To the extent that a politician can be defined by the company they keep, by their friends and allies, I find it fascinating to see who’s now leaping to 31st State Senate district candidate Barbara Favola’s defense. Yes, that would be the esteemed editor of the Arlington Sun-Gazette, also known for:
*Endorsing Bob McDonnell for Governor in 2009
*Endorsing Bill Bolling over Jody Wagner in 2009
*Endorsing George Allen over Jim Webb in 2006, writing, “He doesn’t seem to understand the issues facing large segments of Virginia, has no experience in elected office, has laid out no vision, has been walloped by Allen in debates, and seems – let’s put this charitably – a little too intense and tightly-wrapped for the rarified air of the U.S. Senate, where compromise and go-along-ism is the only way to get things done, especially for a junior senator.”
*Arguing that Democrats pointing out George Allen’s “macaca” gaffe was “a little cheap politicking to throw Allen off his game,” while claiming that “Webb does not have the gravitas to suggest he would be an improvement [over George Allen]” and also that, “[a]s more people have gotten to know Webb, fewer have been inclined to vote for him.”
*Making homophobic “jokes”
*Reprinting GOP blogs as “news”
*Admitting to a “long line of votes for Republican presidential candidates.”
*Strongly endorsing Jeannemarie Devolites-Davis over Chap Petersen for State Senate in 2007, writing, “Devolites Davis is by far the superior candidate in this race…Petersen’s ambition always seems one step ahead of his grasp; he’s in danger of becoming a bookend to Leslie Byrne, who continues to seek elected office despite proof of her inability to succeed once elected.”
*Claiming that global warming is nothing more than “hysteria perpetuated by those, including the media, with agendas to pursue.”
As if all that’s not bad enough, the Sun-Gazette is also a paper funded largely by ads from the real estate industry – the same industry, by the way, that is donating heavily to the campaign of Barbara Favola, which the Sun-Gazette is defending against those evil liberals, with essentially no firewall – as is standard practice in serious newspapers – between advertising and news content (the Sun Gazette brags about “advertising sales representatives… being paired with either newsroom or production folks,” and jokes that “as there is the potential of $$$ for some of us at the end, who’s complaining?“). Wow. So much for any journalistic ethics at that “newspaper” (quotes intentional).
Anyway, this is who’s now leaping to Barbara Favola’s defense, predicting that she could very well end up “being the ultimate beneficiary of all the venom hurled her way.” To top it all off, the right-wing real estate rag claims that “progressive” (he puts the word in quotes, apparently because he doesn’t believe progressive bloggers are really progressive, or because he doesn’t think there really is such a thing as “progressive,” or because he hates anything “progressive,” or all of the above) bloggers “have been doing what they can to attack establishment candidate Barbara Favola in the run-up to the Aug. 23 primary election.” In fact, this blog conducted an interview with Barbara Favola, which she herself said posed “reasonable questions.” This blog also has reported on Favola’s ties to real estate developers, but in fact that story was broken by ArlNow, the excellent newspaper covering Arlington County that I urge everyone to read and advertise on, while using the Sun-Gazette and its right-wing ravings to line the bird cage, cat litter box, etc.
P.S. By the way, I’ve heard from numerous sources that anti-progressive, anti-environmentalist Sen. Dick Saslaw, who tried as hard as he could to clear the field for his favorite candidate in the 31st, was busy at the Democratic retreat the other day at The Homestead ushering Favola around to lobbyists and potential donors, and introducing her to the legislators and lobbyists in attendance as the next Senator from the 31st district — no mention of Jaime Areizaga-Soto, who I’m hearing is running a superb campaign that very well could upend Saslaw’s best-laid plans. Stay tuned on that one. Oh, and I’ve also had confirmed by several sources that Saslaw told everyone in attendance, “Virginia is the Saudi Arabia of coal.” I’ve also been told by a couple of sources that Saslaw said Favola should “get in a pickup truck, strap some guns on and ride around Loudoun and get them votes.” Lovely, eh?
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