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summary
of his plan. He
called it, “The chance to achieve greater fairness
for working Virginians burdened by taxes, meet our
commitments to education, and put the commonwealth
on a course to long-term fiscal health.”
Reactions
to the plan have begun to trickle in, but will
undoubtedly rise to a torrent as the
body politic returns from the holiday, reads the plan, and
receives the special-interest press releases.
Virginia Commonwealth University Professor Robert Holsworth
apparently eschewed holiday relaxation, preparing a
thoughtful and thorough political analysis
of the plan for the Washington
Post. Holsworth
sees Warner’s plan as a bold gamble, a “major
test,” and “the defining moment of his
governorship.” He
will receive a “fair and relatively congenial”
reception in the Senate, but the
Republican-dominated House of Delegates believes
Warner is out of step with voters on the tax issue.
The VCU professor also advanced the unlikely
prospect that if Gov. Warner renounced aspirations
for George Allen’s Senate seat in 2006, he would
have a better chance of getting his plan passed.
Hugh
Lessig and Terry Scanlon of the Daily
Press read the fine print of Warner’s plan.
They noted that all taxpayers, regardless of
income, will pay less income tax on their first
$20,000 of earnings. Warner’s
claim that 65 percent of Virginians will pay less
tax is only accurate if they are assumed to be
non-smokers. Jeff
Schapiro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch examined the Republican position on tax reform.
They have “bollixed” the tax issue by
failing to come up with a plan of their own and,
“For all their braggadocio, they don't know where
to cut the $52 billion budget, because they don't
know whom they might offend.”
On
the eve of Governor Warner’s announcement, Margaret
Edds of the Virginian-Pilot
listed six reasons why his plan might succeed and
six reasons why it might fail. On the success side,
she noted that the needs for schools, Medicaid and
all the rest are very real.
On the failure side, fourteen Republicans
would have to join with Democrats in the House to
pass the Warner plan.
With the plan now on the table, her analysis
stands up: “Fourteen is a very big number.”
Nailing
an Olive Branch
Circumstances
differed, but it was hard not to notice the
contrasting reception pundits offered new Virginia
political party chairpersons. Kate Obenshain Griffin received loads of
unsolicited advice when she took over the reins of
the Republican Party. Kerry Donley’s ascent to the top of the
Democratic Party might have gone unnoticed except
for his impolitic first comment, a pledge to start
each day with the thought,“How can I nail a Republican today?”
Margaret
Edds called the remark “snippy” and “a
lousy olive branch.”
One Republican who might be expected to
respond to an olive branch, Delegate/columnist Preston
Bryant, R-Lynchburg, writing in the Roanoke
Times, wasn’t pleased:
Such
is just the kind of intemperate, over-the-top
blubber Warner has avoided the past handful of
months. And to now have his top party guy spewing it
merely blurs the pastoral political landscape the
governor wants many to envision.
Nanny
Parks
In
the Washington
Post, Melanie
Scarborough tells us that our parks are hotbeds
of overregulation. A
drive through Fort
Hunt
Park
in Northern
Virginia
“is like navigating the warning signs on ‘Mr.
Toad’s Wild Ride.’” Some examples:
More
than two dozen signs are visible. "No Golf
Playing." "No Waxing, Washing, or
Repairing Vehicles." "No Parking Either
Side of Roadway." "Alcohol by Permit
Only." Other posted instructions admonish
visitors repeatedly to leash their dogs, walk on the
left side of the road, play only softball on the
baseball diamonds, recycle their garbage, not ride
bicycles or skateboards near pavilions and not
picnic without a permit. Some of the signs don't
even make sense. "Reserving Parking Spaces Is
Prohibited." How is that accomplished, exactly?
"Use One
Lane
at All Times." Who drives in two lanes at once?
If
You Got Stuffed on Thanksgiving,
Thank Virginia
For
the 25th year, Ross
MacKenzie of the Richmond
Times-Dispatch made his case that the first
Thanksgiving was held not in Massachusetts but in Virginia,
at Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County,
on
December
4, 1619.
U.S.
Senator George Allen took to the pages of the Washington
Post “to tell the truth about America's
first Thanksgiving.” Allen, relying on “my good friend Ross
MacKenzie,” attributed the “myth” of the first
Thanksgiving in Massachusetts
to “northern bias.”
Arlington’s
Robert
Giron, also in the Washington
Post, responded to Allen’s boosterism by
claiming the first Thanksgiving in the New
World
for the Spanish at
El
Paso,
Texas,
on April
30, 1598.
--
December 1, 2003
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