Bacon's Rebellion

The October 17, 2005, edition of the Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine is now online.

The Warner administration has delivered some very tough — but very necessary — news to employees of the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. As Peter Bacque put it in this morning’s Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Despite official assurances that their jobs will be secure through Virginia’s information-technology outsourcing, state government IT employees cannot expect to remain in their jobs in retirement, officials now say.

“The whole concept of lifetime employment doesn’t exist anymore,” said Secretary of Technology Eugene J. Huang.

Don’t be surprised if a lot of people want to shoot the messenger. But Huang is only saying what needs to be said. No one in the private sector enjoys lifetime employment. Employees’ only security comes from their ability to stay employable by embracing the skills required by a fast-evolving economy.

State employees are insulated from direct competition in the sense that state employees from North Carolina or Texas aren’t going to take away their jobs. But Virginia companies compete in a global economy, and their social overhead includes the cost in taxation of supporting state government. As the Warner administration seems to understand, the state cannot continue doing Business as Usual. (If only the Warnerites would apply insights gleaned from the reforming government processes to fundamentally restructuring the way the state approaches education, transportation and health care!)

The Commonwealth is negotiating with IBM and Northrop Grumman to privatize significant chunks of its computer and electronic-communications infrastructure. If a deal is struck, it could be, according to Bacque, “the farthest-reaching such outsourcing among U.S. state governments.” More than 2,000 state employees could see their jobs directly affected.

VITA has promised no mass layoffs, but a lifetime sinecure in state government is not in the cards. “My generation has . . . been told that lifetime employment is not a given,” said Huang, who is 29. “Over the course of one’s lifetime, one can expect upwards of six or seven different jobs.”

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if Virginia’s other cabinet secretaries were delivering the same message?

Sometimes it’s hard to maintain a focus on my primary interest — creating more prosperous, liveable communities in a globally competitive economy — when there are so many kumquats out there stirring up controversy over the most ridiculous cultural issues. If it’s not right-wing zealots trying to ban Harry Potter from school libraries on the grounds that the popular series promotes sorcery and witchcraft, it’s left-wing zealots trying to expunge the slightest taint of religion, no matter how deeply embedded it is in our cultural heritage, from the public sphere.

Here’s latest idiocy: Dennis Brown, the band director of the C.D. Hylton High School in Prince William County, has pulled “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” from the band’s repertoire for fear of sparking a controversy — all because a parent who’d seen the band perform the song wrote a letter in the Potomac News wondering “how a song about the devil could be played at school events, because of the separation of church and state,” according to the Washington Post.

Said Hylton: “I was just being protective of my students. I didn’t want any negative publicity for C.D. Hylton High School.” Sadly for Hylton, his decision sparked a highly critical backlash among parents, alumni and local residents.

I take Hylton at his word that he just wanted to spare the school negative publicity. But, my gosh, negative publicity over what? A violation of the First Amendment, which says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”?

Liberals point out (rightly, I believe) that the Second Amendement protecting the right to bear arms should be interpreted in the institutional context of the late 18th century when the citizenry was organized in militias. If only liberals would interpret the First Amendment in the institutional context of the late 18th century, when the Anglican Church had, during colonial rule, been established as an arm of royal English authority. Rather, they see the First Amendment as mandating the “separation of church and state,” and, in recent years, justifying the extirpation of any cultural symbol reminiscent of Christian culture from public schools and public property.

In the name of multi-culturalism and tolerance, of course, it’s OK for Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and other religious minorities to celebrate their cultural heritage, even when it’s imbued with religious symbolism. But it’s not OK for members of the religious majority, whose ancestors created the first society on the face of the earth to bequeath constitutional protections to religious minorities, to express any sign of their religious heritage.

Now the madness has spread to questioning the mere expression of any symbol that might be remotely construed as religious. “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” isn’t talking about God, or Jesus, or the Virgin Mary, but “the devil.” And we’re not talking about Satan, or Lucifer or Beelzebub here. No, we’re talking about an imaginary, Faustian demon who plays the fiddle in a story told as a folk tale.

But that’s not the end of it. No one was actually singing the song. This was a band, not the glee club! The band was playing the music to the Charlie Daniels song, not singing the words! But the mere song title, “The Devil Goes Down to Georgia,” apparently is so dangerous that it might send the C.D. Hylton High School down the slippery slope toward crazed, Jerry Falwell wannabes hikjacking the county school board and indoctrinating impressionable young students about sexual abstinence, the right to life and the need to seek salvation in Jesus. (Addendum: Upon reading the original letter, I see that the author was not making this slippery slope argument.)

I, as long-time readers of this blog know, am an atheist-agnostic with strong convictions. I do not attend church. But neither do I live in mortal dread of the dominant religion. What I do see is a secular minority imposing its secular values, built upon secular metaphysics regarding the nature of good, evil and morality, upon a religious majority — not through the exercise of reason but through the power of the courts. I will have no part of it.

You know the gubernatorial campaign is heating up when Adolf Hitler gets dragged into it. In today’s development, two prominent Jewish leaders have called upon Jerry Kilgore to pull his pro-death-penalty ad that mentions Hitler — and to apologize. The Jewish leaders were Richmond lawyer Tommy Baer, a former president of B’Nail Brith International, and Rabbi Jack Moline of Alexandria, a former president of the Washington Board of Rabbis.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the two men directed their criticism at Stanley Rosenbluth (himself Jewish), who had appeared in the Kilgore ad. Rosenbluth, whose son and daughter-in-law had been murdered, chastised Tim Kaine for his tangential involvement in saving the couple’s killer from execution. As paraphrased by reporter Tyler Whitley, Baer and Moline said that Rosenbluth, “by invoking the name of Hitler, had trivialized the Holocaust and insulted its victims.” Said Whitley: “The two used such terms as blasphemous, sacrilegious, callous and cynical to describe the ad.”

My, my, my. I would characterize such scathing criticism as fully justified for someone who, to pick a hypothetical example, not that it would ever happen, compared President George Bush to Adolf Hitler.

But Rosebluth didn’t compare Tim Kaine to Adolf Hitler. He referred to Kaine’s own words in an interview with Times-Dispatch reporters some time ago, in which Kaine was asked whether, given his faith-based opposition to the death penalty, he would have executed Hitler, Josef Stalin or Idi Amin. The T-D’s summary of his response:

While he said they deserve the death penalty, he said, “God grants life, and God should take it away. … They deserve the death penalty. I just — you know, I look at the world. Most nations have decided not to have a death penalty. And — many are very safe. I don’t think — I don’t think it’s needed to be safe.”

Draw your own conclusion as to whether Kaine would have pulled the switch on ol’ Adolf. To me, it doesn’t sound like he would have. And decide for yourself if Rosenbluth was out of line by saying, “Tim Kaine says that Adolf Hitler doesn’t qualify for the death penalty.”

You can agree or disagree, given the vagueness of Kaine’s remark, but Baer and Moline are just flat-out wrong. Neither Kilgore nor Rosenbluth “invoked” Hitler’s name gratuitously. They were addressing Tim Kaine’s response to a hypothetical question. I find nothing “blasphemous,” “sacrilegious,” “callous” or “cynical” about Rosenbluth’s remarks, or Kilgore’s decision to run the ad.

As Whitley wryly observed in his story, “Baer and Moline said they had not read the full transcript of Kaine’s remarks about the death penalty.” Looks to me like they jumped the gun. What I find “cynical” is the way Baer and Moline “invoked” the sanctity of the Holocaust and the suffering of the Jews to make a partisan attack on Jerry Kilgore.

Nothing gets peoples’ juices flowing like an empassioned debate over the death penalty. I happen to agree with Jerry Kilgore’s stance on the issue — I support the death penalty — and I think he’s gotten the better of Tim Kaine in the latest round of television ads, press releases and newspaper articles. I’m grimly fascinated by the spectacle of Tim Kaine wriggling like a worm on a hook as he insists that, though he opposes the death penalty, he’ll uphold the law. Score a political point for Kilgore. He’s keeping Kaine on the defensive.

But I remain unmoved. The fact is, the chance of Virginia repealing the death penalty in the next four years is about zero. It ain’t gonna happen. No one has any intention of even trying to make it happen. Therefore, the entire debate is revolving around an issue that, for all intents and purposes, is largely theoretical.

Here’s what will happen: The state Senate will present a proposal to raise taxes for transportation — as much as $2 billion a year, from the whispers I’ve heard. The General Assembly will be greeted with a gusher of revenues to dispose of. Funding for schools, transportation, higher ed, economic development, mental health, Medicaid — programs that will have a real impact on peoples’ lives — are matters that a new governor will have to grapple with.

Let’s hear less about capital punishment and more about budgetary priorities.

On the subject of whether or not Jerry Kilgore ever lobbied for an increase in the Buchanan County gas tax, Frank Kilgore (no relation), the former deputy county attorney who hired Jerry, says the following:

Two media sources asked me for a summary of exactly what Jerry Kilgore’s role was as lobbyist for the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors when he was in private practice at Richmond. Here it is:

Jerry helped Buchanan County on the Coalfields Expressway project, did an able job, charged the County a remarkably small fee for his work, advised me the gas severance tax bill would not fly and that he would not waste the County’s funds pursuing it, I pursued it for my client, the bill died as predicted and that is the end of the story.

How can I prove I was involved at all? Answer: The Secretary of Commonwealth lists me as the supervisor of the County’s lobbyists for the time in question. What is my definition of “lobbying”? Answer: Requesting a legislator or legislative body to vote for a particular bill pending before them.

My challenge to anyone who claims Jerry Kilgore lobbied for a 66% increase in natural gas taxes: If anyone can authentically document that Jerry Kilgore appeared before any legislative body, committee or sub-committee in behalf of this bill, or produce a true copy of any letter, email or other written thing from Jerry to any individual legislator asking them to support the bill I will donate $1000.00 to the Kaine campaign. My offer expires November 1, 2005. Down here in the mountains we call this challenge “put up or shut up time”.

An interesting glimpse of Jerry Kilgore can be read between the lines. Kilgore was employed as a lobbyist in Richmond — he derived his income from generating billable hours. Yet he turned down the work from Buchanan County because he thought it was a waste of time. A lot of people might have given the same advice but taken the work anyway. By Frank Kilgore’s account, Jerry Kilgore acted in an honorable way. It is ironic that the Kaine campaign used this particular episode to inaccurately tar Kilgore.

Jerry Kilgore increasingly strikes me as a decent and honorable man. I still worry, though, how strong he would be as a leader. I don’t look at this election through a partisan lens. I want to know who would do a better job of standing up to Senate Finance Chair John “Tax-and-Build” Chichester on the issue of raising some $2 billion a year in transportation taxes in the 2006 session — Jerry Kilgore or Tim Kaine? Who’s got the stronger backbone? I don’t know.

Today’s Daily Press has an article on a transportation forum held Wednesday in Hampton, sponsored by three local Chambers of Commerce. Those of you in the Hampton Roads region with Cox Cable will have numerous chances to see the discussion on its public access channels. The heart of the show (after some rousing warm up by yours truly and a very fired up Phil Shucet) was the legislative panel: Senate Finance Chair John Chichester, Senate Transportation Chair Marty Williams, House Transportation Chair Leo Wardrup and House Transportation member Mayme BaCote, with Secretary Pierce Homer in the middle.

What was argued yesterday will be argued over and over again as this next General Assembly approaches. Should we use general funds for transportation? Should we grant private concessions on potentially profitable roads and bridges? Can the Hampton Roads region agree on priorities and will a regional approach work after that was rejected so soundly in 2002? Has VDOT improved sufficiently or at all?

The key moments to my ear:

John Chichester expressing his concern over the interstate tolling proposal from former Governor Baliles: “People who pay the toll may not see the benefits during their entire working lives.”

Chichester admitting one difference from 2004: There is nothing comparable to the threat to the AAA bond rating looming out there.

Leo Wardrup: “We have to view the word toll as as not a four-letter word” and pointing out (I didn’t know this) that the original Eisenhower interstate proposal was based on tolls.

Marty Williams: Keying off the stock phrase we can’t tax our way out of this with his own version: “We can’t toll ourselves out of this.”

Wardrup: Taking credit for the steps taken in 2005, which totaled $850 million when you include revenue growth already in the pipeline and some one-time expenditures. He said they should be able to propose “at least that much this year again, actually for both of the next two years.” (And he may be right, especially if they count normal revenue growth and the extra federal money.)

Chichester: Still opposed to using general funds, except for specific investments, such as (his example) the “Heartlands Corridor” project to increase rail capacity by raising overpasses to handle double-stacked trains.

Wardup: Who has asked his ongoing subcommittee to look at changes in the formula. “The formula is not the issue. I’m convinced of that now.”

Wardrup: Hinting that his opposition to tax increases does not necessarily apply to local taxing authority on transportation (he didn’t say with or without a referendum.)

Pierce Homer: None of this matters until we deal with the underlying fiscal problem created by the maintenance costs, growing so fast they are now draining existing construction funds.

All the Democrats who have been screaming “scurrilous” and “pathetic” over the cartoon cutout of Kaine will I’m sure join in condemning Leslie Byrne’s new ad, which I first saw this morning. I couldn’t find a link. It is posted at www.lesliebyrne.org. It portrays Bill Bolling as a bobblehead doll, attacks him as a friend of the insurance industry and ties him to the legal problems of his former employer.

This punch was telegraphed well in advance and takes advantage of a well established truth of logic — you cannot prove a negative. The issue floated out in the primary but Bill’s opponent then never pressed it home (to his credit). Byrne trotted it out front and center at the Virginia Chamber of Commerce debate late last month. Byrne has zero evidence that Bill Bolling played any role or profited in any way from the problems with his employer, The Reciprocal Group, but she puts the burden on him to play the Nixon role and assert over and over “I am not a crook.” Bolling has quite a bit of evidence that he was not part of the problem at the firm and he was never a target of the investigation, let alone charged, but expect four weeks of her demanding more evidence, more records…demanding proof of a negative.

Creigh Deeds and Bob McDonnell have opened with some nice ads touting their experience, families, backgrounds, endorsements — ads that make you like them. At some point they are likely to take off the gloves. Kilgore and Kaine are probably keeping some positive ads in the mix, if not the 51 percent Sabato demanded. Leslie starts nasty and forces Bill to choose his opening card carefully. It is the political equivalent of leading trumps.

Yesterday, I declared that Tim Kaine had lost my vote. I totally disapproved of his proposal for giving local governments power to block real estate development projects on the grounds that they would overwhelm local transportation networks. (See reasons here.) I should have known not to be so melodramatic.

Today, my vote is back in play. Why? Because I’ve been digging into Jerry Kilgore’s endorsement of the proposed $3 billion Coalfield Expressway. I’ve always maintained that the project was a colossally bad idea. Now comes the revelation — it’s a revelation to me, if not to anyone else — that Kilgore has helped engineering/construction firm Kellogg Brown and Root win more than $60 million in engineering and design fees for the project…. while KBR has contributed $25,000 to Kilgore’s campaign.

I’m not saying that KBR has “bought” Jerry Kilgore. I don’t think he can be “bought.” But Kilgore’s lobbying relationship and continued associations with KBR appear to have colored his objectivity and led him to pursue a really bad idea against the best interests of Virginia and even Southwest Virginia. Sorry, but that’s no way to devise transportation policy. For details, see my blog entry over on The Road to Ruin.

In a recent ad countering Jerry Kilgore’s campaign that Tim Kaine wants to raise the gas tax, the Kaine campaign makes the following statement: “Fact, Kilgore, as a paid lobbyist, tried to raise natural gas taxes by 66 percent.”

I don’t know where the Kaine campaign got its information, but there’s one fellow, Frank Kilgore, a Wise County resident, who thinks he knows. He’s hopping mad, and he’s blasting out e-mails to let people know about it.

Issue One. Frank K. (no relation to Jerry) believes that Kaine ad is referring to a request by Buchanan County a few years ago to increase the gas severance license tax by an additional one percent. That tax is on producers, almost all of them big corporations, not consumers. However, the vast majority of Virginians, who aren’t from Southwest Virginia and have never heard of a gas-severance tax, would assume that the “natural gas tax” is a consumer tax. The Kaine ad conspicuously ignored the distinction.

Issue Two. The “gas tax,” which funds public improvements and economic development projects, is widely supported. Says Frank Kilgore: “There is, I guarantee, 100 percent support among coalfield voters for these coal and gas local revenues.”

Issue Three. Wrong Kilgore. Jerry Kilgore never lobbied for the gas tax increase — Frank Kilgore did, when he was assistant county attorney.

The (Jerry) Kilgore campaign confirms Frank Kilgore’s account. Says the Kilgore campaign website: “Kilgore served as a lobbyist for Buchanan County and advised … against seeking an increase in the gas severance tax. This is not a tax on consumers, rather a tax on companies that extract natural gas from the ground. Kilgore predicted the bill would go nowhere and it died in committee.”

Concludes Frank Kilgore: “For Kaine to twist this issue into a lie is beyond the pale and should immediately be retracted.”

I attended a breakfast today on The Peninsula in my town for Del. Tom Gear (R-91 HD) where the guest of honor was Sen. George Allen. Gear is being challenged by a Democrat city councilman from Hampton running as an ‘Independent’. It is the power and money Establishment payback for Gear’s leadership against the 02 Transportation Tax Scam and vote against the 04 Tax Increase and Surplus. Gear is one of the true Populists in the GA. He represents a core constituency of the RPV.

The Mayor of Poquoson (pop 12,000) gave Sen. Allen a model boat representing the heritage of this community – and the few Watermen who still live and work here. He talked about how George Allen was on the scene the day after Isabel damaged over half the houses here. Some folks are still living in trailers and rebuilding two years later. He mentioned Allen’s support for a Veterans’ problem on disability pay.

Del. Jack Reid (R-Henrico) spoke his support for Gear’s re-election and role in the GA.

Del. Tom Gear spoke briefly about his campaign. His opposition is trying to buy the seat.

Sen. Allen spoke about the judiciary and Harriet Miers, illegal immigraion, and taxes as spin-offs from Gear’s campaign brochure. He did it fluidly and with his usual energy, confidence and enthusiasm.

Naturally, he spoke well of the whole GOP ticket statewide and for Gear.

It was very interesting to hear him say he had not made up his mind about Harriet Miers yet. He will decide in the confirmation process.

He spoke for a guest worker program but against amnesty for illegal aliens.

And, surprise, he was against new and more taxes. Allen supported the troops and their missions. He said he believed democracy, if individuals are given the choice, is picked totalitarianism anywhere in the world.

The crowd loved him. He hit the right chords within these voters. Lots of real affection and admiration for Sen. Allen.

I view these events as political theater. That isn’t perjorative. They are necessary and important in every campaign and through the year for the Party faithful. There are expectations and formats that are almost scripted. It is the delivery of the actors that impresses. Sen. Allen always impresses – from what I’ve seen.

Now to get the word out to the voters of the 91st HD that Democrat Mark “I-won’t-raise-your-taxes” Warner goes to the opponent’s fund raiser and Sen. George Allen stumps for Republican Del. Tom Gear.

While Tim Kaine and Jerry Kilgore attacked each other with negative advertising, shedding lots of heat but little light, someone was actually exploring some useful ideas yesterday for creating prosperity and making Virginia more liveable. At Landsdowne conference center, the 2005 Loudoun County Economic Summit focused on the imperative of deploying broadband across the state. The attendees actually brushed up against a profound truth, although it’s not clear from the acount in Leesburg2Day.com, how clearly they understood it.

According to Leesburg2Day.com: “Joe T. May (R-33) and U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA-10) [called] for a more serious push by government agencies to ensure that high speed connections to the nation’s telecom backbone are available to all residents and businesses. In many areas, phone and cable companies are moving to expand broadband capabilities, however, low density or low income markets that don’t fit their economic model aren’t getting the connections.” (My emphasis.)

Bruce Tulloch, vice chairman of the Loudoun County board of supervisors, echoed the theme. According to Leesburg2Day.com: “Tulloch noted that his home in the CountrySide community in Sterling doesn’t have cable access and was considered a ‘large lot’ neighborhood when he sought to get a broadband line extended to his home. “

What lessons were drawn? Here’s Joe May:”If Virginia is to remain competitive, we must expedite the installation of the telecommunications [infrastructure].” He said he is considering a modernized Virginia version of the Rural Electrification Agency of the 1930s that brought power to the state’s boonies. This project would help fund ubiquitous access to high-speed Internet service throughout the state and essentially make it a utility.

Here’s another idea, and it won’t require setting up a government utility: Get local governments to stop mandating too-big-to-serve lot sizes! The private sector isn’t running cable lines to large swaths of Loudoun County because the houses are too far apart to make it economical. It’s that simple. If people live in houses on isolated, large lots, they shouldn’t expect the rest of society to pick up the tab for their poor decision of where to live. If they really want broadband Internet access, let them go out and buy a satellite dish!

Tim Kaine lost my vote today.

I’d genuinely been undecided on whether to vote for Kaine or Jerry Kilgore. Kilgore has the better stance on taxes, but Kaine has — make that had — the better transportation policy. In particular, Kaine acknowledges that a root problem of traffic congestion in Virginia today is the disjunction between land use planning and transportation planning. Local governments are approving development projects without regard to the impact on regional transportation networks — only too happy to let the Virginia Department of Transportation clean up the mess they create.

Kilgore has some interesting ideas on how to approach transportation, but Kaine, I thought, had the more profound understanding of the problem. Apparently, I was wrong. According to Chris Jenkins of the Washington Post, Kaine advocates giving local governments the power to reject rezoning requests with a negative traffic impact. Sayeth the Post:

In one new ad, the announcer says, “As you inch your way home in traffic, ask yourself, ‘Is the problem that you don’t pay enough taxes, or is it runaway development?’ Then the candidate says: “We can’t tax and pave our way out of traffic.”

Kaine gets half of it right: We cannot tax and pave our way out of traffic congestion. But he gets the other half woefully wrong. The solution is not giving local governments additional power to halt development projects on the grounds that they would “overwhelm nearby roads,” as Jenkins puts it. Very rarely does a major developer try to develop a tract of land where the transportation infrastructure is obviously inadequate unless he has concrete plans for fixing the problem. No one will buy his houses otherwise. The problem tends to be with smaller projects — builders who want to add just one more subdivision to a road that’s already pushing the limit.

Giving local governments the power to reject projects on the basis of traffic impact will give them the power to reject virtually any project they don’t like. But it won’t stop growth. It will only relocate growth to more remote jurisdictions where local traffic congestions aren’t as bad … yet. While this provision may provide relief locally, it will only aggravate problems regionally. Developers will find land in ever more remote locales to build their subdivisions, and homebuyers will buy those homes for a lack of an alternative. When they commute to work, they will crowd onto the same limited number of transportation arteries. In sum, Kaine’s plan will only relocate traffic congestion. But people will be forced to driver longer distances in the bargain.

The problem isn’t growth. It’s the pattern of growth — the scattered, disconnected, low-density growth that has prevailed in Virginia over the past 50 years. Tim Kaine’s plan would do nothing to change the pattern growth. Indeed, Kaine’s proposal would make growth even more scattered and more disconnected. The proposal is a very, very bad idea — so bad that it overwhelms the positive aspects of what had been a respectable transportation plan. Unless Kaine reverses his stand I cannot vote for him.

Kilgore isn’t showing the kind of leadership I’d like to see on taxes and transportation, but at least his plank won’t make matters visibly worse. Unless he commits a serious gaffe — a possibility not to be dismissed — he’s got my vote.

Notguyincognito: “Jerry was evasive, smarmy and evasive again. Kaine clearly had more zingers, better lines, and just plain looked more like a governor than Kilgore. … Jerry did not present a case as to why people should vote for him, instead just saying why they should NOT vote for Kaine”

Commonwealth Conservative: “Jerry Kilgore took a very big step toward being elected Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. … The more I reflect, the more I believe that this evening was a home run for Jerry Kilgore.”

Bearingdrift: “Win for Kaine, if he wanted Kilgore to come off as liberal. … Win for Kaine, if he wanted Kilgore to come off as negative. My final analysis, likely a win for Kilgore as he showed that he can answer the mail.”

Raising Kaine: “Kaine kicked Kilgore butt. … Besides being vague, evasive, and inaccurate, Kilgore was pretty much all negative, all the time.”

750 Volts: “Kaine kicked Kilgore butt. … Tim Kaine was the only candidate offering a positive message, as opposed to Jerry Kilgore, who wouldn’t pledge to keep half of his TV ads positive. Kilgore, dodged, bobbed and weaved.”

One Man’s Trash: “Kilgore looked stiff and uncomfortable. He fumbled and stumbled and, honestly, looked like he’d give his right arm to be somewhere else. Kaine. Good lord… what’s with that eyebrow? And the make-up… too much rouge on the cheekbones, tiger.”

Commonwealth Watch: “Neither Virginia gubernatorial candidate will win the Daniel Webster Orator of the Year Award, but tonight’s debate was decent. … I flipped between the debate and the Redskins game. … A non-event.”

Criesinthenight: “Does anyone else find Kaine’s raised eyebrow very, very annoying? … On radio Kaine would’ve carried the day, but his consistent breaking of the time limit (which clearly ticked off Sabato), eyebrow, and general body language goes against him. Victory Kilgore, but only slightly.”

Sic Semper Tyrannis: “Tim Kaine’s record is atrocious. … If Kaine cannot convince the voters that he is Mark Warner Jr., he will lose. I do not think he did an effective job of doing so tonight…. I was disappointed with [Kilgore’s] performance from a stylistic perspective. Kilgore fumbled over his words….”

Not Larry Sabato (Virginia 2005 Elections): “Totally missed the debate tonight, watching the Redskins game.”

There you have it, folks! That’s all we could find on the blogosphere early this morning. … Which makes me think, I sure miss Will Vehrs. Will, come back. The blogosphere needs you, man!

If anyone relished the prospect of Tim Kaine chewing up Jerry Kilgore in the televised campaign debate tonight, they were sorely disappointed. Kilgore stumbled over a few words early on, and he relied a bit more upon canned phrases than Kaine, but he otherwise held his own. Judging the debate on style points, I would have given Kaine an 8 and Kilgore a 7. Not enough to make a difference. Judging the debate on substance, neither candidate committed a gaffe, and neither had a “gotcha” moment. Given the Kilgore camp’s pre-debate fears that their candidate would have his booty handed to him on statewide television, I imagine there are a lot of people heaving a sigh of relief.

Both candidates elaborated upon themes already established in their campaigns. Kaine emphasized his role as a partner of Gov. Mark R. Warner in making tough budget decisions, protecting the state’s AAA bond rating and increasing spending on education. He painted Kilgore as an obstructionist opposed to raising taxes and otherwise shoring up state finances.

Kilgore painted Kaine as a tax-and-spend liberal who would raise taxes again, and, to counter Kaine’s appeal on educational issues, repeatedly tarred him for his record as mayor of Richmond, with its second worst-performing school district in the state.

Kaine’s best moment: When questioned about his personal opposition to the death penalty and abortion, Kaine responded: “I’m Catholic. There’s never been a Catholic governor. I’m against the death penalty and abortion. I’m not going to change my religion to get elected. But I’ll swear to uphold the law.” Kaine did a good job of neutralizing the issue.

Kilgore’s best moment: Responding to Kaine’s protestations that he’s cut a variety of taxes, Kilgore responded: “The test is not whether you’ve cut a tax here or there, but what has happened to the overall tax burden.” The fact is, Kaine increased the overall tax burden for Richmonders when he was mayor and for Virginians while he was Lieutenant Governor.

I don’t see either candidate getting much traction from the debate. The race for governor will go down to the wire, with the results determined largely by television ads and get-out-the-vote efforts.