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Since
primary day, Virginia's Democrat activists and
bloggers have been touting the statewide ticket of
Tim, Leslie, and Creigh, saying it offers
"TLC" for the Commonwealth.
Meanwhile,
a conservative anti-tax friend told me, "I
think [Leslie] Byrne will do what I thought was
impossible: Elect Bill Bolling lieutenant governor.
... Bolling is probably the luckiest politician
alive."
Prior
to Byrne's election victory, Virginia Democrats were
saying the former state senator and 11th district
congressman was "a bit too stereotypically
liberal to win in the state." I didn't believe
she could win, either. Not a chance. But she did.
Now
the Bolling campaign is asking, "[Is] Ms. Byrne
the most liberal person to ever seek statewide
office in Virginia?" The campaign referenced
her congressional vote for the largest tax increase
in American history, her record of voting 95 percent
of the time with former president Bill Clinton, her
100 percent pro-choice grade from NARAL, and her
high marks from the Sierra Club, which Bolling
declared "an anti-business environmental
extremist group."
The
Washington Post reported that Bolling said,
"I look forward to competing against my
opponent, Ms. Byrne. And I want to encourage her to
invite the candidate for president that she
championed in 2004, Howard Dean, to Virginia, to
campaign by her side. We hope she does that."
Is
Leslie Byrne an asset or a liability for
gubernatorial candidate Tim Kaine and
attorney-general candidate Creigh Deeds? Byrne told
the Blue Dog, "I believe that my experience and
effectiveness in standing up for Virginia families
will be a plus for the campaign. I am the only
candidate for statewide office from Northern
Virginia, where more than a fourth of the votes will
be cast."
Fellow
Democrat Lowell Feld, the publisher of the political
blog www.raisingkaine.com,
wrote, "The bottom line, as far as I can tell,
is that Byrne is a mainstream liberal and moderate
Democrat, while Bill Bolling is a right-wing
extremist."
But
the same week, Feld noted, "In the Democratic
lieutenant-governor race, the two liberal women beat
the two moderate and conservative men in the
race." How about that! Was Raisingkaine.com
blogflogging liberal Democratic women, or could that
be the smell of disappointment from a Chap Petersen
fan club?
The
Blue Dog tends to agree with fellow blogmate Jim
Bacon, who wrote on the Bacon's Rebellion Web log,
"The Kaine camp will paint Bolling as an
out-of-touch, right-wing lunatic. The Kilgore camp
will paint Byrne as an out-of-touch, left-wing
radical. Opposition researchers will dredge up the
most extreme statements that either candidate has
ever made and send out alarming mailers to the
electorate."
Later,
a Kaine campaign e-mail congratulated Byrne, and
commented "Today I am pleased to welcome Leslie
Byrne, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant
governor, to the Democratic statewide ticket. I am
very excited to be joined by the first woman ever
elected to Congress from Virginia - Leslie is a
strong, experienced leader who has made service to
the Commonwealth the hallmark of her career."
But
wait a second ... Leslie Byrne couldn't hold on to
her congressional seat in Northern Virginia in 1994.
Then, in 1996, she attempted a political comeback by
challenging Mark Warner for the Democratic
nomination to run against Sen. John Warner, but
failed. In 1999, Byrne was elected to the Virginia
Senate by a margin of less than one percent of the
vote per precinct - and won by only 37 votes out of
30,000 votes cast.
Byrne
is not very popular neither hard-line Republicans as
well as with moderate-to-conservative independent
voters, especially the retired military in the
Commonwealth, according to Northern Virginia
resident Dry Throat.
Dry
Throat, a Washington lobbyist, said, "Leslie
'Bed Check' Byrne, the former congresswoman
from Northern Virginia, served Clinton as though the
state was divided between the North and the South.
Byrne knew that to keep her seat in Congress she was
going to have to support Clinton even though her
district was predominantly moderate and a few strains
of conservative diehards, and she lost.
"Color
Byrne blue in her red state forum, and it's doubtful
with the retired military persuasion in Hampton
Roads she'll persuade that many voters to support
her for lieutenant governor."
Dry
Throat went on to say, "Leslie Byrne will
try to copy Hillary's second act, and most assuredly
Nancy Pelosi's laughing stock in congressional
inside trading. Virginians don't really like
liberal women getting in their faces and proposing
ideas that come from men and pretending it's their
own philosophy. Label Byrne a Hillary Clinton
supporter and a tax-hiker along the Appalachian
Trail."
Dry
Throat and many cradle-to-grave Republicans and
anti-tax Libertarians say liberal Democratic icon
Leslie Byrne might be headed for the biggest
meltdown since Mary Sue Terry.
Bruce
Elder, the Democratic Party nominee in the 20th
House District, said Byrne is "a damn smart
person and she can only help Tim Kaine and Creigh
Deeds."
In
The Free Lance Star, the ‘what me worry’
lieutenant-governor's race quote of the day came
from the University of Virginia's Larry
"Softball" Sabato. Said the famed pundit:
"The 2001 races showed that voters don't tend
to choose their governor based on his running
mates."
Phew!
Today, there's a lot of hot air blowing east from
Charlottesville. "Softball" Sabato loves
changes in the political weather.
Dean's
boomerang
What,
exactly, is a Virginia Democrat? Is there a
technical definition, or is it a club made up of
only people who agree 100 percent with the Warner-Kaine
leadership? Need more breadcrumbs, you say? Oh,
double Democratic hockey sticks! This lieutenant-
governor seat has been sold down the river!
When
Leslie Byrne co-chaired the 2004 Howard Dean for
president campaign in Virginia, she wrote a
Washington Post op-ed stating her objections to the
war in Iraq.
"Your
paper doesn't like Dean saying that the capture of
Saddam Hussein has not made us safer, although none
of us has seen the terrorist warning improve from
Code Yellow to Code Green," Byrne wrote.
Are
the people of Iraq and the world safer since
Saddam's fall? The Blue Dog questioned Byrne about
her writing skills, err ... I meant to say Dean fan
club letter.
Byrne
said, "I think given what we know now about how
President Bush failed to tell Virginians the truth
about pushing us into war with Iraq, it's a pretty
good letter."
Elder
said, "The campaigns in Virginia will most
certainly be impacted by the national issues and
perceptions of whether we are as a nation heading in
the right direction. Iraq, judicial nominees,
scandals on the other side of the country will all
impact the way people see their party.
"My hope
is that the most statesmanlike behavior will win the
day."
Needless
to say, as a fellow blogger pointed out: "If
Bill Bolling's staff has got any brains, this letter
to the editor will be in every mailbox south of I-66
before July 4th."
Direct-mail
guru Ray Allen, the king of vipers, and Scott
Howell, the prince of darkness, are probably faxing
the letters to the printers without delay.
Who's
beyond the political mainstream - Bolling or Byrne?
In
an exclusive interview, Bolling told the Blue Dog,
"Ms. Byrne has obviously bought Howard Dean’s
liberal rhetoric hook, line and sinker. Clearly, the
war on terror has made us safer at home.
"To
deny this is to refuse to accept the facts, and it
brings dishonor to the sacrifice the brave men and
women of our military have made in Afghanistan and
Iraq."
Ouch!
No doubt, the Blue Dog and like-minded conservative
Virginia Dems support the war effort in Iraq and the
establishment of democracy in the Middle East.
A
lot of these alternative Democrats believe Dean is
off the deep blue end and wading in rich red
political waters. I'm not sure most Howard Deaniac's
are faith-based Tim Kainiacs.
RaisingKaine.com's
Lowell Feld wrote, "I say, bring Howard right
on down here for some 'Southern Comfort!'"
Are
Tim Kaine's fax machines sending out resumes or
roses to Leslie?
Kaine
told The Free Lance Star, "We're very
unified on the pivotal issues that helped move
Virginia forward." With many
retired and active military personal, is the war a
pivotal issue in the Commonwealth?
In
a special interview, Byrne told the Blue Dog she's
not worried about her associations with the Howard
Dean campaign - after all, "George Bush's
numbers are going in the tank."
She
added, "Republicans are only concerned about
energizing their base."
In
regards to her opponent, Byrne said, "Bill
Bolling has been labeled by other Republicans in his
own party as an extremist. He led the effort to
challenge incumbent Republicans in primaries who
voted for commonsense budget reform."
In
the past, the Blue Dog has noted, Howard Dean is
trying to paint the nation blue while under a blood
red sky. A lot of Republicans would dearly love for
Howard Dean to support the TLC ticket in the
Commonwealth, don't you agree?
Trouble
is, Dean has a huge IOU debt to pay Tim Kaine and is
running the DNC bank account plum dry.
But
concerning Howard Dean, as Byrne told the Blue Dog,
"As the old Chinese proverb says: Be careful
what you wish for."
--
July 11, 2005
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