Democrats sit out Virginia congressional meeting with McDonnell, citing GOP “partisan spin”
Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation are boycotting a meeting with Gov. Bob McDonnell this afternoon after learning that McDonnell and Republican members of the delegation planned to hold a partisan press conference after the session.
McDonnell and the state’s eight Republican congressmen — including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Henrico County — have scheduled a Capitol Hill news conference later today to discuss the impact that potential defense spending cuts could have on Virginia. Federal spending cuts and tax hikes will take effect early next year if Congress and the Obama administration fail to reach a deficit reduction deal as called for in the 2011 agreement to raise the federal debt limit.
Republicans are trying to pin the blame for the impasse on Obama and repeatedly raised the issue last week with the president was campaigning in Virginia. Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation apparently expect the same thing to happen today and pulled out of the meeting with McDonnell, who has been an eager surrogate for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.
Sen. Jim Webb, Sen.Mark Warner, and the state’s three Democratic House members — Jim Moran of Alexandria, Bobby Scott of Newport News and Gerry Connolly of Fairfax County — issued this statement this afternoon:
“Today’s approach to what has always been a bipartisan discussion simply is not the Virginia way. For decades, the Virginia congressional delegation has had a tradition of productive, bipartisan meetings with a long line of recent governors, Republican and Democrat. At these meetings and thereafter, partisan politics always took a backseat to our combined efforts to move Virginia forward.
“Today’s delegation meeting was derailed by Republican efforts to apply a partisan spin to the discussion and to the issues that face us. We reject this approach and find it to be contrary to Virginia’s long traditions in such matters.
“Democrats in the Virginia congressional delegation understand and take seriously the potential impact of sequestration on Virginia’s defense industry and overall economy. We are working hard to avoid spending reductions which would harm our national security. We had hoped to have a substantive conversation with Governor McDonnell and our Republican colleagues about how to do just that.
“We look forward to the next delegation meeting where we can work together in a cohesive and constructive way to move Virginia forward.”
Update (6:28 p.m.): The news conference was called off and a McDonnell spokesman said the Democratic members were advised of the cancellation prior to the scheduled 1:30 p.m. meeting. A Warner spokesman said word that the news conference was cancelled arrived after the meeting started.
– Michael Sluss
July 18, 2012 - 1:48 PM
Michael Sluss, did you seriously pen this line? “The legislation, long favored by anti-abortion advocates, passed the Democratic-controlled Senate with a tie-breaking vote by Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling.”
http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/298449
Pray tell, why would a Bolling decision be needed if indeed the Senate was “Democratic-controlled”? When did 20/20 with a guaranteed GOP decision if tied become “Democratic-controlled”?
Sandi,
That story was from 2011, when the Democrats did control the Senate. Bill Bolling’s tie-breaking vote was made possible because Sens. Charles Colgan and Phil Puckett crossed party lines and voted with the Republicans. Here’s the bill in the state’s legislative information system. Republicans didn’t actually make it 20-20 until that fall’s elections.
– Mason Adams
They should have had the news conference and the Dems should stop whining and do their job.
Mason, seriously? Does it occur to you that when credible reporters use words they influence people? Having a majority is NOT “control” in the sense of controlling votes and legislation. This is akin to those who claim Obama had a Democratic Congress. The rules (super majority?) and the people who vote as they please make a majority and control two very different things and I find such verbiage to be part of the problem in this nation!
As a former Virginian and now a South Carolinian my comment goes equally for both governing bodies both led by Republicans.
The TEA party told Republicans to CUT, CUT, CUT and they complied. Now when the CUT, CUT, CUT comes home in reduced Pentagon and defense spending they want to blame the Democrats! What they really meant to CUT, CUT, CUT was Granny’s Social Security and Medicare.
My father told me as a young boy that if I planned to urinate to always keep my back to the wind so as not to have it return toward my face. The Republicans will need some big rags to wipe their faces when the public really understands their ploy.
@4 Sandi,
You can parse the terminology. But Democrats had a majority in the Senate and — unlike the U.S. Senate — the Virginia version doesn’t require a super-majority to get things done. Perhaps “the Democratic-majority Senate” may have been better phrasing, but for the most part the Democrats effectively controlled the Senate that term, so long as the leadership could get its members to go along (which didn’t happen on that particular vote). For what it’s worth a prominent Democratic blogger also used the term “Democratic controlled Senate” when he excoriated his own party for that vote in 2011.
– Mason Adams
Mason, I am not the one who is parsing, nor the one tasked with getting information to people. How I parse, as a blogger, is a world of different than how you and Michael parse as reporters. I am sorry you don’t get that but I believe it is a valid point and it fuels the ignorant who believe “control” is the same as a majority (no matter how slim) and that is just not true.
For the purposes of committee chairs and assignments the Dems had the majority and accomplished that but no legislative vote was ever guaranteed because of their numbers, which is what control implies and you know it.