In
the Washington Post, Gordon
Morse took a circuitous route to criticizing the
campaigns. What started as a tribute to the Shad
Planking and sign strategy shifted to a positive
profile of Tim Kaine relative to Jerry
Kilgore—Kilgore used a “pained throwback to a
once-familiar style of Southern politics” and
engaged in “slander.” Suddenly, Morse swerved
again, unfavorably comparing Kaine and Kilgore to
the late Governor Mills Godwin and current Gov. Mark
R. Warner. Both “connected’ to rural voters by
“connect[ing] with the world economically.”
According to Morse, “Kaine and Kilgore have yet to
figure this out.”
The
best critique came from Bacon’s Rebellion's
own Barnie Day. Day normally
shows up on the Republican porch as an uninvited Ann
Landers, airing the GOP's dirty laundry and offering
thoughtful but unsolicited advice. This time, he
took both Kaine and Kilgore to the woodshed and
apologized for not having done it sooner. Accusing
them of acting like “high schoolers” for their
focus on sign wars, petition signatures, and
religion, Day thundered, “Your campaigns don't
look like campaigns for governor should look like.
And they sure don't sound like they should sound.”
Day
hit pay dirt when he offered this:
We
do not believe either of you when you tell us you're
going to cut taxes, but spend more on
transportation, and education and law enforcement,
and Medicaid and mental health. Sorry. We're not
fools. We do not believe you.
We
can only hope that the candidates act on what Day
suggests sounds counter-intuitive. His advice is
“tell the truth.”
Congressman
V. Congressman
David
Lerman of the Daily Press describes the
plight of a Newport News police chief caught in gang
legislation crossfire
between Congressman Randy Forbes, R-Chesapeake, and
Congressman Bobby Scott, D-Newport News. Moral of
the story: Don’t write letters to Congress.
Praising
Whistle Blowers
Finally,
a senior pundit has addressed a series of
controversies involving the Department of Game and
Inland Fisheries. Margaret Edds of the Virginian-Pilot
tiptoed around accountability in high places,
instead focusing on the citizen
whistle-blowers who uncovered, despite repeated
stonewalling, the questionable practices and
expenses of the agency. Edds’ summary: “The
state shouldn’t waste good money punishing good
citizens.”
"Diversity"
at the Roanoke Times
There
is a new editorial writer and columnist at the Roanoke
Times. He is Dan Rademacher, formerly employed
at newspapers in West Virginia and Florida.
Rademacher’s maiden
column for the Times was distressing.
Given a chance to diversify philosophically when it
had a vacancy, the paper instead chose someone who
gushed over his boss, liberal editorial page editor
Tommy Denton, noting “how similar our philosophy,
attitudes and approach to the job actually are.”
The
Salt Lick, a blogger devoted to
bird-dogging the Times, thoroughly
investigated Rademacher and the diversity issue.
Bad
Hire, Big Lesson
The
Charlottesville School Board’s choice as
Superintendent was apparently hired without a
thorough investigation into a checkered past,
according to Bob
Gibson of the Daily Progress. While this
appears to be a local scandal, school
superintendents are hired, fired and recycled
regularly in Virginia and elsewhere. Separating
firings that are the result of political falling
outs versus those that involve allegations of
misconduct may be difficult to classify, but school
systems everywhere in Virginia probably need to be
more discerning.
Doing
Good Quietly
Roger
Chesley of the Virginian-Pilot profiled
the Urban League of Hampton Roads, an
organization that is dwarfed by the NAACP in media
exposure while quietly doing more good locally
through “direct services, including job training
and procurement, mentoring for youths, educational
assistance for students, and clinics for home
buyers.”
Going
Up
Arlington
County is planning to allow taller skyscrapers in
Rosslyn, drawing fire from some about the impact on
views both to and from Washington, DC. Marc Fisher covered
the issue with several readers in an online Washington
Post chat, noting:
Anyone
who thinks that height restrictions across the river
in Rosslyn will help preserve the historic views
from the Mall is turning a blind eye to the
development that happened in Arlington County over
the past thirty years. That view is already changed,
and we're no worse off for that change, so bring on
the tall buildings.
All
Grown Up Already
For
the first time since I started writing Virginia
Pundit Watch, blog reporting and commentary not
only rivaled the work of full-time journalism
professionals, it often exceeded it in quality and
insight. I expected this to eventually happen in the
Virginia blogosphere, but not this quickly.
A
post about a legal challenge to Virginia’s open
primary law by The Jaded JD was an
exceptionally well-researched piece, perhaps the
most enlightening
argument of the week. It drew a substantive
response from Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax, and
counsel of record for the plaintiff. A “moot
court” in real time unfolded. While a newspaper
can present a debate as the Times-Dispatch
did with Del.
Brian Moran, D-Alexandria and Del.
Scott Lingamfelter, R-Prince William, it simply
cannot compete with the immediacy of Jaded JD
v. Cuccinelli.
The
best and most exhaustive coverage and analysis of
the Wakefield Shad Planking was at Sic Semper
Tyrannis. The normally conservative gang at SST
even turned over the blog to “Token Liberal” for
a different
perspective from their original
reporting. Commonwealth Conservative
continues to aggregate Virginia news and opinion better
than anyone. I’ve previously mentioned the
good work of One Man’s Trash and The
Salt Lick.
Blogs
haven’t replaced the mainstream media reporters
and pundits by any means, but they are now competing
with them on breaking news and insider “scoops,”
not just their specialty of sharp commentary. I’ll
be watching more and more bloggers here at VPW
and following any changes they bring to the
traditional print writers.
