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No
one champions bloggers more than Virginia Pundit
Watch, but trading Reginald
Shareef and Ed
Lynch for links to Loose
Leaf and lotzothoughtz
is like trading Sammy Sosa for a player to be named
later. Barnie Day also was caught up in the sweep,
but fortunately he retains his place at Bacon’s
Rebellion, not to mention the Daily Press
and Augusta Free Press.
There
are some good or promising blogs in the Roanoke.com
list,
most notably Steven Minor’s smart SW
Virginia Law Blog, although Minor’s suck-up to
the Roanoke Times seems totally gratuitous.
The blogs could have been added without dropping the
political pundits; why they had to go is a mystery.
Lynch
used his final column to suggest that Virginia
register voters by party, stagger the terms of
Senators, and implement ballot initiatives. He
thanked readers, even those who “subsequently sent
me e-mails that made steam come out of my
computer.” Shareef, noting he’d written over 300
columns, summarized his approach as trying to point
out “the gap between a society’s or
organization’s 'espoused values and actual
practices.’” He also praised his editor, Jim
Ellison, for never censoring his submissions.
It
would be less of a blow if the displaced Lynch and
Shareef remained in the public arena. May I suggest
they contact my editor, Jim Bacon, on the
possibility of becoming contributors to the Bacon’s
Rebellion blog?
Turn-About
is Fair Play
There
was no shortage of pundit indignation at legislation
proposed by Republicans that was deigned petty or
unprincipled. Legislation proposed by Democrats was
largely ignored. Melanie
Scarborough corrected some of that imbalance in
a Washington Post column comparing Republican
and Democratic proposals. A sample:
One
of the crowning achievements of the 2005 legislature
was passage of a law introduced by Del. David B.
Albo (R-Fairfax) giving access to state welfare
benefits only to those who reside in Virginia
legally. Among those opposing the bill were
Democratic Dels. Adam P. Ebbin (Alexandria) and
Robert D. Hull (Fairfax). If these lawmakers don't
see anything untoward about providing monetary
rewards for criminal behavior, where would they draw
the line?
Ebbin
introduced legislation to crack down on misbehaving
pedestrians and bicyclists. Hull tried to make it a
crime to punish schoolchildren by keeping them
inside during recess.
No
word on whether Hull’s proposal would have
protected students wearing droopy drawers from
punishment.
Education:
Two Views
Margaret
Edds of the
Virginian-Pilot demonstrated an open mind and
a big-issue perspective as she examined Republican
Jerry Kilgore’s proposal to bring merit pay to
Virginia teachers. She called it “short on
specifics and long on revolution. … But it’s not
too soon to start weighing the pros and cons of
moving away from teacher pay based on education and
years of experience to a pay plan that also rewards
merit.”
Another,
less lofty view of the issue and the Kilgore
proposal came from Barnie Day.
He compared it to a shell game and urged Kilgore to
adopt what just happens to be Tim Kaine’s
education proposal: “Commit today to raising the
pay of Virginia's teachers to at least the national
average.” In a classic Day sound byte, he called
the Kilgore plan “Readin', 'Ritin' and
Recklessness.”
Report
Card Follies
Speaking
of education, Ross
Mackenzie of the Richmond Times-Dispatch
played teacher, giving Richmond Mayor Doug Wilder an
“A” for his efforts over the past three plus
months. The column was a little sparse for such a
brief grading period, so he tacked on a perfunctory
“D” for Gov. Mark R. Warner’s three plus
years. If Mackenzie has a principal, she should
advise him that his merit pay might be in jeopardy.
The
Schapiro Watch
Is
Jeff Schapiro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch
feeling the heat of Norm Leahy’s One Man’s
Trash blog
scrutiny? First, Schapiro produced a stupefying
column on arcane machinations within the Virginia
Retirement System. No obvious target for Leahy’s
bias scalpel there. Schapiro’s next column used
Democrats Barnie Day and Richard Cranwell to comment
on gubernatorial candidates’ efforts to appeal to
“cultural conservatives.” Leahy didn’t
fall for that bit of distancing. Why Schapiro
didn’t choose one Republican and one Democrat to
comment is hard to figure, but at least he informed
us that Day voted for Dole in 1996.
Stopping
Red Light Cameras
Roger
Chesley of the Daily Press bemoaned
the General Assembly’s killing of red-light
cameras in Virginia, but national mega-blogger Instapundit
hailed
it as “good news.”
Support
in High Places
Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-TN, took to the pages
of the Richmond Times-Dispatch to urge that
the Boy Scouts of America be allowed to continue
their Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill in Caroline County.
There are efforts underway to deny the Scouts any
governmental support.
Bring
Her Back?
Here’s
an issue that might be able to unite Republicans and
Democrats, Conservatives and Liberals: Bring
back the remains of Pocahontas from England so
that she may be buried on American soil in time for
the 400th anniversary of Jamestown
celebration.
On
second thought, after the Terri Schaivo case, maybe
this wouldn’t unite anybody, either.
--
April 11, 2005
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