While it’s an imperfect metaphor, we tend to think of the typical General Assembly legislative session as a poorly plotted television series. It may be filled with interesting characters and over-the-top drama, but there are way too many subplots, and it never ends up exactly where you think it should. It’s like, one moment you’re […]
Although we’re sure he doesn’t see it this way, being rejected by his own party might be the best thing that ever happened to Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling. Think about it: A year ago, Bolling was just a boring party apparatchik whose main function was breaking ties in the evenly divided senate (always in the […]
It says a great deal about the current state of Virginia’s body politic that some idiot with a loaded AR-15 walks into a local Kroger and it barely rates a mention. Indeed, as much as we would like to pen an entire column dedicated to the minuscule size of this particular individual’s brain and manhood, […]
In order to at least partly fulfill our New Year’s resolution to accentuate the positive, we’d like to start this column with one for the “credit where credit is due” file. While we’re not usually big fans of Governor Bob McDonnell (to put it mildly), there is one area in which he has been a […]
It’s been quite a while since we’ve checked in with Virginia’s highest-ranking congressional official, U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. But with all of the crazy machinations and momentous decisions roiling the House chamber recently, it’s high time we explored the ongoing adventures of Richmond’s chisel-cheeked representative. Ever since Republicans retook the House in 2010, […]
Fair warning: If you count yourself among Virginia’s (quite sizable) contingent of second amendment absolutists, you should stop reading now. As we sit here, furiously writing yet another post-gun massacre column, we’re in no mood to tiptoe around the delicate sensibilities of this country’s increasingly unhinged firearm fanatics. In the wake of the horrible slaughter […]
Wow. Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that we were complaining about a dearth of electoral excitement ’round these parts? Well, in a classic case of “be careful what you wish for,” the ink on our last column was barely dry when the Commonwealth’s biggest political players went on a collective news-making spree. It […]
Believe us, we’ve been following Virginia’s electoral ebb and flow long enough to know that late November is a political dead zone. The polls are shuttered, the voting machines have been put away for another year, and everyone wants to just take off and enjoy the holidays. Sure, a few nuggets of real news might […]
So here we are. After what seems like the longest presidential campaign in human history, the election is just days away. And, while we are firmly on record predicting an Obama win (both nationally and in Virginia), nothing—and we mean nothing—is ever certain in politics (just ask alternative-universe President Thomas E. Dewey). With that in mind, we […]
You know, it’s been quite a while since we’ve checked in on our old pal Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s top cop, would-be governor, and all-around raging conservative id. To be honest, we got more than a little tired of his relentlessly right-wing, incessantly self-promoting prosecutorial stunts. And after the ignominious (and well-deserved) death of his anti-Obama-care […]