Sunday
Blue Law Exempts Pundits
The
Governor and the General Assembly, which brought us tax
"reform", also tried their hand this spring at
repealing the
Sunday blue law. The repeal turned into a fiasco,
requiring a special session of the legislature to fix
the mistake. None of the Virginia pundits who hailed the
necessity of tax increases saw fit to wonder, if
lawmakers could bollox something so simple, what are the
implications for the more complex issues they contend
with.
The
one contrarian was Ed
Lynch of the Roanoke
Times, a moderate Republican who voted for tax
increases sponsored the blue law bill.
According to Lynch, the mistake “undercut the
usual claim of Virginia’s moderate Republicans that
they, and only they, are competent to run state
government.”
Of
course, this humble pundit, who writes on Sundays, had a
vested interest in the outcome of the blue law repeal that his weekday pundit brethren did not: I looked
forward to demanding the mandated triple wages from the
publisher of this estimable newsletter. But a judge’s injunction and a
special session of the General Assembly appear to have
crushed my hopes for a windfall.
Instead
of musing on the merits of a part-time legislature or
challenging the quality of legal review at the Capitol,
pundits attacked their favorite target.
Traffic?
It’s all Jim Gilmore’s fault, according to Susie
Dorsey of the Daily
Press. Her
strained argument was that Virginia is now at the end of
the six-year planning process in effect at the beginning
of Gilmore’s term.
When the economy soured near the end of his term,
Gilmore “refused to do anything about the widening gap
between projected spending and actual revenue.”
Dorsey claimed she wasn’t “Gilmore
bashing,” but the possibility that the former Governor
will run again certainly seemed to set her teeth on
edge.
Gordon
Morse, Dorsey’s colleague, one-upped her in the
Gilmore Bash Fest. Writing
in the Washington Post, he called Gilmore and Republican policies “a tale
told by idiots.”
In
the Daily Progress,
Bob
Gibson tarred Attorney General Jerry Kilgore with
the Gilmore brush. Critical
of Kilgore’s “two minds” on the state budget,
Gibson made this suggestion: “Perhaps Kilgore is
running on the plan that got former Gov. Jim Gilmore
elected: Campaign for tax cuts and govern without
corresponding spending cuts during times of double-digit
economic growth.”
Two
Democrats received critical scrutiny, if not the bitter
invective that characterized the Gilmore columns. Brian
Gottstein of the Roanoke
Times urged that “liberal” Democratic
Congressman Rick Boucher be defeated while acknowledging
that “his constituents have loved the smell of pork
he’s brought back to his district for his 22 years.”
Mild doubts about Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine’s 2005
gubernatorial campaign were channeled through Jeff
Schapiro’s Richmond
Times-Dispatch column.
Depends
on the Meaning of “Low”
Kerry
Dougherty of the Virginian-Pilot has found some
solace. “After years of being scolded about how I
should just shut up about taxes because Virginia was –
all together now – a low-tax state,” she wrote, a
survey in Kiplinger’s
challenged that conventional wisdom. Her home —
Virginia Beach — ranked 36th out of 101 cities, with
burdens higher than Honolulu, Boston, and Philadelphia.
Candidate
Financials
If
you’re wondering how Virginia’s congressional
candidates are faring financially, David
Lerman of the Daily
Press has a rundown. Incumbents,
as might be expected, have huge advantages.
All-Star
Ballot Omits Loudoun
Marc
Fisher of the Washington
Post, tireless advocate for major league baseball in
Washington, DC, trashed the bid by Loudoun County for a
team, calling it “a cynical and ghastly
non-starter.”
Serious
Charges
“Roanoke’s
image is being indelibly stained nationally and
internationally because of the way the city has, and
continues, to violate black property rights,”
according to Reginald
Shareef of the Roanoke
Times. His
column is a stunning indictment of urban renewal.
Home
Schooling and Teacher Quality
Kate
Walsh, President of the National Council on Teacher
Quality, announced in the Roanoke
Times that Virginia has received an “F” on its
quality of teacher standards. She suggested that
Virginia adopt more objective standards of subject
matter knowledge for teachers.
Meanwhile, James
Metzger, writing in the Washington
Post, decried Gov. Mark R. Warner’s veto of a bill
that would have allowed parents with only a high school
education to home school their children.
He wrote,
I
have no problem with Virginia or the county testing the
results of my teaching to make sure that I am doing a
good job educating my children. This the state does.
Should a home-schooled child fail the state's
examinations, the parent is put on probation or
disqualified. This standard for home-schooling parents
is higher than it is for professional educators, who
incur no penalty for failing to do their jobs.
Summary
Judgement
Dave
Addis of the Virginian-Pilot
reviewed the General Assembly’s work allowing ABC
stores to open on Sunday while restricting gay access to
marriage. He saw
schizophrenia. “We
reside in a commonwealth whose legislature will
concurrently expand the rights of alcoholics while
stamping on the rights of citizens whose sexual
orientation falls outside the norm."
--
July 12, 2004
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