Tim Kaine is a Loser

[CEJ2200]

Kaine mentined fiscal responsibility and the need for more govt - did I miss something?! Those two don't necessary go together - I can't wait for his tax increases over the next 4 LLLOOOOONNNNGGGGGG years.

[Skins24]

Does anyone know when this painful exercise began? Why do we need to listen to the oppositions response to the Constitutionally mandated SOTU?

Started in 1966

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_the_Union#Opposition_response

[riggins44]

I couldn't stand to watch Kaine. He seems to have a high opinion of himself, which glad I didn't vote for him. Can't believe some of the things he has

proposed.

The 5% sales tax on auto sales is ludicrous. That would kill an already depressed industry. Besides, the state takes in over $600 million is sales

tax from car sales. Each year VA receives about 7% more than previous

year, because of increase in car prices. His wish for a tax increase

to fund transportation may just reduce state's income.

Then he wants to increase taxes on your auto insurance policy.

Kaine is first democrat that wants to tax the poor to help the rich.

[Destino]

Kaine mentined fiscal responsibility and the need for more govt - did I miss something?! Those two don't necessary go together - I can't wait for his tax increases over the next 4 LLLOOOOONNNNGGGGGG years.

Both he and Bush called for spending cuts and followed it up with several plans to spend more money.

[Skinsfan1311]

I want to personally thank each and every person who voted for this weasel, who is currently embarrassing every Virginian on national TV. Good job. :applause:

Who's more embarrassing to VA.....Kaine, or P.E.T.A.??

[Zguy28]

I thought it was great speech, and I'm a GOP member. I think it was well thought out and well delivered. It wasn't an attack dog speech, which seems to be what our society wants these days. We thrive on the dramatic and shocking.

Also it was way better than John Kerry's:loser: speech on the Today show this morning. He kept cutting off Katie Couric and blaming the media for the Democrat's problems. :blahblah:I was impressed with Ol' Katie, she had to cut him off and say "you can't be serious! Don't blame the media Mr. Kerry."

I will admit though, the Mr.Spock eyebrow thing was freaking me out!

[Rocky21]

He talked about this administration's poor choices and bad management.

Those are painfully obvious to a lot of Americans.

[Midnight Judges]

I'm surprised at the number of people on here who already hate Governor Kaine. The guy has been in office for what, 30 days now? Give him a chance. Yes, I voted for him and I thought Warner was an outstanding Governor and I was turned off my Kilgore's attack adds and lies. Kilgore sent a "VA voter guide" to my house and the whole thing was a hoax. It was made to look like it was created by an independant agency. It was as if Kilgore thought he could trick people into voting for him.

Anyway, I thought Tim Kaine had a very shaky start. He was clearly nervous as this was the first time he addressed the entire country all at once. I think any one of us would be nervous too. After he settled in he improved and I thought he had a very strong ending. The spech came together at the end if you were paying attention.

Here comes my boss, Gotta get back to work....more later

[WhodatSkinsFan?]

I want to personally thank each and every person who voted for this weasel, who is currently embarrassing every Virginian on national TV. Good job. :applause:

hhhhm,

I thought he WON!!!!

ha, ha, ha just joking, hell i live IN the the city....

I caught the first 3 words then my phone started ringing.... i''ll have to hit Drudge and see

[Redskins Diehard]

I kept waiting for him to offer me a great deal on an 86 Ford Tempo, or maybe a special rate on some vinyl siding.

I couldn't even pay attention to what he was saying...he looked ridiculous.

[Destino]

I'm surprised at the number of people on here who already hate Governor Kaine. The guy has been in office for what, 30 days now? Give him a chance. Yes, I voted for him and I thought Warner was an outstanding Governor and I was turned off my Kilgore's attack adds and lies. Kilgore sent a "VA voter guide" to my house and the whole thing was a hoax. It was made to look like it was created by an independant agency. It was as if Kilgore thought he could trick people into voting for him.

Anyway, I thought Tim Kaine had a very shaky start. He was clearly nervous as this was the first time he addressed the entire country all at once. I think any one of us would be nervous too. After he settled in he improved and I thought he had a very strong ending. The spech came together at the end if you were paying attention.

Here comes my boss, Gotta get back to work....more later

They hated him before and they still do now. For many it's purely because he's a democrat. You are correct about Kilgore's campaign, I've stated serveral times that it was one of the dirtiest I've ever seen. Misleading documents, insulting lettes from victims familes, horrible dishonest attack ads, etc etc

[Guest Gichin13]

Maybe I don't understand what you are talking about, but I like what Tim is doing reference allowing local jurisdictions deciding what is best for their jurisdiction. Sounds like a GOP thing to do. VA is a Dillon rule state.

Virginia is indeed still a Dillon Rule state, one of only several remaining Dillon Rule states.

For example, a County can't make it's own decisions without first getting the states' permission. The VA legislature has to grant the jurisdictions powers to do anything.

Sort of true, but not here in context. Counties and municipalities have broad grants of authority to provide for land use within their counties. The methods are through zoning of the property, set back requirements, height requirements et c.

The problem with "adequate public facilities" legislation is that it in essence permits a local government to exercise draconian authority over development without any objective criteria. For example, Fairfax decides there are not enough roads. You lose your ability to develop your property completely. This approach eventually makes the Kelo case look like childsplay. If you think I am exaggerating, just look at the 10% surcharge Arlingon tried to jack onto the development community for affordable housing. Absent Dillon's Rule, the Board would have singlehandedly jacked up the price of new housing more than 10% when they were trying to make housing affordable

A better approach to development is to engage in long term transportation and development planning, primarily creating density around mass transit (see Arlington for a great visionary model established in the 1970's). Once you have the transportation designed in planned, you establish your zoning and development plan around that developed and planned infrastructure. Tying granting bonus density, rezoning, et c to paying for offsite improvements is regarded as part of the price of doing business; facing local government pulling the rug out and changing the rules mid-stream is not.

The real problem is a spineless level of governmental reaction in the General Assembly to transportation funding for the last thirty years. Couple that with various communities (especially Fairfax) fighting centralized development and you end up with senseless urban sprawl and cars travelling from hours away through our entire area.

I have a great speech from Doug Fahl at Dewberry laying out a very solid case for what should be happening instead of APF if folks are interested.

So, northern virginia has to abide but the stupid philosophy of some southwest redneck state congressman that has nothing to do with what goes on in traffic congested northern virginia. Simply, it is all about power and not wanting to give it up. The hypocrisy is just amazing in this state.

NoVa pays for the rest of the state. Painful fiscal and political reality that will only change when Tidewater, Richmond and NoVa realize their interests are common and present a unified front.

Virginia I believe is one of the few states left that practice the Dillon rule. Recently I asked a republican state congressman about the Dillon rule and if a possibility exists the state would change their ways and he laughed at me.

I think the snowball in hell has a better chance over the short term :laugh:

[AJ_Skins]

Kilgore managed to insult a ton of people by claiming that Tim Kaine’s stance was pro-criminal. Tell that to the Catholics, that were up until that point planning on voting for Kilgore, that quickly changed their mind when a letter from a victim showed up in their box and basically insulted them and their belief system in the name of Jerry Kilgore. Not to mention the fact that Tim Kaine never went against the death penalty. He stated he would uphold the laws of the state of Virginia. The panic Kilgore tried to generate was plainly dishonest.

I think 99% of the reason Kilgore lost was his personality. I even had a hard time pulling the lever for him.

Another democrat won in the red state. We can bank on fiscal responsibility for a while longer unlike the last GOP governor that damn near lost the states credit rating and left the budget in crisis.

Blah, blah, blah. "Fiscal responsibility" is just the D's new favorite way of passing off tax increases. Nobody's fooled.

[AJ_Skins]

NoVa pays for the rest of the state. Painful fiscal and political reality that will only change when Tidewater, Richmond and NoVa realize their interests are common and present a unified front.

I'd be interested to see, if the data is available, exactly how much tax revenue is generated by various parts of the state. I have a feeling there is more than a bit of exaggeration in that statement.

I've said before, and I'll say again, that I believe the traffic problems facing northern Virginia are not solvable. There are simply too many people trying to jam themselves into an area that can't hold them. All of the growth has built up rapidly around existing infrastructure, making expanding the roadways extremely difficult. The only way to even begin solving the problem would be massive public domain seizures to clear the way for new roads, huge tax increases to pay for them, and strict zoning restrictions to cut down on new development. Even if you could get by the enivronmentalists, the NIMBY reaction and the taxpayers, it would bankrupt the state economy.

They just need to put up a sign that says "we're full, go find some place else to live".

[Thiebear]

I'd be interested to see, if the data is available, exactly how much tax revenue is generated by various parts of the state. I have a feeling there is more than a bit of exaggeration in that statement.

Since you asked:

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?archive=true&article=8488&paper=81&cat=104

[AJ_Skins]

Since you asked:

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?archive=true&article=8488&paper=81&cat=104

That article doesn't address the issue. The assertion was "NOVA pays for the rest of the state". While I don't doubt more taxes go out than come in, I suspect the overall share of taxes they're paying is not quite as great as some would like to think.

Anybody who thinks NOVA is this booming economic region and the rest of the state is some podunk backwater needs to take a trip to Richmond and Norfolk/Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads. Things are pretty much the same in each area, NOVA just has more people. I suspect the taxes vs. tax dollars spent issue in each of the more populated, economically robust areas is similar. I thought liberals believed in high taxes and redistribution of wealth anyway. Why all the whining?

Personally, I would not cry if if a couple of counties in NOVA decided to break off, and I don't think anybody else would either. We'd do just fine, and we'd never end up saddled with a governor like Kaine. I just wish all of these liberals who have moved in from out of state would go to Maryland where they belong.

[Destino]

I think 99% of the reason Kilgore lost was his personality. I even had a hard time pulling the lever for him.

I don't care what his personality was, I wouldn't vote for anyone that ran that campaign. It was disgusting and I know a lot of catholic republicans that voted for the democrat because of it. Also he failed to respond to the gun ownership rights survey in VA that forced candidates to be SPECIFIC about where they stood. There was nothing at all about this guy that made me think "good leader." He was another empty promise republican - promising to slash taxes and build roads with no plausible explanation for paying for it.

Blah, blah, blah. "Fiscal responsibility" is just the D's new favorite way of passing off tax increases. Nobody's fooled.

Fiscal responsibility means PAYING for what you PROMISE. It's completely different from the GOP tactic of promising the world and sticking the next poor fool that has your job with the bill. You see that type of **** works in Washington because they are allowed to operate in a never ending always growing deficit. VA isn't. Until the GOP learns to pay for what it wants instead of trying to buy votes like Gilmore did, ignoring all consequence, I hope they continue to lose the race in VA. The state is better off without that type of "leadership" and the proof is a RED state has continue to vote BLUE for the top seat.

[AJ_Skins]

I don't care what his personality was, I wouldn't vote for anyone that ran that campaign. It was disgusting and I know a lot of catholic republicans that voted for the democrat because of it. Also he failed to respond to the gun ownership rights survey in VA that forced candidates to be SPECIFIC about where they stood. There was nothing at all about this guy that made me think "good leader." He was another empty promise republican - promising to slash taxes and build roads with no plausible explanation for paying for it.

Fiscal responsibility means PAYING for what you PROMISE. It's completely different from the GOP tactic of promising the world and sticking the next poor fool that has your job with the bill. You see that type of **** works in Washington because they are allowed to operate in a never ending always growing deficit. VA isn't. Until the GOP learns to pay for what it wants instead of trying to buy votes like Gilmore did, ignoring all consequence, I hope they continue to lose the race in VA. The state is better off without that type of "leadership" and the proof is a RED state has continue to vote BLUE for the top seat.

Yeah, but you're a flaming liberal, while most of Virginia is conservative, so your opinions don't really represent the way most people think. Among people who typically vote Republican, it was Kilgore's personality and demeanor that put them off. He did not inspire confidence, and did not seem to possess any himself. The proof is in the fact that Republicans more conservative than Kilgore won LT and AG. Conservative voters split their tickets for the specific purpose of not voting for him.

[AJ_Skins]

Here's a great article:

LINK

The Virginia Miracle? Puh-lease!

By Peter Ferrara

Tuesday night, in the Democrat response to President Bush’s State of the Union, we heard Gov. Tim Kaine talk about the great bipartisan collaboration in his state of Virginia. We were told that collaboration has served the people by focusing on delivering services, making record investments, and producing real results.

Those are the new code words for what is really going on in Virginia, where historic runaway government spending is being fueled by record tax increases. We are going to hear a lot in the next two years about this great Virginia bipartisan “miracle,” with former Gov. Mark Warner now running for president and, failing that, very possibly joining a ticket in the vice-presidential slot.

With this in mind, the truth about Virginia and the performance and character of former Gov. Warner need to be put on the record now.

I have observed the Virginia situation first hand, battling against the state’s spending-and-tax tsunami as the former head of the state’s Club for Growth chapter. When Mark Warner ran for governor in 2001, he insisted he would never even consider raising taxes. He famously said, “The old style of politics, of saying anything to get elected, is not what we need. Instead, as a businessman, I will clean up the budget mess in Richmond, restore accountability, and — no matter how many times my opponent may say otherwise — I will not raise your taxes.”

Indeed, Warner bitterly attacked his Republican opponent in ad after ad, claiming his opponent was a scurrilous politician for bringing up the completely phony claim that Warner would raise taxes if elected. Yet in 2004 Warner proposed the largest tax increase in the history of Virginia — $1.1 billion over just the first two years of implementation.

Virginia’s Republican house opposed any tax increase. But about a dozen overcooked senate Republicans, including the aging senate Republican leadership, insisted they would not pass any budget (effectively shutting down the state) unless an even bigger tax increase was passed.

Let’s review the story of state senate finance committee chairman John Chichester. Chichester had faced a serious primary challenge in 2003, in which he urged voters to “Join his campaign for lower taxes.” His literature also alleged that he was a “Leader in the fight for lower taxes.” In a campaign letter, Chichester said, “you can always count on me to support our shared Republican principles of smaller government [and] lower taxes.” He told the Richmond Times Dispatch in May 2003, “I’m certainly not going to favor raising taxes.”

When Chichester’s primary opponent Mike Rothfeld charged that Chichester was plotting a massive tax increase with Warner, Chichester said Rothfeld was “hallucinating.”

And what happened? Just a few months after winning that primary, Chichester lead 12 senate Republicans, who had similarly campaigned for lower taxes, to counter Warner’s proposal with a $3.9 billion tax increase over the first two years. The state house, fearing the media would pin the blame for any government shutdown on them, eventually went along with a $1.4 billion increase.

Why the hysteria to raise taxes? Warner and Chichester ran around the state claiming that because of the ill-considered car tax cut under former Republican governor Jim Gilmore, the state faced a massive budget deficit. Warner said he had already cut state spending by $6 billion, or 20 percent of the budget. As a result, there was no alternative but to raise taxes.

All of which was a complete fairy tale. The state ended the 2004 fiscal year with a surplus of over $400 million, before the tax increase took effect. That surplus eventually grew to $2 billion, proving that talk of a looming budget deficit was completely false.

Nor were there any spending cuts. The state budgeted $18.2 billion in spending for 1998. By 2004, the budget provided for $26 billion in spending, the highest in the history of Virginia up until then. In his last budget submitted in December 2005, just before leaving office, Warner proposed spending about $36 billion a year.

Virginia, in fact, had enough projected revenues in 2004 to increase the next two-year state budget by 11 percent over the previous budget. But that wasn’t enough for Warner and a few senate Republicans. They wanted the tax increase so they could increase state spending by 19 percent in the new budget.

That was what the tax-increase fight was all about — increasing taxes so spending could be increased even faster and to record levels. The only Virginia miracle was that Warner could get a badly confused Republican legislature to go along with that foolishness.

If Warner or any other Democrat is elected president in 2008, they will bring this big-government road show to Washington — which is, indeed, effectively what they are now telling us they plan to do. They will increase federal taxes right after the election, just as Bill Clinton did in 1993. And they will use that money to increase federal spending even faster.

[Destino]

Yeah, but you're a flaming liberal, while most of Virginia is conservative, so your opinions don't really represent the way most people think. Among people who typically vote Republican, it was Kilgore's personality and demeanor that put them off. He did not inspire confidence, and did not seem to possess any himself. The proof is in the fact that Republicans more conservative than Kilgore won LT and AG. Conservative voters split their tickets for the specific purpose of not voting for him.

Do you not read my posts or are you a wingnut? I ask because wingnuts tend to think those that oppose them are the radical ones. Calling me a "flaming liberal" is laughable.

I don't know what your GOP pals told you but I do know that Kilgore's death penalty strategy insulted catholics. I do know his failure to respond specifically to gun ownership rights made him the loser on that issue between him and Kaine. I do know that Kilgore ran a campaign so dirty that people that don't normally even talk politics noticed it and went to vote against him just because of it.

Now maybe you guys on the right side value the image of confidence above all, I don't really know and I can't speak to that. I really don't put much stock in image because politicians are all smoke and mirrors. Their speaches are written for them, they are instructed on how to dress, how to act, where to be seen, and have scripted answer to common question.

BTW - your article is a pile is BS. During the entire election the talk of the state was whoever won faced unpopular budget cuts. That "surplus" vote buyer Gilmore left was the fairy tale. It easy to tell voters "vote for me and I'll give you money!" the budget cuts are the hard part. Also the article seems to define "big government" as "tax increase" because anyone with eyes can see "big government" isn't exactly missing from DC right now.

[Fred Jones]

Sort of true, but not here in context. Counties and municipalities have broad grants of authority to provide for land use within their counties. The methods are through zoning of the property, set back requirements, height requirements et c.

The problem with "adequate public facilities" legislation is that it in essence permits a local government to exercise draconian authority over development without any objective criteria. For example, Fairfax decides there are not enough roads. You lose your ability to develop your property completely. This approach eventually makes the Kelo case look like childsplay. If you think I am exaggerating, just look at the 10% surcharge Arlingon tried to jack onto the development community for affordable housing. Absent Dillon's Rule, the Board would have singlehandedly jacked up the price of new housing more than 10% when they were trying to make housing affordable

A better approach to development is to engage in long term transportation and development planning, primarily creating density around mass transit (see Arlington for a great visionary model established in the 1970's). Once you have the transportation designed in planned, you establish your zoning and development plan around that developed and planned infrastructure. Tying granting bonus density, rezoning, et c to paying for offsite improvements is regarded as part of the price of doing business; facing local government pulling the rug out and changing the rules mid-stream is not.

The real problem is a spineless level of governmental reaction in the General Assembly to transportation funding for the last thirty years. Couple that with various communities (especially Fairfax) fighting centralized development and you end up with senseless urban sprawl and cars travelling from hours away through our entire area.

NoVa pays for the rest of the state. Painful fiscal and political reality that will only change when Tidewater, Richmond and NoVa realize their interests are common and present a unified front.

Good points. I can't remember where I read the statistics concerning Nova, Tidewater and Richmond. Basically, we get back much less as a percentage of what we send to Richmond than other jurisdictions. Maybe someone can find the stats. I remember Nova getting like 40-45 percent of the taxes sent to Richmond back for use. I know some counties get back in the seventies. And on a side note, Richmond sure has a lot of nice roads.

I have to agree that sometimes local counties/cities need to be protected from themselves, but they should also have some say in what goes on in their own jurisdiction.

[AJ_Skins]

And on a side note, Richmond sure has a lot of nice roads.

I hear people in NOVA saying this, but I live here, and I'm not sure what you're talking about. The only new construction I've seen in the last 20 years is a small stretch of higway they're just completing that finishes the 295 loop which was left unfinished years ago. I've driven in NOVA recently, and the quality of the roads there is no worse than here. I think it's fiction.