Creigh Deeds: Loser-in-Chief
By Brian Kirwin | Monday, August 30th, 2010 | PolicyGovernor Bob McDonnell beat Creigh Deeds so badly, most Virginians would understand if Deeds quit the Senate altogether to sell popcorn at your local movie theater.
Instead, Deeds writes Op-Eds telling McDonnell he needs to adopt Creigh Deeds’ tax increase idea, even though Virginia overwhelmingly rejected both Deeds and his liberal ideas.
“The campaign is over. Now is the time to be bold.”
That’s Deeds-talk for “Don’t keep campaign promises. Lie to them during the campaign, and then break your promises once you’re elected.”
Creigh, that’s why you ain’t Guv, guy!
Even as a landslide-level-losing candidate, Deeds can’t bring himself to say “tax increase.” You won’t find the word “tax” in his whole smarmy article.
What you’ll find is this:
“We need to come up with a long-term, sustainable source of new revenue”
Let’s see, Creigh. How do you suppose we do that? Where is this revenue going to come from? The sky?
Deeds advises McDonnell to call a special session, saying he will find “allies in unexpected places.” Like Vivian Paige?
Yeah, like the Democrats who want Republicans knocking each other off just in time for the 2011 elections? Sorry, kids. Not biting.
If Democrats really wanted to solve transportation, they would’ve cared enough to include it in the largest tax increase in Virginia history that Mark Warner gave us. Heck, they could correct their mistake and take that Warner tax increase and dedicate it to transportation right now.
That is, if they cared about transportation.
Fact is, they don’t. They just care about taxes.
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The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
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23 Responses to "Creigh Deeds: Loser-in-Chief"
Typical BR response; attack any effort to do what is right for Virginia.
Sure, McDonnell won with glitz, promises, and PR. Problem is, reality intervened. His 26 point plan for transportation lies in tatters at his feet.
Perhaps BK should broaden his hearing and view from the party hacks herein; editorial pages and citizen groups around the Commonwealth are starting to see the effects of Grover Norquist inspired tax cuts at any cost.
Third world conditions in transportation, education, and courts and justice were not part of the promise.
Mike, people who actually live in the Third World would laugh at your hyperbole.
Brian, stop acting as if you were a journalist. You really do need to travel more.
Mike is like the “Energizer Progressive Bunny”… he keeps on delivering so we can keep laughing!
Cheers, Mike!
Yes, you are laughing and could care less about the degradation of our transportation system. But the electorate statewide seems to have noticed, not that you would have taken note. I remember a time not so long ago that you could get in your car and go somewhere without delay; who knew those were the best of days. Keep laughing; with your guys in charge, you won’t see those days again.
Who the heck would want to be a journalist?
Mike, yeah I remember those days too when we were free to sit in lines at the toll booths at the HRBT and lines for tolls on I-264. Now we say “wheeeee!” when we drive over the hump where the I-264 toll booths used to be and only sit in lines for breakdowns at or in the tunnels waiting for pilgrims who are wondering if the tunnel is going to spontaneously flood while they are driving through at 5 mph.
But your prayers will be answered when we lose a couple of Carriers and thousands of people at JFCOM who won’t be getting in your way, and you will be able to “go somewhere without delay” like that time “not long ago” you remember so well. In the mean time, you are a great sport for providing us so much fodder for critical analysis and “one liners”. I’m finding that I don’t have to visit as many liberal blogs anymore to find their talking points as I can get most everything I need here from you.
Cheers and thanks Mike!
You’re most welcome. Would you like a cup of delusion as well?
Seriously Mike, Brian’s journalistic qualifications aside, you chide him for being consistently anti-tax to the point of being routine and predictable.
But when have you ever said anything substantive other than “BD Bad, Taxes Good?”
That said, if Deeds had offered a ~real~ transportation plan a year and a half ago, then maybe…no, probably not.
Well I’ll take a bullet for this… I don’t agree with Senator Deeds on raising taxes but the man is a damn good friend to the Autism community. It was his efforts who got the Governor to recognize the value of the Virginia based charity, Virginia Autism Project in a 5k donation to our group. I think sometimes we as the opposition should stop at just being wrong and not take it further. Yes, he’s wrong on taxes but he right on ending Autism Insurance Discrimination in Virginia and for that I’m proud to call him a friend.
BK, I know you hate the idea of a gas tax, and I’m definitely not going to be the one to sidle up to MB’s hyperbole (funny that’s exactly the word I thought of before you wrote it)…
What I found striking was the contrast of the two editorials side-by-side – Deeds the would-be guvnah doing his best to point out all of McDonnell’s shortfalls in 8 months in office, and then encouraging him that he’ll find “allies in unexpected places” if he just embraces Dem virtues. Versus former candidate Henry Light who puts forth more than one policy approach which would mean some real money for transportation. Judging just by these two editorials alone, the Dems would have been better with Light at the top of the ticket last year.
But really, what’s so bad about a 15-cents-per-gallon gas tax hike earmarked specifically for transportation? 12k miles per year is an acceptable average, but let’s say mom and pop log 30k miles in 2 cars. At 20 mpg they’re buying 1,500 gallons per year. So a 15 cent hike would mean $225 per year. I would write a check right now for $225 if it meant better roads. I agree with Light that the difference would probably go unnoticed. Or, people could actually change their habits – carpool – and save some dollars.
Seriously, what’s wrong with that?
Brad, “15-cents-per-gallon gas tax hike earmarked specifically for transportation” like the “lottery” was “earmarked specifically” for education? “earmarked specifically” as far as the “lottery” is concerned has become a money laundering scheme for lawmakers where they add lottery profits to education, but then subtract the same amount of money from education and spend it elsewhere on pet projects to win votes and influence elections. An additional gasoline tax, or for that matter any new or increased tax would be no different.
Although your charity is noble and your trust in our lawmakers may be absolute, most of those rascals in the legislature don’t have the noble or trustworthy genetic makeup that would allow them to ever maintain a legislative “firewall” around any pot of new tax money.
My trust in lawmakers is anything but absolute.
I know well and I’m sick and tired of the games government plays. Social Security, the lottery windfall to pork-barrel politics, earmarks which aren’t really “earmarks”, City employees in Norfolk getting paid for 12 years without even showing up for a day of work. “Have you seen Janice?” “No, but I heard she was in yesterday.” “Maybe we should mail her last seven paychecks to her?”
I’m hesitant to send any more of my dollars to Richmond or to Washington, because I’m pretty confident that I’ll probably get about 12 cents of services for every dollar I send if I’m lucky. Waste, fraud, and abuse. Waste, fraud, and abuse. Say it with me.
But I also cringe at the demagoguery of something like a gas tax (“those evil D’s want to raise your gasoline tax by 25%!!!”), even from us conservatives, when in reality we’re talking about 100 or 200 bucks per year for an average family. Why can’t we have an honest conversation, without the hyperbole of Mike Barrett and without the R’s pulling out one example of a guy whose income would be cut in half by a toll on the HRBT?
And cut the waste, fraud, and abuse.
Brad, don’t think for a second that the left’s screaming for a tax increase, gas or otherwise, has anything to do with transportation.
It doesn’t. It’s about two things. Raising taxes, which they always want to do rather than reprioritize taxes are already paid, and ousting Republicans.
Some Republican Delegates supported raising gas taxes. Guess what they are now? Ex-delegates and the seats became Democrat.
Polls are against raising even the gas tax, so any Republican the left can tempt to doing so is easy pickin’s when the voters get their say.
If transportation was a crucial to the left as they say it is, do you think Mark Warner would’ve left it so high and dry when he raised taxes for everything else?
Brian Kirwin,
Doesn’t it make sense that those who use the roads should pay for them? You want to re-prioritize taxes already paid to pay for transportation? My gosh, the trucking industry will love it because instead of being expected to pay their way, you’re proposing they get off for free!
I am a member of the trucking industry. Most of us truckers realize we can’t get something for nothing, we must pay our fair share. VDOT (Virginia Dept Of Transportion) has proven to be a good steward of the moneys we pay. We’ll be the first to carp when the money is wasted.
Why is it Republicans insist the best way forward is toll roads when toll roads come with built in inefficiencies? When you build a toll road, you have to pay the costs of collecting the tolls before that which is left goes towards paying down the debt.
The trucking industry pays taxes through the nose, and we want to see the money we pay spent wisely. VDOT needs increased revenue and an increased fuel tax is the way to go not tollroads.
You can either trust the voices of experience (the trucking industry) or trust Brian Kirwin who rarely gets outside our commonwealth’s border.
With an increase in the fuel tax Virginia will get more bang for the buck. Virginia has obvious needs, and these needs are not going to be met without revenue. Trust the trucking industry or trust Brian Kirwin. Who has the experience?
“without the R’s pulling out one example of a guy whose income would be cut in half by a toll on the HRBT?”
I am not trying to be political on this, but people really are hurting for money. I see it every day when I work.
I think that I would believe LittleDavid when he says “With an increase in the fuel tax Virginia will get more bang for the buck. Virginia has obvious needs, and these needs are not going to be met without revenue.”
Perhaps a compromise of some sort. What about a one cent increase in gas tax to start next April. Then when the economy starts to improve, add another penny or 2 to the tax.
Now the kids always seem to have the money to pay for their cell phones to text and send pictures. Maybe a one cent charge on every text message and picture sent to be used for transportation needs.
LittleDavid, you raise taxes, you lose re-election.
What about that never gets through the skulls of you and Mike?
“trust Brian Kirwin who rarely gets outside our commonwealth’s border.”
My problem with you is not whether you get outside our Commonwealth’s border. My problem is that invariably you come back.
OK, let’s not raise taxes on the taxpayers and continue to try and give the taxpayers everything they demand. How about explaining to taxpayers that if they want something they have to be willing to pay for it?
I’m sorry if you have a problem with me living in Virginia. But since I do live in Virginia my vote counts just as much as yours.
Yes, one thing I give Kirwin credit for is consistency; he cares not one wit about governance, only about getting elected. Frankly, if the Commonwealth were to collapse under the weight of depreciation and lack of maintenance, he could care less if his man won by promising to cut taxes. If bridges collapsed, tunnels flooded, school roofs leaked, his grandmother got kicked out of a medicaid bed, too bad, my guy won’t raise taxes. End of story.
I think Creigh Deeds would beg to differ.
Mike, both my grandmothers are dead. Thanks for bringing them into your political argument.
Gosh, I try to give you a compliment and you take offense. You are a master tactician at getting candidates elected. The fact that your are totally unencumbered with any concern whatsoever about the candidates program, the issues, or the result is apparently what makes you so successful. Frankly, a hired gun; I thought you took great pride in that role. You haven’t gone soft, have you?
So what if McDonnell won. VA historically will literally be opposite a major election anyhow, so he was always the underdog and strong odds were he would lose because he was a Democrat. Deeds was the better candidate and that is now coming to fuition. He is a honest hardworking experienced politician in the game for all the right reasons. McDonnell is spending his time taking credit for a surplus he did not create, making it harder for a woman in a time sensitive situation who needs an abortion to have one by reducing the ability to find a place to do so that Robb had worked hard to fix all in the name of making it safer! This is him using his power of office to enact his ideology and interfere through the backdoor (this scares me because what else will he backdoor to get his way) and totally clueless about changing liquor sales from state to private- which will lose jobs for many state workers when we already have a surplus— thanks to Obama relief— I was traveling in other states this summer and they have used the money and made great and needed improvements and increased jobs and money flow in their economies—the state losing revenue and jobs from the loss of liquor sales– brilliant idea McDonnell. Oh and fix the roads already!! We had 3 or more big blizzards and it is now almost a year later and the roads are still a mess and 95 is horrible. Potholes so deep I thought I saw the devil pop up and grin. That is what the money is for, not hoarding it just so that Obama does not look good. I hope Deeds runs again. His timing was wrong and his personal stuff I am sure was hard on him. His ideas and idealogies were more sound and more for the people and not line his pockets like McDonnell. McDonnell is an obvious narcissist with an agenda. He is like the guy you hate at work who takes your ideas and calls it his own, or is good at schmoozing to get a big raise but has nothing to back deserving it. Those who voted him in haven’t figured that out yet. They will in time. When is good character to knock someone down, especially someone who is good at public service just because he or she lost an election? Speaks volumes of one’s character to do so.
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