One thing about Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw (D-35), he calls 'em like he sees 'em. For instance, take Saslaw's comments about Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-37):
in the Senate, where Cuccinelli is often the sole no vote on bills that pass 39 to 1, his true-believer approach to politics leaves his colleagues flat. "Cuccinelli -- he could be here 2,000 years and he'd never change," says Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, a Fairfax Democrat. "I mean, he's the Jesse Helms of this operation."
According to Wikipedia, "Helms was particularly popular among older, conservative constituents and was considered one of the last 'Old South' politicians to have served in the Senate." Also, "his largest margin of victory in any of his five elections was 54.5 percent of the vote." Cooch, of course, is one of the last conservative holdouts in Northern Virginia, winning his last election by just 101 votes, then moving even further to the right if that's possible. Maybe that's what Sen. Saslaw was referring to with his Jesse Helms reference.
Saslaw has even more pointed comments about Cuccinelli Conservatives, essentially calling them all haters:
Saslaw sees Cuccinelli as a prime example of the kind of social conservative who is too willing to appeal to voters by tapping into popular discomfort with an outsider group in society. "It's been pretty fashionable around here for the past four or five years to pound gays into the ground," Saslaw says. "Now it's immigrants. When they get done with them, it'll be someone else. They make their living on that."
"They make their living on that." Classic quote by Dick Saslaw; it will be interesting to see what Cuccinelli Conservatives say in response.
Read the Fisher article. He didn't say the same things to his constituents that he said to the Some Families Foundation volunteers, bless their confused little hearts. That wouldn't have gone well at all.
Also, recall that his reelection was by 90 or so votes.