Two items from yesterday's opening session of the Virginia General Assembly are highly revealing about Republicans these days:1) The attempt by our "conservative" friends to strip Sen. H. Russell Potts, Jr. (R-Winchester) - who had the audacity to run as an independent for Governor against Jerry Kilgore and Tim Kaine this past year - of his chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Education and Health. This is known as "payback time," and certainly not in a subtle way, that's for darn sure. In the end, the move was defeated by a vote of 19-20, with 19 Republicans voting to burn him at the...er, excommunicate...er, remove him from the committee, 4 Republicans (including Potts himself, plus John Chichester, Frederick Quayle, and Charles Hawkins) voting against, and all 16 Democrats opposing the move. As Hawkins said, "Once we start [removing chairmen for political reasons], I don't know where it goes." Exactly right.
2) Meanwhile, in the House of Delegates, Republicans pushed through rules that would, according to the Washington Post, "strengthen the chamber's subcommittees, giving them new power to kill legislation they deem unnecessary -- without recorded votes." They would also "give the House speaker greater power to remove lawmakers from committees and prevent Democrats from picking up an extra seat on committees." According to the Post, "Democrats called the changes a power grab and insisted that the rules were aimed at anonymously killing legislation that the leadership did not agree with, a tactic often used by Democrats when they were in charge." In other words, Republicans are being just as undemocratic as Democrats used to be, years ago, when they were in the saddle. As the saying goes, "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.? Unfortunately, Republicans appear impervious to such learning.
Luckily, the day wasn't dominated by Republicans, as Mark Warner delivered his final State of the Commonwealth address. In the speech, Warner emphasized that "results matter," and that he worked in a bipartisan fashion to get things done and "[change] the tone in Richmond." Great work, Governor Warner. Now, on to Iowa, and New Hampshire, and South Carolina, and...whoops, that's a different speech. Ha ha. Seriously, GREAT job by Mark Warner; you've made Virginia proud. Thank you for the past four years, and best of luck to Tim Kaine, who is going to be another fantastic governor the NEXT four years.