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Of
the Virginia pundits, only Bob
Gibson of the Daily Progress offered a
perspective on the unfolding Hurricane Katrina
tragedy, wisely avoiding any mention of Virginia
politics at all. He might have been obliquely
referring to a future issue, though, when he wrote,
“People’s faith in governments’ abilities to
protect and save lives has ebbed.”
A
little-noticed op-ed published on August 25th in the
Richmond Times-Dispatch now looms large,
given the efforts to rescue victims and restore
order in the Gulf of Mexico. The Adjutant General of
the Virginia National Guard, Major General Claude
Williams, wrote glowingly of the Guard’s transformation
and adaptation to change. Here is how he listed
its recent missions: “guarding our commercial
service airports, hunting terrorists in Afghanistan,
guarding terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
supporting Air Expeditionary Force missions, and disaster
recovery operations in response to Hurricane
Isabel” [italics mine]. After Katrina, he can add
another mission and perhaps, in the future, he will
be emphasizing the disaster role much more.
The
Only Labor Day View
Margaret
Edds of the Virginian-Pilot was the only
pundit who offered a Labor Day take on the three-way
contest for Governor. She focused on the Mark Warner
angle and differences between Warner and Tim Kaine
on key issues. She also aired this interesting
charge:
It
seems curious, also, that Warner never assigned his
ticket-mate a more prominent role in directing some
key policy initiative. In part, that may reflect
Warner’s desire to keep both credit and
responsibility close to the vest. But failure to
groom Kaine was a lost opportunity that could haunt
both.
According
to Edds, Warner must carry Kaine across the finish
line to create an “aura of victory” useful to
his presidential hopes.
Sudden
Depth on Black Voting
Mainstream
pundits don’t usually offer much more than token
analysis of the black vote, so it was refreshing to
see a thorough examination
of it in Conaway Haskins’ South of the James blog.
“The continued diversification of Black voter
behavior in Virginia is a good thing for all of us,
regardless of political persuasion,” he wrote.
Anti-Kilgore
Transportation Round-Up
Former
Gov. Gerald Baliles was in the news, offering a plan
to finance transportation improvements through
interstate tolls. Barnie Day hailed it as a possible
way out of the political morass—an “off-ramp”
for embracing new ideas. Of course, Day gleefully
noted that the Baliles plan “waved a stop sign”
at “Republican governor wannabe Jerry Kilgore.”
Retired
transportation planner T. Howard Noel took to the
pages of the Roanoke Times to discuss
gubernatorial candidate transportation plans. He
used about one paragraph to advise that Tim Kaine
had no plan but multiple
paragraphs to trash Jerry Kilgore’s plan. This
was his most compelling argument against Kilgore:
“Putting the idea of increased revenue to a vote
of the people is bound to fail, as I am sure he
recognizes.” Those silly people ….
Don’t
Trust this Linkage
Bacon’s
Rebellion columnist Pat
McSweeney makes an excellent point about Gov.
Warner’s ambiguous role in contract negotiations
with potential private providers of state IT
services. He should have just stuck with examining
that issue, where Warner seems vulnerable to
criticism, without tying it to the tired refrain of
Warner’s failure to keep his campaign promise to
not to raise taxes.
Tour
de Force
Perhaps
only Bart Hinkle of the Richmond Times-Dispatch could
link the issues of immigration,
transportation, and the environment in a way
that challenged everyone’s assumptions and
positions.
She
Takes No Prisoners
Kerry
Dougherty of the Virginian-Pilot
succinctly summarized the situation facing Oceana
Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach: No doubt an
army of attorneys, bankrolled by Virginia taxpayers,
will try to mount a legal challenge to the BRAC
ultimatum. But that won’t change the fact that
Virginia Beach witlessly allowed the military value
of Oceana to diminish over the past several decades
through civilian encroachment.
Dougherty
believes “it’s over” and Virginia Beach will
lose the base.
Speaking
of Prisoners
In
the Washington Post, former Federal
prosecutor John
Flannery alleges the conviction of innocent
people in Virginia because of “poor prosecutorial
and police behavior.”
If
You Have to Ask, We Can Afford It
Joshua
Lief, executive director of Virginians Racing
for The Hall of Fame, he delivered a rousing cheer
in the Richmond Times-Dispatch for NASCAR to
locate its Hall of Fame in the emerald city. He
offers plenty of projected return on investment if
Richmond lands the Hall—he just doesn’t tell us
how much we taxpayers will have to invest.
--
September 5, 2005
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