Governor Kaine is being roundly criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike for sitting on all those federal stimulus funds (see "
Letter: Va. last to use highway cash"). Though Kaine accepts responsibility (see "
Kaine: don't worry about stimulus spending") and says he has things under control, the Roanoke Times says he has no control at all! It's those damn Republicans who are keeping him from spending money on all those highway projects that he's been whining about all these years!
I wish these guys would get their excuses straight:
Stimulus spending
editorial
Virginia shouldn't be proud that a report by a congressional transportation committee found that Virginia was dead last in its pace of spending stimulus money on transportation projects. But predictable Republican criticism aimed at Gov. Tim Kaine misses the mark.
"This is the result of having a governor who is more concerned with traipsing around the country tipping wine glasses with the Democrat elite to raise money for his national party," said Pat Mullins, chairman of the state Republican Party.
Mullins' statement followed a letter from U.S. Rep. James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, that criticized the pace of Virginia's transportation spending.
But Mullins is wrong. Kaine's role as Democratic National Committee chairman has nothing to do with the slow pace. Republican intransigence on fixing Virginia's underfunded transportation system, on the other hand, has a lot to do with it.
As Kaine explained in a reply to Oberstar, Virginia had few shovel-ready projects because a drastic decrease in state transportation funds resulted in many projects being trimmed from the state's six-year transportation plan.
For his entire term, Kaine has been trying to get House Republicans to understand the need for more transportation revenue. They have refused to consider ... [blah blah blah] [link]
Understand the need? Is someone stuck on stupid? The "need" no longer exists, fool. The cash is there. All Kaine had to do was get his VDOT - the one whose leadership threw a hissy fit this past summer and closed all those rest stops along the interstates - to resurrect the detailed construction plans they had put together in the past.
Why, if 49 other governors could do it, couldn't Tim?
One would suppose, since Virginia ranks dead last in stimulus money spending (angering a prominent Washington
Democrat who, by the way, didn't send a letter to Virginia
Republicans for their perceived failures, ahem) that the other 49 states have no Republicans on hand to oppose state spending.
No, it couldn't be the case that our governor is a doofus who is spending his time these days chasing DNC campaign donations rather than doing the job he was elected to do.
It's all the Republicans' fault that Kaine is dead last.
For the love of God.