Virginia Transition--Elections Matter   #205

By Hank Silverberg 

Virginia will swear in Glen Youngkin as the state's 74th governor next Saturday. It will be a traditional ceremony on Capital Square in Richmond. But it could also push the state back a decade in public policy, so the entire country will be watching.    

Youngkin is a 55-year-old businessman and millionaire who has no political experience.  He has already announced two decisions that will negate some progress the state has made in the last ten years. 

Youngkin, who has an MBA from Harvard, tried hard during the campaign to distance himself from Donald Trump. Unlike Trump, Youngkin is an affable and a generally likeable guy. But it's clear to many people who were paying attention during his campaign that he was not far off on policy from Trump.  It's already clear some of his decisions will echo Trumpism.   

(Virginia Capitol Building)

There has been little organized opposition in Virginia over  pandemic-era mask or vaccine mandates put in place by outgoing Governor Northam and President Biden. To be fair, Youngkin says he is vaccinated, and he has urged all Virginians to get the shots. But he has already decided to follow the right wing of his party and join the current lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to overturn those mandates. (SCOTUS may actually make a decision on the case before Youngkin takes office.) 

The Governor-elect has taken his time making cabinet appointments during the transition, and it is a rarity for the Virginia General Assembly to reject a governor's cabinet appointments. 

But it could happen this time over his choice of Andrew Wheeler to be Virginia's Secretary of Natural Resources. Wheeler was head of the EPA during the Trump administration where he rolled back many regulations intended to address climate change and pollution from the burning of coal.

Wheeler is a former lobbyist for the coal industry, which still plays a big role in Virginia's economy and he has expressed doubt about climate change science in general. This appointment has already sparked sharp criticism from environmentalists and his appointment is likely to face tough opposition in the General Assembly, even though the GOP has retaken control of the House of Delegates. This appointment also makes it clear where Youngkin plans to go on environmental issues in a state that had turned the corner against big coal a decade ago. 

Virginia turned purple  as the new century arrived and then blue over the last decade, but now voting rights, abortion rights and state education policy could all be in for a shift to the right with Youngkin in office with the General Assembly now split. Republicans control the House and Democrats hold a slim majority in the Senate. 

It may not get as much attention as the battles on Capitol Hill, but Virginia's politics have become much more divisive because of the election this past November.  

Over the last 30 years, Virginia's legislature has a tradition  of  civility, even when there was substantial disagreement on public policy and social issues and no matter which party was in control. But there is some doubt about that now with the current political climate emanating from  red states and their representatives in Washington.   

The General Assembly session begins on Wednesday (1/12).  Youngkin takes office next Saturday (1/15).

We could see a return to a more historical split in the Old Dominion with politicians and most of the state's population in Northern Virginia at odds with the Republican controlled southern and more rural counties. Northern Virginia's boundaries have shifted a bit south across the Rappahannock, but by the time you reach Lake Anna, with a few exceptions in urban centers and college towns, the word "Democrat" is still translated as "leftist liberals" and conceived as evil. 

Youngkin's election reopens the ghosts of the past and the mantra of Red State Republicans.  All this can become more complicated since he is a lame duck the day he takes office. He doesn't have to answer to the voters again. 

By law, Virginia governors can not serve two consecutive terms. 

Webb Telescope UPDATE!

A big success for NASA! The James Webb Telescope, which was launched on Christmas day, has completely unfolded with 50 major deployments. It's being described by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson as an "engineering milestone decades in the making." The telescope is 100 million times more powerful than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, and cost $10 billion to create. It has a gold foil sun-shield the size of a tennis court that will keep it cool. Had that failed to deploy, the mission would have been a failure.  

(Courtesy NASA) 

Webb was launched in a joint operation with the European Space Agency and has traveled a million miles into space. Astronomers hope it will fill a big gap in the historical record of our universe--the first 400 million years after the Big Bang. It also may help identify distant worlds that could sustain life.    

DC Dissed Again!

I have written in this blog before about how much Congress disrespects the citizens of the District of Columbia. Congress has nixed any attempt to grant D.C. statehood for decades, and continues to throw mud at the city's home rule. Now comes this from the embarrassing Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz. He wants to introduce a bill forcing D.C. to get rid of the city's vaccine mandate for school children. He says the school board has "no right to force you to go get your 5-year-old vaccinated".  And as he made the comment he reminded everyone that the District is still under the authority of Congress. 

The District's lone warrior in the House, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who under home rule has no vote in the House, was quick to jump on Cruz, telling The Hill newspaper,  "The duly elected D.C. Council represents the nearly 700,000 D.C. residents, not Senator Cruz. I will defeat his latest attempt to abuse Congress’ authority over D.C., just as I have defeated all of his prior attempts."  

Good luck, Congresswoman Norton. Under a mandate from the city council, D.C. school kids must be vaccinated by March 1 in order to stay in school. Several other cities across the county have adopted similar rules. 

This is another example of what is wrong with the city's current political predicament. It was highlighted on January 6th of last year when the Mayor's request to call out the D.C. National Guard during the Capitol Hill riot had to go through the White House, where it was denied for hours. 

Big On-Air Mistake!

NBC's Chuck Todd usually gets his political analysis right. But I think maybe he needs to go back and re-read some history books on the Civil War era. He gets an Honorable Mention for this week's dumbest quote.  

Appearing on Katy Tur Reports on MSNBC during a one-year anniversary review of the January 6th insurrection, Todd said:

 "Lincoln's election was more accepted.... in 1860."

That was followed with the word "Exactly," by Andrea Mitchell, who I really don't think was paying attention to what Todd had just said. 

Come on, Chuck! Don't blow a good career with a dumb statement like that. You do remember that after a very close three-way contest in 1860 that elected Mr. Lincoln, 11 southern States succeeded from the Union and formed what they conceived as another country. No smooth transfer there.    

There's also this: on his way to Washington for his inauguration on March 20th, 1861, Lincoln had to sneak through Baltimore late at night disguised as a woman because of an assassination plot. 

Then the southern states, now calling themselves "The Confederate States of America" instead of "The United States," fired on Fort Sumter on April 12th just a few weeks after Lincoln took office.

(Rendering 0f 1861 Baltimore riot
Courtesy Dickenson College) 

Seven days later in Baltimore, in a state which stayed in the Union, there was a massive violent riot as Federal troops passed through on their way south. Twelve citizens were killed in the April 19th riot in what was later described as the first bloodshed of the Civil War. That war eventually killed 700,000 Americans. So no, there was not a peaceful transition of power in 1861. Until last January 6th, 2021, that was the only other exception to a very American tradition of a "peaceful transition of power."  Certainly 1861 was a much bigger exception than 2021.   

Chuck Todd: ‘Election Was More Accepted in 1860’ Than 2020 (mediaite.com)

Sorry Chuck, you are wrong on this one. 

Dumbest Quote of The Week!

The dishonor for the Dumbest Quote this week goes to the aforementioned Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.  

On Wednesday, the day before the one year anniversary of the January 6th insurrection, Ted Cruz, in a Senate Committee meeting said the event was "a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol, where we saw the men and women of law enforcement demonstrate incredible courage.”

That was good and accurate. It appeared Cruz was finally accepting reality. 

But then the "master of lies and manipulation", Tucker Carlson, continued to spread misinformation about "false flags", conspiracies by the FBI and other bizarre falsehoods on his show. And he ripped into Cruz asking for reassurance that Cruz misspoke. 

The next night on Carlson's show, Cruz apologized and said his original comment was "sloppy" and "frankly dumb." He then added this clarification:  

"What I was referring to are the limited number of people who engaged in violent attacks against police officers. You and I both agree that if you assault a police officer you should go to jail. "

That's not really a change on his original statement, but he thought it was a clarification. It is the winner of this week's dump quote simply because Cruz, under pressure from Carlson, felt a need to clarify his original statement. 

I won't write about Carlson's reaction because it was all vitriol with very little fact. 

  

Readers. Please feel free to forward any dumb quotes you hear in the coming week for this weekly feature. 

(Your suggestions for, and comments on this blog are welcome). 

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