Today's Washington Times has an op-ed by RPVA chairman Ed Gillespie. In short, this is Gillespie's desperate attempt to shift blame away from the Virginia House Republicans - and former Republican governors like George Allen and Jim Gilmore - on the very transportation gridlock that THEY caused! Seriously. After years of Republican floundering on this issue, Gillespie's main "argument" now, at the 11th hour, is that Tim Kaine hasn't provided enough forceful leadership on the transportation issue, acting more like "Citizen Kaine" than "Governor Kaine." Yeah, whatever you say, Ed. Excuse me while I go roll on the floor and laugh hysterically for the next hour or two.Of course, it's difficult to take seriously anything coming from the mouth of Ed Gillespie, the "Embedded Lobbyist" who's made a career of defending the indefensible - the "Contract on...er, with America," stopping the recount in Florida, George W. Bush, George Allen. And it's hard to believe anything emanating from a man who has been described as opening a "conduit for corporate America to strengthen its already formidable influence in the White House and Congress."
But here we are, with just hours to go in the Virginia transportation ballgame of 2007, and what's Ed Gillespie up to? What else? Ed's hard at work, spinning like mad, attempting to shift the blame away from his own Party's failures, trying desperately to defend the indefensible, hiw OWN PARTY'S inaction in fixing Virginia's transportation gridlock.
So, here we have Ed Gillespie blathering in the Moonie...er, Washington Times. Yeah, you tell 'em Ed. Tell 'em all about how just ONE DAY before the end of this year's General Assembly session, YOUR Republican Party has yet to produce a serious transportation package for Governor Kaine to consider or for anyone to debate. Tell 'em all about how well YOUR Republican Party has worked together the past two years, the House slash-and-burn "Flat Earthers" vs. the Senate moderates, on crafting a transportation deal that provides a dedicated, steady stream of fresh funding for essential transportation investments in Virginia.
Yeah, Ed, please enlighten us all about how YOUR Republican Party is about to save us from gridlock without siphoning huge amounts of money out of vital services - including Republicans' usual favorite, public safety. Oh yeah, Ed, while you're busy spinning away, don't forget to enlighten us all about how YOUR party's fine leadership ("no car tax" - yipee!) is not the main reason why Virginia got into this transportation mess in the first place.
Oh, screw it. Don't try to defend the indefensible anymore, Ed Gillespie. Just attack Tim Kaine, the man who championed transportation as a key issue during his 2005 election campaign, after 20 years of neglect and irresponsibility by Republicans, and who has proposed what the Washington Post calls "a serious, credible plan that elevates transportation to the top of the state's agenda for the first time in 20 years," one that would "generate billions of dollars of additional money to fix what ails Virginia's road and rail system."
And, by the way, what's YOUR plan, Ed Gillespie? More of the irresponsibility that was exemplified by Jim Gilmore's "no car tex" fiasco, perhaps? Perhaps you don't recall that one, since you were busy during those years - according to Public Citizen - "ricocheting between the roles of political strategist, corporate flack, and voluble pundit?" Since you were so busy, perhaps you don't remember the reckless Republican policies which nearly drove Virginia into a financial and transportation ditch, and which the Warner/Kaine Administration had to spend most of its four years working to remedy? Or perhaps you just prefer attacking Tim Kaine, who has shown more leadership on transportation than Jerry Kilgore, Terry Kilgore, Bill Howell, and every other House Republican put together?
For my money, I'll take "Citizen Kaine" over "Ed the Embedded Lobbyist" any day. And for my money, I'll take this issue to the voters in November!
Eddie the Embedded thinks Governor Kaine should have shown leadership by groveling at the feet of the Republican House, caved in, and accepting their so-called plan of stealing from the general fund, throwing less money than needed, borrowing from our children via excessive borrowing, and so on. That is leadership in Eddie's lexicon.
What an absolutely worthless bunch of whiney adolescents-with-an-attitude the Republican Party has turned into.
Eddie's "let's blame someone else" approach to legislative leadership seems to me to be the reverse of Bush's approach. His method is to blame the Congress for his lies and incompetence, and then blame them because they haven't gotten us out of a civil war that he caused.
Can you imagine the Democratic Congress blaming Bush for their "Let's end this disastrous war" inaction ? Oh ... I forgot that this is exactly what so many of our Democratic people who claim to be "leaders" continue to do. Why doesn't Reid just step down and hand the Senate majority leadership to Webb - now that would be REAL leadership !
So is Gillespie speaking for the Republican party or his big corporate donors? Oops, sorry, I forgot -- they're the same thing!
So just in case this arrangement isn't clear enough, let's spell it out in big letters:
ATTENTION CORPORATE AMERICA: IF YOU WANT TO INFLUENCE PUBLIC POLICY IN VIRGINIA, YOU HAVE LOTS OF OPPORTUNITIES TO STUFF MONEY INTO THE RPVA'S CHAIRMAN'S POCKET!