How Tim Kaine Lost his
Mojo
Tim
Kaine campaigned as a liberal who would oppose tax
increases. He has governed as a moderate who has
advocated tax increases. Many Virginians feel
betrayed.
Nearly
three years ago Virginia’s governor,
Timothy M. Kaine, came from behind
to beat the favored candidate, Jerry Kilgore, a
conservative Republican attorney general whose
roots in the state’s deep southwest mountain
section helped and hurt his candidacy.
Rural
Virginians across the state liked Kilgore’s farm
upbringing and appreciated his parents’
sacrifices to see their twin boys and younger son
educated and nurtured for public service.
Kilgore’s steadfast conservatism was a
click or two to the left of George Allen and Jim
Gilmore, but obviously well to the right of the
liberal-leaning Kaine. Kilgore never hid his
conservative credentials and resisted admonitions
to head to the middle and compromise his long-held
views, some say to the detriment of his
electability.
Northern
Virginia, having changed demographically and
politically as
Yankees flocked to the region's nicer weather and
high-tech jobs, rejected Kilgore’s law-and-order
stance, his mountain culture and dialect, his
support for gun rights and what voters perceived as
his anti-environmental stance, although as
attorney general he had amped up the enforcement of
all laws, including those protecting land, air and
water.
In
the end, Kilgore could not match Kaine’s deft
transition from ultra-liberal to solid moderate
without blinking an eye (although Kaine’s left
eyebrow usually made a magnificent arch when it
was obvious he was not believing his own “I am a
traditional Virginian” rhetoric.)
Perceived
as Virginia’s most liberal governor, Kaine kept his
pro-business promise, even to the extent of
re-appointing a member to the state water control
board who had been cited twice for violating the
state’s clean water laws he was sworn to uphold.
Next, Kaine fully embraced a new coal-fired
power plant in the Virginia coalfields and stood
firm as his liberal base accused him of being
owned by Dominion Virginia Power, a slave of coal
and, most recently, of threatening the state’s
citizen air pollution control board to vote right
or else just one week before the power plant
permit was to be decided.
The permit was approved unanimously.
One
of Virginia’s most influential political blogs, aptly named
Raising Kaine, came into prominence
bolstering Tim Kaine’s candidacy and image in a
state that heretofore had flat out rejected all
liberal and most moderate gubernatorial
candidates. Kaine,
some say, was literally blogged into office by Raising
Kaine and other pro-environmental groups,
pro-immigrant organizations and a statewide media
that had decidedly become more liberal as
Republicans were repeatedly vilified for being too
pro-business and too anti-tax.
Mark
Warner had shown the political world that
resisting tax increases could be blamed on
Republican-led gridlock, while
raising taxes for specific good causes could be
called
leadership. Running on a platform not to raise taxes
again, Kaine won his race and immediately
supported a multitude of increases in fees and
taxes, citing a change in circumstances as his
justification.
When
one now visits the Raising
Kaine blog, all references to Tim Kaine are
gone. Where
his name once dominated the home page, a reverse
“R” and standard “K” took its place.
Most recently, the name “Hussein” fills
the space between the “R” and the “K”.
Presumably this is a show of support for
Barack Hussein Obama, the current favorite of
progressives, although he himself is being
criticized by some progressive blogs
for tilting toward the middle in an effort to win
the White House.
Kaine's
unbending loyalty to perceived polluters and big
business most likely killed any chances he had at being
tapped as Obama’s vice-presidential running mate.
He has also alienated wide swaths of
independents, who are
shocked first by his embrace of bad driver
penalties affecting only Virginians, and then by
his audacity to recommend higher gas taxes at a
time when many working class people can barely
afford to drive to and from their jobs.
All
in all, Kaine has strayed from one bad policy
decision to the other, alienating various bases of
support without reaping much political capital or
tangible results along the way.
Kaine's
campaign victory over a traditional conservative
Republican could be a playbook for Obama as he
follows the same path of winning the nomination by
being liberal and pursuing the general election by
adopting moderate to conservative viewpoints.
But
Kaine's actual governance should serve as a lesson for progressives to
call out Obama early and often through liberal
media and blog sources to prevent their candidate
from being “Kained” by corporate
America and hemmed in by the political middle.
It
will be interesting to see if Virginia's experience
with Tim Kaine will help or hurt Obama.
The Democratic nominee will need every ounce of oratory
skills and acrobatic political two-stepping to
pull off a victory in a state that has
traditionally voted red in presidential elections.
--
July 21, 2008
|