Bolling’s opportunity

By J.R. Hoeft

Last week, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling was vindicated by the Division of Legislative Services, upholding his ruling on lottery funding, his comments here on Bearing Drift Friday regarding HB 3202 clearly showed that he knew that the bill was unconstitutional at the time it was created, and, perhaps most importantly, he broke the tie on the Planned Parenthood amendment. He ended up, as Mason Conservative said, having a good week.

However, this week, he can clearly become the standard-bearer for the conservative movement in Virginia.

Bolling has two choices — he can either act as a broker and facilitate compromise: getting judges appointed, a budget passed, and transportation resolved. OR, he can oppose new regional taxes on transportation — particularly those that are of a regional nature, ensure that conservative judges are appointed, and that the House version of the budget wins the day.

As the “anti” guy, he clearly sets himself apart from Attorney General McDonnell. McDonnell, by being the “honest broker” has rested his entire 2009 campaign on doing good legal work for the state. But, in the highest visibility case of his term, his position was the unconstitutional one. Clearly, this does not help his case for becoming governor in 2009.

By being the “anti” guy, Bolling also hears the rumblings within the conservative ranks of the GOP — those same ranks that opposed Chichester, Potts, Williams, and Hangar. He quickly becomes their advocate for smaller and limited government, which he always has been, just not as visibly.

However, if he truly can become the broker, he’ll be able to go into next year saying that he’s an executive who can “get things done” for the Commonwealth. But will that position differentiate him from McDonnell and be enough to get him the nomination?

Only time will tell — and that time is this week.