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It’s a well established fact of history that when Mark Warner ran for governor in 2001, he looked into the camera during his debate with Mark Early and disputed Early’s claim that Warner was going to raise our taxes. Warner flatly denied it. 

When he took office he cleverly tried to raise taxes through the back door via regional sales taxes referenda in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia which would have ostensibly funded transportation projects in those regions. Each lost decisively.

Emboldened by his loss, Mr. Warner a year later, blatantly decided on a full frontal attack. He and his Sundance Kid, RINO then-Senator John Chichester, rammed through a statewide tax increase, Virginia’s largest ever, for everything but transportation. Their cry was that the Commonwealth was short on cash for core services, such as public safety and education. If nothing else, it proved another lie that the mainstream media nary expounds on: Warner was dead-set determined to raise taxes on someone, somehow, for any reason, campaign promise charade and all. Perhaps he needed to burnish his liberal credentials. Believe me, they already were firmly established. Just like Butch and Sundance: see a bank, gotta rob it. Money, especially when it’s someone else’s, is addictive, you know. The change in direction from transportation emergency to public safety and education crisis only deepened the plot: He was looking for anything he could sell that the public would buy. Transportation wouldn’t get them to part with their hard-earned money, but the scare tactic of police lay-offs and kids getting no education might work. It did. By the way, we didn’t hear much from Mr. Warner about a transportation crisis then, did we?

It truly is another matter if a politician says one thing while campaigning and the facts on the ground later make for a radically different situation. This wasn’t the case at all. Hence more deception and fraud. Mr. Warner claimed he inherited a deficit. Not true. Virginia law prohibits it. His predecessor, former Governor Jim Gilmore, his opponent now in the U.S. Senate campaign, made — by law — the cuts necessary when Sundance Chichester couldn’t come to an agreement on budget amendments with House Republicans.

Adding insult (to our intelligence) to injury (to our bank accounts) Mr. Warner misled Virginians again when he said he cut spending and there was nothing left to cut. Is that why spending increased dramatically during his term, from $23.48 billion to $32 billion? (That is about a 30 percent increase.) This truly is where white becomes black and black becomes white.

But his greatest whopper was that the tax increase — at $1.4 billion, Virginia’s largest ever — was needed for a short fall for the next budget year. Time and time again he and his finance secretary presented figures to the General Assembly showing a slow down in tax receipts. Not only was there enough money coming in, but Warner’s conception of a short fall wasn’t a budget deficit, but a short fall in his own over-inflated revenue projections. As it was, a few weeks after he signed that largest-tax-increase-in-Virginia-history, he revealed we had a $1 billion surplus.

So, let’s review: Lie about not seeking a tax increase by trying to get the state’s two most populous regions to approve a sales tax hike; lie that it is needed for transportation; prove that lie by lying the next year by telling us we needed an even larger tax increase for public safety and education. (Did transportation cure itself?) Lie about inheriting a budget deficit when Virginia law proves you’re wrong. Then lie about cutting spending when, in fact, the figures show you increased spending. Lie that the next budget is in deficit when it is only your own inflated revenue projections that are the problem even though they came in $1 billion above what was needed to cover the budget. Now say you “straightened out the mess in Richmond.” More than a con artist but without the lethal force used for a bank robbery. Somewhere between Old West gunnies and Marc Rich. There it is. Mark Warner, in his own unique class.

With Warner’s concerted effort of deception (and the re-writing of history) it is no wonder Governor Tim Kaine thinks he also can get away with it raising taxes despite his 2005 campaign no tax pledge:

“We just had a tax increase. I’m not going to be in for another one.” 

Which reminds me of a question raised here before, but has gone unanswered: Does Mark Warner support Tim Kaine’s billion dollar tax-increase plan?

We all hear stories from parents, grandparents and seniors about how tough things were in their day. We know we’re getting old when we hear ourselves telling our younger colleagues what they missed in our youth.

There’s always a degree of hyperbole associated with recollection. Still, there’s more to it than the charm of a good yarn. So when we read in the Richmond Times-Dispatch yesterday that Shady Grove School in Louisa County has been saved — it’s always a good day when a historic building is spared — we were happy (click here for entire article). It was a one-room school house with one teacher for grades one through seven. It was for black children. All had obstacles to overcome, but all did, and the school taught and instilled in them the values that gave them the tools to conquer life’s troubles. Some who attended are those working the restoration and speak of the importance of what they learned there.

It is being saved by the combined efforts of a black Baptist church — Shady Grove Baptist — and Gum Spring United Methodist Church, a predominantly white congregation, two churches doing their share to end Sunday segregation. Shady Grove is the property owner. Its pastor, the Rev. Reginald Cleveland, gets right to the point about why the building is being saved and what it will be used for:

It will be a museum of values. When you point to this building, you are going to talk about the values of the past . . . so we can instill them in the present and future. Times change, but values and principles don’t. (Click here to see a narrarated slide show of the restoration.)

Too many historic buildings are demolished for “redevelopment” projects; those saved but adapted for other purposes often lose their soul because their context is lost in the remodeling. The Shady Grove School museum will preserve its historic value because it will perpetuate its values, those universal truths it imparted to those who attended that school, the same values that made Virginia and America great; not the unfortunately transient themes so widely disseminated today in schools and in the broader culture. This is one development we are happy to hear about and one re-development we look forward to seeing and visiting. We encourage others to as well.

A quick look at Barak Obama’s campaign web site finds several references to faith and values. Unfortnately, there doesn’t appear to be any such reference on John McCain’s site. 

This, while a new Gallop poll indicates that Republican voters are growing more concerned over the state of the nation’s moral values. In just two years, the percent of registered Republicans who said the moral condition of American is “poor” has risen by 15 points. Today, 51 percent of the GOP is frustrated with the nation’s moral climate, compared to 36 percent two years ago.

So, Republican voters appear to be more concerned about traditional values — not less. As such, these voters are more likely to seek out candidates who they believe share their concerns. Apparently, McCain and his advisors still don’t get it.

And its not just Republican voters with concerns. Since 2002, Republicans, Democrats and Independents have grown more pessimistic about the nation’s moral direction. In fact, 81 percent believe the nation’s moral state is “getting worse.”

So, in that context, how smart is it for McCain and other Republicans to avoid talking about moral issues? While their campaign consultants may convince candidates to avoid all talk about marriage and abortion, that appears to be exactly what the voters (and activists) want them talking about. 

Don’t get me wrong. Candidates can’t talk only about moral issues. They have to address rising gas prices, the economy, Iraq, terrorism, etc. But they can’t completely avoid moral issues either.

The message to Republican candidates is clear — avoid these issues at your peril. Don’t expect the activists and voters who got you into office to be energized if you refuse to even mention the issues they care about.