Virginia politicians rush to remember Nelson Mandela, pay tribute on Twitter
December 5, 2013 6:05 PM MST
Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela, the first non-Afrikaner president of the Republic of South Africa, died on December 5 at the age of 95.
Within hours of the announcement of Mandela's death, Virginia politicians issued statements of remembrance and appreciation.
In a press release, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell called Mandela “one of the true giants of history.”
McDonnell went on to say that the man known by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba, “lived a life that broke down barriers, tore down walls, and lifted up a nation, a people, and a world. All Virginians can learn from his example, and I encourage the citizens of this state, especially our young people” to study his life.
Mandela, the Virginia governor added, showed “us the incredible good one person can do; he has demonstrated the unique, positive power each life contains... This is a better world for the long and uplifting life of Nelson Mandela.”
Facebook and Twitter
Former Governor Jim Gilmore posted on his Facebook page that his “heart is filled with grief after hearing the news that one of the most celebrated leaders of our time, President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, has died. My heart goes out to the nation he helped transform, to all of those who lives he touched and the generation of activists he inspired.”
Former Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, who was the first African-American governor elected in any state since reconstruction, paid tribute by retweeting a video of Mandela's speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
Other Virginia political leaders also took to Twitter to pay their respects.
Senator Mark Warner said “Few people in history have represented such a positive, lifelong force for change.” His colleague, Senator Tim Kaine, added that the “world has lost a great leader & advocate for equality [with the] loss of Pres. Mandela & I join millions across the globe in mourning his passing.”
'Inspirational'
Congressman Rob Wittman (R-VA1) tweeted that “Nelson Mandela brought together a nation divided. He was an inspirational & uniting leader during time of challenge and disunity in [South] Africa,” adding that “today we remember his efforts in bringing a country together.”
Representative Scott Rigell (R-VA2) offered his “prayers for the Mandela family and those mourning in South Africa,” a thought echoed by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA6), who said he was “saddened to hear of the passing of Nelson Mandela. Prayers with his family and the people of South Africa.”
So far alone among Virginia Members of Congress to do so, Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA9) issued a press release that said, in part, that “the world has lost one of its great leaders. Nelson Mandela was a leader of courage who led South Africa after apartheid. While he could have done like so many other leaders in emerging nations have done and created a country where he became a president or ruler for life, he did not turn his back on the principles of representative government. Nelson Mandela’s journey is over on this earth, but his ‘Long Walk to Freedom’ will never be forgotten.” (“Long Walk to Freedom” is a reference to Mandela's best-selling autobiography.)
'Transformative'
Eighth District Representative Jim Moran (D) said that the “world lost a great man today in Nelson Mandela. What an incredible life filled with courage and hope,” while his Eleventh District colleague, fellow Democrat Gerry Connolly, tweeted that “Nelson Mandela's passing reminds us that one transformative individual can make a profound and positive difference in this troubled world.”
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA7) praised Mandela for his “lifelong commitment to justice and human rights,” adding that “his legacy should serve as an example for all of us.”
The dean of Virginia's congressional delegation, Frank Wolf (R-VA10), wrote that “Nelson Mandela’s unyielding fight against apartheid was heroic and evidence of an unyielding belief in the basic dignity of every person.”
Publisher's note:This article was originally published on Examiner.com on December 5, 2013. The Examiner.com publishing platform was discontinued July 1, 2016, and its web site went dark on or about July 10, 2016. I am republishing this piece in an effort to preserve it and all my other contributions to Examiner.com since April 6, 2010. It is reposted here without most of the internal links that were in the original.
The main business of the convention was to elect party officers -- chairman, vice chair, secretary, and treasurer -- and to nominate a candidate for the U.S. Senate to represent the LP in November's general election.
Matt Waters, a political and non-profit fundraiser from Alexandria, won the nomination in an uncontested vote. Before the delegates cast their ballots, Waters addressed the assembly to talk about the issues that animate him and to describe his vision for running a campaign against incumbent Democratic Senator Tim Kaine and the eventual Republican nominee, who will be chosen in a primary election on the second Tuesday in June.
Three Libertarian nominees for the U.S. House of Representatives also addressed the convention delegates. They each spoke briefly about their campaigns and answered a few questions posed by audience members.
All of the Libertarian candidates for Congress must submit petition with a minimum of 1,000 signatures from registered voters who live in their congressional districts. The deadline for delivering the petitions is 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 12 -- the same day that Democrats and Republicans hold their primary elections to nominate candidates. (Waters, as a statewide candidate, must submit 10,000 valid signatures, including 400 from each of Virginia's eleven congressional districts, by the same deadline.)
Joe Walton will challenge incumbent Republican Dave Brat in Virginia's seventh congressional district. Here are Walton's remarks:
Stevan Porter will challenge incumbent Democrat Gerry Connolly in Virginia's eleventh congressional district. Here are Porter's remarks:
Pete Wells will challenge incumbent Democrat Donald McEachin in Virginia's fourth congressional district. Here are Wells' remarks:
Before the official business of the convention began, LPVA members heard a presentation from Liberty University student Aaron Sobczak, who recently became vice chair of the Libertarian Youth Caucus. Here is Sobczak's address to the Libertarian Party of Virginia:
The LPVA also elected delegates to the Libertarian Party's midterm national convention, which will take place in New Orleans from June 30 through July 3. At that convention, delegates will elect members of the Libertarian National Committee and vote on changes to the party platform and its bylaws. A personal note regarding these videos:As of February 20, YouTube decertified my creator's channel for monetization (not just mine, but those of thousands or millions of video creators). In order to qualify again to earn money through my YouTube channel, I must have obtained 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 viewing hours over 12 months. So, if you are reading this article and like the videos embedded here, I encourage you to subscribe to my YouTube channel and watch more of the (to date) 823 videos posted there, which include reports on many Libertarian Party and other political events.
Racism is an abhorrent institution, period. No one who believes they are better, worse, or unequal based on the color of their skin has a place in the District I represent or the America I defend. The charade that took place in Charlottesville on Saturday night was either criminally naïve or an intentional image meant to stoke the bigotry and intolerance that our Commonwealth fought to bury decades ago. Unfortunately, I am under the impression that it was the latter and I have no sympathy for those who embrace it. As I learned more about the gathering that occurred this weekend, purportedly to save the Lee statue from removal, I could not believe what I was hearing. While the First Amendment protects speech and expression, whoever thought that two hundred people carrying torches was anyway productive must have failed basic American history. Regardless of any cause they wanted to represent, their actions spoke for themselves in the message they delivered and that message should be rejected by all of us.
Race relations are a complex issue in the South, especially in Virginia, but I am proud of the special role the Fifth District has played in their progress. It is the home of flawless documents written by flawed men that created a system for all man to be treated as they were created, equally. It is home of General Lee’s surrender, the symbolic end to our bloodiest war and slavery. And it was home to Barbara Johns, a young spark in the Civil Rights movement who led her high school walkout against segregation and became the only student-initiated case in Brown v. Board of Education. These positive legacies inherently stem from dark pasts. We cannot forget where we came from, for progress will not seem as sweet. The pictures and chants of Saturday evening remind us of the darkness that once intimidated millions, but it will not intimidate us now.
I embrace an ideology rooted in protecting the ultimate minority – the individual. Collectivization based on race or any other distinguishing trait has no home in republican principles. These practices inherently divide us, run counter to our core, and regressively reject others from joining our cause. There is no home in my party—the party of our founding documents, the party of Lincoln, and the party that fought to pass the Civil Rights Act—for a race-based organization. For as much rhetoric as the modern Left uses to associate these actions with my party, I expected to see more of Virginia’s democratic leaders condemn these actions, yet Senator Kaine and Governor McAuliffe remain silent.
As a soldier, prosecutor, and legislator, I’ve devoted my life to defending American ideals. Anyone who believes the color of a person’s skin makes us different is an anathema to the values I’ve fought for. We must remove the plank from our own eyes and work together, regardless of partisanship, to reject these organizations and look beyond physical differences on our way to our more perfect union.
Publisher's note:This article was originally published on Examiner.com on September 4, 2012. The Examiner.com publishing platform was discontinued July 1, 2016, and its web site went dark on or about July 10, 2016. With the impending nomination of Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) as the vice presidential running mate of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I am republishing this piece in an effort to preserve it and all my other contributions to Examiner.com since April 6, 2010. It is reposted here without most of the internal links that were in the original.
Virginia Senate candidate Tim Kaine ponders appeal to third-party voters
Although former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine was scheduled to address the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte on Tuesday, where he pointed out that “a few years ago, few imagined that Virginia would be a battleground state,” on Monday he was at Buena Vista's Labor Day celebration, campaigning for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by fellow Democrat Jim Webb.
Because Virginia has gone “from red to purple,” as Kaine put it in his convention speech, polls show the state’s presidential contest between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is neck-and-neck, and the Senate contest between Kaine and former Senator George Allen is tracking very close to that, a dead heat.
On September 4, the State Board of Elections confirmed that there will be three third-party presidential candidates on the ballot in Virginia, in addition to Obama and Romney: Constitution Party nominee Virgil Goode, Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein.
‘Same questions’
Given that some voters will cast their ballots for neither Obama nor Romney on November 6 but rather for one of those three independent candidates, the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner asked Governor Kaine in Buena Vista how he would appeal to those third-party voters to garner their support for his Senate bid.
Tim Kaine
“I bet they have the same questions that other Virginians do,” Kaine replied. Those voters want to know “how to fix the economy, how to balance the budget, how to find common ground.”
Kaine said that he has “a better plan than my opponent in all three of those areas, so I’m making my case to them based on the record but also based on what we need to do on the national level.”
A lot of third party voters, he added, “are interested in the spending issues. I’m the only governor of Virginia who left office with a smaller general fund budget than when I started.”
Kaine explained that that situation may have been due to the fact that he was governor during the onset of a severe recession, but even so, he added, “I had to make a lot of painful cuts.”
Making those kinds of cuts, he pointed out, is something that “very few people in the Senate have had to do.”
George Allen, he said, “didn’t have to do it when he was in the Senate -- but I know how to do it.”
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Constitution Party presidential nominee Virgil Goode talks politics on Labor Day
Presidential hopeful Gary Johnson on health care, marriage, and Colbert
Because of the demise of the Examiner.com publishing platform, the original URL for this article is no longer available.
Publisher's note:This article was originally published on Examiner.com on July 3, 2011. The Examiner.com publishing platform was discontinued July 1, 2016, and its web site went dark on or about July 10, 2016. With the impending nomination of Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) as the vice presidential running mate of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I am republishing this piece in an effort to preserve it and all my other contributions to Examiner.com since April 6, 2010. It is reposted here without most of the internal links that were in the original. Tim Kaine argues for balancing individual liberties, communal responsibilities
Former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, who is also the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is currently a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Senator Jim Webb.
On July 2, Kaine came to Crozet, in western Albemarle County, to celebrate Independence Day two days early: marching in a parade and speaking at a festival at Claudius Crozet Park sponsored by the local volunteer fire department. Kaine’s likely Republican opponent in the 2012 election, former Governor and Senator George Allen, was also present, and the two men described each other as “competitors and friends.”
Just before the formal program began, Kaine spoke to the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner about current issues, including the impending congressional vote on raising the national debt ceiling, and what he hopes to bring from Virginia to the national stage.
Debt ceiling limit
“My assessment of the situation” with regard to the debt ceiling vote, Kaine said, “is I can’t believe they let it get as close as they have. You shouldn’t be playing brinksmanship with things like threatened government shutdowns or threatened default on debt payments.”
Even so, he added, “we’ve got to find a resolution. I think the resolution is one where we increase the debt ceiling limitation but in exchange we have to do a combination of significant cuts [and] finding more revenues.”
To get more revenues, he explained, will require “closing loopholes on certain businesses and individuals that don’t need them.”
That should be followed by making “more investments in transportation and education to grow the economy. That’s the best anti-deficit strategy of all.”
Getting libertarian votes
Asked how he would appeal to libertarian-minded voters in the coming election campaign, Kaine said that he would talk about his record.
“I am very much a supporter of individual liberties,” he explained, adding that “yet we’re in this mixture, where we have individual liberties -- and that’s the great thing about our country -- but we also have communal responsibilities. Just trying to find that right balance is important.”
Kaine noted that “we do pretty well on that in Virginia. My basic campaign message is, ‘America has challenges, Virginia has answers,’ so I’ll be talking about the way we do it here in Virginia.” From Virginia to D.C.
The former governor gave three specific ways that he plans to take lessons learned in Virginia to the national level.
George Allen and Tim Kaine, July 2, 2011
First, with regard to the “challenged economy,” he said, the way Virginia “went from low income to high income [was] by going from low education to high education. Education innovation is the best economic development and jobs strategy.”
The second lesson is “fiscal responsibility,” he said, explaining that “I had to make more cuts than anybody who’s ever been governor -- but there’s a right way and wrong way to do it. No across-the-boards, don’t shred the safety net, and don’t do the kind of gimmicks like default on the debt payment stuff. Just make hard decisions.”
The third thing he offered is that, in Virginia, “we have some balance and civility. We still listen to each other instead of just trying to out talk each other, and that’s what I want to take” to Washington.
Kaine may still face a primary challenge for the Democratic Senate nomination from Third District Representative Bobby Scott, who announced on July 1 that he is delaying his decision on whether to get into the race. Former Governor Allen also has several challengers for the GOP nomination, including Tim Donner, David McCormick, and Jamie Radtke.
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Suggested Links
At his 17th Shad Planking, George Allen lays claim to a ‘libertarian streak’
Va. Senate candidate Jamie Radtke hopes her message resonates with libertarians
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Senator Jim Webb talks about U.S.-Korea free trade and stability in Asia
With the demise of the Examiner.com publishing platform, the original URL for this article is no longer available.
Almost a year remains before Virginia Republican voters will choose their U.S. Senate candidate in a statewide primary. (Traditionally, Virginia has primary elections on the second Tuesday in June. This year, because of post-census redistricting, primary elections for state and local offices will be on August 23.) Former Governor and Senator George F. Allen is widely seen as the favorite to win the GOP nomination, although he has several rivals who are contesting the 2012 primary.
It is fairly certain that former Governor Tim Kaine will be the Democratic nominee, although there remains a possibility that Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA3) will enter the race. Scott had previously said that he would reveal his intentions by July 1, but on that day, he said he was delaying his decision about whether to run.
Since April, I have had several opportunities to interview the various candidates for the U.S. Senate from Virginia. They are seeking the seat being vacated by Senator Jim Webb (D), who chose to retire after one term.
Among the Republicans, I have not yet been able to interview Northern Virginia businessman Tim Donner or Bishop E. W. Jackson. At least one of those lacunae will be filled soon, however, because I am scheduled to meet with Mr. Donner in Charlottesville on July 19, and I may also have an opportunity to talk to him in Richmond this coming week.
Last weekend in Crozet, I was able to talk to both former Senator George Allen and former Governor Tim Kaine. The two rivals were there to march in the annual Independence Day parade sponsored by the Crozet Volunteer Fire Department. In Allen's case, he didn't so much march in the parade as ride in it -- he was on horseback throughout the route.
In remarks to the crowd at Claudius Crozet Park -- which, I might note, is a private park, not a government-owned park, something I find admirable -- both candidates acknowledged that they are "competitors and friends." It was clear from their interaction that Allen and Kaine genuinely like each other, even if they disagree on policy issues and are likely to be engaged in a mudslinging, highly-competitive Senate race next year, one that is widely acknowledged by political analysts to be the most closely-contested campaign in the country and consequently one of the most expensive, too.
Before speaking, Allen and Kaine led the revelers in patriotic songs. (Kaine's voice, especially, is clearly heard over the PA system in the video below.) They sang one verse each of "America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)," "America the Beautiful," and "The Star Spangled Banner." The songs are introduced by WCHV radio host Joe Thomas, who acted as emcee.
In a flurry of restraint atypical of political candidates, Allen and Kaine -- introduced alphabetically -- limited their remarks to about two minutes each, focusing on the values celebrated by Americans during the Fourth of July holiday weekend. (Video follows.)
I spoke to Kaine just before the program began. We chatted briefly about our shared admiration of composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim. (Both of us were in the audience about two years ago in Richmond, when Sondheim was interviewed by former New York Times drama critic Frank Rich.) Then I asked him about some policy issues, posing the question I try to ask every candidate: How will you earn the votes of libertarian voters? His response, like all of these interviews, was first published on Examiner.com.
Asked how he would appeal to libertarian-minded voters in the coming election campaign, Kaine said that he would talk about his record.
“I am very much a supporter of individual liberties,” he explained, adding that “yet we’re in this mixture, where we have individual liberties -- and that’s the great thing about our country -- but we also have communal responsibilities. Just trying to find that right balance is important.”
Kaine noted that “we do pretty well on that in Virginia. My basic campaign message is, ‘America has challenges, Virginia has answers,’ so I’ll be talking about the way we do it here in Virginia.”
For his part, George Allen had answered my libertarian voters question at Shad Planking in April (see below), so I asked him a different set of questions in Crozet.
Replying to a question from the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner about the pending debt-ceiling vote in Congress, Allen offered his assessment of the situation.
“What I’ve been advocating for many years,” he said, is “that is there needs to be a balanced budget requirement in the federal Constitution, [the] same as we have here in Virginia. I think the President should have line-item veto authority and there should be taxpayer protection.”
A balanced budget amendment “narrowly failed back in the 1990s by one vote,” he explained.
“Can you think of how much better our country could be if that had passed back then?” he asked.
“If I were in the U.S. Senate, I’d be advocating for spending cuts, for curtailing the amount of spending, and putting in real reforms to have ironclad reductions in reforming the way that Washington does business,” Allen said.
My other interviews with Senate candidates took place at the 63rd annual Shad Planking in Wakefield, long seen as the start of the political season in Virginia. In Wakefield, I was able to interview Republican candidates David McCormick, Jamie Radtke, and George Allen, as well as potential Democratic Senate candidate Bobby Scott and current U.S. Senator Mark Warner.
Asked how he would appeal to libertarian voters, McCormick replied in general terms.
“I’m a very good case for a libertarian or an independent or a conservative,” he said. “They’ll salute the fact that for 29 years I’ve worked with [the] middle class and working class of America. I have such strong independent roots, even though I’m a strong Republican, very conservative on fiscal policy.”
He pointed out that he has “every policy, every solution on my web site” and suggested that “libertarians would love and support my candidacy.”
First-time candidate Jamie Radtke developed a statewide reputation as a leader of the Virginia Tea Party movement. She also answered my question about libertarian voters.
“Our message is right in line with the libertarian vote,” Radtke said, especially “as far as the spending and the debt and getting the fiscal house in order. The PATRIOT Act is another one that really irritates the libertarian people. Infringing on civil rights is an issue with me, as well. All those things are important.”
She said that when talking about the budget, “you’ve got to look at entitlements” and, from a libertarian point of view, entitlements “should be consumer-driven. People should have skin in the game.”
Things like that, Radtke explained, “resonate with people in the Libertarian Party.”
Even defense spending should be on the table, she said.
“The priority, the absolute priority, 100 percent should be our military and our veterans,” she said, “but the size of the Defense budget is so astronomical that even the Department of Defense is talking about places where there can be savings” without adversely impacting current troops or veterans.
“All of those things,” she concluded, “are things that we have in common” with libertarian voters.
Asked how he plans to earn the votes of libertarian-minded Virginians as he seeks the GOP Senate nomination, Allen called himself a “commonsense, Jeffersonian conservative” with “a good libertarian streak in me.”
“I trust free people and free enterprise,” Allen said, “and so long as someone’s not harming someone else, leave them free.”
He added: “I don’t like limits and restrictions. That’s borne out by my views on requiring a balanced budget in the Constitution” and a line-item veto to restrain the federal government.
“I like lower taxes,” Allen said, noting he has “always been one for lower taxes on business owners and individuals and families.”
While his colleague Jim Webb was not present, Virginia's junior senator, Mark Warner, was at Shad Planking this year. Warner talked about the budget and answered my question about libertarian voters.
Warner also addressed a political question: How can Democratic candidates earn the votes of libertarian-minded voters?
“That’s a challenge,” he conceded, though “it depends on, in a certain way, how ‘libertarian’?”
That is, he continued, “if you believe that there is no role for government in virtually anything, it may be a struggle.”
Warner noted, however, “on the other hand, I think Democrats generally believe on social issues there should be less government involvement. Oftentimes Republicans believe in more government involvement on the social issues and less on the government side. I think there is a balance there.”
Pausing briefly, Warner then suggested an approach that voters could take in choosing which candidates to support.
“I actually think,” he said, “whether a libertarian or anyone else, my advice to people is try to find candidates who can (1) actually read a balance sheet and (2) who are rational.”
Finally, Congressman Bobby Scott -- still a potential (and undeclared) candidate for the Democratic Party's U.S. Senate nomination -- answered a few questions.
Democratic candidates can attract the votes of libertarian-minded voters, Scott said, “if we stand up for the principles that we usually stand up for, that is, investments in our future, education, scientific research, making sure young people can go to college, mak[ing] sure the elderly are cared for [and that] children get off on the right track so that they have opportunities.”
Scott pointed out that not only was the federal budget balanced during the Clinton administration, but the country was on track to pay off the national debt, a situation that has changed severely in the past decade.
“So what do we need to be doing to attract votes?” he asked.
Democrats must “do what we traditionally did,” Scott answered. “We’re fiscally responsible, we want to invest in education and the future of America, and, hopefully, people will respond to that message.”
As a point of information, excerpts of my interview with Senator Jim Webb at Piedmont Virginia Community College earlier this year can be seen at "Jim Webb Visits PVCC" on this blog.
In the first, Donner said that he had a long libertarian pedigree:
“My libertarian roots go pretty deep,” Donner said, “back to when my father was heavily involved in the founding of National Review magazine.”
Joseph Donner, he explained, was “a good friend of William F. Buckley and I grew up around William F. Buckley and his family. Buckley often called himself a libertarian, even though he’s known more as a conservative.” (The title of one of Buckley’s books is Happy Days Were Here Again: Reflections of a Libertarian Journalist.)
“As the years go by,” Donner continued, “I’ve become more and more libertarian.”
In the second article, Donner discussed some policy issues, including the impending debt-ceiling vote in Congress (with a Damoclean deadline of August 2) and a comparison of the flat tax and the Fair Tax:
Donner also weighed the pros and cons of two popular proposals for federal tax reform, the Flat Tax (the centerpiece of Steve Forbes’ 1996 presidential campaign) and the Fair Tax (popularized by radio talk-show host Neal Boortz).
“The pros of a Flat Tax,” he explained, “are that it will simplify an overly complex tax system. It will broaden the tax base because more people will pay income tax. More people will therefore have ‘skin in the game,’ so to speak.”
These new taxpayers, he said, will “have a stake in the system and therefore be more interested and involved in what their government is doing -- and more informed and educated citizens is always a good thing.”
I expect to have more opportunities over the next year or so as these candidates hit the campaign trail and make public appearances as they hustle for votes and money.
"One of the smarter blogs is the libertarian-leaning collection of Charlottesville posts put up by Rick Sincere..." -- Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, May 8, 2005
