The Massachusetts teacher of the year said no, thank you, to Secretary of Education Rod Paige. Jeff Ryan said he didn’t go to an event in Washington to accept the award because Paige called the national teacher’s union a “terrorist organization.” Ryan also said he boycotted the event to protest the No Child Left Behind Act, calling it a “stealth tactic by the Bush administration to undermine pubic schools.”

Chicken and Egg?
The Virginia budget conferees are stuck before they begin. House members what to talk taxes first, saying you can’t decide on spending ‘til you know what you have to spend. Senate members say let’s decide what we want and need and then figure how much we need to raise.

The House uses the old argument about how government must live within its means, just like American families do. But it’s a poor analogy. Families, unlike governments, are usually trying to maximize their revenues. It’s the quest for a better life that determines their decisions. Most people are always looking for jobs with higher pay. It’s the nature of a career path. If not, or until they find the better job, they decide whether to live within their means or borrow. Basically, families make a fundamental decision about what life style they want and how much they’re willing to work and sacrifice to achieve it.

The same should be true for government. What do we want and how much are we willing to pay for it? How much revenue we have is arbitrary. We can raise taxes through the roof, if we want something bad enough or perceive a critical need. What we want should be the starting point. If what we want costs too much, we scale it back.

The Senators have the right approach.

Howell Changes His Mind – Again
I recommend Bill Howell as John Kerry’s running mate. The two of them are becoming infamous for changing their minds. The Virginia Speaker of the House has said throughout the General Assembly session that gas taxes – he called them “user fees” – were a possible solution to the revenue shortfall. But now that gas prices are rising, he says he’s undergone a “real conversion” and gas tax hikes are off the table.

Must Virginia’s Government Shut Down Without a Budget?
Jeff Schapiro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch says there may be a way around doomsday.

Gilmore Prevaricates
When Gov. Mark Warner is criticized for raising taxes after saying he wouldn’t during the campaign, he points out that he was told by former Gov. Jim Gilmore that the deficit was only a few hundred million when it actually was $3.8 billion. Gilmore can’t square his record with reality. Warren Fiske of the Virginian Pilot writes:

Gilmore, however, has a hard time proving Warner was fully aware of the state’s financial problems in October 2001, when Warner pledged not to raise taxes.
Newspaper clippings from that month say Gilmore’s advisers repeatedly declined to make any estimate of revenue shortfalls during a meeting with General Assembly budget writers.
When pressed, Gilmore says he didn’t have good numbers until that December – after the election. By then, the shortfall was estimated at $3.8 billion.

What about Gilmore’s own campaign error?

In 1997, he was elected on a pledge to end the car tax, telling voters it would cost $620 million a year. The full cost of the repeal is now estimated at $1.5 billion and has been a major drain on the budget.

“We used the best numbers that were available to an outsider,” he says. “But it doesn’t matter. Ending the car tax is still the right thing to do. It’s a great program. It helps people, and people thank me for it every day.”

Didn’t have “good numbers” or the “best numbers”? How about “lied.” It’s getting to be a GOP habit. Just weeks after the Medicare bill passed, President Bush said it would cost a third more than he led on during the Congressional debate on the bill. He didn’t have good numbers, either, i.e., he lied.

Anti-tax Movement Dead?
Fred Hiatt in The Washington Post wonders if the “no-tax hike ever” movement may be on its last legs or if honesty about taxes is forever lost on the campaign trail.

Is It the Macarena?
Barnie Day’s column is entitled “Anatomy of a Miscue: Doing the Budget Dance”

Virginia’s Right Wing College Gets Attention
The New York Times today has a story today on the Virginia college with only “six red brick buildings” but with a growing influence on U.S. politics. Think of it as the American equivalent of the fundamentalist schools of Islam.

Tobacco Break May Die
A Staunton News Leader editorial applauds House leaders for scuttling the Senate’s bill for a big tax break for Phillip Morris. But the bill may not be dead yet.

Earlier this week, a federal court said it would not overturn a Williamsburg registrar’s decision to block three William & Mary students from running for city council on the grounds that they were not city residents. But two of students still had the option of appealing to a circuit court, which they did. On Friday one student, who lives in Arkansas but pays in-state tuition because he is enlisted in the Virginia National Guard, was granted the right to register as a candidate. Another student was denied the same right because she did not adequately prove residency in Williamsburg while her parents live in Roanoke. The ACLU said it would appeal to the state Supreme Court on her behalf.

The third student had passed the deadline for appealing to the circuit court.

A fourth student was among the original student-politicians, but he opted to drop out of school. The registrar then approved his application to run for office.

You have to credit Repubicans, they don’t do subtlety.

First, party officials petitioned the Federal Elections Commission to rule that “527” groups, named after the section of the law under which they operate as “shadow” campaign organizations, were illegally spending money on ads critical of President Bush.

When the FEC didn’t rule that 527s had to desist (but did lay the groundwork for restricting them in the near future), Republican National Committee chief counsel Jill Holtzman wrote a letter (scroll down to the third story) to 250 TV stations with a thinly veiled threat that if the stations ran ads by MoveOn, a 527 group, stations could lose their licenses. Holtzman writes that stations must refrain from “illegal activity.”

Of course, the RNC, last I checked, doesn’t pass or enforce laws. They don’t get to decide what’s illegal. And the RNC hasn’t even asked the FEC for a ruling on the MoveOn ads. What the RNC is doing, quite blatantly, is intimidating stations. If they run the ads, they could get a call from FCC Chairman Michael Powell, the son of Secretary of State Colin Powell and a GOP puppet.

During the Democratic primary, MoveOn didn’t endorse a candidate. But it did and continues to criticize Bush. It produced a TV ad (go to “Child’s Play”) that mentions no Democratic candidate and has no voiceover. It simply shows a series of video shots of children working in adult jobs and ends with the on screen question, “Guess who’s going to pay off President Bush’s $1 trillion deficit?” The GOP successfully pressured CBS into refusing to run the ad, claiming it was “controversial.”

MoveOn makes no bones about its agenda. It is fiercely in the “anybody but Bush” corner. Should Kerry win the Democratic nomination, it will undoubtedly work for his election.

Under 527 rules, MoveOn can’t “coordinate” its campaign with the nominee’s. Campaign laws revolve, in part, around the definition of “coordinate.” I won’t pretend to explain, much less defend, the rules.

But it seems if we’re going to go after 527 groups, it’s a slippery slope. In fact, the little friction on that slope has led me to think that campaign finance reform is a good idea that can’t possibly be legislated. And maybe it shouldn’t.

If I were Bill Gates, I’d be spending a couple of billion to defeat Bush. And that should be my right. As long as I don’t break laws against lying on the airwaves or use coercion, bribery or blackmail, I should be able to spend as much as I want to influence the election. On election day, my money doesn’t mean anything to someone who has read newspapers and done the research necessary to cast an informed vote. It’s really not that hard to be voting literate. Those who claim that millions spent on TV ads unfairly biases an election are simply saying people are too stupid to know the difference between erectile dysfunction and getting the shaft.

The slippery slope of campaign reform gets more dangerous when the party in power tilts the angle through intimidation. Fortunately, a key member of the FEC is apparently poised to kicks the legs out from under those angling for censorship, at least temporarily.

And MoveOn announced it’s adding another $1 million to its current ad campaign.

Martha Stewart convicted on all counts.

Is the Speaker’s Job in Jeopardy?
After this Virginia General Assembly concludes, one has to wonder if Speaker Bill Howell’s job will be in jeopardy in the next session.

“There are many of us . . . who are not in lockstep in believing that the House is fully funding the needs of the commonwealth,” said Jim Dillard (R-Fairfax)

Yes, GOP moderates might not like his stance on taxes, but their number in the House is few – and becoming fewer with each election.

But now the conservatives are voicing concerns, reports The Washington Post.

“There is no rudder — there’s nothing guiding us,” said Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William). “We’re like the Titanic, floating around.”

And now that the referendum idea has blown up in their faces, The Post reports:

Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax) said he “would venture to say that no one in the [Republican] caucus likes the idea” of a referendum. Albo said he supports the idea only as a negotiating position that might help the Senate understand that the House isn’t about to give in.

Howell said it is natural at this point in the session for members to voice some discontent. “I’m not crazy about the referendum idea.

He’s not crazy about the idea? No, he’s just crazy. Or at least not carrying anybody’s water very effectively, including the right’s. Will they want him back next year — an election year for delegates?

Dr. No
Speaking of Albo, in the same story The Post quotes him: “The sales and income tax is no no no no,” he said. “I’m willing to sit here until June 30. I’ll give up my law practice before I vote for that.”

Dave, we’ll meet you halfway. Give up your seat in the House and go back to your day job.

Behind Closed Doors
Wonder what will go on in the conference committee that will try to hash out a compromise? Read today’s terrific article by Mike Hardy and Jeff Schapiro in the Richmond Times Dispatch.

They pull no punches, starting one paragraph, “Nine white male lawmakers…”

Lobbyist J. Douglas Koelemay is quoted, “It’s like a game; it’s not connected to reality. It’s a tragedy.”

Tax Them, Not Us
While Democratic Party Chair Kerry Donley and his counter part in the GOP, Kate Obenshain Griffin, exchanged pleasantries (he compared her to Newt Gingrich, which is the first time I’ve heard a Democrat besmirch the former House Speaker’s good name), the Virginia Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to the House leadership saying it didn’t like the referendum idea (being burned once is enough), thought the Senate plan raised too much, liked the amount the House plan raises but didn’t like how it does it, i.e., taxing businesses.

Why are Democrats rejecting that last idea out of hand — the one about eliminating sales tax exemptions for businesses? As a plan alone, it’s clearly not enough, but why shouldn’t business, which has escaped anyone looking at the low corporate tax rate during these budget and tax negotiations, pay a little bit more?

Editorializing in a Story
I’m no fan of Morgan Griffith, but this AP story uses a questionable adjective: “Why are the governor and his allies in the Senate so upset with this referendum idea?” House Republican Leader H. Morgan Griffith asked in a rambling floor speech.

A “rambling speech”? Some man’s ramblings is another man’s “fiery” defense of the motherland, which is the adjective The Washington Post used in its story.

Getting the Word Out
The First Cities Coalition, a group of 15 of the older cities in Virginia, did a good job of planting stories yesterday of how the state budget impacts their localities, including:
*Newport News & Hampton
*Fredericksburg
*Lynchburg

Illegal Immigrants Can Still Go to School
The Senate Education and Health Committee rejected a bill that would bar admission to the state colleges for illegal immigrants.

H.B. 156 was on the short end of a 12-2 vote.

“It’s kind of hard to pass a bill like this and then tell kids this is the ‘land of opportunity,'” said Sen. Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County.

And Abortion Clinics Can Still Perform Abortions
The Senate Education and Health Committee also shot down several House bills designed to restrict abortions, including one requiring underage girls to get a parent’s permission to get “emergency” contraception.

In freelancer Chris Mooney’s 6,000+-word article in the current Columbia Journalism Review, six leading U.S. newspapers come under scrutiny for the gullibility of their editorial pages in the run-up to the Iraqi war. While two of the newspapers opposed the war, writes Mooney, “If these papers had a major shortcoming, it was, instead, something they shared with the prowar pages to a much greater extent: a passive willingness to write about the Iraq debate on the president’s own terms.”

Later, Mooney writes,

Why did the papers trust and defer? For most of them, notes Todd Gitlin, a Columbia journalism professor, “the default position seems to have been that the administration was well meaning — and that there was a tight logical connection between admirable purpose and clear fact.”

Of the six papers – New York Times, Wall Street Journal, L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today and The Washington Post – The Post comes off as most introspective of its editorial stances.

[Editorial Page Editor Fred] Hiatt says he wishes the Post had not accepted the WMD claims during the days before war: “If you look at the editorials we write running up, we state as flat fact that he has stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. If that’s not true, it would have been better not to say it.” But Hiatt adds that he doesn’t feel hung out to dry by the administration — at least not yet. “If it turned out that Powell had deliberately lied to me, I would feel suckered,” he says

.

Corrections in newspapers seem to have one main objective: Correct the article in a way as to make it seem almost out of control of anybody at the paper. Newspapers, whose style coaches will say reporters should always use the active verb tense if possible, nonetheless almost always use the passive tense when writing corrections. Reminds me of President Reagan’s side stepping responsibility for Iran Contra when he said “Mistakes were made.”

Well, one reporter wasn’t letting his editors off that easily. Mark Swed, a music critic for the Los Angeles Times, wrote that a Strauss opera he saw is “an incomparably glorious and goofy pro-life paean…,” meaning “life affirming.” But a crack(ed?) copy editor changed it to “an incomparably glorious and goofy anti-abortion paean…”

When the paper corrected its mistake, it used the passive voice, leading readers to believe it was Swed’s fault. He wasn’t sitting for that.

Maureen Dowd’s critique on the Bush campaign’s new TV ads: Nothing like hypocrisy with high production values.

Devolites Challenged
The Washington Post’s Lisa Rein managed to write a story about Fairfax County’s budget without quoting anti-tax zealot James Parmelee. To her credit, she put state Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites on the spot with this conclusion to her article, referring to Board Chairman Gerry Connolly lobbying the state legislature to allow counties to diversify their tax base so as to enable property tax relief:

“Gerry is always putting the blame on us for not providing the panacea for him,” said Sen. Jeannemarie A. Devolites (R-Fairfax). “He needs instead to evaluate where he can make cuts to his budget.”

Connolly called the comment “a little too easy a way to let the senator off the hook.” He then challenged her to come up with cuts to spending in the county budget.

We await the senator’s response.

Did Callahan Flip? Or was it a Flop?
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Vince Callahan (R-Fairfax) seemed to disavow the call for a tax referendum just hours after he joined Speaker Bill Howell at a press conference touting it. But after his remarks saying it wasn’t going to happen, the Speaker called him for a tête-à-tête. He then said the referendum was still an option but was quoted:

“Who am I trying to fool? They’re [Senate] not going to accept referendum, but we’re going to keep pushing it.”

Who are you trying to fool Mr. Chairman?

Crime Costs
Good Washington Post article on the cost of Va.’s prisons. Thank former Gov. and current U.S. Sen. George Allen. He’s a hypocrite says Virginian Pilot editorial.

GOP Infighting
Republicans are battling each other over taxes in Prince William County.

Gilmore’s Soapbox
The conservative Washington Times gave former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore a forum yesterday under the guise of an exclusive. (Gilmore would sit for interviews with shopping rags if given the opportunity. The guy is desperately trying for a comeback. Even the Republican National Committee dumped him because he has NO credibility and is widely seen as the reason Va.’s budget is tanking.)

According to the Times, “his proudest accomplishments were giving Virginians a car tax refund, cutting tuition rates and making sure state lottery money went toward education funding.” Ah, Jimmy boy, tuitions are going through the roof now to make up for your artificial restraints, and all you did with the car tax is shift who collects it. The car tax is now paid for by state funds. And who funds the state?

The Times also makes this statement: “All 40 [state] Senate seats are up for election in November.” Ah, wrong again. The next election for the senate is 2007. Then the Times doesn’t usually let facts get in the way of a radical right rant.

Reward for Making Cigarettes
While considering massive tax hikes smokers would pay for cigarettes, the General Assembly has been considering a huge tax break for Phillip Morris. The break was beaten down in the House yesterday but might still be resurrected.

Quote of the Day
“Sprawl is the American dream.”
Suzanne Volpe, former chairwoman of the Loudoun County Republican Committee.