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Daily
Press
columnist Jim
Spencer had been flogging the story of Circuit
Judge Verbena Askew’s travails before General
Assembly courts committees. She had drawn criticism
from Republicans for her alleged role in a sexual
harassment suit settled by the City of Newport
News. There
were also allegations that her rumored sexual
orientation was being used against her.
When
the judge was denied reappointment, Spencer attacked
Senator Ken Stolle, R-Virginia Beach and attributed
Askew’s defeat to “a corrupt political
system.”
Other
pundits piled on, notably Washington
Post Metro columnist Marc
Fisher. He
called the vote on Askew
The
culminating act in the General Assembly's Let's Hear
Juicy Bits About Lesbians Week, a seedy little
enterprise in which the ever-bolder Republican
majority had itself a whale of a time grilling
judges about their sexual pleasures.
Jeff
Schapiro
of the Richmond
Times-Dispatch was more dispassionate.
He traced a history of Republicans who have
“chased a sitting judge from the bench” and
noted that Democrats averaged rejecting two judges
per year when they were in the majority.
Schapiro guessed that Republicans might not
pay a price for the Askew dust-up because of the
safe seats they engineered through redistricting.
Look
for commentators to use the aftermath of this
controversy as a backdrop for future columns on
bitter partisanship interfering with the General
Assembly’s work.
Short
Takes
Jim
Spencer finally dropped the Askew case and launched
a broadside
against the spending habits of the Virginia Port
Authority… Kay Slaughter, an attorney for the Southern
Environmental Law Center and a former mayor of
Charlottesville, bemoaned budget cuts to
Virginia’s natural and historic preservation
programs in a Daily
Press op-ed … Former trucker Robert
D. Gay suggested tolls on cars travelling I-81,
not trucks, in a Roanoke Times commentary … Margaret
Edds of the Virginian-Pilot
profiled brash anti-tax freshman Senator Ken
Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax, writing, “I have seen the
future, and it is impatient, irreverent, and girded
with conviction.”
Preferences
v. Preferences
Patrick
Lackey
of the Virginian-Pilot
came out swinging in favor of the University of
Michigan’s racial preference for admission by
attacking “legacy” preferences.
He never mentioned that a legacy preference
was worth four points, while a racial preference was
worth 20. He
found a University of Virginia angle:
Admissions
dean John Blackburn told The Wall Street Journal
that the legacy program is needed to pay the bills.
'In light of very deep budget cuts from the state,''
he said, 'our private support, particularly from
alumni, is crucial to maintaining the quality of the
institution. The legacy preference helps ensure that
support by recognizing their financial contributions
and their service on university committees and task
forces.''
About
half of the $1.4 billion raised in a recent U.Va.
fund drive came from out-of-state alumni.
Pundit
v. Pundit
In
a persuasive argument to nullify Virginia’s sodomy
laws, the Richmond
Times-Dispatch’s A.
Barton Hinkle took a poke at Daily
Press columnist Jim Spencer’s characterization
of Delegate Robert McDonnell, R-Virginia Beach:
McDonnell's
position does not make him - as a columnist for
another newspaper called him - "Taliban Bob."
Pro-Choice,
Pro-Chasm
Katherine
B. Waddell,
chairwoman of the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition of
Virginia, commemorated the 30th
anniversary of Roe v. Wade with an op-ed in the Richmond
Times-Dispatch. She
made a recommendation to pro-choice advocates:
One
way pro-choice Virginians could honor the 30th
anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision is by
working for a two-year moratorium on
abortion-related legislation for consideration by
the General Assembly.
Of
course, by glossing over late-term abortion and
parental notification, issues not a part of Roe,
she probably guarantees that the pro-choice wing of
the Republican Party in Virginia will continue to
struggle.
Virginia
Bashing
While
still in Richmond after writing his column on
Verbena Askew, Marc Fisher answered questions
“live” on Washington
Post Online. Asked
about the Department of Homeland Security discarding
Virginia as a headquarters location he joked,
“Apparently, the Feds finally realized they'd
forgotten about Virginia's sodomy law, and quickly
retreated to the District.”
He also took these comments from readers:
Having
lived in Virginia for most of my life, I can say
that there is a deep disrespect of homosexuals at
many levels of government. This type of thinking is
one of the major reasons I left the state. Why stay
in the 18th century when a short drive takes you
fresh into the modern world? My new home (D.C.) has
its problems, but at least my private life doesn't
make me a second-class citizen here.
We
chose Maryland and thank God. Your column today
reaches new lows for that sickening bunch in
Richmond. I would be ashamed to have elected any of
these folks. Sadly, few who did probably are.
--
January 27, 2002
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