Virginia voters are so angry, they'll "strike out at your mama"

Frankly, this is "put-up-or-shut-up time."  In 2005, as Shear notes, Tim Kaine swept to the Governorship in no small part thanks to his focus on "out-of-control development that increases traffic."  Kaine's promise to deal with this issue was blocked in 2006 thanks to House Speaker William Howell (R-La La Land) and his not-so-merry band of right-wing ideologues.  Essentially, what these rocket scientists are proposing is that we solve our transportation problems by borrowing huge amounts of money (honey, there goes the AAA bond rating!) and by taking money away from schools, from cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay, and from other vital programs. Oh yeah, and also by blaming local governments for the problem that THEY caused.  Nice.

The fact is, we all know how to solve our transportation problems.  For starters, we need to ante up serious, major-league money.  How much money?  According to the pro-business Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance's website:

A 2004 VTrans 2025 study mandated by the Virginia General Assembly estimated the CommonwealthGÇÖs 20-year transportation funding shortfall at $74.2 billion in unmet road needs, and $30.7 billion in unmet transit needs. The previous official estimate (1997) placed the shortfall at $40 billion.

That's right, we're talking as much as $100 billion over 20 years for roads and transit. That's $5 billion per year.  Even $40 billion means $2 billion per year for the next two decades.  Of course, Virginia's flat-earth Republicans have no intention at all to deal with this situation.  The Democrats DO have a plan, which involves dedicated revenues, empowering localities to "stop out-of-control development," and tying land use planning to transportation growth (thus getting a grip on sprawl).  That's how you solve the transportation mess, and everyone, except for the flat-earth Republicans, appears to know that.

The question now is this: will the rocket-scientist Republicans, looking ahead to November and fearful of the voters' wrath, finally put their rigid ideology aside and make a deal this year?  On a related note, will Hell freeze over anytime soon?  Will it ever snow again in Virginia?  Will lions lie down with lambs?  Will Virgil Goode apologize for his bigoted anti-Muslim remarks?  Will George W. Bush realize that "surging" in Iraq is not the answer to anything?  Yeah, I didn't think so.  More likely, will there be no action on Virginia's transportation/sprawl crisis once again this year?  In that case, will angry Virginia voters "strike out at your mama," or just at the Republican lawmakers' mamas?  Stay tuned over the next few weeks and months to find out.

P.S.  By the way, for more Republican lunacy, see the Metro section of today's Washington Post, which has a table laying out "hot-button issues of 2007" for Virginia.  Top priorities for Republicans actually include WORSENING the revenue situation for transportation by completing Jim Gilmore's fiscally disastrous idea and abolishing the car tax.  Thank L. Scott Lingamfelter (R-Prince William) for that one. Oh, and we've got that ever-important, burning issue - changing the definition of adultery.  Kudos to our old friend, "Sideshow" Bob Marshall (R-Manassas), the sex-obssesed delegate who once complained that "You can't walk down the aisle of a grocery store without seeing condoms and jelly for diaphragms," for that one.  Ah, Virginia's Republican lawmakers.  Can't live with 'em.  Can't date their daughters (or anyone else's daughters, apparently).

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