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Why does the educrat establishment come off to the general public sounding more and more like spoiled children who can never be satisfied with the latest toy sensation? Perhaps it’s because of comments posited from the likes of Ron Haskins, senior fellow and co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the  Brookings Institution, a liberal D.C. think tank.

He was the keynote speaker yesterday in Richmond at something called the Early Childhood Public Engagement Summit — Virginia’s first, mind you; a “summit” not of heads of state meaning it’s a meeting of people who think they are important. Mr. Haskins, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, said this, after acknowledging the United States spends $26.1 billion per year on day-care and pre-school education programs.

“It’s not like we don’t have anything to work with. But still, we need more.” (Emphasis added.)

If it’s not for one education program, it’s for another. In this case, for more pre-K, which is the new educrat rage. More, more, more! When will it ever stop? Like the whiny child, perhaps the educrat need to get sent to their room with no TV, no toys but with a good book to read. Perhaps something like Milton Friedman’s Free To Choose . . . but for modern concessions, we’ll allow them, and encourage you, to watch this:

The Family Foundation of Virginia’s Annual Gala is November 20 in Richmond. We have, and will, continue to preview the event and our keynote speaker, former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline (see here), here all the way up to the event. We will post videos of him in interviews and speeches, and even an exclusive blog interview, so you will get an idea of how dynamic and inspiring his story is — a true reformer and passionate defender of life, he has fought for the truth at great political and personal cost. A real life William Wilberforce. Engendering hate and vile against him by radicals, he perseveres in his fight against the evils of Planned Parenthood.

We hope you will be able to join us in Richmond on November 20. It will be an event you won’t want to miss. Here’s one reason why — how many politicians speak with this conviction?

For more information about The Family Foundation of Virginia’s Annual Gala, please call us at 804.343.0010 or e-mail dan@familyfoundation.org.

Even the local Mainstream Media is getting into the act. It can’t stand the success of Governor Sarah Palin (who will campaign again in Richmond Saturday) and how she has created an immense amount of enthusiasm, not just among Republicans, but among women and men Democrats and independents of all socio-economic backgrounds to the McCain-Palin ticket (see the ticket’s remaining Virginia campaign schedule here). But it’s not even the typical MSM. It’s the entertainment MSM. Who cares what they think? But they want in on the action, too, I suppose.

After Governor Palin’s last visit to Richmond, the Richmond Times-Dispatch pop music critic thought it necessary to ridicule the Hank Williams, Jr., song “McCain-Palin Tradition” that he sang as a warm up to the governor’s speech (click here to hear). According to the critic, Hank Jr.’s original hit, “Family Tradition,” on which the campaign song is based, has some lyrics not in tune with “family values” voters (see article here).She mentions some Democrat instances as well, but clearly aims for what she thinks is a double standard among conservatives. Apparently, we’re not allowed to have a good time — or at least it has to be good as defined by an elitist standard. But guess what?Even the celebration of Christmas was based on a pagan holiday. Guess we ought to stop celebrating, then. She continues with a litany of liberal recording artists who have demanded of Republicans to stop using their songs. Hard hitting stuff.

What’s funny is this critic’s view of Christians, values voters and conservatives in general — a stereotypical view of the types of people she thinks conservative politicians appeal to. It’s as if she is saying conservatives don’t have fun and live completely cloistered lives. Maybe she’s the one who needs to get out more . . . or at least to more diverse entertainment venues to learn about the folks — that there’s more out there than smokey bars and concert halls — and stop generalizing.

She also needs to learn some history. She claimed Ronald Reagan’s 1984 campaign theme song was Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The U.S.A.” Wrong. It was Lee Greenwood’s “Proud To Be An American.” Then again, he’s just a values guy. No one relates to his music, right?

Two weeks ago we asked if Governor Tim Kaine was fiddling around with national politics while Richmond and the Virginia budget was burning (click here) because he was running around the country campaigning for Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama. We’re not the only ones who think so.

Today, The Washington Times (click here) ran a feature on what the governor’s schedule has been like in recent weeks. Among the states he’s visited: Georgia, Iowa, Indiana and Texas, Colorado and Arizona. Which prompted this comment in The Times from House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith (R-8, Salem):

He clearly has spent almost as much time out of the state as he has in the state. I think we’re going to find a lot of little things that he probably should have been on top of.

One of those “little things” is “chaplain-gate” which Griffith notes had been brewing for several weeks. The out of balance Virginia budget may be another. Although many claim the governor’s budget was out of whack from the beginning or, at the very least, he wasn’t paying attention to it because of his campaigning, he claims in The Times article that the national economy is to blame. (Funny how the national economy gets no credit when times are good, eh, governor?)

The governor says he has good people in place and gives them latitude to run the government. How does this explain Jody Wagner, his former finance secretary, who produced the bogus numbers upon which he based his budget? Also, if true, why elect a governor? Let’s just keep these good people in place for life.

Delegate Bill Janis (R-56, Glen Allen), who has claimed that Kaine called this past summer’s special session of the General Assembly to raise his national political profile in order to wedge his way onto Senator Obama’s ticket, however, earns our coveted Quote of the Day. As he told The Times:

I think he’s abandoned any pretense of trying to be the governor. At least Nero stayed in Rome and fiddled while it burned. He’s out in Colorado.

Just as we said two weeks ago. The other difference Kaine has with Nero is that he not only fiddled during the fire, he started the fire as well. Now the question is, does the governor have the will, the poise, the sound judgement, the willingness to be bi-partisan — the time off the campaign trail — to grab a hose and put out the fire — not to mention tend to the other matters at hand?

Is Governor Tim Kaine fiddling while Richmond burns? While he lays off 570 state government employees (see Washington Post, here), many of whom are in the all important corrections field, because of a budget deficit he caused by ignoring projections of a severe revenue shortfall so he could start new, unwanted programs such as Pre-K education, His Excellency is heading this weekend to Arizona and Colorado to campaign for Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama.

It was his hyper campaigning for Senator Obama during the primaries, then his self-promotion campaign to get himself on the Democrat ticket as its vice presidential nominee, that many say got Governor Kaine into this budget mess. That is to say, he took his eyes off his duties for the glamor of presidential politics. Whether that’s true or not, it is certain that he obstinately refused to listen to many sane voices in the General Assembly to scale back his spending plan (the budget is based on revenue projections). He didn’t and here we are, eliminating security jobs and closing prisons instead of eliminating social engineering programs.

More savings Governor Kaine said he’s found are in the elimination of unfilled jobs. How this saves money since no salary is spent on people who aren’t working is confusing at best. Phantom savings? But don’t forget about his cutting the bottled water shipments to Capitol Square offices (see Richmond Times-Dispatch, here).

The governor also will use bonds instead of cash to pay for construction which will pile up further debt to be repaid later. Funny how it’s fine to use debt to build monuments — uhhh, make that buildings to name after politicians — but can’t be used for transportation which is a necessity and government responsibility. It also begs the question, why is our government so big that we are constructing more state buildings? (Buying them, too: The state just bought the high-rise Verizon building in downtown Richmond.)

Another major component of Governor Kaine’s budget balancing is his raid on the Rainy Day Fund, which is budget surplus; in other words, our tax money which just sits in an account, not to be refunded when we have annual surpluses, but to be used to continue feeding the government beast when the economy turns south and the politicians don’t think they can tax us any further. 

Governor Kaine’s actions haven’t been too popular, to say the least, with state government employees and others. Now the interesting part really comes into play: Will his barnstorming for Senator Obama while the state’s budget deficit explodes have any backlash on Senator Obama in Virginia? It’s a tune we’re waiting to hear the fiddler play while the fire rages on.   

It truly is remarkable the lack of understanding some people have of the U.S. and Virginia Constitutions. Some of them actually run for, get elected and serve in high office.

Case in point: In Friday night’s debate between U.S. Senate candidates Democrat Mark Warner and Republican Jim Gilmore, both former governors, Warner was asked a question regarding his veto of a bill which would allow Virginia offshore drilling for oil and natural gas once federal approval is given. Even his Democrat successor, Governor Tim Kaine signed a similar bill. That the question came up surprised us. We posted it Friday afternoon as one of five questions we wanted to hear, although we doubted they would get asked. Gilmore used the veto to blunt Warner’s claim that he now supports domestic drilling. 

Defending himself, Warner gave us our Quote Of The Day:

That bill I vetoed because it was the legislature telling the governor what to do in terms of a specific piece of legislation.

But a quick glance at the Constitution verifies that is, in fact, how it works: The legislative branch passes a law and the executive branch executes it (thus the word “executive”). Sort of like a tax increase, where the legislature sets “specific” rates and the executive collects it, something Mr. Warner should know all about. It’s as if he was saying he didn’t recognize the other two branches of government. Even stranger, this is the same Mark Warner who loves to talk about how bipartisan he and the General Assembly were during his four years in Richmond. All of sudden, it was a partisan machine, trying to roll him over.

(Almost as peculiar, he advocated that “all levels of government . . . local, state and federal” start placing orders for new cars “for 2010 and 2011″ from Detroit — cars that get 100 miles per gallon. There are several problems here, perhaps the major one being that they don’t exist!)

Also during the debate, adding to his misunderstanding of constitutional matters, Warner repeated the often misstated meaning of overturning Roe vs. Wade. If the case ever gets overturned, it would not end abortion nationwide immediately — a common liberal scare tactic. It simply would return the decision making from the federal courts to each state. 

There are no individual sound bytes of the Quote of the Day that we could find. Instead, you can view the entire debate by clicking here. You can drag the progression bar forward to 40:45 to hear Warner’s futuristic 100 mph car claim and to 43:38 to hear the QOD. If you did not see or hear the debate, we encourage you to view it in its entirety in order to make an informed decision this November in this important U.S. Senate contest. It takes less than an hour and is an invigorating give and take.

Whether Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s experience is a real factor or not remains to be seen as she enters into the vice presidential debate Thursday night. Right now, the voters don’t seem to mind. In fact, the last budget she administered is about $7.6 billion; the last budget administered by then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton when he ran for president was about $3.6 billion. So, does she have twice the practical experience he had in 1992? Certainly, the issues of energy independence are more complicated than Arkansas pre-K education.

Former Virginia governor and current Richmond Mayor Doug Wilder has disparaged Governor Palin’s experience. But then-Governor Wilder, in 1992, with only one year as governor under his belt, ran for the Democrat presidential nomination. Double standard, your honor?

But perhaps the most fun (and hypocrisy exposing) fact of all is, that while her critics ridicule the size of her state, her opponent, Senator Joe Biden, comes from lil’ ol’ Delaware, population 853,476 — or less than the total population of metropolitan Richmond (Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover Counties, and Doug’s domain) which has a combined population of about 888,399. So . . . Doug Wilder for president after all?

That it is more difficult to get a vote on a realistic contract for a charter school in Virginia than extracting crude oil from a banana, as happened in Richmond last week, is proof enough that the issue must be revisited by the General Assembly soon. As we commented on last week, Virginia still has no charter elementary school, although Richmond was on the verge of getting one after its school board approved the Patrick Henry Initiative last spring. All that was left to do was for the school board to approve a contract with PHI. However, the the Richmond Public Schools administration sabotaged the deal by drawing up contract terms so restrictive that it was destined to condemn the school to failure. 

Now, Richmond School Board member Keith West, who voted against the contract because of its untenable conditions, will bring the issue back for reconsideration. West, a founder of School Choice Virginia, can do so as one who voted on the prevailing side of the question. As reported in the Richmond Times-Dispatch Saturday, West will offer a simpler contract, outlining “what needs to be done, not how to do it.”

Of course, telling a charter school how to do its mission defeats the purpose of charter schools — which is to offer alternative methods of instruction rather than the status quo offered by the educrat establishment, that same expertise that has failed so many, especially in urban communities.

While the chances for rescuing PHI aren’t great, they are still alive. Overwhelming parent and citizen involvement got the effort this far and may yet finish the mission. They will need all the wherewithal they can summon to do so. West’s new proposal first will be sent to a committee by School Board Chairman George Braxton, if it’s not killed outright by the board. Plus, Braxton and another previous yes vote, Vice Chairman Lisa Dawson, hinted they would vote no on West’s new contract anyway.

What kind of message does scuttling a first-ever charter elementary school send the rest of the state? It should send one to the General Assembly that this alleged system of educational choice must be revisited now, because although it is ostensibly set up for change, it really protects the same old torn up, infertile  turf of the educrat establishment, not the interests of parents, students and new ideas to advance education.

A couple of nights ago, as I nervoulsy was cheering on whatever American individual or team on the brink of elimination or medal at the Olympics, I got a call with a pleasant sounding woman on the other end. She wanted to know if I’d participate in a survey regarding the presidential campaign. I obliged, but wanted to know who was conducting it. She said she could tell me at its completion, and so we started. Here are the question predicates pretty much verbatim (they each had a scale or a modifier at the end, which isn’t relevant here). I scribbled them down as soon as I hung up:

1. Are you following the presidential campaign closely?
2. Who are you likely to vote for?
3. How likely are you to vote for that candidate?
4. If not, would you vote for Barack Obama?
5. In the U.S. Senate race, are you more likely to vote for Jim Gilmore or Mark Warner?
6. Are your neighbors ready for a black president?
7. Is experience or change more important in a presidential candidate?
8. (This was a long winded push-poll question about the evils of pro-life candidates ruining women’s lives versus the freedom loving pro-abortion, uhhhh, “pro-choice” candidates.)

I live in a very liberal, pretty upscale area, smack dab in the middle of Governor Tim Kaine’s former fiefdom of Richmond’s Fan District (when he was a Richmond city councilman just a few years ago; you know, at the same time Obama was an Illinois state senator). So I found the question about my neighbors’ attitudes on a potential black, pro-abortion president, interesting. Surely the pollsters know what neighborhoods they are calling.

Surprise! At its conclusion the nice woman identified the poll as being paid for and authorized by . . . drum roll, please . . . “The Democratic Party of Virginia.”

Well, I’lllllllllllllllllllll be. If it’s all such a slam dunk, why are Tax Governor Warner and his apparatchiks so concerned?

The cameras are lined up outside the Governor’s mansion in Richmond today, awaiting Obama’s announcement:

Everyone watch their phone’s for the text . . .