It’s raining good copy, and dancing in the puddles like an ersatz Gene Kelly is the RTD’s Jeff Schapiro.
Yesterday, he sharpened his moves, and his handy stiletto, on a bill that, in Jeff’s world, would give state legislators a pay raise. I did some checking around to see if there was some substance to Jeff’s argument that the bill, patroned by Del. Bobby Orrock, is just another example of legislators feathering their own nests. No, it’s not. Rather, and as Jeff points out, the bill is aimed at treating legislators like the rest of the state’s workforce:
General Assembly compensation would be linked to that of state employees, who haven’t had a raise since 2007: When bureaucrats are paid more, so would legislators. When civil-service workers contribute more to their pensions; ditto, lawmakers. If health insurance is cut for the government rank-and-file; so, too, for the General Assembly.
And as Jeff also notes, legislative pay hasn’t risen in Virginia since 1988. But why let any of this get in the way of the real target — Republicans legislators and Gov. Bob McDonnell?
This column, nasty as it is, looks like a mash note compared to Jeff’s video entry in today’s digital edition of the RTD.
Here Jeff vents his spleen and bile ducts in an effort to take the Governor down several pegs over the recent ultrasound fracas. But he goes much further, dragging slavery and “Jew counting” into the mix to show “a pattern” in McDonnell’s gubernatorial conduct.
It must have taken whatever reservoirs of strength Jeff had left to avoid invoking Godwin’s law. But there’s always his Sunday column for that.
And really, the Governor shouldn’t take Jeff’s drive-by all that badly (if he takes notice of it at all). It shows Mr. McDonnell has been officially enshrined in Jeff’s pantheon of horribles — which is a kind way of saying that Mr. McDonnell now lives, rent free, in Jeff’s head.
But it’s a rather cramped space, and some of his predecessors — Doug Wilder, George Allen and Jim Gilmore — have already claimed the best seats. Milling around in the back, McDonnell will also spot those other brutes, Bill “the Hanover Hun” Bolling and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. They have gotten off rather lightly of late, but Jeff will fix that, too, as their gubernatorial mash-up draws closer.
He may even break out the heirloom knife set and Jason mask for them.
