Olbermann Calls VA House Rules Committee "Worst Persons in the World"

By: Randy Klear
Published On: 2/15/2007 10:15:43 PM

On Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" on MSNBC tonight, our very own state House Rules Committee was named today's "Worst Persons in the World" for yesterday's vote to table SB809, a bill to establish the Virginia Commission on the Bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln.

Apparently the mighty Rules Committee were swayed by the testimony of the head of the Virginia Sons of Confederate Veterans, who felt Jefferson Davis should be commemorated instead.

Of course, it's hard to tell who felt what about this bill. This year the General Assembly web site has stopped posting votes on tabled bills in Rules.  Apparently the brave leadership of Howell and Griffith doesn't extend to going on the record.

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Video here (PM - 2/16/2007 11:13:48 AM)
If you go to http://www.msnbc.msn... and click on the box that says free video, you can see it.  After a brief ad, you get to hear Keith expound on two others -- but they're funny too.


Here's the AP story (PM - 2/16/2007 11:27:08 AM)
Once again GOP Virginia legislators make our state a laughingstock:http://cbs2chicago.c...


RICHMOND, Va. (AP) Virginia lawmakers meeting on the grounds of the former Confederate Capitol killed legislation creating a commission to oversee the state's participation in the national commemoration of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth.

The House Rules Committee rejected Sen. Henry L. Marsh III's bill on a voice vote Wednesday. The Senate had passed the bill unanimously.
***

Robert Lamb of Richmond, a lawyer and a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, told the committee that supporters of a Virginia celebration of Lincoln's birth suffer from ``historical myopia and amnesia.''

``He sent armies into Virginia to lay waste to our land,'' Lamb said. He said Marsh's bill should be amended to replace the Lincoln commemoration with a June 3, 2008, celebration of the 200th birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.***

Check out this logic:

House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith of Salem said he opposed Marsh's bill, but not for the reasons cited by Lamb.

``My concern is that we do not need a commission in light of the fact that he was not a Virginian,'' Griffith said.