Talk to the editor

Hello all.
Just a reminder that I'll be here live Monday morning at 9. We can have a cup of coffee together while you give me your feedback, comments, questions and suggestions.
Dave Hendrickson,
State Editor,
Daily Press

Jim Webb on parade

Look for Virginia Sen. Jim Webb to blanket your television starting Sunday as he launches a tour to promote his new book, ``A Time to Fight."

The release of the book comes just as the Democratic presidential primaries come to an end and pundits talk about Webb as a possible vice-presidential pick.

Webb, a freshman Democrat and former Navy secretary, begins the book tour Sunday on NBC's ``Meet the Press."

On Monday, he does the CBS early morning news and the Late Show with David Letterman, along with an interview for National Public Radio's ``Fresh Air'' talk show.

He hits the cable news circuit Tuesday, with interviews scheduled on MSNBC's ``Countdown with Keith Olbermann" and CNN's ``Lou Dobbs Tonight."

Webb, a prolific novelist who has spent at least a year writing the book, has promised it will be ``a little more personal than anything I've ever written."

So how does Tom Davis really feel about the GOP?

Peggy Noonan has a zinger of a column in today's Wall Street Journal where she takes dead aim at the Republican Party, which she says is "busy dying."

Many Republicans who came to D.C. in the mid-1980s discovered that they enjoyed the trappings of power. They became comfortable, detached and are largely "ambivalent, deep inside" about the Bush presidency, she says.

The money line is this:

"Late at night they toss and turn in the antique mahogany sleigh bed in the carpeted house in McLean and try to remember what it is they really do think, and what those thoughts imply."

Republicans in sleigh beds? Who knew?

But for Virginia, the news is that Rep. Tom Davis has written a 20-page memo to House Republican leaders, saying they don't understand the deep frustration over the president, gas prices, foreclosures, etc.

Davis told Noonan that the Republican Party "is an airplane flying right into a mountain."

Enough from us. Check out Noonan's piece here.

Attention Democrats: Your dream ticket has arrived

I'm going to venture beyond Virginia politics here just long enough to get myself in trouble. I'm going to speak as gently and diplomatically as possible about race and the presidential campaign.

Here's my observation: If Barack Obama wants to have any chance at all come November, he needs a southern white guy on the ticket. (Sorry, Dems, but Obama-Clinton is not your dream ticket.)

Let's say that he now has three obvious choices: John Edwards, Tim Kaine and Jim Webb.

Let's go ahead and cross Sen. Webb off the list. He's been impressive as a freshman senator, but he's just too pugnacious -- or at least he appears to be too pugnacious -- for presidential politics. Tough to get away from that reputation when you give your books titles like "Born Fighting" and "A Time to Fight" -- and those are the books that are not about war.

That leaves Kaine and Edwards. Jeff Shapiro at the Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote yesterday about Gov. Kaine lauding Edwards' decision to endorse Obama. "John Edwards' campaign was a match with the Obama campaign -- a campaign about change," Kaine said in an interview.   

That sort of good-soldier conduct, should Obama win, should just about lock up Kaine's spot as secretary of education. And that's a good thing. Because, really, if you're trying to pick a southern white guy ... well, take a look at these two pictures.

 

Which one would you rather turn into a campaign ad?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doug Wilder won't seek re-election in Richmond

No details on this yet, but the Associated Press just sent out a news alert that former Gov. Doug Wilder won't seek re-election as mayor of Richmond.

Speculation, anyone?