The editorial page gymnastics at the Roanoke Times reach Nadia Comeneci levels, as the paper finds its way to endorsing both Republican Sen. Steve Newman (because, despite his potential “leader[ship] in passing legislation that furthers an extreme conservative social agenda” he also favors rail) and one-time Republican, and now expensive Democratic boy-toy, Brandon Bell. The Bell endorsement is quite amusing. Not only is he branded the pragmatic moderate who can work across the aisle, but he’s eager to wring more blood from turnips (also known as raising taxes).
This is so much hand waving. The RT gives the real reason for Bell’s run against Sen. Ralph Smith, the man who unseated him back in 2007, in the introduction to their piece:
Redistricting squeezed Ralph Smith out of his Virginia Senate district. He could have stayed in his Botetourt County home and challenged his colleague Sen. Steve Newman in a primary — one he’d likely have lost. Smith instead chose to move to Roanoke County and claim the 19thSenate District. This touched a nerve in Brandon Bell, the Republican incumbent who lost his party’s nomination to Smith by a slim margin in a 2007 primary.
While one hesitates to ponder which of Bell’s sensitive nerves was touched by Smith’s actions (the splanchnic group leaps immediately to mind), a likely candidate is the one which leads directly to the reptilian part of the brain dedicated to vengeance.
Under a microscope, this particular batch of neurons bears an uncanny resemblance to Russ Potts, particularly in the brains of politicians who have suffered perceived slights, bruised egos and a traumatic separation from attention.
That the RT can contort itself into such a shape that it views such base motives as pragmatic, let alone worthy of endorsement, makes one wonder whether the paper’s own splanchnic nerves have been touched a bit too much.
