The photo here shows several of our faves – Fairfax County Supervisor Pat “Hypocrisy” Herrity, Del. David Ramadan (Extreme “R”), and of course GOP “attack dog” Del. Barbara Comstock – preening and posing at the opening ceremonies for the Silver Line in Tysons. It’s wildly hypocritical of them to do this, of course, as Rep. Gerry Connolly’s Communications Director (and 11th CD Democratic Committee Chair) George Burke pointed out in a series of tweets a little while ago.
*George Burke: In response to Del. David Ramadan, notes that it’s “ironic that @BarbaraComstock, who opposed transportation bill, & @PatHerrity, who sued to stop #SilverLine, were there.”
*Del. Ramadan (BFF of Comstock’s, apparently follows her everywhere and takes to social media to defend every indefensible thing she does – and there are a LOT of those!) responds defensively to Burke: “TaxIncreaseBill’ aka ‘TransportationBill’ had nothing to do w MetroSilverLine. Using it to attack @BarbaraComstock is cheap shot!” (translation: ouch, that hurt! quick somebody call a waaaaambulance!)
*Del. Ramadan then gets even whinier if that’s humanly possible, tweeting – and I’m not joking here – “why don’t you concentrate your efforts on Congressional issues and leave VA state taxes to VA legislators.”
*Burke responds to Ramadan: “Great spin but you & @BarbaraComstock actually voted against much-needed road, bridge & transit improvements in #Virginia.” True dat. Also “I’ve lived 3 decades in NoVA & like most, I want state to fix crumbling roads & bridges. You & @BarbaraComstock voted NO.” Also factually true, look it up if you don’t believe Burke.
*And one last, desperate, failed attempt at a defense by Ramadan: “not spin; FACT: @BarbaraComstock & I are against increasing taxes on NOVA residents vs your false statements in earlier tweets!!”
Now, just for the record, here’s the final vote on HB 2313, the 2013 transportation bill co-patroned by Republican House Speaker Bill Howell, Republican Del. Tim Hugo, Republican Del. Kirkland Cox, Republican Del. Tag Greason, Republican Del. Terry Kilgore, and a bunch more Republican delegates (but not Comstock or Ramadan, of course) that provided $300 million for rail to Dulles. In short, Comstock has been a consistent enemy of funding for the Silver Line, unlike Rep. Frank Wolf (whatever else you want to say about that guy, he was strong on this issue; Comstock would combine the lunacy of Wolf without the pragmatism he demonstrated on local issues), and strongly against the interests of the 10th Congressional District and Northern Virginia more broadly. Yet she still shows up to pose for the cameras at the opening of the Silver Line. Chutzpah – yes. Integrity – nope. Good for Gerry Connolly’s office for calling her out on this!
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