Last night, I had the pleasure of spending several hours at a "Countdown to Victory Reception" in Old Town Alexandria with several hundred Kaine supporters. Most prominent among these supporters was none other than Virginia Gov. Mark "75% approval rating" Warner. I got to watch as Mark Warner stood with Tim Kaine, spoke at length about Tim Kaine's virtues, put his arm around Tim Kaine, strongly ENDORSED Tim Kaine, and vowed to do EVERYTHING HE POSSIBLY COULD through Tuesday to make sure that Tim Kaine is elected our next governor! For his part, Tim Kaine returned the warmth and enthusiasm, speaking of the great things Mark Warner and he have accomplished together the past 4 years, about their strong friendship and professional bond, and about how a Kaine Administration would carry on Mark Warner's fiscally responsible and sensible centrist policies for the next 4 years.As I watched these two men, I couldn't help but thinking back to a couple of weeks ago, when a certain Kilgore- supporting right-wing blogger was "reporting" that Governor Mark Warner was about to "pull the plug" on Tim Kaine's campaign. Here's a sampling of the trash the right-wing blogosphere was spewing:
At the Governor's senior staff meeting this morning, the decision was made to "pull the plug" on Tim Kaine's campaign. No more will Warner assist the Kaine campaign in major ways. No more public appearances, etc.While I would love to think that this was the result of the Kaine campaign's poor performance, it appears, according to our sources, to be a move that would leave Warner in control of the Party with a Kaine loss. We are not pulling your leg. No conspiracy theory here. This IS the real deal apparently.
According to our sources, Warner is said to have no interest in seeing to fruition, a Tim Kaine Administration. Aides apparently believe that a Kaine administration would steal the limelight from potential Presidential candidate, Gov. Mark Warner. Stay tuned...this should be interesting.
Yeah, very "interesting." But only in the sense that it reveals once again the level of lies, smears, and innuendoes that Republican insiders and Kilgore supporters will unleash when they sense their candidate is goin' down. Not that anyone believed that garbage about Mark Warner at the time it was published. But still, shouldn't blogs hold themselves to some sort of ethical/journalistic standards? Isn't that part of the reason we held a Summit on Blogging and Democracy in Charlottesville a couple months ago?
Not to brag, but here at Raising Kaine, I can definitively say that we have never -- EVER -- published anything untrue, certainly not intentionally. On the rare occasions where we've made unintentional errors -- mainly of omission, by the way -- and have been informed about them, we've made appropriate corrections/additions/clarifications. I seriously wonder if the right-wing blogs will now do the same about their "Mark Warner is pulling the plug on Tim Kaine" story. Will they now apologize and admit that they made a HUGE mistake - or even worse, intentionally spread false information designed specifically to demoralize Kaine supporters? Will they ever 'fess up? I've got to say, it would be nice. But don't hold your breath, that's for sure.
Given that a correction is unlikely to come from the Kilgore backers, let's state the facts clearly right here, right now: Mark Warner has been at Tim Kaine's side, on TV advertisements, in fundraisers like last night's event in Alexandria, and behind-the-scenes in ways too numerous to mention, for months now. Far from "pulling the plug" on his friend of 25 years, Mark Warner has redoubled his efforts to make sure that Virginia does not elect a man - Jerry Kilgore - who will turn the clocks back 4 years. To paraphrase Warner's remarks last night in Alexandria, we MUST elect Tim Kaine ("there is no one better suited to continue the progress") and DEFEAT JERRY KILGORE so that all the progress made by the Warner/Kaine administration the past 4 years is not undone.
Simply stated, Mark Warner is absolutely determined that we not turn our Commonwealth over to a guy - Jerry Kilgore -- who opposed Tim Kaine and him every step of the way. A guy -- Jerry Kilgore -- who would trash our AAA bond rating. A guy -- Jerry Kilgore -- who would ruin our "best managed state in the nation" standing. A guy -- Jerry Kilgore -- who would plunge us back into that same ditch where Jim Gilmore left us 4 years ago.
On Tuesday, November 8th, take some advice from our great Governor Mark Warner: since he is not allowed to succeed himself as Governor, vote for the next best thing. That is, FOUR MORE YEARS OF MARK WARNER'S POLICIES under his loyal lieutenant and good friend, Tim Kaine. Go Tim!
P.S. Tim Kaine has a great new line in his stump speech that bears repeating, playing on the saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Kaine says, "if it was broke, and you fixed it, for heaven's sake DON'T BREAK IT AGAIN!" Exactly!