July 23, 2009 [LINK / comment]
In the past few days, even more prospective candidates have come forward seeking the Republican nomination for the 20th District House of Delegates seat being vacated by Chris Saxman. (See June 17.) This morning's News Leader listed eight of them, in fact:
Eight??? Enough already!
At first, it appeared that Staunton City Councilman Dickie Bell was assured of the nomination, but now he will face several challengers who will presumably appear at the public forum to be held this Monday evening. The nomination process is being handled primarily by Carl Tate, a Staunton Republican who worked in the Federal government for a while, and is now a law student at the University of Richmond. He has been working tirelessly to heal the party's wounds and make sure that this candidate selection is done fairly and openly, a task for which all Republicans should be grateful. Mr. Curry ran against Chris Saxman in the 2001 Republican primary for that House seat, and in 2007 he ran as an independent against incumbent Larry Howdyshell for the North River District seat on the Augusta County Board of Supervisors, falling just short of victory.
Full disclosure: besides Dickie Bell, I know two of those men personally, and I can attest wholeheartedly to their qualifications, experience, and integrity: Cliff Fretwell and Ray Ergenbright. For many years they were very active with the Staunton Republican Committee, and since last year they have been active with the Mountain Valley Republicans, a group which I have the honor to chair. But that's another story...
UPDATE: I just commented on the above-cited News Leader story:
It is refreshing that we will have such a wide choice of good candidates, with varying backgrounds.
It is sad, however, that the News Leader reporters failed to own up to the paper's very unfair treatment of Ray Ergenbright in that 2005 campaign. The records clearly showed that he was not responsible for the bad accounting software purchased by the city which led to the tax billing snafu, and in fact, the person who DID recommend said software had a business relationship with the candidate who unseated him. Very fishy, if you ask me.
http://www.andrewclem.com/Archives/Post.php?2005/10/20po.html
Like Sen. Orrin Hatch (see foxnews.com), I have lost all patience with President Obama's misguided attempt to ramrod his version of health care "reform" through Congress, without the least pretense of due deliberation or assessment of the likely consequences. In fact, I didn't even bother to watch Obama's press conference last night, but you can watch the video "replay" at whitehouse.gov
President Obama's choice of John P. Holdren to be his Science Adviser was supposed to make sure that "facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology." With all the politicization of scientific issues such as evolution or global warming, that sounds fine to me. When you look at Holdren's background, however, several warning bells go off. Read about his scientific "activism" at frontpagemag.com. Hat tip to Stacey Morris.