Last night, Congressman Virgil Goode tried to hide from his dismal record by hiding from his constituents.
Goode simply failed to show up for a long-scheduled televised debate with challenger Tom Perriello, implausibly claiming he had a conflicting appointment. That claim is implausible because this debate has been scheduled for months.
Perriello showed up as agreed, ready to debate, ready to let us know where he stands and what he wants to do.
This wasn't a thumb in the eye of Perriello. It was a thumb in the eye of every citizen in the Fifth District, who in the face of serious economic issues and large foreign policy challenges won't have the opportunity to hear their candidates for Congress debate these matters.
As Tom said at a brief press conference last night in Charlottesville at NBC29, the site of the scheduled debate, the Fifth District is geographically huge - the size of New Jersey - an a televised debate would have given many people in the district to see both of the candidates hoping to represent them go head to head so they could make an informed decision.
Every media outlet from Charlottesville to Danville, from Albemarle to Pittsylvania, ought to call Goode out on his shameless debate duck and insist that he debate Tom Perriello on television - sooner, rather than later. A debate a few days before Election Day won't do it.
(More on the flip)
Is Goode scared to debate Perriello? I don't know, and even if he is, it's not my style to engage in name-calling. But I will say that if Goode is too frightened, or perhaps simply incapable of defending his dismal record as a Congressman and his lack of vision for the future before his constituents, his reticence is completely understandable.
The fact is that throughout his career as a Congressman for the VA-05, Virgil Goode has put the interests of his long-time campaign contributors -- big oil, big pharma, big business and Wall Street -- ahead of the interests of his constituents, all the while trying to misdirect our attention by his immoral and dishonest scapegoating of illegal immigrants and his transparent and rank appeals to racial and religious bigotry against Muslims and others.
It has to stop. Not because Virgil Goode is a bad person. He is not. I've met him and I like him.
But Goode's history has rendered him unable to effectively represent the people in this district. He offers no ideas and no vision to us, except the same old politics of hate and division that have brought us to this terrifying and sorrowful moment in American history.
In doing so, he has marginalized himself among his colleagues, both Democratic and Republican.
If we are to get out of this mess, we will need results-oriented leaders like Tom Perriello in Congress; Leaders who don't care if ideas are Democratic ones or Republican ones, but if they work. Leaders who can both reach across the aisle and work with people from different parties, from different states and of different backgrounds from them because they are able to see that they have common cause, that we are all in the mess together, but also leaders capable and willing to grasp the hands that others reach out to them.
Goode and Perriello have debated twice; once in Charlottesville, and once in Danville. The first debate, which I attended, went to Perriello on points, IMHO, although Goode supporters seemed satisfied as well. The second debate, by all accounts, were a debacle for Goode.
Given this, the last thing in the world Goode apparently wants is for voters in the Fifth District to get to know Tom Periello better, or to go head to head with him again, because if that happens, Goode knows he will lose this election.
Voter registration in the Fifth District is up. Obama stands a great chance of winning the District. Jim Webb will be here on Friday to endorse Tom Periello. All of this bodes well for Perriello.
But look, I like to think I'm a realist when it comes to politics, and this District has been an uphill battle for Tom since day one.
But here we are in October, one month from Election Day, and Tom has a significant shot at this thing.
Virgil is scared. He is trying to run out the clock.
Will the media of the Fifth District let them, or will they do their job and truly represent the interests of the citizens they claim to serve and call on Virgil Goode to debate Tom Perriello on television as soon as possible so we, as voters, can make an informed decision in what is perhaps the most important election we will ever face.
Goode didn't show up for his debate with Tom Perriello, which had been scheduled for months, with the laughable excuse that he had a conflciting appointment. He is hoping to run out the clock on this election. The real losers in this strategy, however, are the voters, who won't get to hear their candidates debate.
Tom Perriello faces television cameras last night in downtown Charlottesville in front of the NBC29 studios on Market Street, where he had a scheduled debate with Virgil Goode.