Conservativa

We had a great Bloggers’ Day at the Capitol, thanks to Lt. Gov. Bolling, Mrs. Bolling, and the Lt. Gov.’s staff. A big thank you to them for making this happen. It was fun and informative. I had seen the Senate on TV a couple of times (at least in parts of the Richmond area, during Session, it is on cable) but this is the first time I have observed the floor proceedings live. The pace of things there is sometimes a little slow, but sometimes blink-and-you-miss-it fast.

Coming up: Lots more photos of the day, but that will be later this week and into next week. Let’s just say that today I saw politicians, lobbyists in bow ties, an astronaut, some cops, a twin, a bunch of gubernatorial hopefuls, a Washington Post reporter, an enormous safe, and apparently a Falun Gong practitioner. And a bunch of bloggers.

Photo details: photo of Bill Bolling presiding over the Senate. Canon EOS30D, 200mm, ISO800, f/3.2, 1/125.

… in the election: random happenings. It’s a long time until the party conventions. Anything can happen. Some dramatic world event, some economic shift, some natural disaster, some huge scandal in a candidate’s background coming to light, or some candidate’s self-imposed stupid thing like a Dean scream or a macaca moment. I predict at least one of these will happen within the next few months and it will affect the race.

For Romney, it’s time to bring his “A” game. Patrick Ruffini has a good piece here. Huckabee (grrr) will be rapidly losing supporters now. (And despite his making big cow eyes at McCain in the last debate, I don’t think McCain will be asking him to be his VP choice). Romney may be able to pick up a lot of those. And, Romney has the money.

One thing Romney could work on - I read something like this earlier today and now can’t find it - the gist of it was that Obama, Hillary, and McCain each have an interesting life story. Romney, not so much. Very smart guy born into political family gets great education, succeeds much in business, goes into politics, and succeeds there. A fine life. But not a story that people can much relate to. There seem to be no big setbacks, disadvantages overcome, stupid choices that were overcome, etc. There may be such things in Romney’s life, but they have not made their way into the public view. I think this is part of what people sense when they describe him as stiff or plastic.

Romney’s the turnaround specialist in business. He needs to apply everything he knows there to his campaign. He has turned around difficult situations before, so he is not to be counted out yet.

A strong showing for McCain. I really have mixed feelings about a McCain nomination. My strongest issue is fighting and winning the war on terror, (that was declared on us, as far as I am concerned, the day the Iranian hostages were taken) and McCain easily would take on the role of Commander in Chief. The military would certainly respect him. So I would be very happy with him there.

However, another important issue to me is illegal immigration. Perhaps someone like McCain who, like a lot of long-time Senators, has probably not lived anyplace other than some gated community, for decades, just never encounters it. If it is invisible to him, then perhaps he thinks it is an issue that was ginned up by talk radio just to get ratings. It isn’t. On his website, McCain says:

I have always believed that our border must be secure and that the federal government has utterly failed in its responsibility to ensure that it is secure. If we have learned anything from the recent immigration debate, it is that Americans have little trust that their government will honor a pledge to do the things necessary to make the border secure.

Quite right!

Then we see that he has this guy as an advisor.

Some serious advice to McCain here: if he would lose that guy and hire someone who appears to be serious about border security, I think that would go a long way towards mending some fences (sorry, couldn’t resist) with conservatives.

Something else that could make a big difference to a McCain campaign - a great VP pick.

Jindal for VP! (yeah, I know he just got sworn in. I’m just sayin’)

Or, Fred. Or even Rudy. Someone more conservative than McCain, and/or someone Southern, someone with an interesting personality and/or life story, someone conservatives just like. That too would bring along some of us who don’t hate McCain but are still not enthused about him.

Jill Holtzman Vogel is a freshman Senator from Warrrenton, and she begins her Virginia legislative career with a batch of conservative-friendly bills. I am especially watching SB 433, which is on the docket in a subcommittee today. It says:

It shall be the responsibility of the Governor, or other eligible authority, to enter into memorandum of agreement with the United States Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to permit designated state and local law-enforcement officers to perform certain federal immigration law functions in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

I don’t know what force SB 433 would have, but, I think the Governor should sign those memoranda.

Photo details: Canon EOS5D, ISO 3200, 200mm, 1/60 at f/2.8.

Funny video from Slate - Hillary’s Inner Tracy Flick. Great editing. H/T: Captain’s Quarters.

It’s Monday. Back to work for the Virginia Legislature. Keep an eye on what your legislators are doing - see the excellent site Richmond Sunlight. It gets a lot of its info from the Legislative Information System. These sites may seem a bit “inside baseball,” and for political junkies only, but what the legislature does winds up affecting our lives directly, so it is essential for this information to be available.

On the other hand, it’s good to keep things in perspective, get one’s nose out of the blogosphere, and look around. This is a crop of a photo of the Virginia capitol building. See the tiny lighter area about 1/3 down from the top of the photo? Here it is, sized up and much sharpened:

It’s a bird. Amazing - the whole photo here takes in almost all of the front of the capitol building, but still captures this tiny detail. Shooting at a fairly low ISO helps. ISO 200, f/7.1, 1/2000, 20mm.

Please don’t. I’m speaking to my fellow Republicans who say “I could never vote for (Romney/McCain/Giuliani).” Here are a few reasons why a vote for any of those three would be better than staying home.

Radical Islamic Terror; Nationalized Health Care; The Fairness Doctrine; and, just basically, Those Awful People.

Check out those links. If you like, go check out DailyKos or MyDD. Don’t tell me “it won’t make any difference” if you just stay home and don’t vote. Sure, work for your favorite candidate and list reasons why you don’t like the others. But this fall, vote Republican.

Washington & Lee holds its mock convention today. According to its website, “student delegates attempt to predict the presidential nominee of the political party currently out the of the White House; this year, the Mock Convention will try to select the Democratic presidential candidate.” The convention has a good track record for picking the nominee, so it will be worth checking back to see who they picked.

Update: they picked Clinton to be the Democratic nominee.

Warner is apparently realizing that he needs to talk about something on his website. So, he has added a “record” section. Those pages can be summed up thusly: “I saw some deficiency, so I created a new [program / committee / task force / agency / board / project / partnership / strike force / study / initiative ] and threw money at it.” Taxpayer money. I wonder how many of those things are still in existence today, whether they are needed or not, and being funded by our tax dollars. Not that all politicians don’t do some of that. But, to quote Giuliani,

“The Democrats believe in government when they have a choice. Republicans believe in people when we have a choice. . . . The Republican Party is the party of the people. The Democratic Party is the party of the government.”

Now compare and contrast with Jim Gilmore, who would rather control spending and make tax cuts for families, so they can spend their own money the way they want. Now who do you want in Washington, dealing with our Federal budget? The guy who lives to create programs of every description to spend your tax dollars, or the guy who remembers where taxes come from and would try to spend them much more carefully?

Fred for SCOTUS!

Tim Craig of the Washington Post reports a nice catch by Terry Kilgore in a committee meeting yesterday:

‘But after both bills were approved pending a final vote in a few weeks, Del. Terry G. Kilgore (R-Scott) posed a simple question to House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem).’

‘”We just made stealing a cat a felony, and we are making someone who forces an abortion guilty of a misdemeanor?” asked Kilgore, wondering if the subcommittee ever compared the bills side by side.’

Nice catch, Del. Kilgore (and Tim Craig). With so many bills being considered every session, legislators have to be alert, or things like this can happen. It should be a crime to steal a cat. It should be a worse crime to coerce a woman into having an abortion.

Photo details: The General Assembly Building as reflected in a window of the Capitol. Canon EOS5D, ISO 200, 1/125 at f/11, lens at 40mm.

As pointed out by Bill Hobbs, Virginia used to have a combined Lee-King-Jackson Day. Governor Jim Gilmore made it a stand-alone holiday, so Virginia would honor Dr. King’s legacy. Dr. King inspired so many millions and really did bring about positive change to the entire country through his speaking, writing, and leading.

Thanks to Jim Gilmore for stepping up while Governor and making this appropriate holiday celebration happen in Virginia.

[Crossposted to Bloggers4JimGilmore]

1. Beautiful photography, and -

2. I dare you to watch without wanting to stand up and put your hand over your heart.

Our Marines.

(H/T: American Digest).

For this, I will break my rule against printing entire press releases. Attorney General Bob McDonnell calls us to remember the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, written by Thomas Jefferson.

“On this date two hundred twenty-two years ago, the Virginia General Assembly adopted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom,  the critical first step in guaranteeing freedom of religion for all citizens, in establishing the precedent for the First Amendment to the Constitution, and articulating for all time the belief that this right comes not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.”

“As with our Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote this statute in a simple eloquence that reverberates today. This framer of American democracy was likewise the sculptor of the cornerstone of American religious liberty.”

“Across America today, citizens worship according to the dictates of their own consciences free from government interference because of the revolutionary action taken in Virginia. Around the world today, soldiers fight and die to extend this freedom to oppressed people.”

“This anniversary should call all Virginians to examine our shared history and the principles that form the foundation of our government, in order that religious freedom is expanded and preserved for future generations.”

We forget how fortunate we are to have this freedom. We should remember the freedom, and remember those who died to preserve it.

Text of the Statute here. Notes from the Virginia Historical Society here.

Photo details: the statue Memory, at the Virginia War Memorial. Canon EOS5D, ISO 400, 24mm, 1/320 at f/6.3.