Virginia has had quite a weekend on the Democratic front. Terry McAuliffe will run for governor, though some potential candidates are trying to push through legislation that would block fundraising from outside the state to prevent the Gay Ol’ Clinton & Obama Corral from stepping in and changing the game. Somewhere, an angel weeps.
And, of course, Tim Kaine will be the chairman of the DNC, a reward for throwing his hat Odd Job-style in for Obama back in the day. When Obama bandied about a little with the idea of Kaine as vice president, the consensus seemed to be he had some cred as a progressive liberal, but he lacked experience and really much political success in the Commonwealth. Take this from Captain Ed at Hot Air last summer:
“Kaine has some serious drawbacks. Other than being Governor for three years, Kaine doesn’t have much on the resumé. He has no foreign-policy experience, and no military experience, either. And as the Post mentions in its profile, Kaine hasn’t exactly set the world on fire in Virginia. Three years without any significant accomplishments will not generate excitement for this running mate, and then there’s the inconvenient matter of the budget deficit that has appeared in Virginia on Kaine’s watch.”
He hasn’t done much besides stand beside Mark Warner and Jim Webb (…and God, I don’t even want to talk about that). Kaine retains the glow of post-partisan success that Warner labored to establish, but he lacks the proper politicking maneuvers to achieve the same balance. The Washington Post’s Metro section featured a story (”Upcoming Assembly Session Sets up Clash of GOP“) today mentioning just that streak.
“Former delegate Vincent F. Callahan Jr. (R-Fairfax), who retired from the House last year after four decades in office, said Kaine has a different style than Warner, whom he supported last year for U.S. Senate. ‘He is much more partisan, much more confrontational,’ Callahan said. [...]
“This year, like last year, the list of Kaine proposals that House Republicans are expected to protest is long: raising cigarette taxes and changing the way the state collects sales tax (Republicans oppose raising taxes, especially in a poor economy); offering early release to prisoners doing time for nonviolent offenses (Republicans worry that the state will send the wrong message to criminals); and banning smoking in restaurants and bars (Republicans want to let individual businesses decide).”
No Blue Dog would push the smoking ban. If Virginia were Rome, we’d be uncovering frescos with tobacco plants and, like, John Rolfe with those golden Virgin Mary halos. Now, with this appointment, his agenda will probably be further curtailed.
All this to say, Kaine succeeded in campaigning because he followed Warner’s model. That doesn’t suggest much originality of thought, first, but also, presumably Obama will seek Kaine to project that progressive stripe that Warner doesn’t quite have, and has never quite stuck in Virginia. So, will Kaine, who learned how to successfully campaign as a political moderate, bring out the Blue Dog guns to the ramshackle DNC? Or will he attempt to spread the progressive model, which hasn’t quite been put into practice in Virginia? Either way, Kaine will likely follow Obama just as he did Warner — maybe that’s why he was chosen.
Update: Kaine will only serve the DNC part-time until the completion of his term as governor. Captain Ed describes the general pointlessness of this selection for Dems:
“Beyond that, why Kaine? He had been picked as an up-and-comer when he first won in Virginia, but the party cooled on him somewhat after a stiff, unimpressive performance in a State of the Union response shortly afterward. Unlike Dean, Kaine has never run a national campaign and has no particular experience as a talking-head show regular. Dean proved his organizational skills and his forward thinking in his presidential primary run, as well as his expertise in communications. Kaine has done little in that regard, and unless it’s the best-kept secret in Virginia, little in national fundraising as well.
Kaine’s selection suggests that someone else will run the DNC in Kaine’s stead, perhaps even after Kaine takes the reins. I’d bet that Kaine takes a lot of orders from David Axelrod between now and 2010.”
Regardless, between carpetbagger McAuffile running and Kaine bouncing out of Richmond for his part-time gig, I have to think Bob McDonnell’s gotten a little indirect push for governor.
