Good
Shtick, Bad Shtick
As
we survey the Virginia
scene at the dawn of 2005, lame-duck Gov. Mark R. Warner
is anything but, and much of his opposition appears to
be stumbling and flummoxed.
Celebrated
conservative columnist George
Will cemented the notion that Warner’s successful
brand of politics might be the answer to what ails the
national Democratic Party.
Bob
Novak conspicuously mentioned Warner as an
“important” Democratic governor supporting former
Michigan Governor Jim Blanchard for Democratic National
Committee Chairman. When
the national press is fawning, everything comes up
roses.
By
contrast, Republicans are whispering doubts about their
presumptive gubernatorial candidate and their factional
divide continues. In
the Washington
Post, Gordon
Morse traced recent uninspired performances by
Attorney General Jerry Kilgore that are beginning to
worry insiders. Though
Morse is hardly a neutral observer, he expressed an
emerging consensus.
Within
the Republican House of Delegates, the hatchet has not
been buried over the 2004 tax battle.
Bob
Gibson of the Daily
Progress analyzed the recent “Howell Maneuver,”
where Speaker of the House William Howell stripped
tax-supporting Del. Preston Bryant from his seat on the
Appropriations Committee.
Howell had previously promised no retribution
against the 17 GOP delegates who supported tax
increases. Gibson notes,
Howell
is smart enough to see, however, that every time he
jerks a chair from a moderate promised no retribution he
is pushing moderate business leaders who admire Bryant .
. . more firmly into the Democratic camp.
While
the Republican factionalism continues within the caucus,
Morse wrote in the Daily
Press of an upcoming “lovey-dovey” 2005
General Assembly, with the GOP “holding hands”
with Governor Warner and the Democrats.
Two
examples of Warner’s command of the agenda and mastery
over Republicans stand out.
Michael
Shear of the Washington
Post told the story of how Republicans had
criticized Warner for hiding the true cost of running
his office (as all governors apparently have).
Shear, who described Warner’s “shtick” as
“the perception that he's a straight shooter,
especially when it comes to budget matters,” said the
Governor “one-upped” the GOP by placing the true
cost of running his office into his budget amendments.
Meanwhile,
in two remarkable columns, A. Barton Hinkle of the Richmond
Times-Dispatch took out after questionable spending
and management practices in the Warner Administration.
Warner’s new “Virginia Works” economic
development initiative duplicated
existing state efforts, according to Hinkle, and his new
Secretary of Agriculture was bureaucratic bloat:
How
Virginians ever managed to raise crops without a
Secretary of Agriculture for lo these many centuries is
a mystery, but one the Governor does not appear to have
lost much sleep trying to solve.
The
reaction to Hinkle’s charges was a collective shrug.
Warner has a “good shtick” going right now;
Republicans have a “bad shtick.”
Famous
Last Words
Days
before he was dropped from the House Appropriations
Committee, Del.
Preston Bryant wrote:
It’s
imperative that we maintain a strong two-party system
whose participants are able to engage in healthy, sharp
debate while keeping in check the competitive processes
that govern the debate.
And
even within the parties, it’s necessary that debate be
fostered--and,
yes, even dissidence allowed--so that only the
best-vetted propositions are turned into legislation and
laws and ultimately enacted for the greatest benefit of
the governed.
Pay
to Flush
In
another of those perennial warnings to the General
Assembly from interest groups, Roy
Hoagland of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, writing
in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, offered a
solution to the “growing water-pollution” crisis in Virginia. It’s the
“Clean Streams” initiative, model legislation to
upgrade polluting sewage treatment plants.
The cost? “Only”
$1 per week per Virginia household.
According to Hoagland:
Bipartisan
polls show that two-thirds of Virginians are willing
to pay an additional dollar a week for clean rivers
and a clean Chesapeake Bay. Moreover, a strong
majority of voters say they are more likely to favor
candidates who support such a fee.
Watch
Your Step
It’s
a given that certain “family values” conservatives
will propose controversial legislation during the 2005
General Assembly, just as it is certain that the press
will pay inordinate attention to those measures.
David
Lumpo of the Virginia Log Cabin Republicans warns
those legislators in a Washington
Post piece “not be too quick to jump on the
moral-values bandwagon,” at least as far as gay rights
are concerned. His
analysis of 2004 election results does not support the
conclusion that most Americans, including most
Virginians, want restrictions on gay rights.
Rating
Candidates
In
the Roanoke Times,
Ed
Lynch analyzes the legislation proposed by declared
candidates for Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General.
As one might expect from Lynch, he finds weak
records offered by the Democrats and robust initiatives
from Republicans.
Magna
Charter
The
Richmond
Times-Dispatch rolled the “Big Three” advocates
of charter university status, the presidents of Virginia
Tech, the University of Virginia, and the College of
William and Mary. The
arguments of Charles
Steger, John
Casteen, and Tim
Sullivan, respectively, are well worth parsing for
those interested in the upcoming debate over the issue
in the General Assembly. Also
worth reviewing is Christopher Newport University
President Paul Trible’s contribution.
He argues, “Instead of just three charter
schools, let's give the on-campus authority that all of
our institutions need to become excellent.”
A betting man might be wise to putting money on
some variation of the Trible position actually making it
into law.
I’m
Okay, You’re Not
Reginald
Shareef of the Roanoke
Times is out with Part I of his annual review of his
columns from the past year.
More pundits should emulate Shareef in format, if
not content. Shareef
get lots of feedback on his columns, or so he says, but
none of it is persuasive.
Keep those comments coming, though.
--January
4, 2005
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