Myrtle Beach, Tim Kaine, and Contrarian Thinking

Team Bwana, having feverishly rushed through school supply purchase, is at Myrtle Beach testing the truth of the observation “a bad day at the beach beats a good day at work.”

The observation…is true.

Now that the boomerang weather phenomenom known as Tropical Storm/Hurricane Faye will likely not rip through the Grand Strand-thus guaranteeing SWMBO and the WMD much more beach time-I have had some time to ruminate on the possibility of Tim Kaine for VP.

While I don’t think it will happen, I am starting to see not only how it might happen but how it is not a good thing for the Va GOP.

Call this the contrarian school of thought.

First, as I have noted previously, Tim Kaine has gotten to where he is through a marvelous run of luck…and as any card player knows, when the cards are running your way you have to play big.  Next, Kaine and Obama just seem to mesh.  They seem to be sympatico in a way that has not been present between Pres and VP in, well…maybe ever.  Third, Kaine does not bring a large school of detractors.  The national electorate will likely give little focus to the lack of leadership that Kaine has provided as governor, and Kaine may well be the one person that can be added to the ticket without detracting somehow from Obama.

If he is tabbed, and Obama wins, then Bill Bowling becomes governor.  I suspect that Kaine will resign as governor as soon as possible.  Why?  To give Bowling as much time as possible not only to be governor but to become identified with whatever problems face the electorate in the 2009 elections. 

I have to wonder come 2009 will folks readily remember that the democrats held the governor’s mansion from 2002-2008?  Will the lack of leadership or memorable legislation beyond the Warner tax increase of 2005 be recalled?  Will voteres recollect how time and again refused to lead on transportation and other issues, instead hoping the GOP would implode in the General Assembly and allow the democrats to win at the ballot box…

…OR…

Will voters go to the ballot box, be aware of the problems, and see that a Republican is in the governor’s mansion?

Call me crazy, but sand, surf, cool breezes, and a Corona or two does cause one to reconsider the contrarian view of life.

I just have to wonder…

Well, the tide is heading out and “Summertime is calling me” for another “Myrtle Beach Day”.

And when I have a chili dog at the OD Pavillion…I will be thinking of you in the blogosphere!

The Raw/Drift Perspective-Who Wins?

Yesterday I read Marc Fisher’s opinion column “Raw Fischer” that Virginia transportation problems should be blamed on the GOP for not blindly following the Democrats in raising taxes.

But the boys at Bearing Drift suggest in their podcast that since the House of Delegates passed a GOP sponsored plan that did not raise taxes, and said plan was shot down by the Democratic Senate, that the Democrats will be blamed.

It will be interesting to see who really ends up winning in all this.

Meanwhile, TheGov tosses in his plan to seemingly tax everything but gasoline and has it tossed back at him by both houses. I guess that while we cannot yet identify the winners, we can start to identify the losers.

Is Tim Craig Flacking for Dick Saslaw?

In today’s Virginia notebook WaPo writer Tim Craig looks at the special legislative session in Richmond, and lets us all know who he is supporting.

After looking at all the various options, Craig writes:

With gas prices already more than $4 a gallon, House Minority Leader Ward L. Armstrong (D-Bath) has come out against Saslaw’s plan to raise the gas tax by 6 cents over six years, which would cost the average family less than $50 a year.

Now what caught my eye is the casual way Mr. Craig slips advocacy into his article…and in doing so shows why Mr. Saslaw’s bill is doomed and perhaps deserves to fail…and why one would be justified in thinking Mr. Craig has a night job as a PR expert for Senator Saslaw.

The WaPo has long been accused of allowing reporters to slip opinion and advocacy into their articles. Clearly that is what is going on here. Mr. Craig does not offer any independent information to validate his claim, only statement parroting Mr. Saslaw…it’s the parroting part that alerts you that this is advocacy.

More important is Mr. Craig acting as if this increase happens in a vacuum. Families are already having to cut away activities, and now Mr. Saslaw potentially wants them to cut away more so his gas tax can take wing and fly. He sees it as a way to solve one problem, and apparently has no concern what other problem(s) he may be creating.

I don’t know which is a more sorry sight…that of the Majority Leader of the Virginia Senate slashing without concern at the wallets of Virginian’s already stretched tight, or that of a member of the Fourth Estate deciding it was not important to maintain their objectivity.

Either way, it’s a pity.

Flack On, Mr. Craig, Flack On!

Tim Kaine: Still just an Old School Marm…with Ambition

In the midst of the the 2007 Virginia General Assembly session I blogged about our Governor, Tim Kaine, and his transportation failures. I suggested that while he tried to portray himself as a fearless samurai, he was really something else:

But the GOP [offered a plan], and the Democrats did not. Now Governor Kaine [unhappy with the plan] is running around like an old time school marm who gives an assignment, gives the students freedom to complete the assignment as they see fit, and then pitches a hissy fit when things are not done as she envisioned it being done…At a time when we need leadership, we instead get an old school marm…bitter that she is not more appreciated, tolerated only because of the office held, and never to be remembered fondly or respectfully.

Here we are now sixteen months later, and nothing has changed…except Kaine has dug himself an even deeper hole.

The legislature is in special session to discuss transportation funding. By all accounts, there are multiple parties involved-there is the House of Delegates, a couple of different factions in the state Senate, and then there is TheGov, who apparently is having trouble getting his own plans introduced.

While the GOP want a variation of the 2007 plan, and Dick “I Do It My Way” Saslaw has his own plan to introduce focusing on increases in the gas tax, titling fees, etc., Governor Kaine just wants a billion dollar tax increase. While it is a bit much to say he has been abandoned by his allies, clearly there is a stench about TheGov caused by his interference in the Va-11 primary, his willingness to intervene in capital murder cases, and his regressive tax schemes.

Unfortunately, while the public wants improvements the two parties, and our leadership deficient governor, do not get the picture.

Many times I have written that no plan will go through until the state shows that everything has been done to wring all possible value from the funds currently being spent on transportation. Nothing special, some Ross Perot charts should do the trick. Instead, the new plans-and especially the governor’s plan-draws comments like this:

I don’t suppport any tax increases until I see that they are using what they have efficiently. I see 4 state trucks and 10 workers at a work site and one person (if that) working. I see good roads repaved and bad roads ignored. They take two weeks to do a two day job. A major overhaul of VDOT needs to be done before they get another dime.

No one is going to jump up for new taxes until they are convinced the most bang is beign gotten for the current buck.

But it may be that Governor Kaine doesn’t want a solution. Some have suggested that he is more interested in scoring political points and putting the GOP behind the electoral eight ball than in making progress.

That may be…but if he is really thinking that, he forgets two things:

1. Come the next state election, folks are going to remember that the Democrats held the governor’s mansion and one house of the legislature and couldn’t agree on a plan…as opposed to their previous strategy of not offering a plan and watching the GOP implode. This proposition is not likely to be as politically strong for Kaine; and
2. His not-so-vague longings for a place in the Obama administration are hurt with every misstep he takes. Obama has to be aware that Kaine became governor less on his own merits than on the strengths and failures of others. Couple that with a feckless and ineffectual term as governor, no matter how personally likeable you might be, and suddenly Kaine needs a win to stay in the spotlight; and
3. There is that little matter of a GOP Lt. Governor who will become governor of Virginia if Kaine gets an admin sinecure. Is TheGov’s presence such an overwhelming presence that Obama would turn over the Virginia governor’s mansion to the other party just to bring “Timmy!” on board?

All in all, I doubt it…

Bottom line, things have not changed since February 2007. Kaine is still the old school marm I described in Februrary 2007, only now he has ambition. Unfortunately, that ambition ain’t getting him anywhere.

The ironic part of this is that the advice he needs has been sitting there, waiting to be absorbed, and it is in an essay about his father-in-law.

The Governor’s of Virginia 1860-1978 is a book published in 1982 and offers short bios on the Virginia governors elected or selected from 1860-1973, concluding with Mills Godwin’s second term. Included is an essay by J. Harvie Wilkinson on Governor Lynwood Holton. Wilkinson summarizes Holton’s career-an administrative triumph and a political disaster-by saying that in to move on in politics it is not enough simply to govern well, one must also mind the store politically.

Holton did not do this, and his aspirations to be tapped as VP in 1972 and then to get the GOP Senate nod in 1978 all came to naught. It was another variation on what my father has said about politics being about how well you do two things…”Gettin’ it and doin’ it”.

Apparently TheGov has not learned from the example of his father-in-law…and if he continues on this path he will find his place in history along with those cold, gray men who achieved high office through the efforts of others, and was unable to make things happen for themselves in either the statute books or at the ballot box.

Gilmore Reaps What He Sows…

Former Governor and potential GOP senate nominee Jim Gilmore and his allies put the screws to Tom Davis last December by selecting a convention to pick the 2008 GOP nominee to replace John Warner.  Seems like Davis is getting the last laugh…and if not Davis, then certainly Lowell seems to be.

The WaPo reports that the candidacy of Delegate Bob Marshall is showing surprising strength. The article goes on to talk about how Marshall is showing unanticipated strength, especially in rural areas that were thought to be the backbone of a Gilmore effort.

An unbriefed observer may think “how can a 9-term delegate even begin to run even with a former AG and Governor?”

Good question…and although I think Gilmore will win the nomination, let me suggest some fertile ground where Marshall should be able to make hay.

1. Marshall is actually to the right of Gilmore in the Right-to-Life realm. Gilmore’s position essentially dovetails with Roe v. Wade, where a woman has the right to an abortion in the first trimester. Marshall is against abortion almost completely, although I think he does not oppose it if the life of the mother is in danger-sort of the Cuccinelli position.

2. Gilmore did not get the car tax eliminated, he changed the car tax calculation once he was elected, and state spending rose under him. Despite his protestations to the contrary, Gilmore bathed in the IT-explosion money that was coming into the state pre-2001 and the related filled state coffers. Gilmore talked a good game as a fiscal conservative, but did not really walk the walk.

3. The personal touch, where Marshall is a clear winner…

First off, Marshall is a sense a throwback legislator. As the WaPo story puts it:

Marshall, despite what some regard as his extreme views, is well-liked by moderates and even Democrats, who admire his collegiality, intellect and principled stands, even when they’re not popular. Marshall also charms his colleagues in a way that Gilmore does not.

An example of Marshall at work…when Bob first ran in the GOP primary back in 1991 in the new 13th district, he was going door-to-door when he caught my father puttering about in the yard. They started talking, and the subject hit abortion. My father is pro-choice, but as a physician has a scientific and also a libertarian perspective on it. Marshall could have gingerly extracted himself from a conversation with my father on the matter when it came up…instead they talked for at least thirty minutes. No minds were changed, but Dad came away thinking Marshall was bright and doctrinaire with out being domineering or insulting.

Gilmore acted as if any act of opposition was an act of treason or of evil. His popularity in the GOP has been based solely on the fact that he won elections, and not on any degree of personal magnetism or being liked. Now it looks like some of those nasty eggs he lobbed at other people are not hatching in ways he did not anticipate.

As noted, despite all this stuff, Gilmore will likely win a sizeable majority in the May convention. Of course, if the Tom Davis folks back Marshall to put the screws to Jim Gilmore, and if delegates who were done wrong by Gilmore at some point vote for Marshall, and folks who are unhappy they still pay a car tax vote against Gilmore, it could get interesting.

Funny thing, though…Gilmore would surely crush Marshall in a primary, the same primary he sought so fervently to avoid.

Well, as the good book says, that which ye sow so shall ye reap…

Parliamentary Immaturity In Richmond

Senate Democrats are having a religious experience.  Some might call it Karma, others would simply quote Galatians 6:7 and say “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”  Their days of hiding behind John Chichester are coming back to haunt them, and all they can do is stomp their feet and complain of partisan actions.

How can I say such a thing?  Because of what has transpired in the Senate Finance Committee, and how it reflects on The Gov and the Senate leadership.

The Senate Dems have proposed a state budget with all variety of add ons at a time when Governor Kaine is talking about layoffs and raiding the state “rainy day” fund.  There are a wide variety of things that have been talked about but not done (a new legislative building, for instance) and a collection of Governor Kaine fiscal favorites (expanding state paid pre-K coverage is one).  The budget came up and for a vote in the Senate Finance Committee, and it passed in a straight party line 9-7 vote.

Committee Chairman Chuck Colgan (D-Manassas) was outraged, accusing the GOP members of making it a partisan budget.  SenKen, a committee member, reports that Colgan claimed “the Budget is above politics!…Get politics out of this arena, it doesn’t belong here!”

I guess Colgan believes that no candidates ran for office last fall based on how they thought state money should be spent!   Colgan knows that not a single GOP member of the House was targeted in the 2005 primaries and general election because they voted the (later proven to not be needed) Mark Warner Tax Increase.  Shoot, I bet there was not a single person who talked about being able to get funding for this or that or how to stop money from going to an unfavored system or region.  One can easily see how politics and budgeting do not go hand in hand.

Right…

Then, Ed Houck attacked the GOP over their vote, saying “It takes a lot of guts to start kicking around — politically — poor, 4-year-old children. Man, that’s leadership,”. Houck’s sarcasm was applauded by NLS-when in fact it was inappropriate, unstatesmanlike, self-defeating, and quite inaccurate.

Governor Kaine has chastised the House GOP, claiming they will take their ball and go home” by saying it was wrong of them to say “my way or the highway.” Better I suppose to engage in Kainesian Economics and simply accept without questioning what is put before them.

Gosh, where to start?

The fundamental fact is that even in the face of a slowing economy, the Democrats in Richmond and the GOP differ on how much money will come in during the next budget period. They assume that despite the very flat income tax structure in Virginia, that taxes received will raise at a faster from personal income growth. I don’t see how under the current Virginia structure tax income can do much more than increase at the same rate as personal income grows-or declines. To say it will outstrip the income growth rate seems to be unfounded.

First, the Democrats are obviously not enjoying life without John Chichester. First they failed to win his seat in the general election last fall. Now, they no longer have him to hide behind in the Senate Finance Committee. You see, regardless of what you think of him Chichester had the smarts, the charisma, the gall, and the cajones to make his will stand. He also had a permanent majority. Depending on the issue he and his minions could vote GOP and pick up a majority on the right, or bolt and go left and get the Democratic votes. Since he could always get a majority, there was little point in opposing him.

It should be noted that although retired from the Senate Chichester cannot help but heave cheap shots.  He was quoted in the WaPo as opining:

“What you have now is gridlock,” Chichester said from his home in Fredericksburg. “Before, the common goal was, ‘What is best for Virginia?’ Now that’s deteriorated to, ‘What is best for the party?’ “

The Senate vote on the budget was disappointing, said Chichester, who said he never saw such dissent in his 30 years in the legislature.

This is, of course, silly speak. No matter now much the RK guys think this is statesmanlike chatter. The reason Chichester never saw anything like it is because for over half his time in the Senate either the Democrats held a massive majority-so there was no need to work together-or there was a tie-in which case there was every reason to work together.

Some may say the rancor began when the GOP took the majority. It appears to me the rancor began when Chichester became the sole chair of the Finance Committee.

In an aside, I should note how Lowell has changed his tune on what constitutes “partisan rancor”. When the Senate Democrats (in the minority) were voting as a bloc against the GOP budget, it was a good and patriotic thing. Now when the Senate GOP (in the minority) votes as a bloc against the Democratic budget is causes “partisan rancor”.

Horsefeathers…the rancor was already in place, created by an unwillingness on both sides to work together, but fostered on the democratic side of the Senate by their willingness to hide behind John Chichester’s Chairman’s chair.

Moving on…

Chuck Colgan, a good man, has never been accused of having political gravitas. His election in 1975 delayed the widening of Va-234 for years. He is not a leader, nor does he inspire loyalty or fear as Chichester did. He is not going to be able to intimidate, agitate, or otherwise shmooze the GOP minority to do something just because he wants it that way.

Colgan also carries the burden that both sides have come to see that committee and floor votes have consequences now that they might not have had twenty years ago. Twenty years ago a legislator could go along on a bill he was not 100% behind knowing that it would take real digging to get that information before the public in a context that would hurt him. Not now…votes are out and announced an in the public domain immediately thanks to all types of new media.  Votes that went unnoticed twenty years ago now must be defended.

Of course, the differences in how much revenue is coming in might not matter if either party set a needs baseline. Most business’s, people, families, etc., set a budget. The determine what goods and services they need, how much it takes to pay for them, and how much dinero is coming in. If the expenses exceed the revenue, they either cut the expenses or take steps to increase the revenue.

Not in Richmond, not for a long time. For the last ten years it does not matter who holds the legislature or the governor’s mansion, neither party has made a case for what the state needs to spend money on. In hard times, they start talking cuts and layoffs and attriting job openings, but that is all after the fact. No one has been willing to say “here is what we think the state needs-and here is why”. Instead, they assume they should start from where we were in the last budget.

Needless to say, this causes problems…especially when The Gov wants to start new programs in non-growth years.

Part and parcel of this practice is the argument that “this new thing costs so little, we should do it!” This is out of the same logic as the person from the cash strapped family who buys a bunch of stuff the family does not need, but points out that because of the sale they saved money. If the state doesn’t need the program NOW, now is NOT the time to subject the state budget to the Kainesian economics and torture it with the fiscal death by a thousand cuts by pushing through a multitude of small programs that individually may not be huge expenditures (given the overall budget) but taken in the aggregate is a huge sum.

Next comes the lust for power.  Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have a real platform they operate from.  I have chastised the GOP for it, but noted the Democrats are no better.  The General Assembly Democrats believe that Governor Kaine’s bankroll won several races for them, so they had better push his program.  This means raiding the rainy day fund, implementing new programs at the expense of existing ones, and doing all this without a framework for explaining where they want to go. 

The stubbornness of the new Democratic leadership is of the same brand as that of the recent GOP Senate Majority. But it is disingenuous for them to carry on in so many forums about how partisan the GOP is being. While in the minority the Democrats wrote the book on “principled obstruction”, part of which was not fighting for legislation-because that created a record that could be fought against in the next election.

Well, now they are in the majority, and they get to learn their own lesson about “principled obstruction”. And now that the Senate Democrats can no longer hide behind John Chichester, now that they have to produce a record, now that they have to show what their own principles are…that adds a whole new aspect to how campaigns will be fought and policy produced here in the Commonwealth.

Most of all, it will cry out for a new parliamentary maturity in Richmond…because to date the new boss is about as petulant as the old boss.

Corey Stewart: Do as I Say, Not as I Do

Less than a week after trumpeting his willingness to save the GOP, His Preeminence Corey Stewart shows his idea of governance may not play well in Richmond at the same time Democrats use his antics to puff up and support Governor Kaine’s budgetary fandango’s.

At the same time that GOP legislators in Richmond are fighting off The Gov’s attempt to raid the state “Rainy Day Fund” to fund his own favored policies, His Preeminence not only wants to do the same thing but has eaten up the fund in doing so. At a time when Prince William County is facing a significant budget shortfall and will likely raise taxes, His Preeminence and his board have decided they have to deplete the rainy day fund to come up with scratch necessary to fulfill his anti-illegal immigration program…and by deplete I mean leave $3K in the fund for emergencies until the end of the fiscal year.

Remember, this is the guy who criticized the Virginia Senate and the new majority for trying to push through The Gov’s plans along with his funding ideas. In fact, His Preeminence said “[The Democratic Senate] need someone down there who is going to beat up on them,” he said. “They need me down there to break the bottleneck.”

Sounds to me like he is doing the same thing as County COB at home as he is criticizing The Gov for doing in Richmond. Both pushed certain programs, in victory both are certain they have to be implemented immediately, and both are willing to slash and burn emergency reserves to make it happen.

They are both wrong-raiding the rainy day fund for pet personal projects is wrong as can be. What is more disturbing is that His Preeminence doesn’t see what he is doing as being in any way, shape, or form to being the same thing as he wants to stop in Richmond!

His actions prove there is a danger to sending the well packaged candidate who is callow and untested to higher levels of governance.  I suggested the other day that Mr. Stewart has only shown himself to be a One Trick Pony…and this move shows how much he is willing to do to keep that One Trick in play.

His Preeminence has adopted either “Sauce for the Goose, Sauce for the Gander” as his political credo, or “Do as I Say, Not as I Do”

Either way, he clearly is not ready for Prime Time, and should work on making his actions consistent with his statements.

Corey Stewart: Ego Run Amok

Corey Stewart, PW County BOC Chairman, is telling folks he will be a candidate for the GOP nod for Lt. Governor next year. Democrats seem to be less than petrified by the prospect, though this RK diary indicates how they might come after him.  Others think his candidacy is the perfect vehicle to get things moving in Richmond.

I think anyone ready to go statewide after winning one county wide general election-and not having served a full term in office- has a pretty healthy sense of self-worth. While he has also won a special election, the 2006 special election and 2007 general election victories against Sharon Pandak seem like bookends to the same campaign.

One cannot dismiss the hubris of using one general election victory as standing for a statewide run. It is not too far from living The Gov’s biography, who essentially leveraged winning a ward in Richmond to become a statewide candidate.

Still, his approach to the potential candidacy reeks of ego run amok.

First, in the WaPo article Stewart claims he is the “preeminent Republican” in Northern Virginia. This statement seems way over the top. First, John Warner and Tom Davis are still in office, and will be for several months. Second, has Mr. Stewart decided that somehow Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va 10) doesn’t represent a Northern Virginia district?   Where exactly are the geographic limits of this Northern Virginia Mr. Stewart towers over?

Such comments reflect a devotion to personality and puffing more than a willingness to recognize reality and speak accordingly.

Second, apparently Mr. Stewart feels he is a shining combination of George Washington, Lee Atwater, and Tip O’Neill, the only person with the leadership skills, political moxie, and sharp elbows to make things happen in Richmond. Speaking of the state senate stopping immigration legislation and The Gov’s insistence on Pre-K funding, Stewart said:

“[The Democratic Senate] need someone down there who is going to beat up on them,” he said. “They need me down there to break the bottleneck.”

Wow…the democrats have had the Senate for about five weeks and things are that bad already? We may have a new standard set for hyperbole. 

Then again, maybe not. Discussing Northern Virginia politics, Brother Stewart goes on to say:

“Republicans got creamed in Northern Virginia in 2007, and I held Prince William together and kept it Republican,” Stewart said. “The party needs a shot in the arm. It’s gone stale. It needs vigorous leadership.”

Let’s set aside the obvious flaws in this statement, like how on Stewart’s watch the GOP lost a HOD seat in PWCo, or how The Cooch did not in fact get creamed in 2007. Let’s ignore how skilled candidates normally arrange for otherpeople to say things like this about them. Nonetheless, it is a generally true statement, which leads us to the next question…

Is Stewart ready to go to war with The Cooch? I know that SenKen has been mentioned for AG…which is not the same as LtGov. However, the GOP ticket cannot and will not have two candidates from Northern Virginia on a Gubernatorial ticket if at least one is not already elected to statewide office. Even then it is difficult. We of a certain age remember the 1981 ticket with State Attorney General Marshall Coleman (native of Staunton) running for governor with state Senator Nathan Miller (of Bridgwater) running for Lt. Gov. Since then the GOP has been fairly careful to create geographic balance on the ticket. You are not going to see both Stewart and Cuccinelli on the ticket, and if both file I predict you are going to see Stewart Lt.Gov delegates backing someone like Mark Obenshain for AG, and Cuccinelli loyalists will be backing someone from downstate against Stewart…remember, you heard it here first!

I don’t know how Stewart’s tenure as COB will look this time next year. He can attack Kaine on various funding issues, but Stewart above all is seen as the anti-illegal immigrant guy. Will that issue have legs in a statewide election 21 months from now? In the WaPo piece he goes on about other issues, but let’s not kid ourselves-Stewart got elected on the immigration issue, and he really has not proposed substantive legislation in other areas.

Those who love him for it are balanced by those who don’t. I was struck by the vitriol toward Stewart in the comments section of a Journal Messenger article about the closing of the Old Country Buffet.  The comments not only bemoan the closing of a favored restaurant, but attack Stewart’s policies-at one point labeled “the chest-thumping xenophobia of the Board of Supervisors”-as helping to cause the closing of the restaurant.

This doesn’t sound like the happy praise of a public servant who enjoys overwhelming public support.

I think Mr. Stewart’s comments are ill-timed, and his announcement at best premature.  To date he has been a one trick pony, riding the immigration issue as far as he can with brief breaks to bemoan transportation policy.  He places a heightened and myopic value on his role in party politics while ignoring the failures that have occurred on his watch as well as refusing the recognize the successes of others.  His comments make his nascent candidacy look less like a willingness to serve the public than a desire to feed an ego that has run amok.

If he plans to continue to lead with his ego and follow with his self puffing, then I feel safe saying he shouldn’t waste his time measuring the Lt. Governor’s office for new decorations.  First, comments like this don’t indicate he is on a successful path.  Second, if he is on a successful path, then the current LtGov accommodations are not large enough to house his ego, much less his staff.

2009 looks more and more interesting every day…

And A Child Leads Them…in Richmond

The Book of Isaiah speaks of millennial peace when it tells us that “A Child Shall Lead Them”…apparently the same can be said for increased perks after misleading campaign ads.

Ben Tribbett gives the full bloody details here, and was reportedby the WaPo.  At base, Democratic House Leader Ward Armstrong wants Speaker Bill Howell to increase the per diem for house members…after attacking GOP members during the 2007 legislative elections for accepting an increased per diem by claiming it was a pay raise.

Now, having attacked the GOP for a per diem increase, Delegate Armstrong wants the same per diem increase the Senate approved.

It should be noted that in the senate campaigns there was no attack regarding the per diem:

Saslaw said he doesn’t blame House Republicans for resisting calls to raise the allowance this year. Saslaw said that Senate Democrats, who picked up the four seats in the election needed to regain the majority, steered clear of using pay raises as an issue because they thought it was an unfair charge to make against GOP incumbents…”They cut off their own noses,” Saslaw said, referring to House Democrats.

Armstrong, presenting a pose of princely petulance, said:

“Every one of us has our own take on what is fair,” Armstrong said. “I don’t know how much longer we have to talk about a campaign that was over in November. This is the ‘08 session.”

Ah, leadership…or what passes for it in the democratic caucus. Have they never heard the wisdom of Shakespeare? If you strike the King, you must kill him

Did Armstrong really think the Democrats could attack the GOP on an administrative matter like per diems and have the GOP rush like sheep to the slaughter to approve another increase? Did he really think he would not be held responsible?

I had a similar experience at home recently. Number one son did something he was not supposed to Wednesday a week ago. His punishment kicked in the next day. He thought it was unfair that he was being punished on Thursday for something he did on Wednesday.

Apparently Delegate Armstrong thinks the same thing…he must think his punishment for an unfair attack was that it didn’t work, and that everyone would forget.

Heh…with leadership like this the GOP should rest easy.

Cooch Denounces Bwana as a Liberal

In the latest “Cuccinelli Compass” Cooch attacks the liberal media for their “tirade” over his “No Ablo Anglais” bill:

It only took a week for the liberal media to come charging after me for one of my bills – SB 339. SB 339 would change the law to make it employee “misconduct” for an employee not to speak adequate English to do their job, in violation of a policy of the employer. If an employee is fired for “misconduct,” then the employer is not liable for unemployment benefits.

He then gets to the heart of the matter…

So, SB 339 would make the failure to speak or learn adequate English “misconduct” if an employer required English proficiency as part of the job.

Then, his final defense…

This is common sense, but the liberals are wigging out. Maybe that’s a sign of just how good a bill this is…

Apparently the mere fact you think this is a bad bill makes a person a “liberal”.  I have been called many things, but never a liberal.  This will certainly come as news to the commenter at RK who called me a “mouth breather” because I an a Republican

Actually, liberals “wigging out” really has little to do with this bill.  And what this bill does, besides create an overly protective cushion for employers who make bad hiring decisions, is point out the drift of the GOP.

This bill seeks to protect business’s who made a bad call in hiring.  The business, or a representative of the owners, met with, interveiewed, and decided person “X” could do the job.  If  you hire a person to do a job and that person lacks the fundamental skills at hiring to do the job…that’s a two way street.  The Company decided to hire, and now Cooch wants to give them an out to dodge responsibility.

This is the type of fine tuned interventionist bill the demos used to be famous for.  If you want to let the free market work and let each earn according to their abilities-you know, Adam Smith stuff-then you let them take the hit for errors made.

But today’s GOP is too often concerned with amassing power and assuaging their sponsors (but not their constituents), even if the resulting laws are bad.

This bill is representative of so much that has gone wrong with the GOP…no conscience in proposing, no solid philosophy for proposing it , and no soul in standing by it.

Oh, but there I go talking like a “liberal” again.