Video: Gerry Connolly Reacts to Obama's State of the Union

Gerry Connolly was on Fox News reacting to Obama's State of the Union speech. Connolly has been outspoken about his desire for some work to be done on paying down the national debt so it shouldn't bee to surprising that this was one of the first topics that he mentioned during the interview. What's worth noting is that the conversation focused on budget related issues and that Gerry wasn't necessarily appearing to discuss what the speech means for Virginians (though Gerry usually is good about letting his constituents know what national issues mean for residents of the 11th), but was there more in his role as a member of the Budget Committee.

What I really think people should pay attention to is the fact that the enormous cost of health care as it stands now is one of the leading causes of our rising deficits. That's why anyone who is concerned about the deficit, as Connolly pointed out in the interview, should be an advocate for reforming our health care system in a way that would make it more affordable.

Here's the video.

Obama Needs to Do More Than Just Mention DADT in a Speech

In the run up to last night's State of the Union address, there was a lot of talk about how Obama was going to mention Don't Ask, Don't Tell during the speech. The pundits on the talk shows were constantly talking about how this was a huge deal and in some ways it is a good step. With so many different issues facing our country, there are a lot of different groups trying to get the ear of the president and a mention by the president in the State of the Union address is usually considered a very big victory. When the president has already failed to deliver on the same exact promise, however, I think it's safe to say that action is needed on a topic and not just another few words in a speech.

In a time when we are fighting in two wars we simply cannot afford to have anymore soldiers dismissed simply because of who they love. This is especially the case when among the approximately 13,000 soldiers who've been dismissed are linguists and other specialists whose skills are desperately needed on the missions we're sending our armed forces on. So if the president will continue to refuse to issue an executive order that would prevent the military from investigating the sexual orientation of a member of the armed forces, then we need to hear some details on how the president is going to work with Congress to repeal DADT. According to a statement he made in reaction to Obama's State of the Union address, Lt. Dan Choi appears to agree that the lack of details in last night's speech was very disappointing.

"Last night, the president repeated his campaign commitment to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell as part of his State of the Union address. While the President promised that DADT would come to an end 'this year,' he did not provide specifics – and the White House still has not released a plan to kill it. That's unacceptable. I served in the Army for a decade under Don't Ask, Don't Tell – an immoral policy that forces American soldiers to lie about their sexual orientation. Worse, it forces others to tolerate deception. As I learned at West Point, deception and lies poison a unit and cripple a fighting force. That's why I feel strongly that America can't afford to allow this policy to continue one day longer. The time for talk is over. The time for action is now.”

I don't doubt Obama's sincerity when he says that he disagrees with the policy, I simply believe he hasn't made this issue enough of a priority. That is why people who believe discrimination is wrong need to contact the White House and their members of Congress and DEMAND that Don't Ask Don't Tell be repealed. It's simply not enough for them to mention it in a speech anymore as we've seen that time and time again without any action following it up. The military has already dismissed 13,000 highly qualified soldiers due to discrimination and we cannot afford to let this happen to another patriot proudly serving our country.

Oregonians Send Progressive Populist Message. Will Washington Listen?

I was out in Oregon a couple of weeks ago and there was a lot of talk about ballot measures 66 and 67 which would raise taxes on large corporations and the extremely wealthy. With the budget crisis that's facing states all across the country, these measures would help to make sure that the public schools could receive the funds they desperately needed to continue operating (Oregon's schools already have one of the shortest school years and can't afford any more cuts). Despite the fact that the right wing likes to claim that voters don't want to give the government the ability to collect taxes from the extremely wealthy, Oregonians went to the polls yesterday and voted in favor of these measures. The message behind this is that there is a populist movement taking place in this country but it isn't the one the Republican leadership has been portraying.

As the president is going to deliver his State of the Union address tonight and we're in the middle of a debate over health care, Jonathan Sager points out that the question now is whether or not Washington will listen.

The message out of Oregon, like the message out of Massachusetts, is resonating: Voters are in a populist mood right now -- not an anti-government one, necessarily, but a populist one nevertheless. The progressive brand of populism that resonated with Oregonians this month is slightly different than the one that rang true in Massachusetts. Yet the message is just as clear.

The real question now is whether DC will listen, or if instead it will continue to cling to its common wisdom.

One of the main reasons that so many people in Washington paid attention to Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts was that Republicans made sure the media and elected officials heard their sound bites. Now that voters in Oregon have made it clear that this isn't a Republican movement, but a populist one, we need to make sure that our elected officials get the message. Of course, the best way of doing that is to call your members of Congress and write letters to the editors of your local papers. And now that our general assembly is in session and deliberating over the state budget, I strongly encourage you to let your Delegates and state Senators know that it's okay to make sure that corporations and the extremely wealthy pay their fair share.

If you want to tell your members of Congress that you support the message sent by voters in Oregon, you can call the Congressional switchboard at 202.224.3121. If you want to contact your members of the General Assembly, you can get their information by following this link.

Eileen Filler-Corn Enters Race for Delegate in the Upcoming Special Election

With Dave Marsden winning last week's special election in the 37th Senate District, there will be a special election on March 2 to fill his seat in the House of Delegates. According to a statement just released by the House Democratic Caucus, Eileen Filler-Corn announced today that she would be running for the House from the 41st District.

Eileen has lived in the district for 15 years and has a history of being involved in the local community and working with the state government. Under Governor Tim Kaine, for instance, Eileen served as Senior Advisor to the Governor for State and Federal Relations. She also served as the Deputy Director for the Virginia Liaison Office for Governor Mark Warner during his entire term.

To get a sense of what is being said about here candidacy in the early days of the race, here's some of the quotes that were in the statement sent out today:

Eileen Filler-Corn stated, "Families in our area and all over Virginia have had to tighten their belts. In Richmond, I will help tighten the state's belt too, but I will do so without abandoning what makes Fairfax County unique, our world class schools. We cannot afford any further education cuts from Richmond. The Governor and the General Assembly must find ways to create jobs and improve our economy. We must also stay focused on transportation issues so families spend less time in traffic and more time with each other.

Eileen continued, "Too often people get elected then turn their attention to narrow ideological interests. As Delegate, my priority will always be the residents of the 41st District. In this campaign I look forward to a healthy debate on the issues that matter to our area."

U.S. Senator Mark Warner today said, "Eileen Filler-Corn was a valued member of my Administration as Governor and she will be a strong, moderate voice for the residents of the district. Eileen demonstrated a great ability at every opportunity to work with members of both parties to get the job done for Virginia. I am very happy to strongly support her candidacy for the House of Delegates."

Current State Senator Dave Marsden added, "I have known Eileen Filler-Corn for many years and I am proud to support her candidacy for the House of Delegates. Eileen has been very involved in our community, especially when it comes to our schools. She will be a great advocate for our area in Richmond."

Eileen has lived in the 41st District for 15 years and resides in Springfield with her husband Bob and their children Jeremy and Alana.

Bush and Clinton Come Together to Help Haiti

President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush came together to create the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund to help the people of Haiti recover from the devastating earthquake that recently hit the country. They also just released a PSA urging people to donate to the recovery effort in Haiti and are going to be on CNN's State of the Union this morning to talk about their efforts.

After A Devastating Blow Last Night, Pat Herrity Announces Congressional Bid

After months of speculation and rumors about Pat Herrity considering a Congressional bid, he announced this morning that he would be seeking the Republican nomination in the 11th District. Now the timing of this announcement is very interesting because it comes the day after a special election in which the Republican candidate was expected to win. When you consider that this would have been another victory for Republicans during a slew of elections that they have performed well in, it’s very easy to see how Herrity was probably hoping to take advantage of the momentum Republican would have likely gained if Steve Hunt had won. This is especially the case when you factor in Herrity leading a telephone town hall for Steve Hunt just a few days ago and that the 37th Senate District is in the heart of Herrity’s base of support.

The fact that Herrity wasn’t able to help push his fellow Republican to victory can therefore only be seen as a huge blow to his candidacy. This can’t escape the attention of the Republican base who have to wonder about Herrity’s ability to win now as he’s heading into his third campaign in three years (it’s worth noting that each time was for a different office too). What compounds the situation is that Herrity lost another low turnout special election in 2009 during a time when Republicans were doing extremely well and gaining a lot of momentum. If he couldn’t take advantage of very favorable conditions in the special election for Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, people have to wonder about how he’ll do in a federal campaign.

The blow to his campaign that was delivered by a Marsden victory last night and his history of not being able to take advantage of favorable conditions are not experiences Herrity wanted to take with him into a primary battle that is likely going to get extremely bloody. Keith Fimian has already become the darling of the tea party in hopes of having their support in the primary, but Herrity’s actions on the Board of Supervisors recently has also made it clear that he is going to be engaging Fimian in a race to the right. In fact, there are a variety of people who closely follow the Board who have pointed out that Herrity is the most partisan member of the board that they can remember serving in all their years involved with County politics. At a time when voters went to the polls yesterday to make it clear they support candidates who focus on solutions and good ideas, this race to the right means that whoever wins the Republican primary will be so out of touch with Northern Virginia voters that they are going to have a hard time gaining credibility in the general election.

The difficulties of the race to the right will also be difficult for Herrity as it will cost a lot of money. With Fimian able to self finance his campaign, Herrity was already going to be at a financial disadvantage but his challenges will be furthered by the fact that he has never had to raise money with the restrictions in place for federal elections. When you combine this with the fact that donors might be hesitant to donate to his campaign during an economic downturn when they’re not even sure if he’ll be able to win the primary, Herrity is going to be struggling right from the get go. And as I pointed out in the beginning of this post, now he’ll have to do all this while suffering from the devastating blow that was delivered to him and the Republican Party during yesterday’s special election in the 37th Senate district.

Video: Gerry Connolly on Fox News This Morning

Rep. Gerry Connolly was on Fox this morning to talk about the issues that are important to the DC region. Not too surprisingly, one of the main focuses of the conversation was the economy and what federal legislation is doing for Northern Virginia. They also touched on the fact that Gerry just got back from the Middle East where he was to look at what can be done to move forward with discussions in the area.

Election Day Open Thread

10am report: As I pointed out yesterday, I will be providing information as it becomes available. I was up bright and early at 5:30 and was at the Fair Lakes precinct when it opened at 6am this morning. Voter turnout there was low while I was there, but there were people trickling in during the "pre-work voting." The turnout in the precincts in the surrounding area has also been relatively low, which could be a good sign for Marsden as the Western portion of the district generally trends Republican. This is likely to be the case again this year as Marsden is based in the Burke area and those voters know him better to begin with.

10:15am report: I was hoping that it would be a good sign that there was low turnout in the western portion of the district, but I'm also hearing reports that turnout is relatively low in the Burke area as well. AIAW voted in Fairview precinct, for instance, and reported that there were only 115 voters at 7:30 this morning even though there were members of the press there covering the election. Since that was relatively early this morning, I will be working to get an update on the numbers there soon. Also, she said that there was a checkpoint in the HOV lanes on 95 this morning which was bringing traffic to a halt. I bring this up because I have also seen a lot of police officers out in the community today. I doubt this has to do with the election, but the increase of police cars in the streets was noticeable enough that it's worth bringing up here.

12:30 pm report: I just got by from dropping by a couple polling places in the Burke area and there has been a steady stream of people voting. Since AIAW had reported on Fairview this morning, I wanted to go by to check out how it was looking. The parking lot was completely filled and there even a few cars parked outside of regular spots, which was partly a result of a relatively small parking lot. When I was finally able to get a spot and go inside at about 11:45, there was a line of about 20 to 25 people waiting to vote. A fellow blogger who I ran into at another polling place told me that he couldn't get a parking space at Fairview so he didn't even go inside, which makes me wonder about what might happen during the evening rush of voters. This was driven home further when I stopped by Terra Centre Elementary School a few minutes later because that parking lot was also filled. Over near Robinson High School, I stopped in at Oak View Elementary School a little before noon and 348 people had voted already.

The line at Fairview and the vote totals from other precincts in the Burke area are a very good sign for Dave Marsden since this is not only the more Democratic portion of the district, but is also his home base. In contrast, the western portion of the district, which must perform well if Steve Hunt wants to win, didn't have very high turnout so far. When I was at the Centreville United Methodist Church and Centre Ridge Elementary, for instance, I only saw a grand total of 3 people go into vote while I was there.

12:45 update: Another interesting trend I picked up on was that there weren't any people from either party out at the polling places. I know the Marsden campaign has people making phone calls to turn out their supporters, which is probably the most effective thing to do at this point in the game because the turnout at the polls is likely going to small and most voters in this special election will have already made up when they get to their polling place. This is especially the case during the low traffic times since I believe most of the polling places had at least some presence during the morning rush. With voters so used to being constantly offered sample ballots on their way into the polls, however, I'd be interested to hear what they thought about not having party activists at the polls.

7:15pm update: The polls closed at 7pm and the results should be coming in shortly. You can view them by following this link, though I'll update once we have a winner.

8:36 update: I'm predicting that Dave Marsden will be the winner in this election. Although Marsden's margin is small, Steve Hunt won't be able to pick up enough votes to overcome Marsden.

What else are people hearing?

Special Election Tomorrow

As many of you already know, the special election in the 37th Senate District is going to be held tomorrow (January 12). Based upon the numbers I've seen, it really is going to come down to who can turn out there base. In other words, if you live in the district make sure you get out and vote for Dave Marsden. I know he's been performing well in the absentee ballots, but the Republicans in the area have a history of turning out for special elections which means it is very important for everyone to get out to vote.

I will be doing my best to provide updates throughout the day about what I'm hearing, so keep checking back here tomorrow.

Dave Marsden Reacts to Cuts in Proposed School Budget

The proposed budget that was just proposed for Fairfax County schools would result in massive cuts to our school system. As someone who spent a significant amount of time organizing around the school budget last year, I can tell you that there were massive cuts last year and there really isn't anything that can be left to cut but the meat and bones of our school system. Since education is one of the primary foundations for success life, it has me deeply worried that we are going to have to make even more cuts. That is why I think we need representatives in the state Senate who will truly stand up for our schools down in Richmond.

Dave Marsden has a history of standing up for children and fighting for education while his opponent, Steve Hunt, was actually censored by the School Board for promoting bigoted policies instead of fighting to improve our schools. Dave made that clear in a statement he released earlier today in reaction to the budget that was proposed yesterday.

“We need to send someone to Richmond with the right judgment and priorities. Last year as a House Delegate, I helped make the tough decisions on how to make two billion dollars of budget cuts as responsibly as possible while protecting education funding, while the Republicans were aggressively pushing half a billion dollars in education cuts. Make no mistake, Steve Hunt will be on the wrong side of this issue and will join with Republicans in Richmond who want to take a meat cleaver to our education budget – cuts that will make the current proposed cuts to Fairfax County schools look like child’s play. Let this be a wake-up call to anyone who thinks that Fairfax County schools are safe from harm – who we send to represent us in the Senate matters tremendously.”

Some of the people who are most familiar with the budget issues facing our schools are those who serve on the School Board. Fairfax County School Board Chair Kathy Smith (Sully District) is one of the people who has respect from activists on both sides of the aisle and has been involved with education related issues for quite some times tends to agree that Dave is the candidate who will fight for education and issued a strong endorsement of his candidacy today.

“When our schools are facing such devastating cuts, we need somebody with experience - experience in education and experience in cutting budgets responsibly to protect the things that are important, like Fairfax County's world-class schools. Today’s challenges demand someone like Dave Marsden because he is an effective fighter for Fairfax County, not someone who seems to be surrounded by controversy. I am endorsing Dave Marsden because I know he will be that fighter for us.”

With school systems across the state facing such devastating costs, the voters of the 37th District deserve to have a state senator who will concentrate on actually producing results when it comes to our schools. I think the choice is clear, Dave Marsden is the candidate who will fight for education and should be the next senator in the 37th.

Rex Simmons Elected Chair of FCDC

Last night was the biannual re-organization meeting for the Fairfax County Democratic Committee and we elected our county wide officers. There weren't any races with multiple candidates running so the process of electing officers was relatively easy. The slate of candidates was lead by Rex Simmons, who ran for the House of Delegates against Tim Hugo in the 40th back in 2007. If you want a reminder of Rex's campaign for delegate, you can check out the write up of an interview I did with him early on in his campaign.

Another very interesting aspect of last night's meeting was that the Committee was collecting coats and canned food to help the homeless and those living in poverty. The donations were being collected as a way to honor Rep. Jim Moran who recently had double knee surgery and requested this type of action in lieu of cards and flowers. Considering how cold this winter has already been and the increasing number of families who are suffering in these tough economic times, I was very pleased to see so many people bringing out items for the collection.

Report on the FCDC Road to Richmond Event

With the General Assembly session starting on January 13, the Fairfax County Democratic Committee recently held it's annual "Road to Richmond" event. The gathering is designed as an opportunity for people to come together and send the Fairfax County General Assembly delegation off to Richmond. Just like last year, this event was held at the Springfield Country Club and was attended by a capacity crowd of 220 people.

The main topic of conversation at the event was the upcoming special election in the 37th Senate District where everyone seems to be working hard to help elect Dave Marsden. I spoke to both Sen. George Barker and Sen. Chap Petersen who are going to be personally knocking on doors, and have already been doing so, to help turn out the vote in the final days. Barker, who has been walking primarily in the Chantilly area, said that many of the people he's spoken to have heard at least the very basics about the race but could use another friendly reminder about why they should get out and vote for Dave. The good thing is that he's be consistently meeting with people who've had good things to say about Dave and seem to realize that he's the best choice in the race. In a special election that's going to all come down to who turns out their base, however, we cannot afford to not remind all of these folks to get out to the polls on January 12.

The first speech of the event came from FCDC Chair Mary Ann Hovis who will be stepping down at tonight’s reorganization meeting. She tried to get the crowd energized by claiming “the report of the demise of the Democratic Party in Fairfax County is premature.” She went on to talk about how we might have lost two of our great delegates last November (Chuck Caputo and Margy Vanderhye) but that we did elect some new delegates that will provide a positive contribution in Richmond such as Mark Keam and Scott Surovell. Mary Ann also highlighted how FCDC was recognized as Committee of the Year by DPVA.

One of the big themes mentioned throughout the event was education, which was kicked off by the fact that the Chair of the School Board, Kathy Smith, was there to give an update on education related issues. Kathy pointed out that the school board had made significant cuts already but yet were faced with potentially having to make even more. To make the situation even worse, at the same time that all of the cuts are being made the student population has also grown by about 8,000.

Sharon Bulova, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, also highlighted education issues and said “we’re all concerned about funding for our schools and public safety. These are the things that make people want to live here in Fairfax.” She jokingly added that it definitely wasn’t our traffic situation that made people move here. She also stressed that this was a time when people were relying upon the government more than ever to provide assistance with housing, jobs, and other issues. In other words, the local governments have a lot of issues to deal with and she therefore urged the state government not to shift responsibility to the localities at a time when the localities were already struggling to meet their own responsibilities. She followed a theme we’ve already heard from people like Chap Petersen by claiming that we shouldn’t change the composite index because doing so could potentially harm Fairfax County, which has already gotten the low end of the stick on the issue.

After Bulova spoke we turned our attention to our General Assembly delegation as Del. Jim Scott came to the podium. He highlighted how one of the big things that the current members of the GA would deal with is redistricting. Jim pointed out that he believes this is the first time (at least in a very long time) that there’s been a divided GA during redistricting, which could potentially lead to some sort of bipartisan redistricting. With the current House leadership and Bob McDonnell in the Governor’s mansion I’m not as optimistic about this happening as Jim appears to be, but he brought up the interesting fact that under the last redistricting plan we went from having 47 Democrats in the House to 34. In other words, the partisan plan promoted by the Republicans caused the House to go from being relatively evenly split to being dominated by one party.

Next up was Mary Margaret Whipple who was there to speak about the Senate on behalf of Majority Leader Dick Saslaw (he was down in Florida on vacation). She also focused on education and pointed out that it could be difficult with Governor McDonnell having an education policy that focuses on charter schools and vouchers. She also said that she’s with the school board on the composite index issue.

The speeches were closed out with one from Sen. George Barker who spoke on behalf of the Marsden campaign. As I mentioned earlier, George has been out working hard for Dave’s campaign in the Chantilly area and has been getting a lot of positive feedback from people in the area. During his speech, the senator also highlighted how there were many similarities between this special election and the one for chairman of the board held last February. For instance, Bulova was down early in the polls just like Dave was but she was able to come back and win the seat by concentrating on the precincts that she had previously represented and those that were heavily Democratic. With a race that will truly come down to turning out the base, the same can be done in this special election with the 10 precincts that Dave already represents in the House of Delegates in addition to other solidly Democratic precincts throughout the district. The important thing is that in order for this to work, volunteers need to do what they can to help Dave win in these final few days.

With that, the speeches were over and people stuck around for a little while longer to catch up with fellow Democrats while giving their two cents to our General Assembly delegation and signing up to do some work for Marsden.

DGA Raises Record Amount in 2009

As we’re in the middle of a recession and the Democrats just lost two gubernatorial races, the Democratic Governors Association just announced that 2009 was it’s most successful fundraising year ever. As a result of the $23.1 million raised in 2009, Chairman Jack Markell said that the DGA will start with 12 times as much cash as it had in the same point in the last election cycle.

“Americans are focused on restoring prosperity in this country, and it's thanks to their broad support for our ideas that we hit a historic fundraising high in 2009,” Gov. Markell said. “The 2010 elections will be a contest between moving our country along a path of progress or making a U-turn to the failed ideas that created the Great Recession. In this election, ideas will win – and Americans are looking for governors who will put people first, who will rebuild the American Dream and who will invest in our children.”

“Voters will have a stark choice this November – move forward or go back,” said Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, DGA vice chairman. “Our supporters know that Democratic governors and candidates are working round the clock on the biggest priorities of this year: jobs, jobs and jobs. We look forward to an election where we can run on our records of turning the corner on this recession and rebuilding our economies.”

Now I most certainly understand the desire to move forward after the devastating year that Democrats had in elections in 2009, but praising these fundraising numbers as historic and a sign for the future simply doesn’t give me a good feeling. After all, I remember folks at the DGA telling me in the months leading up to the 2009 elections that they had invested historic amounts in Virginia and we ended up losing that race by almost 18 points. That doesn’t inspire much hope in how these huge amounts of money are being spent.

At the same time, if we have candidates who aren’t afraid to stand up for Democratic values in the next few years then the extra money could come in handy to fight off Republican smear campaigns. That money and effort will only work, however, if we actually have candidates who aren’t afraid to stand up for progressive values.

Washington Post Endorsed Dave Marsden

In a special election that will likely have very low turnout, an endorsement from the Washington Post can be very useful in reminding voters that there's an election coming up. Of course, it also helps if that reminder comes in the form of an endorsement for your candidate. That's why I'm pleased to see that the Washington Post has endorsed Dave Marsden for Senate in the 37th District.

Dave W. Marsden, a Democrat, is a well-respected expert on incarceration, juvenile justice and rehabilitation, having run the Fairfax County Juvenile Detention Center for 17 years as well as the state's Department of Juvenile Justice, a position for which he was chosen by a Republican governor. Mr. Marsden has served two terms in the House of Delegates with distinction.

[...]
What Mr. Hunt offers is mainly cliches. Better to elect Mr. Marsden, who brings policy expertise, fiscal realism and sound judgment.

Based upon what I've been hearing, there's still a lot of work that needs to be done during the last week of the campaign if Marsden is going to win the election. However, I think this endorsement could provide some extra momentum for all the volunteers who are out knocking on doors for Dave. More importantly, it provides voters with yet another example of why it's so important that we send Dave to the state senate.

Is there Support for Allowing Governors to Run for Reelection?

There has been a lot of talk in recent years about whether or not Virginia's governors should be able to run for reelection instead of being limited to one term. Some Democrats would have really liked this policy to be in place already because they thought Tim Kaine would have been able to give Bob McDonnell a better run for his money, but I think this is a policy that should be promoted no matter who is currently living in the governor's mansion. As the News Leader's editorial board pointed out today, there are a number of benefits to allowing governors to serve two consecutive terms.

It makes sense. By limiting the chief executive's time in office, the first year is spent getting up to speed, the middle years running the office and the last 18 months as a lame duck. If the governor were given the opportunity to work toward convincing voters he deserved another term, he could spend more time laying groundwork for better management of the state — and more political motivation to convince legislators and voters that he should be able to continue.

Continuity of policies certainly should make government work better.

Now the thing that I believe needs to be stressed is that "continuity of policies" could be a good thing if the policies are sound and are actually going to improve our communities. We shouldn't have continuity just for the sake of continuity, just as we shouldn't have change just for the sake of change. With that in mind, it would be the governor's responsibility to show voters why his/her policies were good and how he/she is going to continue the work for another four years.

By having to actually prove their policies are working and that they are thinking about the long term, Governor's might have to change their way of thinking. They won't have to force all their priorities into one term, but could potentially space them out throughout eight years. This would allow the government to spend the time needed to fully develop programs that will work properly as well as spending time addressing immediate concerns. And this is where the News Leader is absolutely correct is stating that allowing a governor to serve for consecutive terms would be good for Virginians. Given the fact that there has been a lot of opposition to this change in the General Assembly and there are a number of other tough issues Virginia is currently facing, however, I don't foresee any change in this policy in the near future.

Video: Rep. Eric Massa Goes After Dick Cheney

George W. Bush has done what most presidents do when they leave office -- they spend the next few years relatively out of the public eye letting the new president do his/her job. Dick Cheney, on the other hand, doesn't appear to have any interest in leaving public life as he seems to enjoy his knew role as a political hit man. Anytime there's something dealing with national security issues, Cheney comes out of his secret hiding place to launch into some attack claiming that Barack Obama is going to be responsible for the downfall of the United States.

The most recent example of this came after the Christmas Day event where a man attempted to blow up an airplane that was landing in Denver. In an interview that he gave to Politico earlier in the week, Cheney said that Obama was "trying to pretend we are not at war" and that his policies don't fit with the philosophy he had when he won the election last November. Of course, fitting with the strategy that Cheney is famous for he added in the scary line that Democrats are making the country less safe even though evidence seems to contradict that statement.

"As I’ve watched the events of the last few days it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war. He seems to think if he has a low-key response to an attempt to blow up an airliner and kill hundreds of people, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and reads them their Miranda rights, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if we bring the mastermind of Sept. 11 to New York, give him a lawyer and trial in civilian court, we won’t be at war.

“He seems to think if he closes Guantanamo and releases the hard-core Al Qaeda-trained terrorists still there, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if he gets rid of the words, ‘war on terror,’ we won’t be at war. But we are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren’t, it makes us less safe. Why doesn’t he want to admit we’re at war? It doesn’t fit with the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office. It doesn’t fit with what seems to be the goal of his presidency — social transformation — the restructuring of American society. President Obama’s first object and his highest responsibility must be to defend us against an enemy that knows we are at war."

While Cheney is extremely unpopular and is known for defending the horrible policies that he promoted during his time in public office, the fact that his comments receive a lot of attention means that Democrats shouldn't simply ignore what he's saying. It's like the swiftboat attacks during the 2004 election where the accusations should be nipped in the bud before they're able to gain any traction. With that in mind, I'm glad to see that Rep. Eric Massa has decided to go after Cheney and wasn't afraid of doing so on national television. Here's the video of his appearance on "The Ed Show" discussing the former vice-president.