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Of
course, while brewskis are sipped on the beach, the
candidate staffs soldier on: “Unsexy developments
during the early dog days provide a possible hint of
the campaign’s direction.” According to Schapiro,
Kaine, using Kilgore’s refusal to debate more
often, will attempt to convince the public that the
former Attorney General is a “weakling.” Kilgore
will run a race that “mimics Bush ’04,
invigorating the base of the Republican Party.”
Ominously
for Russ Potts, the independent candidate, Schapiro
wrote a preliminary obituary. If he cannot push past
10 percent in public opinion polls, “Potts could
prove the first casualty of the summer.” And, in a
cruel blow to the adoring press Potts has
cultivated, Schapiro added “virtually no one will
notice.”
If
Virginians are not paying attention to an election
less than four months away, it’s a safe bet that
they aren’t too excited about the 2008
presidential race yet, either. Still, pundits
continue to track the nascent campaigns of Sen.
George Allen and Gov. Mark Warner. In the Washington
Post, Melanie
Scarborough scoffed at Warner’s record:
Yet
few of the people who are pressing Warner to run for
president seem to be Virginians. The suggestion
comes mostly from left-wing pundits and tax-craving
activists who imbue Warner with mythical status,
believing that the Democratic governor persuaded the
Republican-controlled state legislature to raise
taxes last year. That belief is akin to giving the
zookeeper credit for lions eating red meat.
Scarborough
extolled the accomplishments of Allen, concluding,
“If Virginians want to send one of their own to
the White House, isn't Allen a more obvious choice
than Warner?”
Bob
Gibson of the Daily Progress dreams of an
Allen-Warner match-up in 2008, along with a more
plausible dream of a Washington Nationals-Baltimore
Orioles World Series.
Blog
Turn-Around
After
a flurry of blog activity critical of Jerry
Kilgore’s refusal to debate Russ Potts, bloggers
flocked to indicators that the Kaine campaign team
was in floundering. John
Behan at Commonwealth Conservative had the most
complete examination of the evidence, calling the
Kaine operation a “sinking ship.”
Steven
Sisson of our own Bacon’s Rebellion
blog added his controversial perspective, describing
a Kaine campaign “meltdown,” then backing away
from that hyperbole.
Oh,
No, Not Again
Another
Bacon’s Rebellion regular, Patrick
McSweeney, raised the specter of another budget
impasse in 2006, this time over transportation
taxes. McSweeney suggests de-coupling threats of a
government shutdown from tax issues.
One
Man’s Case, Testing the System
Margaret
Edds of the Virginian-Pilot is not only a
top-notch political columnist, but also a noted
analyst of Virginia capital punishment issues. She
examined the scheduled July 11th execution of Robin
Lovitt, convicted of a murder in an Arlington pool
hall. The case is controversial because evidence
that might have exonerated Lovitt was destroyed. For
Edds, a death penalty opponent, the questions come
down to “how much doubt is acceptable? How much
error?”
Ivor,
Ground Zero for the ACLU
Kerry
Dougherty of the Virginian-Pilot revived
interest in challenges to the Virginia law passed in
2004 that requires adults to accompany their
children or grandchildren to nudist summer camps,
such as the one at White Tail Park in Ivor. The U.S.
4th Circuit Court reinstated a lawsuit that had
earlier been tossed out. Steve
Minor of SW Virginia Law Blog had the legal
details; Dougherty had the outrage:
If
nudist parents want to rear their children in a
clothing-optional lifestyle and send them to a safe
nudist summer camp, the state ought to step aside
and let them do it.
There
ought to be a rule against laws that interfere with
the rights of parents to rear children as they see
fit.
Thankfully,
“droopy drawers” didn’t pass and offer the
courts a wider range of wardrobe issues to resolve.
--July
11, 2005
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