McCain Derangement Syndrome hits the Virginia blogosphere

A couple of days after Rush Limbaugh succumbed to the disease, Spank That Donkey has also fallen ill (emphasis added):

McCain has a proven track record of compromising our Conservative values, and that is the reason why the MSM is so intent upon promoting his candidacy.  Think about it, they are salivating for a Hillary McCain match up, because either way the liberals win with the combination.  If liberal policies are to be forced upon this nation, let it be by the hands of a Democratic President.

Now, I know of a lot of people who are thinking about sitting this election out, and I hope to address them in several later posts, but openly calling for a Democratic victory?

I guess ”Spank That Donkey” was just a weird personal ad. Who knew?

Seriously, leave aside the ridiculous notion that McCain and Clinton or Obama are peas in a pod (I addressed that nonsense here and here); the important point is that STD has joined the ignominious group best described by Michael Goldfarb (emphasis added): “Apparently they’d rather lose the war than see John McCain win this election.”

John McCain for President (UPDATED)

Eight years ago, after the candidate of my choice (Steve Forbes) was knocked out of the Republican presidential race, I found myself supporting John McCain.  It was a surprise to nearly all who knew me - and in truth, to myself as well.  I came to support McCain then because I considered him the best among the candidates who remained.

That I came to that conclusion was a surprise then; that I have come to the same conclusion eight years later is a complete shock.  Granted the circumstances were the same - my preferred candidate (in this case, Duncan Hunter) was knocked out of the race, forcing me to choose again.

Still, I think an explanation is warranted as to why I am the only OBDA member besides SST’s Old Zach to support the Senator from Arizona.

As I have traveled the road from Fairfax County political activist to Spotsylvania blogger, America has gone from a deceptive “peace” to a war for her survival against an array of enemies from the Middle East and Central Asia (Wahhabists, Ba’athists, and Khomeinists - hence my term for this war: the Wahhabist-Ba’athist-Khomeinist War, or WBK War for short).  Now, of the five candidates, only four (McCain, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and Mike Huckabee) and seem to recognize the danger we face; only three (McCain, Giuliani, and Huckabee) seem determined to fight the enemy wherever it can be found; only two (McCain and Giuliani) are adequately aware of the ways of the world to put that determination to good use.

Only one has the experience, determination, foresight, and vision to win this war as soon as possible, and he is John McCain.  Now, the lack of foreign policy experience is not Giuliani’s fault, and I certainly believe Rudy could make up for it quickly, but McCain’s advantage cannot be denied.

On domestic matters, the picture is admittedly more cloudy.  However, I would humbly submit that John McCain - yes, John McCain - is the closest we will get to a genuine right-wing alternative.  His deviations from the norm - campaign finance “reform”, “global warming”, and the early opposition to the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 - are far less problematic than they appear at first.  For starters, has any candidate pledged to repeal the now infamous McCain-Feingold?  Would anyone besides Dr. Paul even consider doing such a thing?  As for the Bush tax cuts, while McCain opposed them at first, he did vote to make them permanent in 2006.  That may seem contradictory to some, but in reality, McCain - whatever his problems with the Bush tax cuts (and I disagreed with him on them then) - has always opposed an economic tax increase (he did support a heavy - and in my view unwise - tax on tobacco in 1998).  He also recognizes that sunsetting the 2001 and 2003 tax reductions would be a mammoth tax increase that must be avoided at all cost.  Just as important, McCain is the one candidate (outside of Dr. Paul) who has repeatedly emphasized the need to reduce government spending to cure our economic ills (in particular contrast to Huckabee).  He also presents a far more national economic outlook than the local pandering to which both Romney and Giuliani have succumbed.  As for “global warming,” I’ll admit McCain’s position troubles me, but he has also insisted that any action against “climate change” would have to include Communist China - which, as I have found from following politics outside the United States, is an effective poison-pill for any successor of the Kyoto fiasco.  Besides, while no one has gone as far as McCain on this issue, nearly all (i.e., all except Paul) have swallowed the “global warming” nonsense.

The fact is, each candidate has problems on domestic issues - even Dr. Paul is not perfect.  However, on the gamut of issues (defense of pre-born life, free trade, taxes and spending, gun rights, etc.), McCain has the best spectrum of positions and policies besides Dr. Paul, who has disqualified himself by his refusal to accept the nature of the war we are fighting.

I will make one comment on ”electability.”  I generally don’t concern myself with this, in part because it is an amorphous notion that is far more difficultly defined than most are willing to admit (see my numerous comments on Virginia’s upcoming U.S. Senate race).  That said, it has been clear in several polls that McCain - and only McCain - is competitive with Barack Obama; and he alone routinely beats Senator Clinton in the polls.  I only mention this because I genuinely believe (and have repeatedly stated) that the Democrats, should they take power, will withdraw not only from Iraq, but also from Afghanistan.  As such, this election is far more important than many realize.

This also returns us to the WBK War - and the main reason I have once again come to support McCain.  Again, of the five candidates remaining, only John McCain has the experience, determination, foresight, and vision to win this war in the least amount of time, blood, and treasure.

Would I have preferred a better candidate?  Don’t forget; I had a better candidate in Duncan Hunter; were he still in the race, he would still have my support.  He is not, and for me, among the group that’s left, I choose to support McCain.

UPDATE: Of course, there is also the issue of illegal immigration, in which all four candidates not named Paul held similar positions.  I leave it to others to affirm the validity of the sea-changes of the other three; I find them extremely suspect.  Besides, if George W. Bush couldn’t get “immigration reform” through a Republican or a Democratic Congress, I sincerely doubt McCain will.

STD seems to have forgotten what limited government means

In Spank That Donkey’s latest post describing the state of the Senate race (from his point of view), he drops this clanger on his readers:

During a time of surplus, Governor Gilmore didn’t waste our tax dollars, no indeed, he truly invested them back into the citizenry . . .

I’m sorry, but limited government politicians do not “invest” taxpayer money “back into the citizenry.”  They return it to the people; they reduce taxes and either reduce or hold the line on spending.

Now, Gilmore most certainly cut taxes, but he most certainly did not hold the line on spending, and as much as I like STD, when he uses terms like “invested them back into the citizenry,” he isn’t spanking the donkeys, he’s speaking like them.

Dr. Jerry Fuhrman got the diagnosis wrong, but the prescription is just fine

I consider Jerry Fuhrman (From on High) to be one of the sharpest tacks in Southwest Virginia.  That’s why his recent post on HB3202 (a.k.a. the transportation tax hike of 2007) is so maddeningly disappointing (except for his proposed solution, more on that later).

We’ll start with his first - and most glaring - error about the debacle:

It provided the opportunity to levy new taxes on those people screaming the loudest for taxes to be raised (northern Virginians and Hampton Roadsters)  . . .

This is not true.  Voters in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads were specifically asked this question in a 2002 referendum on the subject.  Both regions soundly rejected it, in no small part because the money in question (which would have been raised by a half-cent addition to the state sales tax in those regions) would have been spent by unelected and therefore unaccountable “regional authorities.”

What the transportation tax hike of 2007 did was not only impose said regional authorities on the two regions, but give them taxing power as well, which is not only unpopular but also patently unconstitutional.  It was this brazen disregard for the will of the people of NoVa and Hampton Roads that lost the GOP its Senate majority and cut its House majority in half.  All four Senate losses were in either Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, as were all of the four House seats we lost (outside of these two angry regions, the GOP held their own in the Senate and actually gained one House seat).

Jerry makes another painful error in the next paragraph:

But now that a vocal minority of citizens has convinced politicians in Richmond to void the compromise, we’re back where we started. With calls for a massive tax hike . . .

Trust me, Jerry, I wish we had convinced Richmond to scrap the regional authorities, but we haven’t.  The only thing that seems a done deal is the abusive driver fee repeal.  Either way, this does not automatically mean a statewide tax hike is necessary, even if the regional authorities would be extinguished or declared unconstitutional.  What is needed is spending restraint, which has been in alarmingly short supply these days.

Finally, as one can expect, I took greatest exception to this line:

Somehow I’ll bet you guys aren’t really looking for compromise though. You just want a tax increase. Again.

Well, I’ve got news for you. We beat you last time; we’ll beat you again.

Sorry Jerry, but if by “we” you mean the supporters of HB3202, you didn’t “beat” the Democrats.  You joined them.  That’s the thing that, frankly, a lot of bloggers in western Virginia simply do not understand.  The Republican label in the east has been very badly tarnished.  In the 21st century, we have seen the Virginia Republican leadership (a) try to hoodwink voters in our biggest urban centers to approve local tax increases for “roads,” (b) seen the party cave to Mark Warner on a massive tax hike (and in many respects, beg for even higher taxes) and (c) ignore the will of the aforementioned urban center voters and impose tax hikes on them anyway, with unaccountable regional authorities to boot.

For the folks out west, (b) may be seen as an odd one-off that could be laid at the feet of John Chichester, but here in the east, the Republicans have become just another high-tax party, and this “compromise” is just one more example of that.

That said, Jerry offers his own “compromise” - namely slow down the higher education splurge and divert the money to roads.  For all his errors on what happened last year, what he would like to see this year is right on the mark.  There is plenty of money in existing revenues to cover road improvements without making Virginia (or parts of it) less competitive economically.

Finally, Jerry ends thusly: “You’d do well to take my compromise. Or there’ll be hell to pay.”

On that, we agree completely.  Jerry may not have the right analysis, but his recommendations should be heeded by Richmond - especially Richmond Republicans.

Congrats to SWAC Girl

The Virginia blogosphere has a new queen, at least if BNN is to be believed . . .

. . . and since I’m still rated as #3 (heck, since I’m still rated at all) we must all be a little skeptical.

No, Spanky, Gilmore could have done much more to limit spending

The latest effort by Spank That Donkey to come to Jim Gilmore’s defense is, um, interesting.  My continuing advocacy in favor of Delegate Bob Marshall is clearly getting to him.  I would note, however, than even in his latest installment, Spanky can’t criticize Bob Marshall, and instead chooses to go after those of us who support him here in the blogosphere.

Spanky begins by reminding everyone of a mistake I made in the budget tabulations of the two Governors.  I had initially found Gilmore and Warner’s spending increases to by 36% and 32%, respectively; after some discussion on the accounting nature of car-tax relief and my recognition that the entire four years for each man should be considered, instead of just the last biennium, I found my numbers to be in error and corrected them, to 30% and 28% respectively.  I acknowledge the error, and in fact, I’m grateful to Spanky and Brandon Bell for pointing this out.

Then, sadly, Spanky seems to miss the entire point of the discussion.

You know this is the point I’d like to make about spending to my ‘friends’ DJ and Shaun.  Gov. Jim Gilmore got a lot done in the way of tax relief and tuition relief for our citizens.  At the same time he increased funding for K-12 education, (OH MY GOD!),  and poured money into transportation.  All of this without raising taxes . . .

What Spanky seems to miss is that folks like Shaun (Kenney, btw) and myself are not satisfied with spendthrift Governors who just happen to not raise taxes.  Granted, it’s better than Governors that choose to spend money and raise taxes (this is where Gilmore is superior to Warner, btw), but it is far from the ideal; and it certainly won’t count for as much as a principled conservative who fought spending and tax increases for as long as Bob Marshall has.

But here’s where Spanky really embarrasses himself:

The only way Gov. Jim Gilmore could have possibly, imaginably spent less money would have been to go down to the Senate Finance Committee, grab Senators Chichester and Potts by the scruffs of their necks, haul them out onto the Capitol Steps and put a gun to their heads

Actually, Spanky, Governor Gilmore could have reduced or eliminated any spending item he wanted.  Virginia grants its governors the line item veto, which means (Virginia Dept. of Planning and Budget, emphasis added):

The Governor reviews the bill passed by the General Assembly. He may sign it, veto the entire bill or certain line items, or recommend amendments. If the Governor vetoes the bill or any items of the bill, it goes back to the General Assembly during a reconvened session in the spring. If he recommends amendments, the bill is returned to the reconvened session for consideration and action by the General Assembly on the Governor’s proposed amendments.

I repeat for emphasis, “If the Governor vetoes the bill or any items of the bill.”  In other words, Gilmore could have vetoed whatever pieces of the budget he wanted, and then taken his case to the people of Virginia that the legislature was wasting taxpayer money.  Instead, he chose to accept a 30% increase in state spending.  That’s Gilmore’s record, and to point it out is not an “attack,” much as Spanky would like to think otherwise.

There is no “desperation” here among Marshall supporters; we knew this would be an uphill battle, but for us, it’s worth the climb, and we must be making progress if a Gilmore blogger as prominent as Spank That Donkey has become this hysterical.

Congrats to From on High . . .

. . . for scoring #1 on the BNN Influence rankings for the second straight week.

I should note that the rankings have been, um, controversial - and not without reason.  After all, I’m ranked #3, and we all know how silly that is.

The first (albeit weak) response from the Gilmore bloggers

Spank That Donkey has been one of the most diligent defenders of Jim Gilmore on the Comments section of this blog.  He has now shifted to posting his responses.  I’m happy for that; regardless of our obvious disagreement on the U.S. Senate race, Spanky and I are friends, and I’m more than happy to send traffic his way, as he has sent traffic mine.  Also, I know of at least one reader of this space who would like to hear from the Gilmore side before coming to a decision on whom to support (Gilmore or Marshall).

I must  say, however, that Spanky needs to make better arguments than Gilmore’s college tuition freeze policy.  For starters, supporters of limited government (which is still a large chunk of the GOP base) are not going to be happy about the notion that Gilmore should deserve their vote because he threw more money at higher education in this state.

More to the point, Spanky’s assertion that this will help Gilmore in northern Virginia is almost laughable.  Still, here’s his argument:

How will this help Gov. Gilmore’s electability in NOVA? Last time I checked a lot of college graduates live in NOVA, along with the parents of those kids they helped put through college.

The only problem with that logic is this: not every college graduate in northern Virginia went to a state-funded school.  In fact, as can be seen in this State Council of Higher Education in Virginia report from 2001 (the last year of the freeze), the NoVa’s portion of state-funded undergrads at four-year college (35.1%) is hardly much greater than its portion of the overall population (31.4% - US Census Bureau).

I wouldn’t put a 3.7% variance in undergraduate attendance from six years ago up against a Delegate from the region who won 58% of the vote in a year the Republicans were getting killed in the region.  Then again, since I’m supporting that Delegate (Bob Marshall) I need not rely on such slender reeds.

Cross-posted to Bloggers 4 Bob Marshall

Spanky chimes in on the HB3202 aftermath

Spank That Donkey (newly minted member of the Old Dominion Blog Alliance - welcome to the fold!) adds his own perspective to the HB3202 debacle, in particular Brandon Bell’s revelation that the House GOP was so desperate to pass this thing that it agreed to back every GOP Senator who voted for it:

Our three delegates in the 24th Senatorial District had voted solidly against every tax increase that our Senator Emmett Hanger was voting for, especially  the infamous SB 708 in 2006.  This ”Mother of All Tax Increases“ was ultimately killed by the House.  The principle, you should not be raising taxes during a time of surplus, and record revenues coming into the Commonwealth’s coffers.

Long story short, with this deal the House Speaker and Majority Leader put the heat on our Delegates Steve Landes, Chris Saxman, & Ben Cline to ‘play ball’, and stay out of the primary.  Chris and Ben did not endorse Scott Sayre, and Steve having been an aide to Emmett in a ‘previous life’, came out and endorsed him.

While Spanky and I clearly differ on U.S. Senate candidates, we were both big supporters of Scott Sayre’s attempt to knock out Hanger in last June’s primary.  It is now clear the HB3202 debacle had at least something to do with Hanger’s win over Sayre.

So now we know that HB3202 not only lost the State Senate for the Republicans, it also ensured that at least one Republican seat was filled by the tax-hiking Hanger rather than the pro-taxpayer Sayre.

OK, one more thing before I sign off for the year

Black Velvert Bruce Li is now a contributor to Bloggers 4 Bob Marshall.

Happy New Year!