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Kaine makes it tougher to recall legislators

Has our Governor lost his mind?

Gloucester citizens circulated petitions to recall members of their Board of Supervisors, and a judge responded by slapping the citizens with $80,000 of court costs for exercising their first amendment freedoms “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Judges in my lifetime are impossible. They read things into the Constitution that were never there, but ignore things that are written in plain English.

Tamara Dietrich of the Daily Press [1] wrote an excellent column here, and she makes a great point.

Kaine omitted the part of the bill [2]that protected anyone who signed or circulated the petition from “any costs associated with removal proceedings conducted pursuant to the petition, including attorney fees incurred by any other party or court cost.”

He omitted the point of the bill, one that passed both the House and the Senate unanimously.

Kaine actually added procedures where citizens could be nailed with giant legal bills, including paying for those they tried to boot from office.

All that’s needed is malicious intent, says Kaine. Ask any elected official if they think a petition kicking them out of office isn’t malicious.

Bill Clinton was impeached, and you couldn’t turn on the tv without someone screaming about how malicious the intent of the impeachment was.

Democrats and Republicans alike should stand up Wednesday during the veto session and ask the guy who still is our Governor what the hell he is thinking.