Shaun Kenney

Hampton Roads area Democrat Vivian Paige asks the tough question about coalition building:

That the Democrats with the majority can’t get stuff done is a problem. I understand that universal health care has been in the party platform for decades but does anyone think that such legislation could pass our current Congress?

So my question is this: can the tent be too big?

The answer is yes, depending on how big a circle you draw. Take the 2000 Virginia Republican majority… what did it accomplish, other than to throw the Democrats out of power?

Hence the lesson, one that I am afraid national Democrats have yet to learn.

The less simplistic answer to all of this is that “big tents” aren’t difficult to establish, so long as those inside understand what the long poles are. For the GOP, it used to be that the long poles were less government, pro-life, pro-family, and pro-2nd Amendment. For the 1994 Contract with America, there were 10 key votes and an overwhelming anti-Clinton sentiment.

In 2006, it was anti-Bush sentiment (not anti-war sentiment — as the current Democratic majority is demonstrating) that drove the train. Mission accomplished… and now the Democratic majority will have to squabble between its progressive and liberal wings for vision while the Republicans shift gears into a minority party with which they have long been comfortable.

The tent built by the Democrats in 2006 was pretty darned big… but when the edifice comes crashing down, my bet is that it will occur with plenty of warning, just as the conservative base cautioned in 2006 and continues to warn the GOP leadership heading into 2008.

This is disgusting if it is in the slightest bit true:

Jim (Gilmore’s) morning started uneventfully at the 8th District, where he and Bob Marshall both gave speeches. Then Bob Marshall left for the 10th District as he should have, but Jim Gilmore went to the closer 11th District instead. At that convention candidate speeches were scheduled to start after the first balloting, which everyone who had bothered to contact Becky Stoeckel (another failure by Jim Gilmore) knew. Sitting in the front row waiting for an opportunity to deliver his pearls of wisdom, while glaring at temporary Chairman Jay O’Brien for being delayed, Gilmore finally lost his patience, stormed the stage, took the microphone away, and launched into a rather lengthly speech. Many convention delegates were pretty stunned, not only because of this incredible display of hubris and self-importance, but because Gilmore actually ended up delaying the first ballot. Gilmore almost certainly lost quite a few delegates with this display.

It gets worse.

By the time Gilmore made his way over to the 10th District convention, the show was pretty much over. Gilmore and his staff met with 10th District Chairman Jim Rich where Rich was subjected to an angry tirade by one of Gilmore’s staffers, Jesse, who complained that Rich shouldn’t have let Bob Marshall speak until Gilmore was there. Gilmore then gave his speech to the thirty or so people remaining, some who were busy cleaning up trying to get out of there, and not terribly interested in listening to someone who shows up wanting recognition after the show was over.

Looks as if Gilmore’s situation in Northern Virginia went from pecarious to overtly hostile in the span of a weekend.

Not good.

Jim Webb is on the short list for VP.

Don’t believe me? Read this and believe.

I will add the following: If Obama-Webb is the ticket for the Democratic nomination in 2008, the GOP is in a universe (not world) of hurt.

Kat over at CatHouse Chat gives the Virginia blogosphere a first look at the Jeffersoniad Journal.

I’m certain this will be a running feature for the very best of the Virginia rightosphere’s blogging talent.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain says he’s going to bring Prime Minister’s Questions stateside, which is a tremendous idea:

“I will ask Congress to grant me the privilege of coming before both houses to take questions, and address criticism, much the same as the prime minister of Great Britain appears regularly before the House of Commons,” McCain said in excerpts of a speech he is to deliver later in Columbus, Ohio.

Although U.S. presidents deliver annual “State of the Union” speeches to Congress at the start of each year, those formal addresses do not include a question-and-answer session.

McCain said exchanges such as those in the British House of Commons are a way of holding leaders accountable.

“When we make errors, I will confess them readily, and explain what we intend to do to correct them,” McCain said. He also reiterated a pledge to hold weekly news conferences, a change from President George W. Bush’s practice of holding them roughly once a month.

Of course, there’s a slight question as to whether or not the American talent for hyperbole will turn this into a farce… but even if it’s not the President, how cool would it be for the Speaker of the House to trade barbs with the minority — even without the potential backdrop of a parliamentary system (votes of no confidence, and the like)?

I love the parliamentary system of governance, and while I wouldn’t replace what we have for it exclusively, I would certainly replace the lower house of any legislature with European-style slating for the purposes of election (and introduce a version of Prime Minister’s Questions).

As only Keith Olbermann can do it:

4,000 American soldiers died for nothing, Mr. Olbermann? Sounds like someone needs to take his own advice…

BTW, some genius PR toad decided the best way to spin this rant was to rank it as “his best Special Comments ever.”

What an ass.

Seems like Obama has qualms expressing his opinion on Israel

:

JG: Do you think that Israel is a drag on America’s reputation overseas?

BO: No, no, no. But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy. The lack of a resolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions, and so we have a national-security interest in solving this, and I also believe that Israel has a security interest in solving this because I believe that the status quo is unsustainable.

That’s disgusting. Maybe Jim Webb would make a great VP candidate for Obama after all…

Torn to pieces in only the way Stephen Colbert

can do it:

“I’m not really interested. That’s all I want to say.”

Let the crying at Raising Kaine commence.

This.

Dirty pool guys…