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The
Roanoke Times’
Preston Bryant and Barnie
Day, plus the Virginian-Pilot’s
Dave Addis, took different routes in advocating
Trent Lott’s resignation. Day and Addis both
targeted Senator George Allen’s equivocal initial
position. Both were probably shocked to see Allen on
national television Friday leading the Senator Bill
Frist takeover.
Margaret
Edds of the Virginian-Pilot
looked at Republicans post-Lott. Jeff E. Schapiro of
the Richmond Times-Dispatch chronicled Allen’s rocky past on racially
charged issues.
University
of Virginia pundit Larry Sabato evaluated Virginia
Senators John Warner and George Allen for the Daily
Progress’ Bob
Gibson:
Both
… came out ahead in the process, especially Warner.
Arguably, Warner is at his absolute peak of power
and influence in the Senate. Not only will he be
Armed Services [Committee] chairman, but he was one
of the first supporters and players for Bill Frist
as majority leader."
"Allen
is not in a bad position,
but
he has not been helped by two things: his aggressive
early support for Lott and the fact that his switch
to Frist has been accompanied by a media examination
of his own past rocky relations with
African-Americans."
Of
the pundits who stuck with the budget, the Washington
Post’s R. H. Melton was the most helpful,
describing a new atmosphere:
Even
if programs that Virginians care about suffer only
limited upheavals in 2003, the dialogue between all
interested parties and the powers that be in
Richmond will never be the same. Playing defense --
that is, protecting a given funding stream for a
worthy program and deflecting the budget ax as it
falls -- will be a permanent condition for everyone
who receives a penny from state government.
Gordon
Morse, writing for the Daily
Press, started out being helpful by defining
political “budgetspeak,” but his column rapidly
descended into a bitter diatribe against tax
cutting.
Nicknames
R.
H. Melton called Mark Warner the “Governor of
Gloom.” A. Barton Hinkle of the Richmond
Times-Dispatch named him “Governor
Eat-Your-Vegetables.”
Governor
Gilmore, I Beg to Differ
Gilbert
E. Butler, Jr., chairman of the board of the Library
of Virginia, responded forcefully in the Richmond
Times-Dispatch to former Governor Jim
Gilmore’s earlier op-ed on the controversy over
his gubernatorial papers:
Governor
Gilmore explained his reluctance to archive so many
of his records by claiming these legal principles
are unclear and need reform. But the law is
perfectly clear. Documents generated by or for a
Governor, in his capacity as Governor, are public
records, and they must be archived. A Governor can
keep everything else.
Records
are not personal or private just because a Governor
says so, and a Governor cannot simply take a public
record and render it private by decree.
Columnist
Moonbeam
David
McAuley, an executive in the technology industry and
a retired captain in the U.S. Naval Reserves, had a
great headline for his op-ed in the Northern
Virginia Journal Newspapers: “Technology is
Still Northern Virginia's Silver Lining.”
Unfortunately, the headline was misleading, as
McAuley traced the history of technology and
potential future developments without specifying
Northern
Virginia
’s role.
McAuley also waxed cosmic:
When
these technologies come to pass beyond the
experimental stage, will we somehow also have
overcome mankind's imperfection, deceit and
unkindness? Are we at the edge of the clearing, with
utopian glory beyond the next tree?
Equal
Opportunity Taunting
Barney
Day taunted top Virginia Republicans — Allen, Eric
Cantor, and William Howell -- for their failure to
roundly condemn Trent Lott, then reached out to the
backbenchers for a particularly personal taunt:
Where
is Winsome Sears, the African-American delegate
who was the first to frump herself up and call for
Vance Wilkins' resignation? My friend Vance. You cut
and ran on him.
Lay
the template by which you measured Wilkins on Trent
Lott and let us know what the difference is.
This
one should be easy for you. Oh, I see. Ya'll never
did like Vance did you? What was it? The hair? Those
gapped front teeth? The way, when he told you
something, he meant it? What was it?
Couldn't
have been the money. You took that easy enough.
Those wads of cash are not that hard to swallow, are
they?
What
a Concept
Margaret
Edds went to the source:
Del.
Winsome Sears of Norfolk, the only black Republican
in the 140-member Virginia legislature, explains:
``What his [Lott's] comments have done is make it
hard for me to do my job as a black Republican. Some
of my black constituents say, `See. See. They don't
really care about us.'
''
A
Little Optimism
Political
pundits have been comparing Virginia to Mississippi,
so this Bob Rayner observation in the Richmond
Times-Dispatch was a nice dose of optimism:
New
Mexico is running a surplus. Its incoming governor,
Democrat Bill Richardson (who one day could be the
first Hispanic on a national ticket), is pushing
business tax breaks that he hopes will help stoke
the local economy.
Seems
like Virginia used to be that kind of state. Maybe
it will be again
The
VCU Exam
Virginia
Commonwealth University Professor Robert D.
Holsworth revealed Governor Warner’s grade in the Richmond
Times-Dispatch:
"On
the big picture of the budget, he gets an A."
--
December 23, 2002
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