Did Bolling play it safe?
By JR Hoeft | Friday, March 7th, 2008 | Catch-AllLast week, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling’s vote on denying planned parenthood state funding and his ruling from the chair that the use of lottery money in the General Fund required a 4/5 vote gave him an excellent opportunity to be a strong advocate this week on the state budget, judges, transportation, and the triggerman rule.
However, instead of being an advocate, Bolling seems to have gone underground: it appears that the state budget is going to be a train wreck and House Republicans have been left alone to carry the water, judges are having a damned time getting through the House and Senate and will likely go to Kaine for temporary recess appointments, transportation will require a special session in April, and Sen. Obenshain was left alone to advocate to the governor the merits of his bill.
On all these issues, there were no statements from the lieutenant governor to sway or influence public opinion in any direction. Generally, press releases are flying out the LG’s office, but this week, one in which the LG clearly could have seized on the opportunity to take strong positions on important issues, very little was said.
To a layman (i.e. – me), it would appear that the lieutenant governor was content with his big wins last week without taking any risks this week.
Was this, politically, a smart move or should he have seized on the moment to lead the party…whatever direction (compromise or conflict with Democrats)? Or, are my observations inaccurate?
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Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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7 Responses to "Did Bolling play it safe?"
Timing is everything. I didn’t hear too much out of the AG or anyone other than Sen. Obenshain.
I’m sure there’ll be a lot more activity soon from all the players.
True…but I would not have expected much from the AG this week after still reeling from being ruled unconstitutional on the biggest legal issue of his term.
From the LG, however, I’m not convinced he didn’t have a great opportunity to lead this week. This might have been his moment.
I think there is plenty going on behind the scenes with both all the players. Clearly last week was far and away the biggest of Bollings career. To a certain extent, he can work behind the scenes with the budget battle while McDonnell has to rebuild his credibility from scratch with those conservatives in the GA who he talked in to supporting the now unconstitutional bill. Regardless of “fairness”, Bill Bolling may now be the “go to” conservative in Richmond with historic losses by both Speaker Howell and Bob McDonnell.
Lt. Gov. Bolling was able to stop a couple of bad bills, but he also needs to do positive things. If we are going to have a special session on transportation, he is going to have to step forward with some proposals.
Heck no, Freddie.
How many times will Republicans fall for that. Democrats say “Hey Republicans! Jump out of the trench and lead the charge.”
And they’re the first ones to attack us once we do.
Democrats have the Governorship and the Senate. Let them be the tax raisers if they want to be.
Truth is that we really don’t know what Bolling is doing in private discussions with Republican budget conferees and legislators regarding the budget or judges. These are very sensitive discussions at this point, and while private conversations and encouragement can be helpful, a public tirade could be very harmful. I am confident the LG is actively involved in such behind the scenes discussions on both issues.
Freddie is right.
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