This morning’s edition of The Hill has an article on Mark Warner that he’s got to be very happy about. Entitled, “Sen. Warner gaining more influence,” the article reads like a piece of (Mark Warner) campaign literature.

Among other things, the article quotes Sen. Lindsey Graham as saying “[Warner]’s an easy guy to work with.” It has John Podesta calling Warner “one of the few people that can still have a civil conversation with people across the aisle.” It quotes Sen. Bob Corker describing Warner “the best partner anybody could possibly imagine.” It refers to a “senior Democratic aide” calling Warner “a promising candidate” for Majority Leader if Harry Reid loses reelection. It says Warner has worked “behind the scenes…to unify junior Democratic senators,” that he “has won rave reviews from business leaders,” and that “Senate Democratic leaders view Warner as one of the more promising new members of the conference and have given him challenging assignments.” And it quotes the head of the Business Roundtable, praising Warner as “one of those few members of the Senate who understands the business side and gets how the business has to operate.”

As I said, this article could be a piece of Warner campaign literature. The only question is, what will Warner run for next?

For my money, Rep. Hoyer does a far better job explaining where we are on health care reform than Eric Can’tor, who mouths the same, disingenuous Republican talking points as he always does.  I particularly like when Hoyer points out that “deeming” was a procedure used “almost 100 times under Newt Gingrich and over 100 times by Speaker Hastert, which my friend Mr. Cantor supported most of the time if not all the time.” But now, all of a sudden, Can’tor argues that it’s evil incarnate, as is reconciliation, which Republicans also used many times, including on pieces of major legislation. As I said, “disingenuous.” But that’s Eric Can’tor and the Republican’ts for you, I guess.

P.S. Less substantively, I believe that even Congressman Can’tor has to admit that Hoyer’s much better dressed for St. Patrick’s Day. 🙂

On this matter, I believe Tim Kaine speaks for all of us:

“I scratch my head in amazement that somebody in a position of that altitude would express and opinion like that,” Kaine said of Republican state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s comments. “I read the transcript and what he said is that he posited that perhaps the president was born in Kenya, I think it was, and I think he said that is a reasonable hypothesis or something like that. It’s ridiculous.”

Speaking outside the White House, Kaine continued: “The president is an American citizen, duly elected by the voters. But some people just can’t accept that. And they’re still having trouble accepting that and I think that’s what the attorney general is, maybe in that camp.”

Personally,  I “scratch my head in amazement” not only that Cooch is a birther, but that he’s also a climate change denier, a raging (and raving) homophobe, a “states rights” extremist, a tinfoil hat wacko who believes the government is tracking his kids via Social Security numbers, and a guy who talks to his toy elephant named “Ron”. Given all this, what I really “scratch my head in amazement” over is that the people of Virginia elected Ken Cuccinelli as Attorney General last year over the sane and super-qualified Steve Shannon. What. The. Hell?!?

Thanks to Tom Whipple for the Wednesday “Clips.”

1. MCDONNELL DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM AG

3. STATE’S POLICE CHIEFS SEEK VETO OF GUNS-IN-BARS BILL

4. MCDONNELL RETURNS TO WHITE HOUSE TO PARTY

6. KAINE: CUCCINELLI’S BIRTHER COMMENT ‘RIDICULOUS’

7. CUCCINELLI TALKS ABOUT HEALTH CARE REFORM

9. O’BRIEN TO RUN AGAIN FOR STATE SENATE

18. PERRIELLO OKAYS SENATE BILL ABORTION LANGUAGE, STILL UNDECIDED ON HEALTH CARE

26. POTHOLE REPAIR IS VDOT’S TOP PRIORITY FOR MARCH

27. VIRGINIA LEADERS EXPRESS INTEREST IN OFFSHORE DRILLING

29. LAWMAKERS BALANCED THE STATE BUDGET BY NOT PAYING A BIG BILL AND PASSING ON THE PAIN

36. STUDY: REDUCING FARM POLLUTION WOULD HELP BAY, ECONOMY

38. FAIRFAX OFFICIALS OUTLINE DEEP CUTS UNDER STATE BUDGET

For anyone who wants to understand how messed up the recently-passed Virginia budget really is, see Del. Scott Surovell’s superb analysis at “The Dixie Pig”. Here’s an excerpt:

Going into this budget cycle, we were faced with a $2.1 billion hole to plug after $7 billion of cuts already if we rejected Governor Kaine’s proposal to eliminate car tax relief and increase the state income tax. The budget that the House & Senate just passed on Sunday night was “balanced” by using the following maneuvers.

[…]

There are some problems with these methods. The Virginia Retirement System is not our Rainy Day Fund. I do not view “borrowing” monies allocated for retirement as balancing a budget. While it is not technically “debt” borrowed from a third party, it is borrowing from the future. It perverts our state’s pay-as-you-go history.

[…]

The reality is that Virginia’s Budget suffers from significant structural deficits that we did not address this session. Our annual expenses exceed our annual revenue. The FY 2010-2012 hole was plugged with one-time fixes that papered over a problem instead of dealing with it. While I am glad that we fought and lessened the impact today, I am very worried about the future.

Other than that, heckuva job the Virginia General Assembly and by Bob McDonnell!  Not.

The following statement is from Rep. Tom Perriello and is basically a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval on the Senate health care bill in terms of abortion language.  Whaddya think of that, Rep. Stupak? 🙂

Since the beginning of the debate on health care reform, I have maintained a pledge that I would not support any health care reform bill that includes federal funding for abortion, and I stand by that pledge today. The original House bill language (Capps Amendment) did not meet this standard, and so I opposed that language. I voted for the Stupak Amendment-the only alternative offered at the time-because it ensured no federal funding of abortions, even though it also went beyond the current federal standard (Hyde Amendment) to prevent Americans from purchasing private insurance with their own dollars.

As health care experts and pro-life leaders agree, the abortion language in the Senate bill upholds the Hyde Amendment standard. The Senate health care bill prevents federal taxpayer dollars from funding abortions, as the Catholic Hospital Association and legal experts have recently stated and as my own research has confirmed.

Furthermore, several key yet unadvertised provisions of the bill are likely to reduce the number of abortions in this country in ways that move beyond politics toward a real impact on the culture of life in our country, such as those that provide $250 million for programs to support vulnerable pregnant women and increase the adoption tax credit, also making it refundable, so that lower income families can access it fully.

I have tended to avoid the labels pro-life and pro-choice-often drawing ire from both sides of this debate-because I believe those labels serve to end debate rather than start us on a path towards solutions. I understand why many pro-choice groups consider the Senate language a major setback, but I made this pledge to the people I represent. Mired as we are in the issue of taxpayer dollars in this debate, we have not been discussing how this bill can reduce abortions. My hope is that, after this debate in the health care bill, lawmakers will come together to support a culture of life in their policy-making, including improving pre- and post-natal care.

I have plenty of serious problems with the Senate bill and, until I see the final language, I cannot take a position on final passage. But the existing language on abortion in the current Senate bill meets the pledge I made to ensure no federal funding for abortion in this health care bill.

Verrry interesting.

… Scott Rigell, a local auto dealership owner with long ties to the Pat Robertson elements of the Christian Right. Perusing Rigell’s campaign website it looks amazingly much like Bob McDonnell’s did and even talks about ” I WILL SERVE EVERY PART OF OUR COMMUNITY.” But on closer inspection, it be comes clear that Scott Rigell will serve you only if you belong to a particular part of the community. And gays clearly have no place in that community. Repeated requests for a clarification of Ridgell’s position on ENDA and DADT repeal have gone unanswered. Equally telling, the page on his website dealing with “family values” is something that The Family Foundation might have written (who knows, maybe it did)…

Also, here’s Rigell speaking at a Tea Party event (he misspells the word “anniversery” in the title) and basically declaring himself to be a Tea Party candidate. That’s fine, but then why is he running as a Republican and why is he pretending to be a moderate and not another Ken Cuccinelli? Quick, someone ask Rigell if he thinks President Obama was born in the United States or whether global warming is real. The answers should be fascinating.