The long wait is over. Every since Senator Jim Webb announced he would not be running for re-election, Virginia and the rest of the nation have speculated on who would run to replace him on the Democratic ticket. Today former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine announced his candidacy.
According to myfoxDC.com:
Kaine, who won election as governor in 2005, was among the first elected officials to back Obama’s primary bid. Obama named him the DNC post and has nudged Kaine toward a run. Last week, he said Kaine was “not just a leader for Virginia; he’s a leader for America.”
…Republican George Allen, who lost the Senate seat to Webb in 2006 and was governor from 1994 to 1998, announced his candidacy earlier this year.
There are others considering the lofty run for Senate, including tea party person Jaime Radtke. Corey Stewart and Bob Marshall also are considering the run. All have been trying to get name recognition. Stewart has been trumpeting an anti immigration stance and Marshall continues his anti-reproductive rights campaign.
Tim Kaine is the son-in-law of former Governor Linwood Holton (R) who was governor from 1970-1974. He was the first Republican governor in Virginia since Reconstruction.
Let the wars begin! Run Corey Run [evil grin] 😈
While I’m tentatively in support of the Radtke candidacy, I don’t know much about her. I support her, mainly because she’s NOT Allen.
Allen and Kaine…..Don’t we have ANY other politicians worth something besides these has-been, need a real job, huckster clowns?
@Cargosquid No.
i guess jim webb will return to his old jaunt writing pornographic novels
This is no surprise, after all, Tim did such a wonderful job as the DNC Chairman (lead them to the biggest loss by a party in 70 years). Matter of fact, the most important thing he ever did as the DNC chair was him making a BIG announcement, “something that would excite Democrats around the country”!
So what was the fresh, big, spectacular announcement that would shock the world and excite Democrats far and wide…. the DNC now has a new logo (that was actually ripped off of a pizza joint logo).
http://firedoglake.com/2010/09/16/tim-kaines-idea-of-an-exciting-announcement-a-new-logo/
Run Timmy run! This should be entertaining…. wasn’t he once referred to as Obama’s Dan Quayle?
@e, you just exposed yourself as not knowing what you are talking about.
Jim Webb doesn’t write pornography. Have you ever read any of his novels?
Why do you feel it necessary to come here just to act like a like a %^&*() bag?
@You lie, pssst, you are trolling again. I have some advice for you. Don’t vote for him. Vote for Macaca. Maybe you can go on a mail box run with him one night. You DO know what I mean, don’t you?
I think what you meant to say was @Dan Cooper, You Lie! is my avatar. I know it’s really confusing but just thought I would remind you.
Anyway, since when did pointing out Tim Kaine’s biggest achievements constitute ‘trolling’? He has done some really historic things as DNC chair, something nobody has been able to do in 70 or so years. And he did come up with a logo that excited Democrats all around the country, that isn’t easy to do. Democrats aren’t that easily excited about new logos.
Oh and don’t worry, I didn’t plan of voting for Kaine. We have enough Obama yes men in the Senate already. If he were to win it would be awfully difficult for him to vote on anything with his lips permanently attached to Obama’s rear end. I suppose he could have someone read legislation to him and he could blink once for ‘yes’ and twice for ‘no’, or he could just do what he would do anyway, have Obama vote for him.
Dan, Sooooo……that would mean that Kaine would be voting “present” a lot! That could be a good thing… 😉
You lie, get over it. Your avatar suits you far better.
You are a troll and will be treated as such. You have never done anything positive on this blog, unlike everyone else here.
I heard a pretty good discussion on the John Bachelor Show last night, regarding this race. Larry Kudlow and some political analyst whose name I didn’t catch, were sizing up Kaine vs. Allen, Radtke, et. al. The “tale of the tape” had Kaine beating the lesser-known candidates. But when he was matched against Allen, they have him losing. The reasons given:
-As DNC Chair, he’s been cheerleading every one of Obama’s policies, negating any claims as a “moderate” socially, or more importantly, fiscally.
-His win as VA Gov was attributed to the popularity of his predecessor, Warner, and the weak GOP candidate he faced, Kilgore. When leaving office, Kaine was not nearly as popular as Warner
-The radical shift in voting behavior experienced in Virginia during the last two election-cycles, when compared to Obama’s 2008 victory, would indicate Obama has lost significant popularity in VA, and has much shorter coat-tails for Kaine to ride.
On the plus-side for Kaine: Northern VA has had huge population gains, and a high percentage of these new voters may lean democrat. Also, he can raise a lot of money, thanks to his experience as DNC chair. Money can sway elections.
I’m supporting George Allen for Senate. I have thought about this long and hard about t this. Out of all the GOP candidates running, George Allen is IMHO, the only candidate that can keep pace with Kaine from a fundraising perspective, who has a conservative record he can point to as Governor & Senator, and the name recognition to win in a general. I know this may put me at odds with some of my TEA Party friends, but I think I am looking at this realistically. Jaime Radtke might make a great Senator, but she has to win a General election to be a Senator.
@Cargosquid
HA! Now that was a good one 🙂
present, can you imagine… oh boy, thanks for the laugh.
@Moon-howler
Wow Moon, that didn’t last long… Let me get this straight, you stopped calling me ‘hello’ (after a few years) because it was a greeting, not a name. Changed my handle to a proper name, your now not calling me by that because my avatar fits me better?
If that is the case I can certainly understand that, if I lied about something. I will be more than happy to go by ‘You Lie’ if you would just point out exactly what I lied about in this thread.
If you prove that I lied about something here Ill be more than happy to change my avatar to something else.
You know what, don’t even stress about finding an example of my lying Moon (you won’t find it). I have saved you the trouble.
I’ve changed my avatar to a picture of the two things Obama is best at (or at least loves the most). It’s a pic, from one of my favorite sites, of him simoustainly bowing to a foreign head of state while wearing a golfing outfit and holding a golf club.
Your welcome.
sorry, forgot to mention that in the pic the foreign head of state is replaced by his right hand man… Mr. teleprompter (in case you couldn’t make it out because it’s so small).
Study some video history. You will see that many presidents have ‘bowed’ to foreign heads of state out of courtesy. there is an entire department attached to the White House that briefs each president and first lady on proper etiquette with various heads of state. I think it speaks well of our country that our leader, regardless of who it is, can exercise this kind of courtesy to other rulers without feeling threatened.
I gained a great deal of respect for George Bush when he walked holding some king’s hand. I am sure he wanted to crawl under a rock but he never showed it. He was the leader of a great nation and those little acts of courtesy make America great.
As for your issues by what I call you, behave yourself and be polite and non-trolly and you might receive better treatment. I have talked until I am blue in the face about behavior. It doesn’t seem to sink in.
Let’s take Cargo. I almost NEVER agree with Cargo. He will vouche for this. Yet….he doesn’t come on the blog trying to be a PITA. He can go toe to toe with the best of them.
See if you can see the difference in your behavior and his.
Dan’s better at snark than I am.
Snark is not appreciated here.
For me, “snark” “jumped the shark” a long time ago. You can’t change anyone’s mind, if all you end up doing is yelling at the back of their neck.
So……
The Eyebrow wants to put his record back in the public’s eye, including his time as DNC, I mean, Governor. When he took that post as DNC, he basically abandoned Virginia.
Where’s my popcorn?
Cargo,
Agree. The good news is as a former governor, Kaine has a record. The bad news is, as a former governor, Kaine has a record. He will have to defend his budget, the 12-18 months where he was DNC chair while still governor of VA. Then he must justify his support of Obamacare, and other admin policies that would appear unpopular with VA voters, not to mention his actions during the recent dust-up in WI.
Same holds true for George Allen. He’ll have to defend “Macaca”…and then the Democrats will be out of bullets, if they adopt the Deed’s “But what about the thesis?” strategy.
@Steve, this Independent thinks that Virginians should have thought a lot more and paid more careful attention to McGovern’s thesis. It has all come to pass.
Allen is lucky that he goes back a ways as far as being governor. I can’t even remember a thing about his governorship.
He also has a Senate record. Kaine does not. I expect Kaine will fair pretty well with his budget. He will get nailed on closing the rest stops. That is what people cared the most about. As for Kaine’s WI actions, those who are on the fence will not be bothered by the dust up for the most part.
Many non union people are very sympathetic to the union folks of WI. I would never have described myself as a pro union person. I find Walker contemptible and the public employee union folks to be victims of political assassination. When CEOs have multi-million dollar salary packages, complete with benefits and a golden parachute rivaling none, most Americans aren’t going to favor the CEO and corporate America in favor of the little guys. That was all very misguided.
The Public employees were seen as having compromised and Walker was seen as a bully.
Here’s a reminder of the Eyebrow’s record, courtesy of Of On High: http://blogfromonhigh.blogspot.com/2011/04/tim-kaines-record.html
$2.5 Trillion:
True Cost Of ObamaCare Once Fully Implemented that Tim Kaine helped pass.
(Sen. Max Baucus, Floor Remarks, 12/2/09)
$814 Billion:
Price Tag Of Obama’s Failed Stimulus that Tim Kaine fought for.
(Bloomberg, 8/20/10)
$569.2 Billion
Amount Of Taxes In ObamaCare that Tim Kaine was Cheerleader in Chief for.
(Letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 3/18/10)
$3.5 billion
Budget gap left for the McDonnell administration to fix due to incompetent revenue estimates by Governor Tim Kaine.
(Virginian-Pilot, 12/17/09, Roanoke Times, 12/2/2008)
$9 million
Amount of money Tim Kaine said VDOT didn’t have in order to keep rest stops open.
(Times Dispatch, 7/8/09)
18
Number of Rest Areas Tim Kaine closed.
(Times-Dispatch, 7/8/09)
$1.1 billion
Amount of money found by audit sitting idle in Tim Kaine’s VDOT when rest stops were closed.
(Washington Post, 9/24/10)
$2 billion
Income Tax Hike proposed by Tim Kaine.
(Washington Examiner, 12/18/09)
100%
Amount Tim Kaine proposed to cut from the Commonwealth’s Car Tax Relief program.
(Washington Examiner, 12/18/09)
7 days
How long it took Tim Kaine to break his campaign promise not to raise taxes
(Roanoke Times, 1/21/06)
1
Tim Kaine’s place on the list of cheerleaders for Barack Obama.
(DNC Web Site, retrieved April 5, 2011)
0%
Chance that Virginians are going to forget Tim Kaine’s liberal record.
(Virginia Voters, Election Day)
Moon,
The Deeds campaign (assisted by the WaPo) desperately tried to make the McDonnell thesis a campaign issue. Their mistake was thinking this was the “silver bullet” or “Macaca II”, and kept bringing it up, in hopes it would sway the voters. It did not. George Allen (upon successfully securing the nomination) can proactively take this issue out by saying “I said it. It was wrong. I have regretted this for the last 5 years”. Boom! Done!
Kaine will get tarred with the claim “At a time when the Virginia economy was sufferring, then Governor Kaine neglected the duties of Governor, in favor of his serving as DNC Chairman. Virginians elected Kaine to be their governor. Democrat Party insiders elected him to be their chairman. Guess who he chose to work for? We need a Senator who will devote 100% of his energies to representing all Virginians, instead of spending much of his time working for Democrats outside of Virginia”… This message will stick, because the facts upon which the claims are made are true.
As far as Virginia public opinion goes regarding Public Employee unions, I don’t think the “non-union” sympathy of the average voter will be enough to counter the claim “As DNC Chairman, Former Governor Kaine used Democrat party resources to bus pro-union activists into Wisconsin, in a direct attempt to subvert the efforts of the duly elected Wisconsin governor, and the majority of the Wisconsin Legistlatures efforts to balance their states budget. Former Virginia Governor Kaine would rather force the Wisconsin Governor and Legislature to raise taxes on all working Wisconsin residents and businesses, to pay entitlements and benefits to public unions. Will Tim Kaine respect the rights of Virginians to handle Virginia’s business? Will he represent all Virginians, or just those in labor unions?”
Again, this would resonate with independents, and would stick because the basic facts supporting the assertion are true, and folks don’t have to connect too many dots to arrive at the conclusion the Allen campaign would want the voters to reach.
Kaine was hostile to anyone who wanted to discourage illegal immigration. I’ll never forgive him for it. I’ll likely vote for whoever runs against him (now and in perpetuity).
I voted for Kaine years ago and really regretted it. He didn’t and doesn’t have my interests at heart and was as lousy and partisan a governor as I can imagine. I regard him as the smiling face of utter bull****; a salesman, not a statesman.
@Rick,
I only saw that hostility discussed one place. The dark side. I know Kaine didn’t want to do 287g statewide. I don’t remember why but I think it might have been cost. Do we really want our state police rounding up illegal aliens?