RK ARCHIVE - Bob Marshall - "I voted for it before I voted against it..."

Reckless driving, however, is a public safety and law enforcement problem - not a revenue raising opportunity. Unlike some members of the House of Delegates representing Prince William County, I knew that before the voting public made its opposition to the abusive driver fines clear. That is why the first thing I'm going to do if I'm elected to the House of Delegates is move to repeal the civil fines on bad drivers.

Delegate Marshall, now that the public is up in arms about the abusive driver fees, is ready to follow the crowd. There is, however, a difference between grandstanding and leadership. On this issue, Delegate Marshall has failed the test of leadership.

First, Delegate Marshall, according to the Potomac News, voted, on three occasions, for legislation that contains the very fines he now opposes. It would seem that Delegate Marshall was for these fines before he was against them. His excuse for this inconsistency is that, when he voted for the fines, he didn't completely understand them and trusted other people to do his thinking for him. If Delegate Marshall, after nearly 16 years as a member of the House of Delegates, has not yet gotten the knack for identifying bad legislation, it is not likely he'll ever acquire this skill.

Second, unlike those of us he is supposed to represent, Delegate Marshall's obligation is not just to point out problems with legislation after it is passed, but also to identify these problems before hand and correct them. Unfortunately, Delegate Marshall was so busy developing grandiose legal theories on why the transportation package was unconstitutional that he didn't bother to try and deal with this problem before, rather than after, the law was passed.

Finally, the reason that the transportation package included the abusive driver fines provision is the consequence of the House of Delegates having too many members like Delegate Marshall who are adverse to common sense solutions to gridlock. Consistently, Delegate Marshall has opposed fiscally responsible measures designed to make sure that we have the resources we need to provide basic public services - such as transportation, education, and public safety -- that are critical to our quality of life. As a result, the transportation package, while it includes many important provisions, and was the only hope we had of getting any help on this issue, had to include a gimmick like the abusive driver fines. Replacing Delegate Marshall is one of the best things we can do to make sure that we get serious, rather than frivolous and counter-productive, solutions to our real problems.

Unlike Delegate Marshall, I'll go to Richmond to try and solve problems in a serious, pragmatic, and proactive manner. Complaining about a bad piece of legislation, after it has been passed, will be a last resort, not a preferred option, for me. If the people of the 13th District want to the rest of the State to take our gridlock problems seriously, we need to send a Delegate to Richmond who takes that problem seriously. Delegate Marshall has failed that test - I won't.

Visit our web site www.electroemmelt.org to sign up to help bring common sense solutions to the 13th District and our Commonwealth.

Comments

It's a nice gesture (Emperor Palpatine - 7/27/2007 3:27:54 PM)

but unless you're running for Supreme court judge, or Governor, there's nothing that can be done to repeal the law now.

Just like in the Michigan case, some senators and reps are willing, but the top goober won't budge. And without goobers support, the measure goes nowhere unless the supreme court says otherwise, which is why we've had to go that high with our lawsuit.

The attorney has revised his appeal to refute the appeals court judges decisions, and now it rests with the top court. And it's taken 3 years to get to where it is now!

So unless someone is going to rob kaine from his job, you're out of luck, because now that it's enacted, they want to wait and see just how much money they can steal from you to support their used car salesman hair gel gluttony in the name of safe driving and road repair.

Political climate (Teddy - 7/27/2007 5:13:28 PM)

is not a cute phrase, it a description of how a public thing (res-publica) is handled. The public climate in Richmond for the past several years has been completely created by the Republican caucus, mainly that caucus in the House of Delegates. That caucus has openly stated 1) NO TAXES, and most of them signed broadly written and broadly construed "no tax pledges;" and privately been determined that 2) no Democratic Governor would ever be allowed to achieve any meaningful legislation (especially since Governor Mark Warner managed to bend the Republican-dominated Assembly to his will during his tenure, and they never forgave themselves for their cooperation).

That was the political climate in which Governor Kaine, referred to elsewhere as head goober, had to operate, and that is why the transportation legislation, so dear to Kaine's heart and based on his campaign promises, took the form it did. It is absolutely the result of the Republican House of Delegates' malice and basic unwillingness to "give" Kaine and the Democrats anything--- that, and the endemic Republican inability to govern, because Republicans basically cannot govern. Please remember that Republicans believe Government Is The Problem, and prove it every time they get their hands on the reins of power, nationally as well as on a state level.

Therefore, Governor Kaine, if he wanted to get the first transportation legislation in over 20 years through the Republican-dominated Assembly, had to work within those parameters. Frankly, I am amazed he got anything out of Speaker Howell, whose partisanship is legendary. Kaine (naively, perhaps) tried repeatedly to work in bipartisan fashion with the Republican caucus; the previous session of the Assembly did not produce any transportation legislation because of the Republican caucus' intransigence--- in fact, as I remember, this finally was a deliberate decision, and Northern Virginia was promised (hahaha) that "our turn" would come next session, i.e., this last session.

Like most Republican promises, that promise was twisted and manipulated to make us wish heartily we had NOT wished so mightily. "Be careful what you wish for, heh-heh, see what we gave you, you damned Democrats and damyankee Northern Virginians. Guess that teaches you!" I have been told that most Democrats and even a few Republican members of the Assembly begged Gov. Kaine to "fix" the legislation when it arrived on his desk in the first place--- but Kaine had been warned nastily by the Republican leaders, to take it or leave, this was all he was going to get, so any modifications which he made (and he did make a few) would have to be minor IF he wanted to get anything at all.

But then the fallout began, as the rest of the State's voters realized with what a bastard piece of legislation they had been served. Trying to blame Kaine for this is a Republican ploy to CY-their-own-a***s.

I personally would prefer that Gov. Kaine had not stood up with Speaker Howell in defending the stupid transportation legislation, but then I remembered that Kaine has a few years left in his term and, if he wants to get anything more done in the rest of it, he will have to work with Howell.

If we want to help Gov. Kaine during the remainder of his term to do all the things we actually elected him to do, we will have to replace as many of the Republicans in the Assembly (both House of Delegates and Senate) as possible with strong Democrats--- including, if possible, kicking out Speaker Howell. We should NOT be maligning Kaine... Or any of the Democrats who held their their noses and voted for the transportation legislation because they all were operating in the Political Climate created by the Republicans.

Change the political climate in Richmond. Quit whining and get to work.