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.

For $7.99 and three optional donation amounts to the Alden Aaroe Shoe Fund holiday drive, Melancon will pack two to three ounces of America’s favorite energy source in a plastic baggy and ship it with a choice of two finger-wagging form letters admonishing your congressman or congresswoman.

And it’s bipartisan, too:

The idea may come from the right, but Melancon says it’s a gift appropriate for any member of Congress; the choice of accompanying letters can be customized to wag liberally or conservatively.

You can place your orders here at the WRVA site or here, where you can learn more about the program.

Oh, and the top lump of coal recipients so far? Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Jim Webb and Jack Murtha.

(cross-posted at Tertium Quids)

Khalfani mentioned their absences multiple times in front of the more than 100 people gathered at the Richmond Marriott for the candidate’s forum as part of the group’s annual conference.

He told the audience how Shannon initially agreed to come but then canceled two days ago with a phone call in which he said he assumed his Republican opponent Ken Cuccinelli was not attending either. Actually, Khalfani said, Cuccinelli was the first of six statewide candidates to RSVP and did so personally.

What’s that old adage about “assume”?

Oh yeah…it makes an ass out of you and me.

And Steve Shannon, too.

And it gets even better

Via Bob Holsworth, who was at the event, we gets this perspective:

The comments made about Shannon in absentia were the talk of the evening among the few members of the media who were present.

The irony was not lost among them.

At a debate yesterday Shannon had raised the issue of race by arguing that Cuccinelli’s legal beliefs about “state’s rights” had been, in the past, the underpinning of practices such as secession and segregation.

24 hours later, with a beaming Cuccinelli present and accounted for in the front row, the NAACP forum moderator tells the audience that the Democratic candidate who could not make their event simply assumed that a Republican candidate would blow them off.

This is rich.  And for Shannon, the timing couldn’t be worse, coming on the heels of polling data that found him trailing Cuccinelli by 15 points (and losing by 10 in Northern Virginia…ouch).

McDonnell leads 53 to 44 percent among likely voters, expanding on the four-point lead he held in mid-September. Deeds’s advantage with female voters has all but disappeared and McDonnell has grown his already wide margin among independents. Deeds, a state senator from western Virginia, is widely seen by voters as running a negative campaign, a finding that might indicate his aggressive efforts to exploit McDonnell’s 20-year-old graduate thesis are turning voters away.

Go negative, all the time, and pay the price.  And what about that thesis, anyway? You remember, the one the Post has waved like a bloody shirt for the past month or so?

Despite a concerted advertising campaign by Deeds about controversial views McDonnell expressed about working women in his thesis — the one area where the Republican had appeared vulnerable — the erosion of support among women and Northern Virginians suggests that the line of attack might have run its course.

Which makes you wonder what those thesis-reading book clubs will do now.  Maybe Dan Brown? Or whatever Oprah has on the list.

But the bleeding for Deeds is only getting worse — and is spreading to his base:

Compared with other regions, Northern Virginia’s inner suburbs has the highest percentage of voters who are either undecided or open to shifting their support between now and Nov. 3. Overall, Northern Virginia voters break 51 percent for Deeds to 46 percent for McDonnell, well below the 60 percent that Democrats view as necessary to win statewide races.

The hope is that the President will change his mind and venture across the Memorial Bridge to stump for Deeds. But even Tim Kaine (sometimes Virginia Governor and DNC chairman) can’t say whether the President has a Virginia swing on his calendar.

Maybe Tim’s just not on the distribution list these days. It happens.

The down ticket races still show strength for both Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli:

Republicans are also well positioned to sweep the other two statewide races, with Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli each holding identical 49 to 40 percent leads over Democrats Jody Wagner and Steve Shannon for lieutenant governor and attorney general.

Not quite the numbers other polls have shown, but nonetheless substantial. But interestingly, Bolling and Cuccinelli both have higher favorable ratings than the Democrats.

So what’s sinking Creigh? Is it the cold shoulder from the White House? The “noise” from DC?  Well, sure. and taxes:

On an issue where Deeds has made his position clear — his support for providing new money for transportation improvements even if it requires raising taxes — he appears to have parted ways with Virginia voters. Most voters statewide, 55 percent, say they oppose paying more in taxes for new roads and transit. Among independents, 60 percent are opposed, and even in Northern Virginia a slim majority of voters oppose new taxes for transportation.

That’s a blow both to Deeds and the Post, which has been beating the drum for higher road taxes throughout the campaign, and made Deeds’ openness to new taxes a cornerstone of its endorsement of him during the Democratic primary.

The race isn’t over yet. But if even the Post is finding disillusionment and distaste for the Democrats’ campaign — and in Northern Virginia, too — then expect to hear a lot more from the press and the White House about the hot gubernatorial contest in New Jersey and a lot less about Virginia.

It’s amusing in that Shannon appears not to understand how the AG’s office is structured, or functions, but does have a firm grasp of his talking points (which, if they came out of a Republican’s mouth, would give the press a serious case of the vapors).

But afterwards, there are the Shannon campaign staffers, doing whatever they can to prevent Greg from taping Shannon’s answer to a reporter’s question — the same question Cuccinelli asked during the debate.

It’s comedy gold.

There’s a reason why the most recent polling has Shannon down by 10 points…and part of it is because, as the video shows, Steve Shannon doesn’t have a clue about what the Attorney General does, let alone how whatever he says on the campaign trail can have serious, legal consequences.

Add to that his contempt for tea party activists and his blundering on whether to call a special legislative session to deal with the Supreme Court’s Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts ruling. Cuccinelli got out in front of the issue and pressed for a special session.  Shannon called it a “stunt.” Governor (and DNC chairman) Tim Kaine agreed with Ken.

No wonder Shannon’s staffers are so desperate to keep anyone from recording his informal remarks.

First, it was a “we’ll see” about whether the President would do any more campaigning for Creigh Deeds. Today, it’s no way:

The White House is stepping back from lending its heft to a bellwether gubernatorial race in Virginia, party strategists say, seeking to conserve its political capital and avoid close association with a candidate who might lose.

And it gets even better. Or worse, if you’re Mr. Deeds:

In Virginia, a race with no incumbents, Mr. Deeds trails Republican Bob McDonnell by an average of 7.3 percentage points, according to the Real Clear Politics average.

Past White House efforts to assist Mr. Deeds haven’t worked too well. His opponent has tried to link Mr. Deeds with the president’s environmental and pro-union stances in a state that mostly runs conservative.

So has the president become as much of a lodestone as Bill Clinton used to be? Perhaps to some degree.

But it is interesting that the President is willing to expend (and lose) political capital on the Olympics rather than use any of it to support a fellow Democrat running for governor in the state right next door.

Then again, Deeds recognizes that any help coming from across the Potomac may be deadly:

“Frankly, a lot of what’s going on in Washington has made it very tough,” Deeds said in a “Battleground Virginia” interview sponsored by ABC 7/WJLA-TV, POLITICO, Google and YouTube. “We had a very tough August because people were just uncomfortable with the spending; they were uncomfortable with a lot of what was going on, a lot of the noise that was coming out of Washington, D.C.”

The noise, yes. But let’s not forget about the policies, either.  And the polls show that independents — who determine the winners in Virginia’s statewide races — are flocking to Bob McDonnell. Why?  As political analyst Charlie Cook noted,  “Obama still has a reservoir of good will with Indies, but they hate Congress something awful.”

So long as that remains so, Creigh “the canary in the coalmine” Deeds will continue to struggle.

A couple of damning points:

McDonnell has never dipped below 54 percent in In four identical SurveyUSA tracking polls, and Deeds has never polled above 43 percent.

But also a silver lining, of sorts, for Democrat Deeds:

Compared to an identical SurveyUSA poll one week ago, Deeds has gained ground among women, voters age 50 to 64, and in southeast Virginia.

Interesting that in the AG race, Survey USA last week noted that:

The Republican has never polled less than 53%. The Democrat has never polled more than 42%.

The numbers this week? Ken Cuccinelli 53, Steve Shannon 43.

Well, it’s a start.

The Bolling numbers are striking. A week ago, his margin was 13 points. If this keeps up, this contest may be a rout.

Interesting, too, is that “southeast” Virginia is now tilting for Deeds and Shannon, with Bolling and Wagner tied.

The data are here.

The bad poll news comes on the heels of a story circulating in Democratic circles today that the Democratic National Committee is reportedly holding on to its $5 million financial commitment to the Deeds campaign out of concern that the Deeds campaign has focused too much of its attention on the controversial Bob McDonnell 1989 grad-school thesis setting out a hardline social-conservative political agenda for his budding political career and not enough on putting down a framework for what a Deeds administration would do for Virginia.

Proving that even a nice guy like DNC chairman and sometimes-Governor of Virginia Tim Kaine isn’t above shanking a fellow, in-state Democrat…whom he has endorsed…and campaigned for…when real money is on the line.

Over the past two weeks, McDonnell’s support has gone up three percentage points while Deeds has lost four points. After closing to essentially a toss-up in mid-September, the race is back to where it was in early September, when the GOP hopeful held a nine-point advantage. In August, McDonnell was up by eight.

Scott includes “leaners” in the headline number. Without these folks, McDonnell still leads, 49-39.

The poll asks about The Thesis, and finds that 51 percent of likely voters think it is at least somewhat (19) or very important (32) in deciding how they will vote. But given the overall numbers, it doesn’t appear as though The Thesis is moving people away from McDonnell.

And what about Mark Warner? Asked whether his endorsement will make people more or less likely to vote for Deeds, 33 percent say more, 30 percent, less and, my favorite, 34 percent say it won’t make any difference.

On former Democratic Gov. Doug Wilder’s non-endorsement of Deeds, 6 percent say it makes them more likely to vote for Creigh, 10 percent say less likely and a whopping 80 percent say no difference.

But again, it’s the independents that are the big prize — and McDonnell is winning them handily, 62-22 (with leaners…and that’s not a typo, it really is a 40 point margin). Without leaners, the numbers are 55-21, with the undecideds going toward McDonnell.

This one has strong favorable numbers for McDonnell — showing him essentially tied with Deeds in the Democrats’ Northern Virginia base, for example.

But more compelling for me are the down ticket races. The LTG race, for example:

Incumbent Republican Bill Bolling is today elected to a second term, defeating Democrat Jody Wagner, former Treasurer of VA and VA Secretary of Finance, 54% to 41%. Bolling led nine weeks ago by 12, led four weeks ago by 10, leads today by 13. The Republican has momentum in Central VA. The Democrat is making inroads, though still trailing, in Southeast VA.

And the AG race:

Republican state senator Ken Cuccinelli today defeats Democrat state representative Steve Shannon 53% to 42%. The Republican has never polled less than 53%. The Democrat has never polled more than 42%.

No matter how the numbers are sliced in this particular sample, they all look good for the Republicans…and for Ken, who was rumored to be expendable if things got rough close to the election, they have to be particularly satisfying.

And is former Democratic Gov. Doug Wilder’s non-endorsement playing any role yet? Possibly. McDonnell, Bolling and Cuccinelli are polling 24, 18 and 20 percent, respectively, among black voters. An early September SurveyUSA poll found the same candidates polling 18, 14 and 22 percent, respectively, in this category.

While this trend seems to be positive so far, there may be more to come…all thanks to Creigh Deeds’ dropping the ball with black voters:

Deeds had problems even before Wilder’s snub. He has failed to energize the black electorate he desperately needs to win. On Thursday, the noises from the Richmond Crusade for Voters weren’t encouraging.

Crusade President Antione Green said Wilder’s gambit would have an impact on the group’s endorsement.

“Governor Wilder still has a loyal base of support among the Crusade membership,” Green said. “I’m hearing from Crusaders and many people who voted for Obama and who are Democrats who want to see Deeds do more.”

But it’s among independents that the numbers are most telling. McDonnell leads Deeds 59-35 in this group, with Bolling leading Wagner 60-31 and Cuccinelli over Shannon 53-36. Earlier in the month, independents supported McDonnell 52-41, Bolling 53-39 and Cuccinelli 49-42.  In other words, national Democrats continue to scare the bee-jeebers out of the commonwealth’s independent voters.

Unless those numbers start moving the other direction soon, November 3rd may be a somber day, indeed, for Virginia’s Democrats.

Not to mention for Barack, Nancy, Harry and their mad-cap plans for America.

First, former Democratic Gov. Doug Wilder refuses to endorse him and says that on the matter of taxes, which Deeds has promised to raise:

This is not the time in our Commonwealth to talk about any kind of tax increase, especially those that are fundamentally regressive and will hit hardest those who are struggling.

The latest torpedo below the waterline comes from Democratic State Sen. Edd Houck.  Houck is one of the Senate’s old bulls — with 25 years of incumbency under his belt, a seat on the powerful Finance committee and who also serves as a budget conferee (one of the handful of legislators who helps hammer out the differences between the House and Senate on taxes and spending).

According to an email circulated by the Republican Party of Virginia,  Houck trumpeted both his and Gov. Tim Kaine’s work on mending the state’s sagging finances.  Budgets were cuts.  State employees were laid off. And as for taxes:

“Fortunately, Governor Kaine’s proposals contain no tax increases,” Houck wrote in an e-mail that largely dealt with efforts to balance Virginia’s budget. “With salaries remaining stagnant or worse individuals losing their jobs, a tax increase is unneeded.”

How to square this with Deeds’ statement that:

“As a legislator, I have voted for a number of mechanisms to fund transportation, including a gas tax. And I’ll sign a bipartisan bill with a dedicated funding mechanism for transportation — even if it includes new taxes.”

I don’t think you can. But as Sen. Houck has endorsed Mr. Deeds, and is one of his long-time Senate colleagues, perhaps they can find a way to un-bend this preztel.

Or at least make it appear as though ol’ Edd isn’t joining Doug Wilder in sinking the already listing Deeds campaign.

“These guys are smart. Some of the guys Chuck (Robb) and I have campaigned for are turkeys,” he said. “Not all Democrats are created equal, while most Republicans are.”…

Okay.

So Tom, Gerry and Glenn aren’t turkeys (but may resemble some other sort of flightless bird — emus, perhaps?). But plenty of other Democrats are. I’m sure they all feel the same about vice presidents.

Note, too, that another of these unequal Democratic veeps, Al Gore, has been beating the fundraising bushes for Perriello, because Tom is so gosh-darned concerned about global warming.

The good thing for Perriello is that Gore didn’t make a personal appearance. Otherwise The Gore Effect might have resulted in an unusual September ice storm in Charlottesville.

Six weeks…that puts the due date right around the time of the election here in Virginia (and New Jersey). Naturally, this has tongues wagging that the success or failure of health care could depend upon the outcome of the gubernatorial contests here and in the Garden State.

The Journal’s Kimberley Strassel believes:

The Virginian’s problem is that [Creigh Deeds is] a little too important to party leaders. The Obama White House isn’t half as worried about what Virginia means for next year’s elections as it is what Virginia means for this year’s health fight. A wipeout in the Old Dominion could send Blue Dogs scampering for cover. If health care isn’t done by Nov. 3, it may not get done. Mr. Obama needs Mr. Deeds to win.

Back in August, the WaPo’s Charles Lane noted:

A lot can happen between now and election day, November 3. But I’d bet members of Congress, especially Democrats, are watching those two races for indications of Obama’s political strength and, by extension, the political advisability of backing him on health care. The latest polls must have sent chills down many a Democratic spine. And if the Republican leads hold up through the fall, Dems’ fears of winding up on the wrong side of public opinion can only grow.

Which all brings us back to…yes…Doug Wilder’s non-endorsement of Creigh Deeds.

As I wrote yesterday, Wilder only bets on sure things. That he’s refused to back Deeds, despite the pleas from the top of the Democratic pyramid, might indicate that he feels secure in dismissing both the President and the Governor because he sees them as politically weak, and getting weaker.

And as for the health care bill’s fate? It may be a bit of a stretch to say its fate hangs on the vote-moving power of Bob McDonnell’s thesis or Creigh Deeds’ yen for higher taxes. But far stranger things have happened…

On taxes, which Deeds has promised to raise and McDonnell has told us to read his lips:

This is not the time in our Commonwealth to talk about any kind of tax increase, especially those that are fundamentally regressive and will hit hardest those who are struggling.

The timing here is rich, considering Deeds wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post promising to raise taxes for roads — a stance the WaPo praised to today for its “guts.”

But it does seem that its the gun issue, and Wilder’s pet project, Virginia’s one-gun-a-month law (which McDonnell voted for and Deeds against) that seems to have sealed it. Wilder likes the law. It remains his signature issue. That Deeds was never on his side, while McDonnell was (when both men were in the General Assembly) shows Wilder is a master at nursing grudges.

And then there is this:

This in no wise is intended to detract from Mr. Deeds in terms of character or commitment to the task of being Governor. I find that he, as well as Mr. McDonnell are fine and honorable men and well suited to that task. The question before me is whether I support the Democratic candidate’s position in addressing these issues. I have not thus far in the progress of the campaign, and as aforesaid refrain from so doing.

This is interesting not in what it says about Creigh Deeds or Bob McDonnell, but what it has to say about Tim Kaine and President Obama — both of whom made highly-publicized, personal pitches to Wilder on Deeds’ behalf.

Wilder only bets on sure things. That’s he’s walked away from the track entirely this time may not bode for the DNC chair (and sometimes Virginia Governor) or the resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

And as for Bob McDonnell…he was likely never going to get the Wilder endorsement. Wilder has never strayed from his Democratic roots and endorsed a Republican. But he has remained neutral before.  The last time?  The 1997 gubernatorial race between Democratic Lt Gov. Don Beyer and Republican Attorney General Jim Gilmore.

Gilmore scored a huge victory that year and Republicans swept all three of the statewide offices.  How much, if any, of the outcome was due to Wilder’s whims is very uncertain. But his neutrality certainly didn’t help the Democratic cause then, and won’t do so now.

The topic of his talk will be “the path to peace in the Middle East,” which one can only assume will not include any of his anti-Jewish ravings nor any references to his own affinity for segregation.

Unless it does, in which case, James Madison University may have a PR nightmare on their hands…if they don’t already.

And one does have to wonder…what would Gandhi think about all this?

No matter, really. According to our own Gov. and DNC chairman) Tim Kaine:

“‘The Carters’ presence in the commonwealth will serve to highlight, especially for our young people, the values [they] both embody in promoting peace, freedom, human understanding and the alleviation of human suffering.’”

Unless those people disagree with the president. Or are Jewish. Or black. Otherwise, Jimmy’s one super guy.

The Deeds GOV campaign in VA, trailing badly in the polls, is being shaken up internally. Public announcements won’t reveal the full story.

And…

Healthy campaigns don’t have shake ups less than 3 months before election day.

And…

Top Dems (Warner, Kaine, Obama) will have to organize major rescue effort soon for Deeds. POTUS can’t afford to lose both NJ & VA badly.

Plus this:

There is now almost no chance ex-Gov. Doug Wilder will endorse Deeds. He won’t endorse McDonnell either, but a D usually backs a D.

All worth watching…

The Longer Explanation

Via the Political Wire:

Thirty-something wunderkind Joe Abbey, Deeds’ manager for his upset June primary victory, has been shunted aside. (That victory was engineered by the Washington Post’s editorials, not Abbey or even Deeds.) Party activists have blamed Abbey, fairly or not, for Deeds’ listless campaign. Abbey will apparently retain a title and a role in the campaign, but the decisions will be made by Monica Dixon (a close associate of Sen. Mark Warner), longtime Democratic party staffer Kevin Mack, and Mo Elleithee. The latter will handle all communications and press, and he is a veteran of high-level positions with the successful gubernatorial bids of Mark Warner and Tim Kaine as well as Hillary Clinton’s presidential effort.

So this has to count as stunning news:

Deeds is now at 40%, followed by Terry McAuliffe at 26% and Brian Moran at 24%. In the last week Deeds has gained 13 points while McAuliffe and Moran have each advanced by just two.

Deeds now leads in every region of the state except Hampton Roads, including a 38-35 lead over Moran in northern Virginia, where just two and a half weeks ago Deeds was polling at only 11%. Deeds is up over 50% in the parts of the state outside Washington DC/Richmond/Hampton Roads.

That’s Sen. Creigh Deeds of Bath county, a spot that, until recently, Terry McAuliffe and a number of other Beltway folks couldn’t have found without a map.

It’s also the same Creigh Deeds who narrowly lost to Republican Bob McDonnell by a scant 323 votes in the 2005 attorney general contest.

If Tuesday’s results actually follows what the latest polls are saying, then there are a number of lessons that could be drawn…from the reluctance of folks to plump for an obvious carpetbagging, that gobs and gobs of money can’t buy success, that negative campaigning in a three-way contest can backfire and that yes, the endorsements of media organs like the Washington Post still matter.

But we’ll just have to wait and see what happens, because in a low turnout affair (which this will be), anything is possible.

Still…it looks like Deeds wins. If so, then it may just be 2005 all over again in the commonwealth.

If Republicans do not learn to live comfortably again with the inevitable effect of a two party system and accept its coalitions and inherent diversity (indeed be grateful for them!), electoral success will continue to be elusive.

If a sustainable majority existed for the agenda of any segment of the GOP coalition, that segment would not need the others. But it doesn’t.

Political parties cannot operate by playground rules, where any part of the coalition “takes their ball and goes home.” Adult supervision is critical and the fragile coalition must be maintained through the ebb and flow of party battles, winning some and losing some.

It’s a fair cop: the GOP, like the Democrats, is a collection of interests all of which believe they hold the keys to victory. Ebb and flow, plus a number of sharp elbows, are par for the course.

But I think the Honorable Gentleman protests too much (not to mention applying a rather unique classification system to the various factions).

The reason the factions are at each others throats right now are many — defeat brings them to the surface, and a steady erosion of core principles — or even a coherent articulation of what those principles actually might be — only make the spats more vicious.

Rather than tap-down these disagreements, I find them to be useful. They provide clarity on a number of topics — not the least of which is to unmask those who prefer power over principle.

As for Reagan’s 11th Commandment - let’s set the record straight. From William Safire’s “Political Dictionary,” we find this bit of mythbusting:

When Dr. Gaylord E. Parkinson, a San Diego pediatrician, became California State Republican Chairman, he inherited a party that had been torn apart with internecine warfare every two years. Just before the contest between actor Ronald Reagan and San Francisco Mayor George Christopher for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 1966, Parkinson laid down the rule that he named the Eleventh Commandment. Reagan, who had most to lose in a bitter battle and whose strategy was to “unify the party behind a candidate who can win,” accepted the rule with alacrity; Christopher followed along and never really raised the “inexperience” issue against the actor.

And then a little more light, this time from Lou Cannon’s biography, “Governor Reagan”:

[Parkinson's] motive for promulgating it was not to help Reagan but to unify his divided party by silencing leftover recriminations from the 1964 Goldwater-Rockefeller campaign.

The result was that Christopher was unable to attack Reagan’s inexperience — but what really healed the GOP breech was a vicious smear campaign run by Democratic Gov. Paul Brown’s henchmen against Christopher.

Wounds and slights are forgotten when the other side goes overboard.

And as for Reagan’s pick of Schweiker in 1976 — that was a gimmick that failed. And recall then, that it was Reagan running against another Republican, Jerry Ford, for the presidential nomination. Eleventh commandment be damned.

(cross-posted at Tertium Quids)

“While we support the right of Americans to petition their government, what’s clear is that the overwhelming majority of folks support President [Barack] Obama’s plan to get the economy back on track and provide 95 percent of working families with tax relief, because they are no longer going to accept ‘more of the same’ as an answer.”

I suggest that the DNC (and the RNC, too) missed the point. The folks I chatted with weren’t fans of the current administration. But their animus was directed at the political class as a whole. “Vote everyone out” was a common sentiment.

Now, of course, there were some political-types roving through the crowd…there was former Del. Jack Reid, there was Ken Cuccinelli, over there was Del. Jimmy Massie…that they came shows something. That they weren’t the focus shows even more.

But for a real sense of the crowd’s mood, check out this protester’s message:

You’ll be seeing a lot of those “raise my taxes, lose my vote” stickers around Central Virginia.

Here’s press coverage of the events in Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Newport News, Virginia Beach, and Wincester. Blog coverage includes (so far): Bearing Drift on Virginia Beach, Jim Bowden on Newport News, Virginia Virtucon and BVBL on Prince William’s event and Rick’s excellent recap of the Charlottesville gathering.

Leslie has video of her remarks at the Reston Tea Party. Michael has some great shots of the Richmond event, RoanokeRnR has some excellent pics, too, and Jerry has the scoop on the Abingdon event…which despite its initial problems with local officials, drew around 400 folks to the Abingdon Farmer’s market, and another 200 at the Farmer’s market in Bristol.SWAC Girl has pics from Staunton, here are more pics from Franklin County…

Let’s just say there was a lot going on, and this only scratches the surface.

(cross-posted at Tertium Quids)

There is a robo-call telephone campaign being waged against the tea party event that is misinforming the public as to the correct date/time for the event.

Please be aware that the event is **STILL** being held on April 15th @ 6:00 at Kanawha Plaza in downtown Richmond.

Please check with any others that you know are attending to be sure that they still have the correct date/time.

I assume our event is being viewed as a threat, because we’re now seeing dirty tricks being waged against our efforts. Fight on!

I received a generic robo-call asking me to attend a Tea party last night (caller id as FRNKCMPN…which seems to be a political polling firm). It wasn’t misleading, though it was greatly annoying…robo-calls are the province of pols who’ve run out of ideas and the marketing firms who readily milk them.

However, if, as Eric says, there is a misinformation campaign underway, then that shows folks are paying attention…and perhaps a bit worried that these events just might turn into something big.

Update

It seems there was no nefarious plot to undermine the Richmond Tea Party — rather, it was a case of someone with good intentions (who has been making these calls nationally), who simply got the start time wrong.

(cross-posted at Tertium Quids)