Richmond Times Dispatch on GOP "skulduggery"
By: Lowell
Published On: 1/14/2008 7:02:24 AM
As you may have notice, the Republican Times-Disgrace Richmond Times Dispatch isn't our favorite newspaper around these parts. The Times Dispatch is owned and operated by Media General, a company whose 27 daily newspapers in 2004 ALL endorsed George W. Bush over John Kerry, with the exception of the Tampa Tribune (which made no endorsement at all). The Times Dispatch also attacked Jim Webb when he was running for Senate, endorsed George Allen, and endorsed Jerry Kilgore in 2005.
The point is, this is a super-conservative newspaper, no doubt about it. Which makes today's editorial, "Secret Skulduggery," even more striking. According to the Times-Dispatch, the House Republican move to "o let subcommittees kill bills with unrecorded voice votes" was "a profoundly dubious decision." The newspaper continues:
The GOP said it was simply a matter of streamlining, a way to deal with the volume of legislation. But conservatives would not be so complacent if liberal Democrats were the ones supporting secrecy instead of sunshine. Clever manipulators can supply lots of superficial justifications for their policies. The real question to ask is not what they say they will do with the power they wield, but what they can do.
Secrecy facilitates skulduggery. Sunshine is a simple and obvious test of good governance. Republicans just flunked.
So, there you have it; the Richmond Times-Dispatch and Raising Kaine in complete agreement that secrecy in government is bad and that "sunshine" is good. We're also in complete agreement that House Republicans have "flunked" their first test. Oh yeah, and they flunked this one as well.
Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, D-Martinsville, drew both boos and applause when he accused Speaker of the House William Howell, R-Fredericksburg, of using committee assignments to exact "political retribution" for efforts he and other Democrats made this year to get more Democrats elected to the General Assembly.
Sadly, that's today's Virginia Republican Party, the party of "skullduggery" and "political retribution." True, Democrats haven't always been perfect either (there's no excuse for EITHER PARTY pulling this garbage), but as they so often do, Republicans take heavy-handedness to another level.
Comments
Well, it works (Teddy - 1/14/2008 4:35:45 PM)
The skulluggery and heavy handedness, I mean. It may create a tempest in the teapot when they do it at first, but time passes, they enforce their will, get their rewards, pass legislation they or their moneymen want passed, deep six the legislation they do not want, and go on to get re-elected. The Commonwealth and its government are the rightful possessions of the Republicans and their minions, and don't you forget it, ilberal peasants that you are. Same thing goes for the whole country, so don't be surprised when skullduggery wins the White House for whoever the "R" candidate turns out to be. They plan far ahead.
It only works if we let it. (Lowell - 1/14/2008 4:38:18 PM)
Our job as citizens and as Democrats is to fight back, to expose this crap to the sunlight, and not to let them get away with it.
Agreed, (Teddy - 1/14/2008 4:55:47 PM)
but exposure of skullduggery did not work so far as I can see for Florida in 2000 nor in Ohio in 2004. In fact, efforts at exposing the skullduggery were swept under the rug, as in Kennedy's article in Rolling Stone or Greg Palast's efforts in Florida. I was at first doubtful of all the hullaballoo in both cases, but now I am convinced the Republicans successfully stole both elections, everyone knows it, and dances around the fringe of the problem... and we are being set up for another set of voter suppression and manipulation. How did "they" Democrats win in 2006? I don't think they expected such a turnout, they thought it was under control (even Karl Rove smirked about how the Republicans were going to win); leading Republicans were surly and disbelieving when the 2006 vote went against them. They will not make the same mistake again.