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Virginia
was shaping up as
“promising territory for Democrats.” An open
seat in Vienna
and challenges to
Del. Richard Black, R-Loudoun and Sen. Ken
Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax, were rated as possible
pick-ups.
Barnie
Day of the Roanoke
Times developed a 30-word scenario for Democrats
gaining the three seats they need to pull even with
Republicans in the Senate.
His scenario depends on former Del. Richard
Cranwell running, although Cranwell has ruled it
out, and it includes former Judge Verbena Askew
winning a Republican seat.
She has been most prominently mentioned as
running in a district already represented by a
Democrat.
The
Roanoke
Valley
has been disproportionately affected by General Assembly retirements.
Bob
Gibson of the Daily
Progress covered the Valley’s loss of 98 years
of legislative experience over the last two years.
As
usual, there was considerable Republican-
bashing
in the week’s commentary.
Margaret
Edds of the Virginian-Pilot was subtle,
recounting the treatment “moderate” Eastern
Shore Republican Del. Bob Bloxom received from his
more conservative brethren.
Bloxom has announced his retirement.
Gordon
Morse of the Daily
Press, writing in the Washington
Post, uses all the subtlety of a sledgehammer,
comparing the Republican-controlled General Assembly
to “a crew-less ship loaded with three tons of
rotting fish [that] was discovered drifting off the
Australian coast.”
Morse almost approvingly quoted something he
heard a Democrat say at a wedding:
“’[The General Assembly] is being run by
morons.’”
Pundits
were
briefly thrown off-stride by the national furor over
remarks made by 8th District Democratic Congressman
Jim
Moran. Widely
interpreted as being anti-Semitic, Moran’s
comments were seized upon by long-time critic Marc
Fisher of the Washington
Post.
Fisher called Moran “a sorry excuse for a
congressman.”
Creative
Tension
The
Virginian-Pilot is not afraid of internal debate. A few weeks ago,
editor Margaret Edds and columnist Kerry Dougherty
engaged in a public disagreement over compensation
for pardoned convict Earl Washington, Jr. This week,
Dougherty
took on a Pilot
editorial
— an “astonishing piece” -- that she said
blamed Republicans for Congressman Moran’s latest
“appalling antic.” The feisty columnist said the
blame for Moran’s “vile verbiage” falls on
“the bloviating Moran himself.”
Roanoke
Retorts
Attorney
General Jerry
Kilgore took to the Roanoke
Times commentary pages to dispute an editorial
opposing his intervention on the side of the EPA in
a clean air case.
Michael
Kirkpatrick,
a customs inspector, responded to an earlier
commentary by Sam Riley opposing guns in bars or
restaurants:
If
you were dining with your family and a terrorist
entered, intent on killing as many people as
possible, who would you rather have next to you,
Riley or a law-abiding citizen legally carrying a
concealed weapon?
Uninsured
Push
Jane
Woods, Secretary of Health
of Human Resources in Governor Warner’s cabinet,
led off the “Governor’s Conference on Covering
the Uninsured” with a Daily
Press (registration required) op-ed updating her
efforts to help the one million Virginians without
health insurance. G.
Gilmer Minor, CEO of Owens & Minor, used a Times-Dispatch
op-ed to describe the work of the Virginia Health
Care Foundation to bring service to the uninsured.
VDOT
Contracts—Nice Work if You Can Get It
In
the Roanoke
Times, Preston
Bryant reviewed VDOT’s “sputtering” road
and bridge construction program, noting that private
sector engineering firms were not getting much work.
Jim
Spencer
(registration required) of the Daily
Press castigated VDOT’s settlement with
contractor Archer-Weston over cost overruns at the
Jefferson Avenue
interchange on
I-64 in Newport News. VDOT forgave
$427,000 in damages and paid $674,720 “for its
trouble.”
A
Columnist’s Legacy
Spencer,
who is leaving to write for the Denver
Post, felt compelled to dispel rumors that
he’d been forced out by local politicians. He
called it “wishful thinking” and boasted that he
didn’t outlast a lot of politicos by “by kissing
any of their rear ends.”
A
Columnist’s Scorecard
A.
Barton Hinkle of the Times-Dispatch
reviewed the status of recommendations he has made
over the last four years.
Despite the fact that his suggestions “were
backed up with arguments of such depth and
profundity they would leave Immanuel Kant whistling
in admiration,” most of his recommendations have
been ignored.
--
March 17, 2003
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