Moran called-out by RTD on transportation

By J.R. | March 24, 2008
Filed Under Attorney General, Democrats |

After hearing Democratic candidate for governor Del. Brian Moran speak this session, you would think that the Virginia House minority leader had always been against abusive driver fees and regional authorities. But, in fact, he voted for the bill and even publicly advocated on its behalf.

Check this out from Blogs United last summer:

At minute 1:02, Moran says that the governor (Kaine) “made appropriate, substantial amendments” to the transportation bill that Democrats could support, which is why they voted for it in April 2007. The bill passed with the governor’s amendments 85-15 in the House — with much of the Democratic leadership, including Moran, voting for the bill!

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch yesterday:

When the House of Delegates passed a transportation bill that had a better chance of passing constitutional muster, the chamber split 64-34. The vote on the legislation that flunked the Supreme Court’s test split 85-15. The difference came primarily from Democratic legislators who opposed the plan when it was associated with the GOP but supported it when Kaine signaled his willingness to sign an amended bill.

RTD went onto call-out Moran and others on this blatant hypocrisy of publicly bashing the bill, blaming folks like Attorney General McDonnell for the consequences, when he himself voted for it and even took some credit for it!

From Moran’s web site:

“Most significantly, Governor Kaine has developed regional plans in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads that local governments say are workable and will generate new funds for our transportation infrastructure.

“While this plan is not perfect, it is the best way this year to provide relief to Virginians sitting in traffic without robbing our schools, our colleges, and our law enforcement community to pay for roads. I was proud to be a part of the team that continues to provide results-oriented governance for our Commonwealth.”

This sort of tactic of publicly trying to shift blame onto the shoulders of one person when the governor amended it, both houses voted for it, and there was very little opposition to it is pretty unseemly and won’t be ignored.

Moran is just as much to blame for a bad transportation bill as anyone else. But instead of taking his due arrows like everyone else, we see that Moran’s “politically expedient” too.

Character matters — and it certainly matters in 2009.