Monday, August 6, 2007

TND: Abuser Fee Winners and Losers

Chris Graham has a "Winners and Losers" column up at The New Dominion in regards to the Abuser Fees. Here's a few of his winners and losers over this whole debacle...

"Winner: General Assembly Republicans

How they’ve been able to turn the driver-fee thing around on Gov. Tim Kaine without eliciting a peep of retort from the governor’s office is beyond me.I don’t agree with their position on transportation funding, but I have to admit that I admire their style.

...

Winner: We, the people

Not that the petitions have actually forced anybody in Richmond to change the course on the driver fees, but they have been successful in generating scads of attention to how upset the vast majority of us are about what is obviously a boondoggle.

If only we could channel this into actually getting people to get out to the polls this November...

...

Loser: Democratic Party of Virginia.

Have you seen the new DPVA website poking fun at the Republican Party of Virginia? (www.theydontgetva.com)

Let me spare you - one of its key features has to do with pointing out how various Republicans have flip-flopped on the driver-fees issue that has hundreds of thousands of Virginians preparing for a run on Richmond.

Earth to Virginia Dems: How much of a role did Tim Kaine, aka the Democratic governor, have to do with creating the furor with his amendment limiting their application to Virginia drivers?

Hmmm...

Not that I would pin it all on him, because the GOP-majority legislature had to do its part to pass the amendment to get us to where we are now. But..."

Tim Kaine was also a "loser", while Virginia Media Outlets come out as pretty big winners in this whole deal.

I would say that, in the grand scheme of things, this is pretty accurate. One thing that was missed, however, is the fact that there was a higher percentage of GOP delegates against the final version of the Abuser Fee legislation than there were Democrats.

That also makes the DPVA big losers in this whole deal.

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