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Paul
Goldman, the Rebel With a Cause, was chief
political strategist for the past two winning
Democratic governors in Virginia and was credited
with leading a "revolution in American
politics" by The New York Times for his role
in breaking America's 300-year-old color barrier
in national politics.
Columns
July
21: Warner
for VEEP? Virginia
pundits and Warner advisors said the governor would
be the hot VEEP candidate once his taxes passed.
But the bubble burst. Why?
June
7: Does
Moran Hate Jews?
Of
course not. But the Washington Post surely
despises Moran and is using a tabloid journalism to
crush him with an unsubstantiated anti-Semitism
charge.
May
24: Kilgore's
Turn. Did
the politicians in Richmond redo the Gregorian
Calendar? If not, then the tax bill violates the
VA Constitution and the budget is not in balance.
April
26: Liar's
Poker. Let's
be honest: The culture of Wall Street, as chronicled in
the best selling book Liar's Poker, now dominates
politics in Virginia.
March
15: Stop
Holding Virginia Hostage.
The
General Assembly need not leave town without a
budget. The Rebel hereby offers a plan that will
keep government operating. Kaine and Kilgore, pay
attention.
March
1: If imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery, then the WPost columnist who wrote
"Virginia Bends to the will of Wall
Street" Sunday was praising Goldman's Feb. 16
column. Now our rebel asks... Has
the High-Tax Lobby Cost Virginia its AAA Rating?
February
16: Moody's Made
Me Do It.
Gov.
Warner and his allies are playing a cynical and dangerous game:
blaming their billion-dollar tax increase on Wall
Street bond analysts.
January
19: My
Cousin Vinny. The
high-tax lobby is treating "Maximum
John" Chichester
like a co-governor. But the
Republican to watch is low-tax Vince Callahan,
the Rodney Dangerfield of Virginia.
January
5: Save
VA Dems from Moby Tax.
Melville
could have spun a whale of a tale out of Warner's
tax plan. Unlike the Pequod crew, DEMS cannot
let a fish story steal our soul, erode
state finances and accept the High Tax label.
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2003 -
December
15: Warner
Goes to China. Historians say only
Richard Nixon could have cut a deal with Mao. Is
this the political thinking behind Warner's gambit
to DROP the CAR TAX Budget CAP, something so
fiscally reckless, even "Deficit" Jim
Gilmore never tried it?
December
1: White
Men Can't Jump... But they can cook
-- books, that is. Goldman dissects Gov. Warner's
tax plan, showing how all the fun stuff is front-end
loaded, while the bad stuff comes after he's gone.
December
1: The
Goshfather: An Offer He Can't Refuse. Here's how the tax
battle ends next year, in a smoke-filled room in the
General Assembly office building as the dons of
Virginia politics divvy up their ill-gotten spoils.
November
17: White
Men Can't Add. Move over Woody:
Goldman scores a slam-dunk as Gov. Warner projects a
$1.3 billion budget shortfall over the next two
years.
November
4: Avoiding
a Dem Disaster in 2005. Once
again, Henry Marsh's race-baiting politics threaten
a Democrat's chance to become governor. Democrats
need to speak out.
October
20: Warner
vs. Allen... Earlier
this month I went fishing. Look what the boy landed!
October
6: Mark
Warner vs. George Allen. Professor
Larry Sabato will tell us in 2007 whether they ran,
who won and why. But for a look ahead, we asked Paul
Goldman, our fearless prognosticator, to handicap
the odds in 2003.
September
25: The
Moody's Blues. The
Moody's decision to put Virginia on credit watch
could prove disastrous to the Democrats' reputation
for fiscal responsibility -- unless Gov. Warner
turns the tables on the Republicans.
September
8: No
Car Tax for Life? Gov.
Warner -- and our children -- may be in for a real
"Education for a Lifetime" if the Bush
jobless recession is really over as some predict.
Has the time come for the "Put K-12 First"
law?
June
9: Chichester's
Unreported Contribution. Is Larry Sabato worth 10 times more than Julia
Roberts?
June
2: Fiscal
Straight Jacket.
Candidates
Wilder, Warner bought my strategy of honest talk on
fiscal issues. Terry, Beyer didn't. Now comes 2005.
VA's budget is not "balanced"; it
has a $4.5 billion structural deficit.
May
12: Saving
Social Security. It's
time to protect social security from the politicians
in Washington. It will take a constitutional amendment
to do the job.
May
5: The
Great Dissenter. Goldman
warns Virginia Democrats: Mark Warner is
gambling his future -- and that of the state party -- on
increasing state taxes under the code name of
"tax reform."
April
28: The
Twinky Strategy. Revealed
here: The GUV's secret plan to hand the GOP its
lunch on "tax reform."
April
21: 400
Years Later.
Money
alone won't fix up Capitol Square. Despite
four centuries of history, Virginians don't have a
single statue honoring a woman or African-American
on the Capitol grounds.
April
14: Reading
Dickie Cranwell's Mind. The
former Democratic Majority Leader is said to be
considering a run for state senate, and Gov. Warner
regards him as key to his 2003 strategy. But there's
more to this political chess game than meets the
eye.
April
7: Wilder
Aide Questions Bush/Warner Accord
Education Secretary
under Wilder says: "Some of us absolutely
disagree" with a Bush/Warner Accord on the
presence of racial discrimination in Virginia.
March
31: Who
Scared the VA Tech Board? Warner, Kilgore blamed each other. But the
NYTimes says Virginian Linda Chavez put the hocus
pocus on the Hokies over racial preferences.
March
24: Marquis
De Lafayette, Call Home. French
legal objections? Come on, they're just smarting
over Lance Armstrong owning the Tour de France. The
U.S. is enforcing the violation of cease-fire terms
of the 1991 Gulf War.
March
17: Warner
vs. Kilgore on
Racial Preferences.
AG says Guv favors
giving blacks illegal preferences over whites. SB
863 presents AG with the proverbial "money vs.
mouth" test, especially after his VA Tech
bombshell.
March
10: Playing
Hardball with the
Kilgore Brothers.
Del. Terry Kilgore's vote sets up political
crossfire over renovation of Capitol Square. Goldman
offers a way to avoid the trap -- and for Dems to
win big.
March
3: Governor
Warner's "Peculiar
Priorities"? A Washington Post column, so entitled, calls Gov. Mark Warner a
"wealthy dilettante without a cohesive
political agenda." His campaign strategist
responds.
February
24: Candidate
Warner vs. Governor Warner.
With today's Washington Post pointing to Gov.
Warner's use of the fiscal gimmicks he denounced
in 2001, a campaign advisor reviews the record and
offers a way out of the dilemma his current
advisors have created.
February
17: Teaching
the Facts of Life. First graders
get punished for not doing their homework. But the
governor, his advisors and editorialists get to beat
their breasts and praise themselves despite costing
the state millions.
February
10: The
Moment of Truth. Governor Warner,
the state Democratic Party and 10 Democratic
senators face a defining moment once the facts get
out about the GOP plan to repeal Virginia's estate
tax.
February
3: Boucher
or Scott in 2005? Backers of the Two-Term Governor
law, including Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, need to
remember the Chinese proverb: Don't wish for
something, you might get it.
January
27: Have
They No Shame? In
the name of decency, the Dead Heads in the General
Assembly should apologize for using the manicured
lawns of the State Capitol as if it were an overflow
parking lot for a Grateful Dead concert.
January
20: Hidden
Agenda? The arguments of Virginians for a
Two-Term Governor are so easily refuted that a
political commentator must ask the "T"
question.
January
13: The
Car Tax Scam. Most
Virginians should be paying no car tax in
2003. But Gov. Jim Gilmore pulled a bait and switch
that leaves average families paying more than
promised in his campaign five years ago.
January
6: Putting
K-12 Education First. Stop the paralysis
in Richmond. Here's a plan that tests whether the
Governor and General Assembly really believe in
putting our children first.
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2002 -
December
16: King
Kong Kilgore. Mild-mannered
Jerry
Kilgore may not roar and beat his chest, but he has become Virginia's most powerful
first-year attorney general in modern times.
December
9: Legislator,
Heal Thyself. If
the General Assembly wants to balance the state
budget, it should start with its own bloated
finances.
December
9: Disorder
in the Court. Judicial
spending is out of control, increasing 1,000
percent faster than the rate of Virginia's
population growth over the past two decades.
December
2: Show
Some Backbone. State Democrats
should set their own priorities, like K-12
education, rather than follow the agenda set by
the GOP Senate Finance Chair.
November 25:
Lies,
Damn Lies and Polls. How
a privately funded voter poll, which should have sent off alarm
bells to the local media, was used to manipulate the political
system and set in motion the Hampton Roads Tax debacle.
November 18:
Highway
to Hell. Transportation
has been a defining issue in Northern Virginia since
the late 1980s, when local elites revolted against
the Richmond establishment and protested
inequitable funding formulas.
November
18: First
Skirmish. The
pundits say Mark Earley's stand against the NoVa road-tax
referendum hurt him in his losing campaign against Mark Warner.
The evidence is less than convincing.
From
HBO's new Series, "The Mind of a Political Man."
November 4: Shedding
Heat, not Light. A
"Jews unhappy with Moran" article in a
Northern Virginia paper presumes a proper
"Jewish" response to issues. A person's
faith should not be a tagline, not a headline.
October 28:
Chichester
vs. Callahan. "Maximum"
John beats "My Cousin Vinny" in the first 2003 budget
battle.
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