Drake hits Nye on drilling....

In a new campaign ad, U.S. Rep. Thelma Drake is hitting Democrat Glenn Nye on offshore drilling and taxes.

The new ad is Drake's second of the campaign, and from the looks of the citations - all the ammunition comes from a live blog Nye did with VBDems. Drake is basically calling Nye out for being against offshore drilling last spring and now being open to the idea.

It's a fair critique, especially because lots of folks are open to the idea now that polls show the public favors drilling initiatives.

The negative ad also appears to add validity to the internal polling released by Nye's camp last week - which suggested that they are within striking distance - about 5 points down but inside the margin of error (which of course if you have no idea how to read polls means that Drake could also be up 10 points). It's unlikely that Drake would even mention Nye's name in an ad if she had a comfortable lead.

To watch the new ad click here.

Sarah Palin doesn't need a summer job, but ...

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine had some choice words for Republican presidential nominee John McCain and his selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Speaking on WTOP radio, the governor passed on the chance to speak about Palin's qualifications, or lack thereof, to hold the nation's highest office.

He said the choice says more about McCain.

Kaine himself was on the short list of VP prospects for Obama. He said Obama's decision process "was painfully thorough," then noted that McCain's was, um, less so.

"I think most people would take hiring somebody for a summer job more seriously than Senator McCain took the choice of Gov. Palin," he said, adding moments later: "I think that it is a very bizarre way to make a decision about who would be second-in-command at these very difficult times."

A federal bailout could help the state budget ...

.. at least it won't hurt.

Facing his own financial crisis at home, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Tuesday that Congress must act quickly to unfreeze credit markets or Virginia's own budget problems will get worse.

And unlike Uncle Sam, the state cannont solve its problems by printing more money.

Speaking on WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., the governor said the credit crunch is a real concern because it affects the housing market -- and many of the state's financial woes start there.

When the housing market is sluggish, it restricts the flow of cash into the state treasury, everything from the levy on recorded deeds to sales taxes on building supplies.

"We have to come up with a plan to get the credit markets back on some kind of stable footing," he said.

As if to underscore the problem, Kaine found himself playing Credit Counselor-in-Chief when one woman called in to describe her mortgage problems. The governor directed the caller to his office in RIchmond, where he said someone would steer her toward a local mortgage counselor.

Kaine has been recieving his own counsel of late from financial advisers. Virginia's two-year budget cycle began in July, and the governor must close a shortfall that will be somewhere north of $2 billion, perhaps approaching $3 billion if the economy really goes sour.

We're expecting details on the cuts in the next week or so.

House of Reps has to limit incoming e-mails

Want to tell your lawmakers what you think of the bailout proposal?

Don't send them an e-mail.

The Hill is reporting that the House of Representatives has had to impose an electronic limit on the number of e-mails coming in to members through the "Write Your Representative" link on its Web site, lest the whole thing come crashing down.

If you send a note and it doesn't go through, you should get a "Try again later" message to let you know that your lawmaker isn't (yet) ignoring you.

Union buys ad blasting Thelma Drake...

The political arm of the Service Employees International Union has a new ad that rips into U.S. Rep. Thelma Drake for votes against improving heath care for veterans.

Titled "Wrong for our Veterans, wrong for Virginia" the ad is now running throughout the 2nd District, which includes parts of Hampton, Norfolk, Virginia Beach and the Eastern Shore. Drake isn't taking the commercial lighty - she has a press conference planned for Wednesday morning to fight back against it.

Drake is locked into another tight race, this time against political newcomer Glenn Nye - a Democrat who served stints in Afghanistan and Iraq for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Drake has the power of incumbency but is hamstrung by the unpopularity of President George W. Bush and the recent crisis in the financial market. Although it's difficult to lay fiscal blame directly at Drake's feet - a souring economy traditionally helps challengers.

Clearly, Drake doesn't want to be undercut with veterans - a healthy portion of the voters in the 2nd District. But the SEIU is definitely aggressive - the union set up the ad and also bused down workers from Washington a few weeks ago to knock on doors for the weekend in Virginia Beach.

Here's the text of the ad:

The men and women in uniform who protect this country and keep us safe here at home deserve the best possible health care.

But Congresswoman Drake let our veterans down by voting against increasing their health benefits three times.

And when our soldiers needed her most, Congresswoman Drake opposed additional funding to protect veterans from neglect at Water Reed Medical Center.

Thelma Drake: wrong for our veterans, wrong for Virginia.

Scott, Drake and Wittman vote "no" on the bailout

U.S. Rep. Robert. C. "Bobby" Scott, D-Newport News, joined five of Virginia's eight Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted against the $700 billion bailout for the nation's financial system this afternoon.

The House voted 228-205 to reject the bailout.

Virginia's congressional delegation was sharply divided on the proposal -- six members voted against the package and five voted for it.

Scott was the only Democrat voting against the bill. He joined Republicans Rob Wittman, Thelma Drake, Randy Forbes, Virginia Goode and Robert Goodlatte.

Voting for the legislation were Republicans Eric Cantor, Frank Wolf and Tom Davis, and Democrats Jim Moran and Rick Boucher.

In the 1st Congressional District, skeptism over the bailout ...

On Saturday, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Westmoreland, held a couple of tele-town hall meetings in advance of the debate over the $700 billion rescue of Wall Street.

At one point, around 680 callers logged in. Intense interest? You might say that.

We had reported in Saturday morning's print edition that members of Congress from Hampton Roads had received an overwhelming number of negative calls about the whole idea. Wittman's meeting confirmed that.

Mike from Williamsburg said if Congress decides to rescue the U.S. financial sector it should "get inside the board room and see how they screwed up."

From Ernest in Newport News: "I just wanted to let you know my outrage at this situation."

From Richard in Williamsburg: "This bailout is with money we don't have." Noting the recent the buyout of WAMU, he added: "Let the markets rescue the markets."

Wittman sounded as if he was truly struggling with this vote. He couldn't say with certainty of the $700 billion plan would improve the economy. (Who can?) He wanted the goverment to have some control over the assets that it purchases, but that puts Congress in the board room.

"You want to protect taxpayers' investment, but that's a slippery slope," he said, later adding, "I have very deep reservations about the government's role in buying privately backed securities."

He called the vote "a policy bridge that we would cross," but if Congress doesn't act, it could mean further bad news for 401-Ks, homeowners and pension plans.

As we write this, the House of Represenatives is scheduled to vote soon on the plan. In Tuesday's Daily Press, we'll have reaction from Wittman and other members of the Hampton Roads congressional delegation.

Warner coming to talk port security on Monday....

Former Gov. Mark R. Warner is going to be in Norfolk on Monday to talk with shipping industry officials and security folks to raise money for port security research.

The event at Old Dominion University is billed as a fundraiser "to support major research and development grants to address the best stategies, practices, and technologies to secure the port infrastructure and the critical supply shain it supports in the Hampton Roads region."

Warner of course is running against former Gov. Jim Gilmore in the race to replace retiring U.S. Sen. John Warner.

The event is sponsored by the Commonwealth Homeland Security Foundation - a group headed up by Republican state Del. Scott Lingamfelter, who has got to hate handing the podium over to Warner.

The bailout: Washington's version of the transportation debate?

Hugh Lessig has a story coming in Saturday's paper on the outpouring of opposition area lawmakers are receiving about the proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

The short form: Lawmakers are getting an earful and the opponents are outnumbering the supporters by about 10 to one.

That said, there's a sentence in Hugh's story that really caught my eye:

The overwhelming tide of negativity has put Virginia’s congressional delegation in the difficult position of working on a solution that many of their constituents oppose either in principle or in practice.

It occurred to me that we could have dropped that very sentence into just about any story we've published in the last five years about the state's efforts to figure out how to pay for transportation construction and upkeep.

GOP debate-watch party in Portsmouth

The McCain campaign just released its list of debate-watch parties for tonight, with just one in Hampton Roads.

It starts at 7:30 at the Portsmouth GOP Headquarters at 3624 Western Branch Blvd.