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R-Winchester.
He’s against the “new conservative”
ideology of challengers Mike Rothfeld, Paul Jost,
and Mark Tate:
In
tone and demeanor, with its high-pitched strains of
anger and discontent, the voice of the new
conservatism speaks more of a collective neurosis
than of a political movement. It bleeds
self-righteousness and cuts itself slack for deceit.
Morse
listed a host of issues where “reform” (read:
more money) is needed and finds the incumbents much
more palatable:
For
such reforms to be even considered requires a
political climate in which reason rules and
levelheaded thinking prevails over the screaming,
scheming, sloganeering nonsense that promises the
moon at a discount.
Lose
Russell, Tommy and John on Tuesday, and the chance
for any sensible reform -- or sensible anything else
-- is zero.
Lose
Gordon Morse’s endorsement and Russell, Tommy, and
John might not be in so much trouble.
Jeff
Schapiro, writing in the Richmond
Times-Dispatch
but still unclear on how to code his column so that
it appears online, said the “smart money” is on
Republicans in the General Assembly not supporting
tax reform.
Hinting that some of the “Morse
Republicans” might go down on June 10th, Schapiro
wrote:
Anti-tax
Republicans in the General Assembly
—
and there
could be more of them after November
—
may figure
that it’s only a matter of time before a gasping,
wheezing bureaucracy finally shrinks to a more
manageable size.
Spinning
Melton
The
Washington
Post’s top reporter in Richmond,
R.
H. Melton, is usually a reliable skeptic, not
prone to breathlessly repeating spin jobs by
low-level Warner Administration apparatchiks.
But Melton’s latest Virginia
Notebook swallows whole the claims that a small
change in the obscure agency that handles state
employee grievances is symbolic of a new cost-saving
culture in Richmond. Supposedly,
the old paper system of filing grievances has been
replaced by an easier to use electronic format.
A look at the employee
grievance page shows … a form to fill out,
print, and mail.
Where’s the savings?
Melton apparently didn’t seek out, or
couldn’t find, any state employees who are not
impressed with some of the Warner “reforms,”
especially the much-heralded consolidation of
information technology agencies. They’re out
there.
Counting
Crowing
Democratic
columnists and Democrats themselves can’t stop
crowing at their elevated Virginia
FREE rating on business issues.
Delegate and Attorney General Candidate-in-Waiting Brian
Moran (D-Alexandria), offered a nakedly partisan
take on the ratings, claiming “the Republican
majority just doesn’t get it.”
Die-hard Democratic pitchman Barnie
Day wrote,
So
what’s the Republican reaction? You would have
thought someone had turned the lights on at a roach
convention. They ran for their lives. They huffed
and puffed. They issued indignant, scantily veiled,
threats to the business community. They slunk into
denial.
Tommy
Denton, editorial page editor of the Roanoke
Times, went literary on the Republicans who are
complaining about the FREE report, calling them
“paladins of parsimony.”
Hokie
Debating Society
Well
below the sturm
and drang over Virginia Tech’s athletic future
is a fledgling debate over … research, of all
things. In the
Roanoke Times, Dwight
Holland, engineering Ph.D. from Tech, praised
and defended the university’s research programs.
James
Lowe, a part-time instructor at the school,
questioned whether Tech’s focus on research is
detracting from its mission to teach.
Decoding
Virginia
Admit
it: figuring out the meaning of vanity plates in Virginia,
especially as a diversion while stuck in traffic, is
the Commonwealth’s unofficial sport.
Carol
Capo of the Daily
Press analyzed the phenomenon, including this
little exchange: “The other night IRSMART cruised
by, tempting a response: UMAYB, but your grammar
stinks.”
Virginia
Pundit Watch is going on vacation and will return in
July.
--
May 26, 2003
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