Virginia Offshore Drilling: A Victory, a Smokescreen, or Both?

The big news of the day is that President Obama announced he supports drilling off the coast of Virginia. Some are viewing this as a victory for Bob McDonnell. He campaigned hard on the need to drill offshore, and use the procedes to fund transportation. The next step is to get congress to approve a bill that will give VA at least 37.5% of the royalties from the sale of the oil. If this can be accomplished VA will have found a major new revenue source for transportation.

While Virginian's are excited some House Republicans are not as excited. Rep. Mike Pence views this as a smokescreen and a vote buying move for Obama's cap and trade bill.

The President's announcement today is a smokescreen. It will almost certainly delay any new offshore exploration until at least 2012 and include only a fraction of the offshore resources that the previous Administration included in its plan. Unfortunately, this is yet another feeble attempt to gain votes for the President's national energy tax bill that is languishing in the Senate.

Bob McDonnell, congratulations on your victory. Movement on this issue from a president this liberal is certainly a pleasant surprise. Hopefully we can beat cap and trade, and still open up offshore drilling off the coast of VA.

First Campaign Promise - Fulfilled

... and not costing us much either!!

One of Governor Bob McDonnell's early campaign pledges was to reopen the closed Interstate rest stops and he has now taken the necessary steps to do so. The Commonwealth Transportation Board unanimously voted yesterday to reopen all 19 stops by April 15th.

Democrat Tim Kaine closed the rest stops last year to cut $9 million from the state budget, but Governor McDonnell is ensuring that we make this a fiscally responsible addition to our highways. The state transferred $3 million from other areas and is talking about using inmates to do maintenance work in and around the rest stops.

President Obama should take some lessons from Gov. McDonnell about keeping campaign promises.

Tim Kaine for DNC Chair

As we prepare for today's debate between the Republican candidates for party chair, the media is buzzing with the news that Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has been nominated by Barack Obama to be the new Democratic Party Chair.  This should be very interesting.  

When you think of Governor Tim Kaine, what do you think of as his accomplishments?  Honestly it seems to be the national media attention he has received.  It began with the Democratic rebuttal to the State of the Union Address in 2006, and then this year has been round the clock media coverage with Kaine's support for Obama.  

It appears this is simply a pay back by Obama for political support during the presidential race.  Governor Kaine has accomplished very little as governor.  One of the biggest issues of his campaign was solving the transportation issue.  Governor Kaine has failed on that front, and spent this year campaigning instead of solving that issues, and now he faces a multi million budget shortfall and will be only a part time governor now.  

Even on the political front Kaine has failed.  He has failed to defeat some of his top targets in the general assembly: Ken Cuccinelli, and Jeff Frederick.  He has failed to unite his party heading into this year's executive elections in Virginia, and even with the nationwide destruction of the Republican brand he was only able to take a slim lead in the senate, and failed to take control in the house.  Honestly most of the Democrats recent success in Virginia is due to Mark Warner and not Tim Kaine.  If Kaine brings that kind of success to the DNC, the Republicans might really have a chance in 2010.

The other interesting thing with Tim Kaine as Democratic Chair is his arched left eyebrow.  Tim Kaine's arched left eyebrow has earned him such nicknames as "Tim Eyebrow Kaine" and "Unibrow."  

Seriously, how does a picture like that not make you laugh?  

On a more substantive note Governor Kaine can also be something of a loose cannon.  When he was basically campaigning for the vice presidential nod, Governor Kaine received a lot of flack over comments he made during the Georgia/Russian conflict over the summer while talking about Barack Obama's diplomatic abilities.

“It was a bad crisis for the world. It required tough words but also a smart approach to call on the international community to step in. And I’m very, very happy that the Senator's request for a ceasefire has been complied with by President Medvedev.”

The problem with this quote was that the Russians did not agree to a ceasefire at that time, McCain had called for one earlier, and it reveals a certain sense of pompous arrogance to think that just because Obama called for it, it happened.  I was going to post a You Tube video of the comment so you could see the eyebrow in action, but all the videos of it I could find said "This video has been moved due to terms of use violation."  I wonder why You Tube really removed that video...

After the election, Kaine also made another revealing statement.  It didn't receive anywhere near as much flack since it wasn't said till after the election.

“Let’s be realistic,” Kaine said, using the words “challenging times” several times in his remarks to VSU officials, faculty and students. “You don’t run for governor to make budget cuts.”

If only this statement was made before the election it might have been interesting.

I have also noticed a general inability for Kaine to accurately use historical references in major speeches including his inaugural address, the Tech shooting speech, and his state of the commonwealth addresses.  I wonder if the national media will pick up on that as Governor Kaine receives more national attention.

It should be very interesting and a lot of fun having Governor Kaine as Democratic Party Chair, hopefully we can win big in Virginia in 2009, and then in the midterms.  Meanwhile, for the good of the commonwealth, I hope we can fix the financial state of the commonwealth and the transportation issue in the upcoming session.