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Last week, on February 2, old-school crooner Wayne Newton made his way to the General Assembly to testify on behalf of a bill to recognize a Virginia Native American tribe (see Washington Post article and video), to which the Virginia native belongs, in the House Rules Committee. Women staff and lobbyists alike swooned and several got pics and pecs with and by him.

Three days later, however, reports the Detroit Free Press, “Mr. Las Vegas” got stuck with a $61,000 bill for abandoning his plane more than three years ago at an area airport and leaving it to rot and gather mold. Ewwwwwwwwww . . . and they kissed him!

Jefferson, Madison, Washington, Henry, Randolph and a host of legends once met in Richmond to discuss the great issues of the day. But, hey: These days we’ll take our celebrity witnesses where we can get them. We’re just glad Mr. Newton left his plane in Detroit to rot, and saved for that city something more than just a little symbolic given that area’s rapid decline and near 20 percent unemployment.

Thanks to the alert by our friend Tea Party Jim, we now know the winner of the Public Option Please propaganda, graffiti, Obama adoration, uhh, “art” contest. As Jim writes us:

The sickness of this kind of thinking is what is destroying this country. The thought that Washington, D.C., is the lifeblood of the nation is simply idiotic, but not surprising.

And apart from the misattribution of the quote, the doublespeak of the supposed Jefferson quote is nearly hilarious. “Without Liberty no happiness can be enjoyed by society” as the money quote to sell government rationed health care is simply Orwellian.

I can’t add much more to that. Well stated, Jim. Gabriel Malor has something to say, too, at Ace of Spades HQ.

The winners are (although we thought liberalism doesn’t have winners and losers, and that it makes everyone equal and happy):

First place and People’s Choice winner, to an Amy Martin, with the perfectly understandable idea that our country is great because of Washington, D.C.:

Second Place, to Tatyana Fazlalizadeh (there’s always a Tatyana involved in socialism, isn’t there?), but lacking nothing in staged propaganda heart strings, and a bone to underappreciated photographers out there:

Finally, a disappointing, I’m sure, third place to the POTUS, represented by a Michael Cuffe, but it’s my personal favorite, as well, and takes second to nothing in human adoration, if that’s any consolation to him. After all, the bronze here is better than what he got at got at on his Olympics bid:

Annotations & Elucidations 

The Debate/Mason-Dixon Edition

The news is almost all campaign, with several national articles (including the New York Times, which has two pieces — one specifically on Virginia, in the News section, and one on Virginia and New Jersey and their national implications, in National News) continuing to shine the national flood lights on the commonwealth. Tonight is also debate night, the first live televised one. Will Democrat Creigh Deeds apologize for his negative campaign? Will he finally explain his transportation and tax increase plans (his last attempt at explaining the latter was called “embarrassing” today by his patron, the Washington Post, and now has been turned into a new ad, which will begin running tonight).

Now the Dems, including DNC Chairman Tim Kaine, are targeting Senator Ken Cuccinelli. He began an ad they say is unfair and misrepresents Democrat attorney general candidate Steve Shannon’s position on the special session that remedied a Supreme Court decision that would ceased prosecutions on drunk drivers and drug offenders. Hmmm. How do you misrepresent Shannon’s view? Calling it a “political stunt” is pretty hard to misinterpret.

But the big news was the release of Mason-Dixon’s first poll this campaign season. Mason-Dixon is the gold standard in Virginia political polls. The last poll it conducts, the Sunday before each election day, has never predicted the wrong winner, so it is awaited with baited breath. Its 2009 debut has all three Republicans leading: Bob McDonnell up by eight for governor, Lt. Governor Bill Bollingup by 13, and Cuccinelli up by seven. Not to be outdone, however, is SurveyUSA, which conducted another poll last week for WDBJ-TV in Roanoke and WJLA-TV in Washington (its fourth consecutive weekly poll). It was mostly drowned out by the Washington Post poll results, which showed all three Republicans up by nine. SurveyUSA has the three Republicans up by 11, 17 and 10, respectively. Details on everything mentioned above, and more, are below.

News:

Mason-Dixon Poll: McDonnell up by 8 points over Deeds (Richmond Times-Dispatch/Lynchburg News & Advance) 

Mason-Dixon Shows McDonnell by 8 (Washington Post Virginia Politics Blog)

Poll: GOP’s Bolling, Cuccinelli lead (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Virginia: 4 Weeks Until Votes Are Counted, Republicans Remain Poised to Win 3 Top Statewide Contests (SurveyUSA.com)

Results of SurveyUSA Election Poll (SurveyUSA.com)

Va. Candidates Meet Tonight in First Live TV Debate (Washington Post)

Debate a major moment in Va. governor’s race (AP/The Daily Press)

Two State Races May Put Lens on Obama (New York Times)

GOP Launches New Ad on Deeds and Taxes (Washington Post Virginia Politics Blog)

Cuccinelli Airs New Ad; Shannon, Kaine Protest (Washington Post Virginia Politics Blog) 

Kaine says Obama supporters key for Deeds (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Biden calls Virginia race winnable for Deeds…. (The Shad Plank Blog)

Debate in House race heats up over transportation question (Lynchburg News & Advance)

8th District candidates debate in Roanoke Co. (Roanoke Times)

Sexually explicit novel pulled from Roanoke school libraries (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

National News:

Democrats May Lose Two Governors Races (Reuters/New York Times)

McDonnell Holds GOP Comeback Hopes in Virginia; Dems Hope Deeds Bet Pays Off  (PoliticsDaily.com)

House Votes to Add Sexual Orientation to Law on Hate Crimes (Washington Post)

Analysis:

Republican sweep looking likely in Virginia (Josh Kraushaar/The Scorecard Blog Politico.com)

Last week, the candidates for attorney general, Republican Senator Ken Cuccinelli and Democrat Delegate Steve Shannon, both of Fairfax, had only their second debate and the first that was broadcast — but only on Washington radio station WTOP-AM. (Democrat debate ducking has been taken to a whole new level this year.)

What’s particularly perplexing is the lack of coverage the media has affored the few debates that have taken place in any of the three statewide races, especially given the media’s endless pontificating about elections and issues versus slick and negative advertising. (With only a handful of debates, it sure doesn’t take a lot to cover them, either.) Yet, three candidates repeatedly refuse to debate (despite being well behind in the polls) and, when there is one, it is not on statewide television.

But we did have that one AG debate on WTOP’s The Politics Program with Mark Plotkin (listen here). The highlight seems to be Delegate Shannon’s ”I am a pro-business, law and order centrist,” comment when, in fact, he has a 100-percent AFL-CIO voting record (see AFL-CIO here) and has received nearly $150,000 in campaign contributions from big labor during his six years in the General Assembly — $120,000 of which has come during his attorney general run (see VPAP.org). 

What makes the statement even more astonishing is that Delegate Shannon attended a seminar in mid-September in Annapolis, Md., put on by the Democrat Attorneys General Association, that taught attorneys general how to sue companies into achieving liberal, extremist environmental policies not won through the legislative process. A suit-filing, job-killing AG. Now that’s business friendly.

As if that wasn’t enough, when it was Delegate Shannon’s turn to ask the one question each candidate was allowed to ask of the other, he asked Senator Cuccinelli about global warming and “cap and trade.” If this is so important, why do Delegate Shannon’s television ads stress Internet predators?

Instead, he wants to sue employers into closing down, such as the MeadWestvaco plant in Creigh Deeds’ own senate district. Read here what company Vice President Mark George wrote in an op-ed about the affect “cap and trade” would have on its Alleghany factory. It’s liberal strategy to redefine terms (marriage comes to mind), but instead of coming down the middle, Delegate Shannon comes right down Leftist Lane. 

Not exactly. But this week Democrat gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds has thrown his fourth Hail Mary by my count. First, his lackluster campaign — a candidate whose idea of a solution to any problem is “to work together with the General Assembly” and who ducks hot issues such as cap-and-trade, card check, FOCA and nationalized health care, richly deserves the “lackluster” moniker — ran the abortion play. Sacked! Then came the “Bob McDonnell is George Bush” play. Sacked! Of course, there’s the thesis play, as complicated as Al Groh’s three-quarterback-spread-offense and not nearly as effective, especially since Deeds voted for the Marriage Amendment twice and has displayed his own views against (his words) “special rights” for homosexuals.

Now, Deeds is running radio ads claiming that McDonnell is a tax increaser, despite the fact that Deeds has voted for almost any bill that would have raised any tax over the last eight years, including the 2004 record $1.4 billion tax increase. He also backed each one of the Tim Kaine/Dick Saslaw tax increase proposals, including a $1.015 billion increase that would have raised gas taxes ever year for five years when gas was near $3.00 a gallon (SB 713/2008).It would have cost Virginia families as much as $624 more per year in year five. 

All hypocrisy aside, if McDonnell is a Bush clone and Bush cut taxes (which ruined the economy, according to Deeds) where is Deeds’ logic? According to Deeds, tax increases are good! That’s why he’s proposing another one if elected! Besides, if Deeds wants to throw federal issues into the race, shouldn’t he answer to the above policies his party is pushing in Washington (including cap-and-trade which would shut down the largest employer in his senate district)?

Seems to me that Senator Deeds, instead of throwing Hail Mary’s, should be praying them instead.

In the 1980s, when Virginia was an electoral lock for Republican presidential candidates, and when the GOP won the presidency three successive terms, Virginia Republicans weren’t nearly as successful. In fact, they lost three gubernatorial elections on the trot.

One rhetorical tactic the GOP tried during those campaigns was to tie the Democrat to the rampant liberalism personified by big spenders, culture relativists, moral equivalency types and foreign policy weaklings such as Tip O’Neil, Patsy Schroder, Teddy Kennedy, Jim Wright, Tom Harkin and the whole motley crew.

The Dems here inevitably replied that “Virginia Democrats are different” and Chuck Robb, Gerry Baliles and Doug Wilder certainly lent that persona, if not actual substance, and the public seemed happy enough with them. All of which has come full reverse cycle in this year’s campaign. That is to say, Democrat gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds won’t say where he stands on what the “D.C. Democrats” are doing. Those are national issues he says, although a governor must be prepared to defend against federal the encroachment that inhibits his state’s right of self government and to be a laboratory of innovation.

But Senator Deeds won’t even say whether he supports or opposes “cap and trade” which would close the largest employer in his senate district! He won’t comment, either, on socialized medicine, card check,  government control of the Internet and radio, or mandated abortion on demand, all of which are, or have been, put forth by the Obama administration and its uber-liberal allies in Congress.

But waaaaaaaaaaaaaaait just one minute!

He will comment on former President George W. Bush. That’s right, Senator Deeds has new radio and television ads attacking the former president. So, who’s he running against? Oh, and by the way, where’s the mention of Governor Tim Kaine in those ads? Until a few months ago — when the governor’s popularity began to plunge — Senator Deeds was fond of saying that he would continue the Kaine model. (Being Democrat National Committee chairman kinda debunks the whole “bi-partisan” thing.)

So, apparently, not even state issues are on the Deeds itinerary. Let’s see: Senator Deeds won’t talk about the last four years in Virginia and he won’t talk about the last eight months in Washington. Guess that “Hope and Change” ain’t working to well for him, either.

Last week we posted a sampling of the feedback Congressional supporters of the socialized medicine legislation experienced at home in their districts and states. Here’s three more, all from a town hall meeting in St. Louis, hosted by the staff of one of the top lightweights in Washington, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri).

In the first one, McCaskill gets a civics 101 lesson, courtesy of one of America’s truely best and brightest. It’s something, clearly, she never learned:

Then, a to-the-point, commonsense question about true equality, a virtue for which liberals so eloquently exclaim that they, and they alone, uphold:

Finally, this meeting was supposed to be an equal representation of pro- and anti- “health care reform” constituents. We report. You decide.

Liberal politicians rarely see the light, but a motivated grassroots certainly can make them feel the heat! We can do the same here in Virginia.

Give U.S. Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.) some credit. He is a flaming liberal, but he speaks what he truly believes. At least now that he and his like-minded left-wing ideologue colleagues have complete power in Washington.

Today at the National Press Club, he actually said this (see rushlimbaugh.com):

I’ve had people come to us and complain, “Well, if you do that, I can’t make any money.” The answer is that’s not my job. We’re not here to help you make money. We are here to help have a system in which you will make money as an incident of your providing funds to those who will use it productively.

Combine that with President Obama’s remark at his news conference last week that insurance companies are “too profitable,” and one wonders by what right these people have to get inflamed when they and their policies are called socialist.

As reported in today’s Washington Examiner by David Freddoso (click here), U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), the Senate Majority Whip, last week told fellow Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) during a committee mark-up session that Washington, D.C.’s abortion rate is high because its citizens “are black.”

Here’s the exchange, as reported by Freddoso, starting with a comment by Brownback about his attempt to make Democrats live up to former President Bill Clinton’s (cynical) abortion mantra of “safe, legal and rare:” 

“Forty-one percent of pregnancies — that’s not rare,”  (Brownback) said. “We do not need to have more abortions in the District of Columbia.”

Durbin’s reply to this point —and Brownback’s interruption of him — follows below.

Durbin: In terms of safe, legal and rare, to the Senator from Kansas, I will tell you two things. First, it is a fact that a disproportionately large number of African Americans seek abortion in America, not just in the District of Columbia, but all across the nation.

Brownback: 41 percent?

Durbin: No, but it’s also a fact that a disproportionately large number of African Americans live in the District of Columbia.

Brownback: 41 percent?

Durbin: I’m telling you, look at the numbers.

Brownback: I’m telling — I’m just asking you, aren’t there enough [abortions] here?

Durbin: Look at the numbers, and you will find this to be true.

Brownback: This — this is not high enough?

Read the whole article (linked above) to get Senator Durbin’s full unsavory patronization of D.C.’s black community, a community liberals supposedly care so much about. Or, click to hear the senators go after each other yourself (the audio also is on the article’s Web page).

Tomorrow at High Noon, the Tea Party movement in Virginia continues into another phase as people from all walks of life and all political persuasions will gather at the offices of Virginia’s two U.S. senators to let them know socialized medicine, nationalized health care or whatever one wants to call it, is not acceptable. The monstrosity under consideration in Washington will destroy the world’s greatest health care system through diminished quality, rationed services, exploding government debt, government bureaucrats picking who gets treated for what and when, and an increase in abortion services.

It is nothing less than a complete government takeover of health care, which accounts for one-sixth of the U.S. economy. Since this is July, the month when the revolutionary ideals of American freedom from oppressive government were so eloquently and dramatically expressed, it is an appropriate a time to rekindle those ideals and let our senators know in very adamant terms that we want to remain true to our Founders’ vision.

We won’t be alone in Virginia. Americans in every state will visit senators’  district offices in a coordinated effort to demand that they protect our health care  freedoms to choose our doctors and to keep the government out of our health decisions.

If you are not able to make it, please take the time to call, e-mail or fax Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner so your voice is still heard. You may mail them by simply addressing envelopes with their names and the following: United States Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510; or you may call the capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for their offices. To e-mail the senators, click on their names below. Also see below for district office locations and contact information.

Senator Jim Webb’s District Offices (click to e-mail him)

Southside
308 Craghead Street
Suite 102A
Danville, VA 24541
Phone: 434-792-0976
Fax: 434-972-0960

Hampton Roads
222 Central Park Ave.
Suite 120
Virginia Beach, VA 23462
Phone: 757-518-1674
Fax: 757-518-1679

Northern Virginia
1501 Lee Highway
Suite 130
Arlington, VA 22209
Phone:703-807-0581
Fax:703-807-5198

Southwest
756 Park Avenue, N.W.
Norton, VA 24273
Mail to: 756 Park Avenue, N.W.
P.O. Box 1300
Norton, VA 24273
Phone: 276-679-4925
Fax: 276-679-4929

Central Virginia
507 East Franklin Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Phone: 804-771-2221
Fax: 804-771-8313

Roanoke Valley
3140 Chaparral Drive
Building C, Suite 101
Roanoke, VA 24018
Phone: 540-772-4236
Fax: 540-772-6870

Senator Mark Warner’s District Offices (click to e-mail him)

Southwest 
180 West Main Street
Abingdon, VA 24210
Phone Number: 276-628-8158
Fax Number: 276-628-1036

Hampton Roads
101 W. Main Street
Suite 4900
Norfolk, VA 23510
Phone Number: 757-441-3079
Fax Number: 757-441-6250

Central Virginia
5309 Commonwealth Centre Parkway
Suite 401
Midlothian, VA 23112
Phone Number: 804-739-0247
Fax Number: 804-739-3478

Roanoke Valley
129B Salem Avenue, SW
Roanoke, VA 24011
Phone Number: 540-857-2676
Fax Number: 540-857-2800