by D.J. Rippert
The Gathering Storm. Virginia’s General Assembly has hit a rough patch and that patch is getting rougher. First, a bizarre and dysfunctional 2012 General Assembly session had Virginia’s state legislature featured as the butt of late night talk show jokes. Then, a homophobic fight against the appointment of openly gay judge Tracy Thorne-Begland has been essentially reversed by a Richmond Circuit Court judge. Meanwhile, erstwhile General Assembly member, current Attorney General and governor hopeful Ken Cuccinelli has been slapped back on both his anti-Obamacare suit and his effort to force the release of Thomas Mann’s climate change e-mails. Finally, Bob McDonnell’s proximity to the top of Mitt Romney’s VP candidate list seems to be falling like a stone through water as Virginia’s structural economic and infrastructure problems become increasingly apparent.
The Tone in Tidewater. While the state legislature in Richmond has many ways that it demonstrates its intransigence and incompetence, transportation remains the cornerstone of its dysfunction. A recent “Best State for Business” article dropped the Commonwealth several notches on the list based, in large part, on a very substantial failure of state infrastructure. The last serious attempt to reform transportation in Virginia, passed by the lawyer-laden General Assembly, was immediately and unanimously found to be unconstitutional by the Virginia Supreme Court. The opinion of the court was clear. Justice Bernard S. Goodwyn wrote that “the General Assembly has failed to adhere to the mandates of accountability and transparency that the Constitution requires when the General Assembly exercises the legislative taxing authority permitted by the Constitution.” The Clown’s Show’s response? Embark on a hare brained scheme where various roads have their tolls raised to sky high levels so that new road construction can be undertaken without having to raise the gas tax – frozen in cents/gallon since 1986. Some in Tidewater think that this latest measure from our representatives in Richmond may be just as unconstitutional as HB3202.
Fighting a two front war. One hallmark of the General Assembly’s ability to remain in power despite its many failures has been its policy of isolating Northern Virginia from the rest of the state. This policy is predicated on taking huge sums of money out of Northern Virginia to fund various priorities across the state while freezing the gas tax that would help address Northern Virginia’s most pressing priority – transportation. The silent complicity of long time Northern Virginia state legislators such as Janet Howell have only aided and abetted Virginia’s political elite in this policy.
However, the state government in Richmond has now made the historical mistake of opening a second front in its war against the urbanized areas of the state – namely, it is trying to impose the same hapless policies it has imposed on Northern Virginia on Tidewater. The reaction from Tidewater not only targets the specific actions of the General Assembly, it also provides focus on the overall ineptness of the General Assembly. As the Pilot Online editorial states when discussing possible “blow back” from the lawsuit, “But blame for that development shouldn’t be assigned to the people who demand that state leaders abide by the state constitution. It should go to the elected leaders themselves, who have failed for the better part of two decades to exercise their authority to craft responsible solutions to the problems they’ve been sent to Richmond to address.” My, my. Tidewater is starting to sound a lot like NoVa.
The sun is setting on the Imperial Clown Show in Richmond. Its 25-year reign of terror against the residents of Virginia is becoming ever more apparent to those residents. Its radical ideas are mocked on late night TV and its incompetent decisions are frequently overturned by rational people outside the state legislature. Now, the Imperial Clown Show in Richmond has managed to antagonize both the largest and the second largest population centers in the state.
PEOPLE’S RESOLUTION CONCERNING THEIR COMMONWEALTH:
WHEREAS, due to Anti-federalist agitation, the Commonwealth’s last Constitutional Convention passed a deeply flawed Clown Like Constitution.
WHEREAS, manipulating these flaws, a Cabal of Imperial Clowns have invaded and usurped our General Assembly in Richmond, and instigated a 25-year reign of terror throughout the Commonwealth against its citizens.
Now therefore, the People of this Commonwealth hereby declare that:
Virginia’s Living former Governors will forthwith and unilaterally:
1. Lock down the Virginia General Assembly with all Clowns inside under the armed guard of the State Police for not less than 120 days, and
2. Declare a Virginia Constitutional Convention of former living Governors in Session at the Homestead Resort in Virginia.
And Thereafter the aforesaid Former Governors Will:
1. Within 90 days hereof, submit to the people of this Commonwealth a new Clown Free Virginia Constitution for ratification by a State Wide People’s Referendum.
2. Release all Clowns from Lock Down after 120 days of confinement, or the approval of such new Virginia Constitution, whichever event occurs last.
3. The said Release of the Clowns shall be subject to life parole, enforceable jointly and severally against any and all Clowns, and revokable upon any and/or all Clown-like behavior, whether in concert or individually, and/or, without in any way limiting the foregoing, such Release of the Clowns shall also be revokable when and if one and/or more of the Cabal of Clowns ever again enter into the City Limits of Richmond, Virginia.
IN FURTHERANCE HEREOF, The forgoing Release of the Clowns shall be under the direct supervision of Virginia State Police in perpetuity.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF ——
A new state constitution? OMG, if there’s anyone more clownish than the members of the General Assembly, it’s the people of Virginia. I shudder to think where a constitutional convention would take us. Is there any possible way to hold a constitutional convention by invitation only?
Oh, yes, the Living Governors are issuing invitations only to themselves. In general I’ve typically held Virginia Governors in high regards, relative to the typical Nation wide lot of that deplorable sort of individual.
An excellent suggestion! I’d also suggest that, once released, the formerly incarcerated clowns be required to travel eight to a Volkswagen bug. That way, they would be unable to sneak up on anybody and their status as clowns would readily discernable.
Don, it will be interesting to see if there’s a dawning sense of commonality of interest between NoVa and parts of RoVa, especially the major metro areas. One indicator was that meeting about a month ago between political leaders from jurisdictions throughout the Golden Crescent to talk about transportation issues. That meeting was closed to the public, however, so I don’t know if anything substantive came of it.
From your perspective, that meeting might have been flawed — it included attendees from the Richmond MSA, a region that you appear to regard with the greatest antipathy. (I can’t ever tell how much is real and how much you’re pulling my leg.) As long as you cast Richmond into the outer darkness along with rural/small metro Virginia, NoVa and Hampton Roads won’t be able to get much done. If you bite your tongue and include Richmond, the three major metros combined could dominate the state. Could you make that compromise?
Jim:
Having lived in and around Washington, DC for all of my life, I am an expert in corrupt societies.
The first thing you have to realize is that I bear no ill-will to the vast majority of Richmonders who are good, hard working and honest people. In a similar vein, I bear no ill-will to the vast majority of Washingtonians who are also good, hard working and honest people. A couple hours of tailgating before any home Redskins game would introduce outsiders to the “typical Washingtonian”. These are good folks.
The problem comes with the political elite of both cities. Too often, these people are not good, hard working or honest. Many occupy the spectrum between fraud and out-and-out criminal.
There are many examples of the problems with Washington’s political class. One obvious issue is that the people who arrive as elected officials never leave and go back home. Despite endless chatter about how they hate life “inside the beltway” they stay “inside the beltway” even after they are no longer elected officials. Want to meet Newt Gingrich? Don’t waste your time in Georgia, he lives in McLean, VA. Want to talk to Rick Santorum? Forget Pennsylvania, he lives in Great Falls. Want to chat with uber-Cajun John Breaux? Forget the bayou – look around the Chesapeake Bay. You think Al Gore is from Tennessee? Spare me. He was born in DC and lived there until he graduated from St Albans School. Then, after finishing #25 in a class of 51, he was accepted to Harvard.
If you want to do something useful in Northern Virginia, the first thing to do is to exclude any national politician, any high ranking federal bureaucrat and any executive of a company that gets a majority of its revenue from government contracts.
So, how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? How do you get people with an honest interest in Virginia and not the embedded political elite from Richmond?
Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people. Thom. Jefferson
Oh, yes, the Living Governors are issuing invitations only to themselves. In general I’ve typically held Virginia Governors in high regards, relative to the typical Nation wide lot of that deplorable sort of individual.
so how many NoVa elected have been tossed out for hobnobing with Clowns in Richmond?
Interestingly enough – Mr. McDonnell supports METRO, tolls, and bypasses in Charlottesville – AND he made it happen without or in spite of the Clown Show.
I love the feckless elected in Hampton who knew long ago that tolls were going to be done for that area but they waited until it was a done deal to express their “outrage”. NoVa elected are no better.
If you REALLY want to deal in clown shows – you need to look no further than the elected in NoVa and Hampton Roads.
At least give McDonnell credit for making something happen instead of masquerading as one of the clowns
I give McDonnell a lot of credit for what’s he’s done in transportation. I have a second job arguing with Jim Bacon about McDonnell’s efforts with RTD II, C’Ville Bypass, etc.
“If you REALLY want to deal in clown shows – you need to look no further than the elected in NoVa and Hampton Roads.”.
Virginia has the least competitive state elections in America. That’s no accident, LarryG. That’s a systematic effort by the Clown Show to protect their own jobs. From the unlimited campaign donations to the way the GA does its own re-districting with no effective oversight – the reason elected clowns can stay in office forever is because the governance process has been corrupted by the corrupt politicians.
Even the one term governor is corrupting. The single, consecutive term law in Virginia renders the executive branch far, far less capable of being an effective check on the General Assembly’s power. It also retards progress by eliminating a multi-term governor being able to implement a sustained program of change.
Transportation in Virginia would be a lot better in four years if McDonnell were allowed to run for a second term.
I have long been amazed at the Va. Governor’s single term limitation.
It orginally arose from the Anti-federalist fear of executive power. It’s result is to too often hobble effective chief executive power in the state.
A second systemic problem magnifies the first. Incumbent manipulation of elections to the General Assemble mixes with the weak executive to create a wobbly and often dysfunctional State government.
Finally, there is Virginia’s grand tradition of endless Lawyering. This culture of interminable haggling over every conceivable detail of every governance, particularly where money and power is at issue, further debilitates. This third leg of the stool, hyper active lawyers, combines with the other two shaky legs to puts this whole weird and crazy Va. government into a kind of endless vibration tending to anarchy. Its a paradox really, Virginia’s subtle brand of gentlemanly lawlessness.
Virginia is Alexander Hamilton’s worse nightmare come true, really. So on one level Virginia’s roadside litter is inexplicable. Ye, on another, it’s the perfect metaphor for the State’s Ruling Class.
Reed:
There’s more. In 23 states, judges are nominated by a non-partisan commissiona and then appointed by the governor.
In 15 states, judges run for election without reference to their political affiliation.
In 8 states judges run for election as members of a political party.
You keeping count? That’s 46 states so far.
In four states, judges are appointed by the state government. Two startes allow the governor to appoint judges with consent of the uper house of the legislature.
We’re down to 2 states.
Virginia is only one of two states where the legislature is responsible for appointing judges.
Now comes the good part ….
Virginia’s General Assembly is part-time. Many of the legislators are practicing attorneys.
Do you think that practicing attorneys in Virginia’s General Assembly have to recuse themselves from judicial appointments?
Of course not!
The practicing attorneys in Virginia’s General Assembly freely appoint the judges before whom they will try cases. Needless to say, they also re-appoint those judges when their terms expire.
Here’s some free legal advice from me (a non – lawyer) – if you find yourself in a legal dispute in Virginia be sure to use a law firm where one of the partners is a member of the General Assembly.
That put a bow around it, Don – General Assembly, State Judiciary, and Governor – the first two in the sewer, the last crippled. God have mercy on the Good Citizens of the Commonwealth!
speaking of clowns:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-clowns-20120719,0,6516965.story
The right certainly has their share of clowns. However, the left can field a circus full of jesters themselves.
Ed Schultz? Dear Lord. A failed athlete and failed sportscaster. He once considered running for Congress as a Republican but was talked out of that idea by some obviously sensible Republicans. Seeing that being a liberal psycho might pay better than being a conservative psycho, Ed switched teams. In 2011, he called Laura Ingram a “right wing slut” and a “talk slut”. He was suspended for a week without pay for that stunt even though Laura Ingram graciously accepted his apology.
On August 15, 2011, Schultz used an edited video clip of Texas Governor Rick Perry at a rally talking about the national debt crisis. Governor Perry said that “getting America back to work is the most important issue that faces this country, being able to pay off $14.5 trillion or $16 trillion worth of debt. That big black cloud that hangs over America, that debt that is so monstrous.” The audio of the clip was cut off after “America”, so Schultz’s audience did not hear “that debt that is so monstrous.” Governor Perry refers to the debt before and after the “big black cloud” statement. Schultz said, “That black cloud Perry is talking about is President Barack Obama.” The following day on his TV show Schultz apologized for taking Governor Perry out of context. “We did not present the full context of those statements and we should have,” Schultz said “No doubt about it, it was a mistake and we regret the error … we should not have included it in our coverage.”.
Charlie Rangel? He owns some vacation property in the Dominican Republic which during the busy season rents for as much as $1100 per night. He bought the place in 1988 but mortgaged part of it. He was one of a few investors that had interest payments forgiven. In 2008, it was discovered that he had failed to report $75,000 worth of income on the property. Either our tax code is too complicated for a Congressman to figure out, or he was hiding it. Either is disgraceful considering he’s the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, the House comittee that DESIGNS THE TAX CODE.
Jessie Jackson. Rev. Jesse Jackson referred to Jews as “Hymies” and to New York City as “Hymietown” in January 1984 during a conversation with a black Washington Post reporter, Milton Coleman. Jackson had assumed the references would not be printed because of his racial bond with Coleman, but several weeks later Coleman permitted the slurs to be included far down in an article by another Post reporter on Jackson’s rocky relations with American Jews.
A storm of protest erupted, and Jackson at first denied the remarks, then accused Jews of conspiring to defeat him. The Nation of Islam’s radical leader Louis Farrakhan, an aggressive anti-Semite and old Jackson ally, made a difficult situation worse by threatening Coleman in a radio broadcast and issuing a public warning to Jews, made in Jackson’s presence: “If you harm this brother [Jackson], it will be the last one you harm.”
Finally, Jackson doused the fires in late February with an emotional speech admitting guilt and seeking atonement before national Jewish leaders in a Manchester, New Hampshire synagogue.
Yeah, LarryG – the lunatic left is just as bad as the ridiculous right.
well I agree about the single term….but it’s cat nip for the small govt types.
but the govt that is closest to the people – in places like NoVa seems to be antithetical to the intended purpose of local, accountable govt so folks like DJ keep looking for some kind of super-strong leader who will do for NoVa what NoVa itself will not do.
as bad as the left can be and is – they are not conspiracy nuts.
and they did not pay Medicare Part D (save 14 of them) that costs the country about 40 billion a year and ethanol at 6 billion a year, and yammer about millions for green energy.
the left does not have almost 20% that STILL say Obama does not have a birth certificate or that he is a Muslim.
and of course, few of the left belief in global conspiracy theories…..
If Virginia is so much better run – why do Marylanders consistently have a substantially higher per capita income than Virginians?
One would think, over a 30 year period, that being the “best state for business” vs the “11th best state for business” would eventually result in the citizens of the “best state for business” overtaking the citizens of the “11th best state for business” in per capita income.
I guess not.
LarryG – Any idea when the wonderment of Virginia will “trickle down” to the people who live here?
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104652.html
Don, Be careful comparing incomes in Virginia and Maryland. Maryland is a highly urbanized state. I’m guessing that half the population resides in the Washington MSA and another 30% in the Baltimore MSA, leaving very little in non-MSAs. The state’s high average income is a function of being a small state with two dominant MSAs, one of which has the highest income in the country. Virginia is a much larger state geographically and much more diverse. The Washington MSA (Northern Virginia) constitutes a much smaller percentage of the population than in Maryland. The rural proportion of population is much smaller as well.
An appropriate comparison would be comparing Virginia and Maryland incomes within the Washington MSA. Or comparing rural incomes.
Wyoming overtook Virginia in per capita income in 2005 and has been widening the gap ever since. New Hampshire has roughly the same per capita income as Virginia.
2010 – per capita personal income:
Baltimore MSA – $49,129
Richmond MSA – $41,260
Not sure that the easy urban vs rural “rule of thumb” gets it done.
as bad as the Va GA is.. Va routinely scores in the top 5 of best run states.
geeze…imagine what would happen if we had the GA in all those other states that score way worse than 1 through 5!
Take Maryland, for instance, who DJ has often expressed his love for. They rank awful in the well run states listing…but DJ still loves them.
correction..not “awful”.. just 11th….
LarryG – you are being duped. What states always rise to the top in these opinion pieces about “best state for business”? Texas, Utah, Virginia.
Notice a pattern?
Republican, conservative, low tax.
Congratulations, LarryG, you are officially a spokes-model for Rush Limbaugh et al.
Transportation? They are going to pay for it with a new $0.50 / month fee for having an Easy Pass, in case you ever decide to use in on the express lanes, while you STILL get to pay the same gas tax as everyone else, PLUS the tolls.
Naturally, the tollroads will all be in the Urban areas.
The Clown show in Richmond are amateurs compared to the collection of bozos in the Fauquier Board of supervisors.
“Fauquier Cites Farmer for Farming.
If you have a working working farm in Fauquier county, regardless of any prior business license or permit held, you must now obtain a special administrative permit before selling any products from your farm. Before you sell a tomato, and egg, or a bale of hay, you must have this administrative special permit. Without the permit you run the risk of being fined up to $5000.
Last Thursday the board of zoning appeals conducted a hearing to enforce several violations against a farm in Paris. The farm previously obtained a license issued by Fauquier county in June of 2011 to operate a retail farm shop. As of July 14 2011, that license was apparently null and void, due to the new regulation.”
Now, you are REQUIRED to show receipts for your farm operation in order to keep the land use abatement, and now you are REQUIRED to have a special permit in order to sell the goods to get the receipts.
And don’t even think about asking about the stupidity foisted on local vineyards, the one bright spot in the local economy, probably in violation of state laws passed by the Richmond clown show with at least some brains.
But Hydra – you fully and completely understand the issue in Fauquier. That’s because it’s harder for a county government to hide what it’s doing from it’s citizens than an opaque state government. Read my post today on Dominion. The state is screwing you too, you just don’t know it.
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from two much government. Thom. Jefferson
Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. Thom. Jefferson
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. Thom. Jefferson
re: Republican, low tax and Conservative
re: Maryland
re: Clown Show
re: unlimited campaign donations
re: best run state after 2 successive Democratic Govs.
so which is it DJ…er Groveton?
Nah, local government is costing this county’s residents billions, literally billions. And they claim they are doing citizens a fiscal favor by keeping taxes low.