortune was on the “Southern Rock” play list. Dad grinned, and said, “you got that blamed song on that thing?”

I did.

We got a sack of chili dogs and wolfed them down so fast we had to address a famous philosophical question: If a man burps in a car, and you don’t see a wrapper, was there ever really a chili dog there?

We headed back into Manassas, with windows down, warm wind blowing through the car and biting at our ball caps, the stereo turned “up to 11″, our once and future theme song blasting for all to hear…just a couple of Wild Eyed Southern Boys. 

For a moment, I knew if I looked up quick I would be able to catch Dicky and the Van Zants in the back seat.

Duane? He is likely be off trying to figure out why his brother married Cher…

My father is 83. He probably can see the clubhouse on a bad day, and I finished the front 9 some years ago. But for a few moments, we were both young again on a warm summer evening with a bellyful of chili and a song in our hearts.

Dickie, Donne, Ronnie, and Duane-thanks for the soundtrack. Kline’s-thank you for catering and for 38 years of teaching me the wisdom of knowing where your next pit-stop will be before eating Chili dogs because, as the late, great Lewis Grizzard once said, “those chili dogs always bark at night.”

Thanks to you all for the memories. Dad and I really appreciate it.

To Paraphrase Conway Haskins…

Happy Thanksgiving, You Princes of Blogs!

Joyous Food Comas, You Kings of New Media!

A safe, joyous, and contented Thanksgiving Holiday to all!

 

…and when you get the chance, pass me the cranberry sauce.

 

 

Is Gilmore Running Scared?

A post by Norm “The great” Leahy has me thinking that Jim Gilmore is frightened and running scared.  Why?  Because his dream scenario is now gone.

Having not won an election since 1997, not held office since 2002, coming in off a failed presidential campaign, Jimbo (his new Delta Tau Chi name) has not had an electoral success to point to as his own since the GOP took over the General Assembly in 1999. It occurs to me that he hoped Tom Davis would run-then he could get back into campaign shape by taking out a formidable challenger, and creating a stronger picture of himself as the fall of 2008 rolled around.

But then Tom Davis stepped out-so no convention win over a strong opponent. No way to show that all the uncertainties and concerns about him are unfounded. But an unopposed race to the nomination, followed by a coronation in June…that’s not so bad.

But it might not work out that way. Now you have folks looking for another candidate. This Chris Saxman guy, well, he is making noise…and not only would he be the undergod, but he has some political skills and geographic/demographic advantages.

Saxman has been a delegate since 2002. He is a conservative from a safe seat in the Shenandoah Valley. No reason to think he is a threat. One would have expected the campaign of a former state Attorney General and Governor, winner of two statewide general elections and a primary, to take the high road…you know, praise Saxman as a future star of the party (focus on future), welcome him to the fray as the GOP seeks to keep the John Warner seat, etc.

Instead, as per reports from Tim Craig’s blog, the Gilmore campaign is following a different tact:

But Dick Leggitt, a senior Gilmore adviser, said he thinks Saxman is bluffing.“He is just trying to raise his name ID because he wants to run for lieutenant governor” in 2009, Leggitt said. “We talked to 20 legislators in the last day and we can’t find anyone who says anything other than this is Gilmore’s nomination.”Leggitt said Saxman is playing a game of “hey, look at me.” He called Saxman “a nice guy, but not a serious candidate.”Saxman was not immediately available for comment.

Leggitt stresses the Republican Party cannot afford a divisive fight for the nomination or the nominee would likely lose to Warner. “We’ve got to unite this party to win,” Leggitt said. “We’ve got to get all the Republicans pulling the plow in the same direction and we don’t underestimate how difficult that will be.”

Before we continue, allow me to note how the mention of Dick Leggit’s involvement does not make me wax poetic about the ultimate success of the Gilmore campaign.

Now it is possible that Leggit’s comments are exactly what they are on their face-dismissing a publicity seeking junior legislator.

But let me offer a different take. It just may be that the Jimbo brain trust put their heads together and thought (do the Wayne’s World wavy hands thing here):

…Now, hold on a second…Saxman is a downstate conservative, with better fiscal achievements than Jimbo. He came to office after Jimbo left, so he cannot be tarred with the Car Tax Fiasco. If he runs, he would pull voters from Jimbo. If he does that, and if the delegates who would have backed Davis decide to get behind Saxman…we could be in a world of hurt…

Party On, Garth.

I don’t know that Saxman is or is not seeking publicity…but I do know that a Gilmore convention win over Davis would be based on scoring tons of delegates downstate to off set more moderate GOP types in NoVa and Tidewater…and if you hook those folks while scavenging folks from downstate that want a conservative and are currently behind Gilmore only because there is no other option…then you have a ballgame.

Perhaps I am reading too much into this, but typically a front runner like Gilmore doesn’t talk smack about unannounced opposition. Leggit’s comments are not those of an operative whose candidate is looking to build the party and encourage the bench, while confident of their own chances of success. They are the comments of someone who is whistling past the graveyard.

This whole GOP thing could get interesting…

The Gilmore Problem

Earlier this week former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore formally announced his candidacy for the GOP nomination for the 2008 US Senate election. His announcement makes his candidacy real and not hypothetical, and should again cause Virginia Republicans to strongly consider who should be the party standard bearer next year. I suggest it should be someone other than Jim Gilmore.

It has been suggested that I am part of an Any Candidate but Gilmore group. This is not accurate. I have written both of Gilmore’s strengths and also how I think his temperment is not what is needed in the US Senate.

If I fall into an acronym group, it is SOTDOG…”Someone Other than Davis or Gilmore”. I lay out the reasons for this here, and seeminly long before anyone else suggested Eric Cantor as a reasonable alternative that would still let all three men be on the ballot in 2008.

The truth is that Cantor will not run for the US Senate. In the wake of JMDD loss to Chap!, Tom Davis has disappeared. We don’t know if he sulks in his tent like Achilles or hides in a cave like Robert the Bruce and plans his next campaign, but we know he won’t be on the Senate ballot next year.

That leaves Brother Jim…and a variety of of reactions.

Some on the Democratic side are so eager for a Gilmore candidacy they claim a search for a new candidate is a betrayal. It isn’t. Many like myself have, while noting Gilmore’s strength’s, have just as readily suggested he has too many chinks in his armor to be a strong candidate against Mark Warner. Others bloggers were Davis guys who were already disenchanted with Gilmore, so seeking a different candidate is just good politics…you know, sort of like seeking a relatively unknown former Marine to run against a long time party regular for the party Senate nomination.

Othe Democrats point out Jimbo’s weaknesses and penchant for bloviation and for annoying people. Lowell finishes this report with the rhetorical question:

I am amazed that this man was ever elected to anything. Can’t Virginia Republicans do better?

The answer is yes…the question is are they willing to run.

You may ask “Why is Bwana a SOTDOG?” Simply put, I thought the Tom Davis NoVa appeal would not overcome his lack of identity or ideological sympatico with downstate voters…and that was before the “Alabama” comment, and that Jim Gilmore carries too much baggage and will lose the same Nova voters that Davis might have been able to draw in.

What baggage?  It all comes down to one thing…Gilmore is always right-just ask him.  He is tenacious, and that serves as his greatest strength and the root his weaknesses.

His tenaciousness led him to accept and overcome challenges when no one expected him to succeed, from getting into UVa Law School to becoming governor.  However, all that is overshadowed by the contradictions in his record.

To win, he has to be able to explain away the following:

-The bad will he incurred by failing to fully repeal the car tax, no to mention being unable to deliver on his key campaign promise. Why he did not attempt to cut government spending to match the revenue removed by even partial car tax repeal, and why instead did he choose to assume that an expanding business base would make up the difference? Failing that, why did he not seek to identify the funding that would be used to replace the car tax revenues.

-He is pro life within the strictures of Roe against Wade-how will that play with the social conservatives?

-He attempted to insert state government into the Hugh Finn matter…how does that play with the libertarian conservatives?

-He appointed democratic legislators in GOP leaning districts to state positions so the GOP could pick up the seats…how does that play with the ethics police?

Bottom line-Jim Gilmore has given a lot of reasons to vote against him, even if you are with him on ideology.

It has been said that in 2004 no matter what Kerry said, Bush essentially replied “9/11″

Next year, not matter what Gilmore says, Warner will simply say “He failed to repeal the Car Tax”.

So Warner will beat up on Gilmore on executive branch ethics, lobbying ethics, and Iraq…plus the Car Tax non-repeal?

That is why Jim Gilmore is a problem…and why the GOP needs to go elsewhere for its 2008 candidate.  It need not be Cantor, but it needs to be SOTDOG.

The Cooch’s Future, Prevent Defense, and Insurance Policies

The dust begins to settle and the 2007 elections begin to recede.  Thinking about political Life Its Ownself this weekend while collecting the 857 cubic tons of leaves that seem to have fallen into my yard, a few fleeting thoughts coalesced about some long term lessons and effects from this election.

You may have Ken Cuccinelli to kick around for along time

In the wake of the likely victory by the Cooch over the Hoot, many are writing off the Cooch as being in his last term in the Virginia Senate and as such a likely candidate for Attorney General in 2009.  But after looking at some census data and kicking around the idea with folks who are more knowledgeable such things, I think the large population growth increase  in Prince William County may be creating a different opportunity for the Cooch’s survival.

Since Va 27 already reaches into much of Fauquier (map), and since it is highly unlikely that Colgan will run for another term in 2011, I can see a scenario where Western PW is divided. Cuccinelli lives in a precinct that abuts Prince William County, so there is the possibility of lumping him and the stronger GOP districts in the 37th and the 39th, plus part of Gainesville to make a really sold GOP senate district, but then making the surrounding democratic seats that much stronger. 

As for the rest of PWC, you end up with a Senate district that runs from Manassas to the Potomac, plus a slice that goes into Va 27. Two GOP senators are made stronger, but the 27th is going to stay GOP for a while, and the resulting senate district in PWC will be competitive-something that I doubt the 29th would be, or else successive governors would not have begged Chuck Colgan to keep on running long past the time he wanted to retire.

Besides, there is something to be said for seeing that Fairfax County has at least one State Senator in both parties…and if the Senate redistricting follows the idea that it is better to create bulletproof districts as opposed to several that are strong but not locks, then the Cooch redistricting idea may well come full circle.

Do Not Play Prevent Defense

Every year you see NFL football teams get a big lead, and then try to kill the clock by going into a Prevent Defense. Almost inevitably the pressure goes away and the opposing QB gets some breathing room-and suddenly it is a game and the other guy has the momentum. In this campaign, the Hoot showed us the dangers of playing it safe. Her entire campaign seemed to be geared toward getting out the base. She and her staff seemed to be sure that all they had was to get out the base, and they win easily…so all they had to do was harp on base issues without fully defining Hoot or her positions.

Common sense says that the base within a district varies depending on what kind of election is on tap, and the base vote for President in county x may not be the same as the base vote in the same are for a statehouse campaign. You have to assume you will need non-base voters. Hoot did not, and played the entire campaign as if they thought that if she could just avoid saying something of substance that might bother folks, victory was hers.

Hoot apparently did say things of substance, but only in front of highly partisan audiences commited to her victory. When she entered into open forums, she did not offer substance. She instead uttered verbal gaffes that Cooch exploited. You see, if someone is not qualified to be a senator, then their issue positions will likely be discounted by voters who are not ideologically tied to a candidate.

Lesson: Define yourself before your opponent does, and run full out until election day without assuming the support of a certain group of voters means the election is a lock.

Secure a Majority, Buy Insurance Policies

The Virginia Senate is 21-19, and the GOP needs one more seat to get the totals to level and create through the vote of Lt. Gov Bowling a controlling GOP contingent.  Since the next Virginia Senate election is not until 2011, there are only rare possibilities that the GOP can get control of the Senate back prior to the next election…and that will cost M-O-N-E-Y…so I would start buying life insurance.

As Ben Tribbett noted, there are 23 seats that voted Bush/Kilgore/Bolling/McDonnell/Allen/Yes. Four of them are held by democrats. At the risk of sounding morbid, I think the RPV and the Va Dem’s should buy a life insurance policy of some large sum on each of those men (Houck, Reynolds, Colgan, and Miller). Then, if they do pass away while in office, you have a ready made campaign war-chest.

Oh, as  a Public Service Announcement…

Kline’s Drive-In, south of Manassas, will be open only for another 57 hours or so…and then it is history.

As you may have guessed, I am already sitting shiva…

I Already Miss the Kline Burgers

The words hit me like a a sledge hammer, or a telegram announcing the death of a loved one.

“Klines is closing”

Then my sister sent me the newslink. I mean, if it is on the internet, it has to be true, right?

The sad news-Kline’s Drive-In on Nokesville Road south of Manassas will close its doors on Wednesday, November 21, 2007. Lynn Kline, son of the late Paul Kline, is selling the land so a bank can be built on it and he can step back from the grueling restaurant business.

Those who have not encountered this establishment likely are saying, “So what? Restaurants close every day.”

This is true-but when that closing takes a piece of your life with it, it hurts.

I grew up with the Kline family as members of the Manassas Church of the Brethren. When I was a kid my family went out to Yorkshire to get ice cream at the original Kline’s Freeze. That place, like Carl’s down in Fredericksburg, had no indoor eating area. So they built another store south of manassas in 1969. No one thought the business would last. You had to drive over the RR tracks at Wellington Road, out past the Church of the Brethren and IBM, and past at least three farms to get there.

But it did last. In fact, it flourished.

Kline’s was like the fictional Cheers, a place where “every body knew your name.”

During the summers of my youth Dad would load us up and trawl out there for ice cream. When Dad picked me up at Boy Scout meetings and the pick up was early enough, it was out to Kline’s for foot logn chili dogs. Each of my sons have enjoyed the rite of passage of trying to eat a chocolate fudge sundae at the age of two without getting sauce on your shirt.

I am pushing fifty, and I still have not pulled that one off.

Even now, at 83, my father has been known to call me to come down, rescue him from assisted living, and commence a horizontal assault on Kline’s. We brave the horrendous traffic on southbound Va. 28 and order the usual.

Yes, the chilidog gas comes at him a lot faster now than it used to, but there are somethings that you simply should not deny yourself…like a meal of a footlong chili dog, fries, and a milkshake. It fills you up and keep the cardiologists employed, so it is kind of like multi-tasking.

When I was a child, I didn’t know restaurants or business’s closed. I thought there would always be a Dam-Side restaurant, Cooke’s Pharmacy, General Office Supply, Giacomo’s Pizza, Sloper’s Sports, Rohr’s 5 and Dime, Manassas Lumber, Commonwealth Savings and Loan, and others.

None remain. All have gone, and live on only in memory.

Soon Kline’s, with all the memories it holds for me, will also vanish.

It has been said that growing old stinks. But even worse is to see the building blocks of your memories fall beneath your eyes.  The fact that it is an inevitable part of life and progress does not make it easier.

My hometown has changed over the years, and it no longer resembles the town where I grew up.  But there are bright spots of memory that remind one of the old days…and there will be one less come late Wednesday evening.

Late Wednesday evening, I will likely shed a tear…and unfortunately it probably won’t be caused by the onions on a Kline’s Chili Dog or a Kline Burger.

I guess they are wrong…it doesn’t stink to grow old

But it really sucks.

Ryan McDougle and Others-Are They listening to Bwana?

In Sunday’s Wapo Virginia GOP state Senator Ryan McDougle says the GOP has “not articulated a concise message about why people should vote for us as a party.”

I can only assume that Senator McDougle has been reading back posts of Renaissance Ruminations. Consider these Bwana penned gems:

From RR, June 12, 2007:

As many of you know, I have suggested for several months that the GOP needs to be able to create and articulate a unified vision of what the party stands for and where it wants to lead us, especially in Virginia. My cry has been typically answered with a deafen silence.

On March 6, 2007, commenting on the General Assembly:

The question I will offer is simply this…will the GOP learn from the example of the vanished Democratic Majority? Will they find a message and a vision that resonates with the citizens of Virginia, and eschew the quick fix…and in doing so guide the state for years to come?

On December 4, 2006, posting on The Cooch’s adamant statement of “No New Taxes”

…I think that a party without a vision of where it wants to go will not be able to articulate what it believes. Without that vision, without that constant star, there is a risk of losing voters over single issues. Consider Ronald Reagan, or Franklin Roosevelt, or Margaret Thatcher, or Churchill, or King, or any great leader. They had a vision of where they were going and how they intended getting there. When people differed with them on an issue the vision served as a safety net that reminded them”we disagree on this matter, but we agree on where we are going”. The vision defines the effort, the vision defines the cause, and the vision keeps support even when there is disagreement on single issues.

Later in that same piece:

Being ideologically pure and politically smart do not have to be mutually independent. But by offering issues without vision, by using fancy campaign tactics without offering substance, by offering a banquet of spicy themes without any meat and potatoes that stick to the ribs, the GOP will do something unique…They will stand for something AND fall for anything…and that is no way to win elections.

…and so on and so forth on back for a couple of years…going back as far as November 15, 2005:

The real key to winning elections is parties that stand for something. The key lies with candidates who promise not just to lead but offer real and achievable ideas that will better the lives of all the citizens that candidate wants to represent and workable plans to make those ideas reality. The key lies with candidates who excite and motivate the party base to work and persuade the undecided voters to believe.

It is gratifying to see the party leadership is finally picking up on my not-so-subtle hints…the question is-what does the party intend to do about it?

The same WaPo article says:

…Conceding they have been outmaneuvered by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and the Democrats, GOP elected officials and activists say the party must recast its message and find strong leaders to deliver it, especially in fast-growing and diverse Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.

Ya think?

So now that the leadership is getting on board, let me offer some very general suggestions:

1. Get out the sharp pencils and pads and write down what the Virginia GOP thinks government should be doing and why.  Don’t make any assumptions about things just because it already exists.  Start from zero, make no assumptions, and list and define what the party thinks Virginia needs and how to deliver it.  This is a time to reinvent government.
2. Get out the calculators and spreadsheets and calculate how much it will take to make this happen
3. Estimate revenues for each of the next ten budget cycles.
4. Come back with a legislative plan saying this is where we want to go, and how much it will cost and how long it will take to get there.
5. Having come to the state with a plan and the cost, explain why this plan is best for the state, that it meets the needs of Virginia’s families and safeguards its economic future.

This is what families across the commonwealth have to do to plan, budget survive and-hopefully-prosper. If it works for our citizenry as individuals, it should be really good starting point for the state as a whole.

All the great legislative triumphs in history have been based in a willingness to look beyond business as usual and had the courage plant a flag in the ground and say “Here we stand, and this is what we stand for.”

It can work in Virginia-shoot, it can even work for the Democrats, who have been willing to sit for years waiting for power to fall into their laps. Virginia wants leadership, we need leadership, and neither party has offered it.

The choice and the chance are there, just waiting to be seized. Who’s going to cowboy up and make it happen?