From The Bull Elephant
-
Jeanine’s Memes
-
Bagby the Wrong Choice for Dem Party Chair
Senator Lamont Bagby by Paul Goldman
Tellingly, the Virginia Democratic Party establishment is trying to force the Central Committee to elect State Senator Lamont Bagby, D-Richmond, as the new Party Chair. Tim Kaine, Louise Lucas, Don Scott, Abigail Spanberger, Mark Warner, the who’s who of the Party have endorsed him. His supporters on the Steering Committee (key party leadership group) rejected hosting forums where potential candidates for the position can debate their ideas before an audience of Central Committee members. Bagby has been anointed: everyone else needs to fall in line.
But I ask: Why Bagby? And why does his choice this year tell me the party establishment is apparently out of touch with its grass roots?
We need to go back to 1991, when Mark Warner and I were helping Governor L. Douglas Wilder. Then state Senator Bobby Scott will remember. Senator Lucas may too, since she also benefited.
(more…)
Today’s Democrats don’t realize the current role of Party Chair traces back to a decision I had to make as Democratic Party Chair in 1991. The Old Boys Club running the Party Establishment were infuriated by my decision. But it had to be finally done in a state whose General Assembly politics remained mired in its segregationist roots. Key White party establishment figures called me a traitor to the party. Bobby Scott initially opposed me too. But I sided with Wilder. We had a legal and philosophical basis for our principled position.
Senator Bagby is a direct beneficiary. The truth, as discussed below, also explains why Mr. Bagby is the wrong choice in 2025.
-
Wins Departs VMI
And now some say it’s all political?
by Gordon C. Morse
The Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors declined on Friday to renew retired Army Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins’ contract as superintendent, and the situation doesn’t greatly differ from 2008 when the governing board at the College of William & Mary did likewise with Gene R. Nichol.
There was a stiff reaction to Nichol’s dismissal; there will be stiff reaction this time.
Some will recall that Nichol did not take it well and insisted that it was a fight over ideology. He’d been a victim of a “committed, relentless, frequently untruthful, and vicious campaign.”
Nichol then immediately made for the exit door and never returned.
In truth, the W&M Board of Visitors and Nichol were at odds and something was bound to give. W. Taylor Reveley III, then-dean of the law school, stepped into the gap and did so splendidly.
We’ll see what happens with VMI. As with W&M, many and varied voices will likely speak out.
In this instance, however, some may well emanate from Washington, D.C.
(more…)
-
Bacon Meme of the Week
Ewww!
-
VMI Board Votes No on Extending Wins’ Contract
by James A. Bacon
The Virginia Military Institute voted 10 to 6 today against extending the contract of Superintendent Cedric T. Wins. His current contract expires June 30. Board members gave no explanation.
Wins has been embroiled in a knock-down, drag-out fight for four years with conservative alumni unhappy with changes he has made to the VMI culture, most notably the purging of the Stonewall Jackson statue and inscriptions from post, the watering down of the Honor Code, and implementation of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
National media are already making Wins’ race an issue. The New York Times headline reads, “The First Black Leader of Virginia Military Institute Is Ousted.”
(more…)
-
VanValkenburg Takes Another Crack at Affordable Housing
by James A. Bacon
I’m beginning to think that Senator Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, is my favorite Democrat. Admittedly, my list of Democrats whose policies I like is a short one, so it’s not a high bar to clear. But I’d go one step further. VanValkenburg is generating ideas to address affordable housing that could be — should be — coming from Republicans but aren’t.
The Henrico senator’s latest proposal is to encourage infill housing development by rethinking a regulation in the state building code that requires two staircases for mid-rise apartment buildings. Eliminating the second staircase would help developers maximize space on smaller parcels, making it easier to add new housing in dense areas, reports The Virginia Mercury.
I’ll get to the logic behind VanValkenburg’s proposal in a moment. But first let me stress how unconventional it is among Democrats, whose instinct for addressing every social problem in the universe is to (a) create a government program, (b) spend more money, and/or (c) enact more regulations.
A case in point is a bill (SB812) sponsored by Senator Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, to extend rent-payment grace periods. If signed by Governor Glenn Youngkin, the bill would increase the mandatory waiting period from five days to 14 days after landlords notify a tenant of nonpayment before pursuing termination of a rental agreement.
(more…)
-
Check the Mirror, Senator Hashmi
By Chris Braunlich
Sen. Ghazala Hashmi State Senator Ghazala Hashmi (D-Powhatan) has written a Richmond Times-Dispatch commentary proclaiming Governor Glenn Youngkin responsible for Virginia’s education declines, a commentary astonishing for the breadth of its amnestic qualities.
Senator Hashmi, who seeks the Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor, correctly notes “Virginia’s fourth-grade math scores have plummeted, dropping us from fifth place in 2019 to 22nd today. Students with disabilities and Black students have suffered some of the worst declines nationwide. And in reading, Virginia’s fourth-grade recovery is the third worst in the country.”
And then she gets political, blaming Youngkin for the decline. But that’s a little like blaming the farmer who buys acreage his predecessor planted with bad seed. The “seeds” of Virginia’s education decline were planted by previous administrations with ineffective policies Senator Hashmi was quick to support.
In fact, one of Youngkin’s first actions was to produce a 2022 report to determine where Virginia stood and to make it clear that Black, Hispanic, and low-income students were suffering most under the existing system. For his honesty, the teachers union called it a “blatant manipulation of data” and the Senate Democratic leader called it a “joke,” “dog-whistle talking points”, “outright lie, supported by cherry-picked data and warped perspective.”
After two years of resisting or voting down Youngkin’s reform proposals, this supposed “lie” is now substantiated by the Education Recovery Scorecard developed by experts from Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth. School divisions with high concentrations of at-risk students, like Petersburg and Richmond have suffered the worst losses, as the Youngkin report said.
(more…)
-
VMI at a Crossroads: Integrity vs Politics
Image credit: The Cadet by The Cadet editorial staff
The Virginia Military Institute has long been a bastion of honor, leadership, and tradition. Founded to mold leaders of integrity and moral courage, it now finds itself caught in a storm of political agendas, ideological skirmishes, and administrative indecision. At the heart of this maelstrom lies a singular, essential question: Is VMI still upholding its core mission, or has it become another pawn in the relentless game of political power plays?
This is not merely an internal crisis—it’s a pivotal moment that could reshape the very ethos of one of America’s most storied institutions.
The recent controversy surrounding the possible extension of Superintendent Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins’ contract has spotlighted the dangerous intrusion of politics into VMI’s governance. Instead of measured debates over leadership effectiveness and institutional integrity, backroom deals and political strong-arming seem to have taken center stage.
During the February 2025 Board of Visitors (BOV) meeting, board member Teddy Gottwald revealed a troubling claim: a state senator allegedly pressured BOV members, threatening to withhold critical funding unless they approved Wins’ contract extension. Congressman Ben Cline later implicated State Senator Jennifer Carroll Foy, citing an alleged warning that VMI’s budget was “in peril” unless Wins, the Institute’s first Black Superintendent, was granted a four-year extension.
(more…)
-
General Assembly Upends Bill to Hold Virginia Nursing Homes Accountable
by James C. Sherlock
Fish gotta swim. The General Assembly gotta do the bidding of the nursing home lobby. Patients be damned – literally.
Consider the fate of House Bill 2253 in the 2025 General Assembly.
- As introduced, it would have empowered the Health Commissioner to impose serious sanctions on our worst nursing homes; but
- As substituted, it gives her no authority to do anything likely to even inconvenience them.
That was not a substitution. It was an execution.
The substitute bill is objectively inhumane. It assures that Virginia will remain a prime target for people seeking the double-digit annual gains available from levels of understaffing far below federal minimum safe patient standards. Levels at which patients are proven to suffer and die without any pretense of adequate care.
It passed unanimously in both chambers. I doubt very many of them read the midnight substitute.
The governor should veto it.
-
Only in America: Abortion Rights for Men
by James A. Bacon
It is widely said that the United States is experiencing a cultural counter-revolution — or a return to sanity, if you prefer to phrase it that way. But if you have any delusions that the cultural revolutionaries are on the run, you need to know that they are as active as ever in our elite institutions of higher learning, feverishly elaborating upon ideologies that strike the rest of us as out of touch with reality.
As an example, a correspondent has brought to my attention an article in the University of Virginia’s Virginia Law Review entitled, “Gender During Pregnancy, and Abortion As Gender-Affirming Care.”
The article explores the legal implications of biological females identifying as males… and then becoming pregnant. What rights should such people have in the realm of reproductive healthcare?
(more…)
-
Henrico Proposes Tax Relief
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
Maybe Henrico County officials read my recent lament in Bacon’s Rebellion concerning the significant increase in my house’s assessed value. In any event, the county manager’s office announced this week that it was proposing to the Board of Supervisors a reduction of 2 cents in the real estate tax rate.
Now many people will be quick to point out that I and other Henrico residents will still have to pay more in taxes this year than we did last year; therefore, it is not a tax cut. And they would be right up to a point. I tend to take a different perspective: I will not have to pay as much tax as I would have if the county had kept the tax rate the same. In that sense, my taxes will have been reduced from what they would have been otherwise.
I don’t know how much the Board would need to reduce the rate in order to bring in the same amount of revenue as last year. The county is required to identify this “equalized rate” when it schedules a public hearing on the budget later this spring.
To be fair, in the announcement on its website, the county did not claim it was providing a tax cut. It used the term “tax relief” and was careful in the body of the announcement to specify that it was cutting the tax rate. Of course, many residents may associate “tax relief” with a “tax cut” and many may assume that a reduction in the tax rate will result in their paying less tax.
(more…)
-
The Bezos Speaketh
Could this herald happier times for Virginia?
Editorial writers’ hair on fire. Image credit: Bing Image Creator by Gordon C. Morse
The Washington Post’s editorial chief is out the door. Cue the indignation.
Light the exit sign, too. In many quarters of the paper, this will not be received as happy news and may potentially cause departures.
“I am of America and for America, and proud to be so,” The New York Times reports Mr. Bezos saying. “Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical; it drives creativity, invention and prosperity.”
Heaven knows what that means (you should say such things only when accompanied by music), but a Post opinion page shake-up at least creates the possibility of being beneficial to Virginia. The editorial hostility that the Post routinely shows toward Virginia – its relentless demands to do this, that or the other thing – would not be missed.
This assumes, of course, that the next occupant of that job -– editor of the editorial page — arrives more level-headed, thoughtful and informed about matters below the Potomac.
I could give you many, many examples of the Post’s overbearing ways, but one immediately jumps to mind: Gov. Ralph Northam.
(more…)
-
Kent Resigns. What’s Next for Ryan?
President Jim Ryan (left) and UVA Health CEO Craig Kent. Photo credit: The Daily Progress by James A. Bacon
K. Craig Kent, CEO of the University of Virginia Health System, resigned yesterday after the Board of Visitors met in closed session to hear the findings of an investigation into allegations of unsafe medical practices, fraudulent billing, and a culture of fear and retaliation.
“Following the meeting, Dr. Craig Kent offered, and President Ryan accepted, his resignation,” according to a terse statement sent Tuesday night by Ryan and UVa Rector Robert Hardie to UVa Health and the School of Medicine. “The Board and the President thank Dr. Kent for his years of service to the University.”
Kent’s resignation represents a major setback for Ryan, already embattled from other controversies, who declined to act on the complaints when they were brought to his attention last year. He stood by Kent when 128 physicians and faculty members published a letter accusing the hospital CEO and School of Medicine Dean Melina Kibbe of numerous abuses of power.
The Board of Visitors initiated an investigation late last year to probe the allegations. On Kent and Kibbe’s watch, the letter alleged, the UVA Medical Center tampered with billing and patient records, suppressed reports of patient-safety concerns, engaged in upcoding to maximize reimbursements, showed blatant favoritism for some, and engaged in intimidation and retaliation against others.
(more…)
-
Time to Come Clean on Clean Economy Act Costs to Customers
How the VCEA-related riders used to appear on Dominion’s bills By Steve Haner
Until October of last year, customers of Dominion Energy Virginia could see at least some of the higher costs created by the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) detailed on their electric bills. Look at the recent bill and all that transparency is gone and the VCEA costs are now hidden.
Compliance with the Democrats’ signature law to retire hydrocarbon generation and attempt to replace it with wind, solar and battery projects is starting to get noticeably expensive. Maybe that is why the utility stopped being so open about the costs.
During the recent General Assembly session, House Republicans offered an amendment to the state budget that would have mandated a return of those details to energy bills, with backup information provided on the utility’s public websites. It also would have applied to Appalachian Power Company which serves about 540,000 customer accounts in Western Virginia.
The language (rejected of course but set out below) should be revived and attached as an amendment to some germane bill Governor Glenn Youngkin might otherwise be willing to sign. There is absolutely no valid reason for a nay vote on this idea. Why would anybody oppose providing more information on cost to a utility’s captive ratepayers?
-
Navigating Modern Language
Should a thing’s name tell you what the thing is?
Image credit: ChatGPT by Joe Fitzgerald
Language is screwed.
The purpose of language, communication, has been sacrificed on the altar of who-knows-what, in the interests of promoting your-guess-is-as-good-as-mine.
My favorite current example is the Navigation Center at an unnamed city in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Public Works, perhaps. Making street signs more readable? There are of course rules – federal, state, vegetable, and mineral – about those signs. The fonts are detailed, perhaps not quite into the advanced section of the Microsoft Word fonts panel, but perhaps requiring a separate center to keep track of and navigate the rules? We’re using “perhaps” and the question mark a lot here. That’s because the Navigation Center has nothing to do with street signs, or fonts.
Maybe it has something to do with coordinating the city’s computer systems with MapQuest. Those who’d argue that MapQuest has been supplanted by Google and Apple maps may be surprised to learn that it’s still around. Not that it matters, because the Navigation Center has nothing to do with maps.
Buses, maybe? (We’ve switched from “perhaps” to “maybe” but the language mystery is no closer to being solved.) Navigation Center could be a facility to plan more efficient bus routes. Except it’s not.
(more…)
