Democrats Git-r-Done

When campaigns set out their game plans, they must address two critical issues:  1.  Why this candidate is worth electing, and 2.  Why that candidate is not. 

During the Kaine campaign we repeated our argument thousands of times, it went like this: 

Tim Kaine and Mark Warner worked across party lines to turn a $6 Billiion deficit into a $1.5 Billlion investment in education, safety and transportation.

The subtext addressed both critical campaign issues: 
1.  Republicans Can't Govern:  It was the profligate mis-management and short-sighted politics of Republicans that nearly bankrupted the commonwealth and threatened to make Virginia the home of decaying roads and ignorant children.

2.  Democrats Deliver:  Tim Kaine and Mark Warner are indicitive of the Virginia way as embraced and embodied by today's Virginia Democratic party.  We transcend politics and get the job done for the betterment of all Virginians.

In the current transportation crisis, the Republican legislature did not act in good faith.  Their transportation monstrosity was (as Republicans admit) specifically designed as a political ploy to keep power and put Tim Kaine into a (they thought) unwinnable conundrum.  The plan included a massive raid on the general fund, and sought to absolve the state of its critical responsibility for transportation.  It was developed in secret and put a massive burden on localities without their input. 

The Republican politics of this are obvious.  If Kaine destroys the bill, he goes to the voters in November having killed the one chance of his administration to do something about his keystone issue:  transportation.  If he accepts it, he accepts a crass political monstrosity that absolves the legislature of its responsibiliites and leaves localities out to dry.  Either way, Republicans think, Kaine and the Virginia Democrats lose.

Kaine's response is first-and-foremost a masterwork of management, consensus-building, and it fulfills the promise of bi-partisan accomplishment which was the primary reason for the Kaine Governorship in the first place.

Secondarily, it is also good politics.  In November, voters will remember that Democrats  act in good faith.  It is a responsible plan that includes and empowers localities.  It forces the state to retain its oversight and infrastructure responsibilities, and it fully funds the process.  It isn't the plan that Democrats would have put forth on their own, and it's not the Republican plan either.  It's a fair and manageable plan that delivers for all of Virginia.

This headline from the RTD says it all:

KAINE SOLVES ROAD BLOCK

Thus, Tim Kaine worked across party lines, as all Democrats seek to do, to transcend party  and deliver for Virginia.  The message to voters in November is clear:  Democrats get things done in Richmond and across Virginia.  Democrats get results. 

We won't know how all of this turns out until session ends on April 4, but by republicans' own admission, passage of the bill seems likely. 

If Republicans balk, then they are the party of obstruction and they neither deliver nor deserve the majority.  If the plan becomes law, then Democratic candidates can ride into November proudly proclaiming that Democrats Git-r-Done.

Democrats truly are the majority party of the Commonwealth and they keep on proving that they deserve to be.

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