It would be funny if it wasn’t so frequent, but a big backhand to Tom Holden of the Pilot.

Somehow, key facts were missing in his story about the recent CNU Poll on transportation.

The things not reported are right in the first paragraph of CNU’s press release about the poll. So, either they were purposefully left out, or Holden didn’t even read the poll he reported on.

Holden dutifully reported how popular some transportation projects are, and how unpopular regional funding methods are, but look at what he kept from you.

This morning, a letter was released from every Republican member of Congress from Virginia, every Republican District Chair in Virginia, the entire General Assembly GOP leadership team, the leadership of the State Central Committee, and a host of other prominent and involved Republican leaders voicing their strong support of Bob McDonnell for Governor, and Bill Bolling for Lieutenant Governor in 2009.

Bearing Drift is please to be joined by Attorney General McDonnell to discuss this letter and what it means for party unity and the campaign ahead in this exclusive podcast.

 

 AG Bob McDonnell - Apr. 30, 2008 [9:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1742)

Bobby Jindal takes the Leno stage by storm (and in the process, makes Helen Hunt more uncomfortable than she’s been since her last close-up with Paul Reiser).

Jindal ought to be the template for any GOP gubernatorial candidate. Or any GOP candidate, period. To find out why, take a look:

From The Hill, “Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has requested nearly $2.3 billion in federal earmarks for 2009, almost three times the largest amount received by a single senator this year.” In contrast, Congressman Eric Cantor (Va-7) is one of a few House Republicans seriously asking his fellow legislators to give up earmarks.

Who’s listening to what here? Cantor seems to be listening to his constituents and a lot of other Americans who think that spending in Washington has gone crazy. Clinton may be listening to the sound of someone else getting the Democratic nomination for President, which would mean she would remain the same old pork-requesting Senator from New York that she is now.

Photo details: photo of Eric Cantor from April 28, 2008. Canon EOS5D, 200mm, 1/80 at f/2.8, ISO 3200.

The NV Daily’s Garren Shipley recounts an amusing exchange between himself and Gov. Kaine’s press secretary over the small matter of raising the gas tax. Much weaving and bobbing ensues:

I asked Hickey twice whether the governor would sign a bill that came out of June’s likely special session that included a gas tax hike. I got no answer either time. Hickey also declined the offer of a story clarifying Kaine’s position on the gas tax once and for all.

So in conclusion, Kaine didn’t specifically say he supports a gas tax hike, but he certainly aimed his remarks in that direction. As usual, there’s a Cheap Seat with Gov. Kaine’s name on it if he or his office decide they want to clarify his position on the gas tax.

We’ll even buy the popcorn.

Is something societally wrong?

An Arkansas special education teacher Donna Lou Sanders faces rape and abuse charges for having sex parties with students in a motel.

Tampa middle school teacher Stephanie Ragusa was arrested three times in six weeks for having sex with students.

If these were Catholic priests,…well, you get the idea.

Meanwhile, the callgirl of “Client #9″ Eliot Spitzer is suing Girls Gone Wild for 10 million dollars for exploiting her. Really! She’s unhappy that she was exploited?

Something’s seriously wrong.

Big storms came through Virginia today. WTVR’s website has a running blog about it. I hope our readers are all okay.

Eric Cantor’s Advisory Council meeting was this evening. Former Del. Jack Reid was there, and said that he was in a restaurant in the south side of Richmond today (Colonial Heights, I think?) when the storm came through. When he came out of the restaurant, it seemed very dark, he said, and there were cars that had been neatly parked between the white lines in the parking lot, now turned around sideways.

At Saturday’s Virginia Conservative Leadership Conference on Saturday, a straw poll was taken during the banquet. The room was full of conservative activists, pro-life folks, home-schoolers, etc. For Senate, here are the results (roughly 200 people voting):

Jim Gilmore: 57%
Bob Marshall: 40%

Marshall was there that day and he should have owned the room. If he couldn’t win in that room, it’s not looking good for him for the convention. Conservatives can and will support Jim Gilmore for Senate.

Two more interesting results:

1. For President, 91% voted for McCain. So much for the idea that conservatives will refuse en masse to vote for him.
2. For Attorney General:
   Cuccinelli: 85%
   Brownlee: 9%
   Harris: 6%
3. Most predictable result: for Gov., Lt. Gov., McDonnell and Bolling at 99%+.

Photo is of Jim Gilmore at a panel on homeland security, before the poll was taken at dinner. Homeland security is a serious topic, but Gilmore approaches it with the belief that most people will respond well in a crisis, if they are well-prepared. You cannot overemphasize how important planning and preparation are, both for governments and for individual citizens.
Here is a sample of Gilmore’s work on National Security.

Photo details: Canon EOS 5D, 200mm, ISO 800, 1/100 at f/3.5.

Meet the Press talked it up over the weekend, as did several Virginia news outlets. After meeting with representatives from the Obama and Clinton camps weeks ago (and talking heavily about it in the press to show “unity”), the DNC launched a fierce attack ad against Republican nominee Senator John McCain.

The problem? Co-ordinated efforts in excess of $5,000 are illegal. Not just a little illegal either… this is the sort of stuff that shuffles front offices.

Pretty good day for U.S. Rep. Thelma Drake (R-VA02). She launched her new web site and, in unrelated news, was endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

It should come as no surprise to any of us who have followed politics for a number of years that Attorney General Bob McDonnell from the time he was a delegate has been a strong proponent of merit-based judicial selection.

After learning this weekend that Sen. Yvonne Miller has hijacked the judicial appointment process in Norfolk and Virginia Beach and Sen. Creigh Deeds accepted campaign money from an appointee’s law firm (where she is one of two partners) before he strongly advocated for her selection, we asked Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, the presiding officer of the Senate, his thoughts on how these Senators were behaving.

Thanks to Brian Kirwin, Bearing Drift gets nearly 60% of its search hits from the term “school sex” based on his last few posts on problems in the Virginia Beach Public School System and at Norfolk Academy; Kirwin also posted on Reagan’s GOP about the connection between being a cheerleader and becoming president…we also might get, eventually, a tidbit of information regarding his own storied past…if we’re lucky.

Without Kirwin, BD would be so boring. Now if we can just “the Wheel” to start posting again…

Keep the American people in the dark about military operations — especially if the Israeli’s ask us. Bomb Syrian nuclear facilities — especially if it is the Israeli’s who do so, after all, it is “their neighborhood.” And, “as to WMD in Iraq, everyone knows Saddam had them and used them, the only questions are when he got rid of them, where he sent them, and why exactly he did so.”

Seems like a post you’d read here on Bearing Drift or another conservative web site, right? Sure. But you’d be wrong.

It’s the new and improved Raising Kaine! Someone must have hijacked Lowell Feld’s laptop. But, I must say, I like the way he’s thinking!

Laura Dascher of Bath County is a partner in the Covington law firm of Pasco and Dascher PLC. The firm gave $2500 to the Future Deeds Campaign in Dec. 2007.

That, in and of itself, is fine. But it’s not the whole story.