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.

The Fairfax Extra of The Washington Post offers an excellent overview of the upcoming county’s budget decisions. Though the main story is short (I presume Extra Editor Steve Fehr has limited space), sidebars and photos help reporter Peter Whoriskey lay out the dilemma county supervisors face between cutting services or taxes. See:

*Service cuts suggested by the county executive
*List of tax increases
*Taxes and school funding over the past few years
*Departing superintendent’s parting words in washingtonpost.com’s online chat

I await the anti-taxers vote on which services they want to cut.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer ruled yesterday that jurisdictions in the state performing gay marriages are breaking the law but that valid gay marriages or civil unions performed in other states must be recognized by the state. Such idiosyncratic decisions by varying jurisdictions and officials and the speed with which this issue is advancing make it a fascinating story.

But I’m keeping one eye over my shoulder to ward off the catastrophe gay unions will have on the “institution of marriage.” Surely there must be something behind the right’s criticism. Surely?

This morning we posted the stories and comments about the Va. House GOP calling for a referendum on taxes.

Well, never mind.

Today, House conference committee negotiators said they weren’t any longer demanding a referendum.

Apparently cooler heads, particularly Del. Vince Callahan (R-Fairfax), prevailed. But the fiasco raises a couple of questions.

If Callahan really is a cooler head, why was he front and center at the press conference yesterday when Speaker Bill Howell presented his ultimatum? This guy is hard to figure out. Maybe he used the time tested strategy with Howell: Something about enough rope.

And where is the rudder in the Republican party? As I said in this morning’s post, it seems they’re just throwing out ideas to see which they can sell. But nobody’s buying them. This has to raise questions among not just moderate Republicans, but conservative business people who depend on a party leadership that can develop strategies and deliver a cogent message. It also must make some of the GOP electorate uneasy with a House that even with overwhelming numbers has become impotent, or at least seem a little silly.

There’s no guarantee that the Senate will get what it wants. But so far, the House GOP will be seen as losers and Warner, unless he really fumbles in the next few months, a winner.

This has got to be good for Democratic Party Chairman Kerry Donley and company as they try to attract candidates for the ’05 elections. There should be any number of folks chompin’ at the bit to take on some of these yahoos.

Quotes on Budget Impasse
“We’ve been here 40, 50 days, and all this [about Virginia’s troubled finances] has been all over the media, all over the state. To pass the buck to the people of Virginia at the 11th hour, without background . . . is not, in my view, what typically responsible Triple-A states do.”
–Senate Finance Committee Chairman John H. Chichester, R-Stafford in Richmond Times Dispatch

“The speaker and I don’t really like the concept of a referendum but find ourselves in circumstances that require thinking outside the box,”
— House GOP Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem in AP story

“I’ve never heard of a budget process where before the conferees are even meeting you’ve got one side saying, ‘We’re going to change the whole way government operates or we’re going to shut down government,’ That’s what they’re saying, impasse or referendum? I totally, categorically reject that.”
–Gov. Mark Warner in AP Story

“I’ve been here for 42 years and I’ve never seen anything like it.”
— Del. Lacey E. Putney, an independent from Bedford whose legislative tenure is a record in Virginia. in AP story

“I think the people sent us here to do a job and we should do it, but instead of walking out of here without a budget I’m willing to revisit that issue.”
— Delegate Johnny S. Joannou, Norfolk Democrat in Virginian Pilot

“[It’s] legislation by improvisation…[and]… disingenuous. We’re in a position where we’re about ready to shut the government down and we’re looking for someone to lay it off onto.”
— Del. Ward Armstrong, D-Henry County in Roanoke Times

Opinion
An editorial in the Hampton Roads Daily Press calls the referendum idea. “inane” and provides perspective with respect to the two who thought up this hair-brained idea – Sen. George Allen (R) and former Gov. Doug Wilder (D):

The pattern continues. While decrying “big government,” Allen spends with the best of them. He just signed onto a $318 billion highway package, exceeding President Bush’s proposal by $62 billion. (What, no referendum for that one, senator?) Explaining his vote, Allen said, “I care about spending restraints too, but I also want to get Virginia its fair share!”

Then we have Wilder, the de facto populist, who now says he would not have supported Gov. Mark Warner’s election had he known about the governor’s tax plans. For his part, Wilder fondly recalls his own administration as an exemplar of frugality, overlooking the fact that he effectively raised taxes by allowing state college and university tuitions to soar to the heavens. He also infamously raided the transportation fund to avoid being inconvenienced by tax proposals.

A Virginian Pilot editorial lists some of the cuts the House budget would require.

Callahan is Key
If a conference committee actually meets and works at a compromise, Fairfax Republican Vince Callahan, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, is the one who can break the stalemate. He can be reached at (804) 698-1034 or by email.

Another slight problem with the referendum idea: Virginia code defines a referendum as a special election, and special elections can’t be held on the same day as a primary election, according to the Danville Register & Bee. So we’re going to hold an election on some meaningless date when about 5% of voters will likely show up?

GA: Open or Closed for Business?
Sen. Edd Houck(D-Stafford) has amended the bill exempting the General Assembly from the Freedom of Information Act. (If I were a delegate, I wouldn’t want people to see how that body works.) Houck’s amendments would keep open committee and subcommittee meetings, and legislative work sessions, while allowing the Joint Rules Committee to decide which other meetings could close their doors. Houck’s bill also exempts party caucus meetings from FOIA.

Get this: New Va. law says Girls Scouts can’t sell cookies inside polling places.

College of William & Mary students lost their bid in federal court to register to run for city council in Williamsburg.