In this first issue of the Bearing Drift e-Zine, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell talks about conservatism, his first month on the job, his faith, how he makes decisions, working with Democrats, and much more!

Also, there are articles on healthcare and offshore wind energy.

If you’re interested, you can sign up for the monthly e-Zine here.

On Wednesday morning I threw on a tie and trudged down to the Virginia General Assembly Building to attend hearings on a few bills before the Senate Finance Committee.  Among them was Henrico Del. Jimmie Massie’s education tax credit bill. The bill would have allowed private donors to contribute money into a scholarship fund that, in turn, would help poor and low-income students attend the schools of their choice.

The bill had passed the House a week before, though, like similar bills in previous sessions, the margins were close (because a few Virginia Republicans, for whatever reason, really do have a thing for government schools).

The Senate, though, has generally been hostile to the idea of school choice. And this time, the hostility turned weird.

There was state Sen. Henry Marsh (D-Richmond) practically eating his microphone in the process of showing his disgust for the measure.  There was state Sen. Yvonne Miller (D-Norfolk) growling that the bill had nasty overtones of “selling children.” And there was Senate majority leader Dick Saslaw (D-Fairfax) proving to the world (again) that he really is a few bricks shy of a load.

Fortunately, the Family Foundation was on hand to capture it all on video.

All of this comes on the heels of Gov. McDonnell’s proposals to reform Virginia’s sclerotic charter school law, which has prevented, rather than encouraged, the creation of charters in the commonwealth. Earlier in the week, the legislative black caucus issued a scathing deunciation of the whole concept, with Sen. Marsh among those thundering that this tentative step toward wider education reform was the greatest threat to Virginia’s public schools since Massive Resistance.

Outrageous? Sure. But it’s standard rhetorical practice for Marsh & Co.

Some time ago at an education reform conference here in Richmond,  Marsh charged that school choice was just a way to re-segregate the public schools. Gerard Robinson (the commonwealth’s new Secretary of Education) then stood up to say that where once George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse doorway to keep black kids out, some politicians (like Marsh) were now standing in the doorway to keep them from leaving.

Marsh left the meeting very soon afterwards…exercising a freedom he and his Democratic colleagues are determined to deny to poor kids in their own Senatorial districts.

From Larry Sabato’s Center for Politics:

VA-9 (Rick Boucher-D)
Rating Change: Safe D to Likely D

When an incumbent member of Congress who has represented the same district for 28 years draws a challenger who does not even live in the district should he be worried? If the incumbent is Virginia Democrat Rick Boucher then yes. Boucher’s district is coal country, comprised of the entire southwestern tip of Virginia and bordered by West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina. While Boucher voted against the health care bill, his vote for cap-and-trade is already causing him headaches. Adding to his pains, Virginia’s state House Majority Leader, Morgan Griffith, has all but announced he will challenge Boucher. Griffith is a top tier candidate and has been recruited by the NRCC, but he lives in the 6th District instead of the 9th. This could complicate his bid against the entrenched Boucher, although Griffith’s supporters point out that his home is only “feet” from the district’s border and redistricting may render the point moot after this year’s election. While Griffith’s bid would be legal, since congressmen in Virginia only have to live in the state and not in the district they represent, politics is perception and a Republican argument that Boucher is out of touch with his district could be weakened by a messenger who does not even live there. Still, Boucher will be in for one of the tougher fights of his decades-long career as Republicans put another entrenched Democrat on their target list. (emphasis mine)

It’s not going to be easy to take down Boucher, but based on the developments of last few days it looks like the GOP is ready to put up one hell of a fight. Should be fun.

It was wonderful to read Brian Faughnan’s front page diary about Rick Boucher (D-VA09) being in danger of losing his re-election bid this year! Boucher is a first-rate example of the dangers of the power of incumbency; how a Congressman totally out of step with his constituents can make a lifetime career in the Capitol.

Back in 1994, while a graduate student at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, I was one of those misrepresented constituents. I wrote a commentary for the Tech newspaper urging Boucher’s defeat. Someone at the Roanoke Times & World News saw my article and reprinted a version (that I slightly modified) of the commentary. Except for a few dated references, this commentary could apply equally today. It’s just sad that 16 years later, the great people of the Virginia 9th are still stuck with this loser.

So to help add fuel to the anti-Boucher fire, and to relive some old memories from my Virginia days, here is my commentary in its entirety. (By the way, enjoy the reference to the good old days of the Clinton economic stimulus package, with a whopping $16 billion price tag!)

Pork in the 9th: Cleaning up Washington starts at home
by Mark Sensmeier
Monday, Oct. 24, 1994

The November elections are just a few weeks away, and public frustration with the federal government, primarily Congress, seems to be reaching a fevered pitch. We, the people, are fed up with an unaccountable Congress more interested in placating lobbyists and getting re-elected than following the will of the people. There is a plethora of stories of the Rostenkowskis, Packwoods and others who continually abuse the public trust.

Despite our complaints about the unresponsiveness and wastefulness in Washington, the true blame does not rest there. It rests with us. We continue to send the same people back to Congress without thinking about what we are doing. If a member of Congress brings money (translated “pork”) back to his or her home district, we run to the polls to re-elect that person like so many lemmings diving off a cliff.

We think that if our congressman brings lots of federal grants back home, he is helping us out. This could not be farther from the truth. To obtain this pork for our district, our congressman must make a multitude of deals with other members of Congress so they can bring home pork to their district as well.

So we end up having to send more money to Washington to pay for the pork in the other 434 districts than we receive in pork for our own district. The result is that the entire country is hurt and spending spirals out of control, leading to the devastating federal debt we have today.

We have the opportunity here in Virginia’s 9th District to do something about this. In Rick Boucher, we have a perfect illustration of what is wrong with Congress today. The 9th is a large, primarily small-town and rural district. Southwestern Virginians for the most part hold dear the conservative principles on which this nation was founded. But because Boucher is adept at bringing pork home, we keep sending him back to Washington. This, despite the fact that his liberal views and particularly his liberal voting record couldn’t be more out of touch with the views of the majority of voters in the 9th District.

According to Congressional Quarterly, in 1993 he voted to support President Clinton 85 percent of the time, and voted in a Democratic partisan manner 93 percent of the time. On the other hand, Boucher received low ratings from the American Conservative Union (13 percent), the American Security Council (30 percent) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (30 percent).

Boucher also voted in favor of the infamous Clinton economic-stimulus package, a $16 billion waste of taxpayer money. He voted against the Penny-Kasich deficity-reduction bill, against the balanced-budget amendment, and he cast the deciding vote in the 1993 Clinton tax increase.

Despite this liberal voting record, he continues to be easily re-elected in a fairly conservative district. Why? Primarily because he brings the pork home. But to do this, he has to support similar pork spending for other congressmen. The result is that the National Taxpayer Union, the nation’s leading taxpayer watchdog group, rates him as one of the biggest spenders in Congress. In 1993, Boucher voted to increase spending in five out of every six opportunities.

It shouldn’t surprise us that Boucher does not represent the views of the voters in this district. In 1991-92 (the last full cycle reported), Boucher took in campaign receipts of more that $600,000. Out of this total, almost two-thirds (63 percent) was from political action committees (PAC’s). So much for getting special interests out of Washington.

So, if we in the 9th District of Virginia want to help clean up Congress, we have a golden opportunity this November. Let’s stop complaining about Congress, and start doing something about it. Let’s send someone to Washington who will uphold the values of Southwestern Virginians and who won’t make a living wasting taxpayer money. “Kick Rick” on Nov. 8!

Mark Sensmeier of Blacksburgh is a graduate student in engineering science and mechanics at Virginia Tech.

Let’s (FINALLY) Kick Rick in 2010!!

This unpopular:

RICHMOND, Va. — With five Democrats defecting, the Virginia Senate today passed a Republican measure that says Virginians don’t have to buy health insurance.

Voting 23-17, the Democratic-controlled Senate kicked to the House a bill by Sen. Frederick Quayle, R-Suffolk, that supporters say will send a message to Washington about its efforts to overhaul the health-care system.

(Via AoSHQ Headlines) The bill should pass the GOP-controlled House of Delegates with no trouble, and likewise be signed into law by the Republican Governor, and will probably be used as ammo for a lawsuit by the Commonwealth’s Republican Attorney General, should he need it…

- Hey, remember when Virginia was inevitably going to be going Blue for unto the next six generations?

…so it’s interesting that five vulnerable state Senators broke ranks on this bill to vote with the Republicans.  It’s also interesting to consider the implications that this bill - whether substanstive or cosmetic - has for, say, Democrats in the US Congress.  Like Gerald Connolly!  Hi, Jerry!  Quick: what do you think of this legislation?

More importantly, what does your district think of this legislation?

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Said caveats are: Internal poll, D+16 district, and Moran’s still ahead by three.  But a 44/41 Moran/Berry split at this stage is still noteworthy: add five points to Moran’s total and he still polls under 50% - which means that he’s vulnerable.  I don’t mind seeing a 40/38 split on ‘try somebody new’/'keep Moran,’ either.

Post-Massachusetts, it’s no longer reasonable to assume that anybody on the Democratic side is too safe to be defeated: so keep an eye on this race.  I’ve mentioned Matthew Berry before: if I was in his district I’d probably be supporting him in the primary right now, not least because he’s been engaging the new social media (which is a pretentious way of saying ‘he’s actively working to get support’).  And I can’t [expletive deleted] stand Jim [expletive deleted] Moran.  Watching that particular corrupt, anti-Semitic suckweasel go down in flames on Election Night would be a better present than a pony, and I’ve always wanted a pony.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

On the Friday before Martin Luther King Jr Day, the Commonwealth of Virginia celebrates the memories of two of its greatest heroes, General Robert Edward Lee and General Thomas Jonathan Jackson.

Today, Friday January 15th, 2010 is Lee-Jackson day.

Generals Lee and Jackson were not only great men and generals in the history of the Old Dominion, they are considered two of the finest generals in America’s history.

General Robert Edward Lee	General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson

Both men served the Old Dominion well and defended their homeland from the Union invaders during the War of Northern Aggression.  Jackson was the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia’s Second Corps.  Based on Jackson’s success in the face of overwhelming odds, had he survived the war, the outcome may have been drastically different.

At the outbreak of the war Jackson said, “I do not expect to live to see the end of this war. Nor can I say that without victory I would desire to do so.”.  His words now seem prescient.  General Jackson was mortally wounded by friendly fire at the end of the Battle of Chancellorsville which was a route of the Union Army.

Take some time and reflect today.  Bow your head and think of Generals Lee and Jackson and the way things might have been.

Had the Confederate States prevailed in the war perhaps slavery would have ended in a more peaceful and harmonious manner.  Perhaps the rights of States would have been preserved.  And maybe, the germs of international Marxism, which infect our government and country today, would not have found fertile soil in this last, best hope of mankind.

God help us!

-Crippy