You May Know a RINO; but How About a VINO?

Lately I have been baffled by the actions of our leaders in Washington as well as Richmond for that matter. I have been thinking as of late that many of these leaders seem to be completely out of touch with the people, but frankly also Virginia history.

I remember growing up learning about the Founding Father generation and the values that served them well in guiding the course of this nation. Many of them of course were Virginians. We all know them well; Washington, Madison, Jefferson, and others like Monroe and the infamous Patrick Henry. There are many more Virginians that swelled the ranks of history that as children we learned of and some of us reveared.

But todays leaders seem very very distant from those that directed our great Commonwealth from its humble beginnings to being one of the most powerful Southern colonies and then later one of the most powerful Southern States in the Union. Why is it that so many of our current leaders stand in direct contrast to those that made our history. Now, our ancestoral leadership were not Gods mind you, nor were they perfect men but there was something very statesman-like about them. I dare say today you cannot find a single "statesman" in Washington these days. Plenty of career politicians, but no statesman.

In terms of Virginia, I think there is something deeper afoot. I believe I can say this with little doubt that being a Virginian IMHO is a blessing. I come from the school of I am "Virginian By The Grace of God" and make no apologies. I have to say that because I am the only one in my family born and raised here in this great Commonwealth. I have plenty of siblings born in places like New Jersey and my father is a Pennsylvania man, but I can tell you there is something different in being from Virginia.

Maybe its the rich education of our identity and Virginia's role in our nations history that touches those that were raised amidst the bossom of her valleys and rivers that draws us back to our past in times of crisis. Afterall, for a long time Virginia was a leader on the national stage, especially politics but have since been relegated to the back hallways of power. Oh, sure there have been some individual success at the national level like say a John Warner-R but even he is no longer sitting at the table. A Chuck Robb and even the historic election of Douglas Wilder, but currently the nation does not appear to be enamored with our leaders as we have seen in the past.

I simply believe in large part it is because our leaders in Washington today simply do not emulate the traditions of character and statesmanship that our ancestoral leaders had resulting in our nations reliance on them and the principles they promoted by way of government.

We are all familia by now with the term RINO (Republican In Name Only) which is usually presented as a negative connotation to Republicans not being "conservative" enough, but lately I am thinking that there simply more VINO's (Virginian's In Name Only) within the Commonwealth. Virginia has witnessed widespread growth throughout the State, especially Northern Virginia, the suburbs of Richmond and toward Virginia Beach that has resulted in relocation by citizens from other regions throughout America.

If you are considering what impact such growth trends have on the State political identity you only have to consider the following;

How many leaders in our Senate and House Delegation in Washington were born and raised in the Commonwealth of Virginia?Thrown in the Executive Mansion as well.

The number will shock you or worse may not even impact you at all.

The answer I believe is (4).

Gov. Tim Kaine-D (St. Paul, MN)
Sen. Jim Webb-D (St. Joesephs, Missouri)
Sen. Mark Warner-D (Indianapolis, Ind)
Eric Cantor-R (Minority Whip) Richmond, Va
Rick Boucher-D (Abingdon, Va)
James Moran-D (Buffalo, NY)
Bobbhy Scott-D (Washington, DC)
Robert Wittman-R (Washington, DC)
Randy Forbes-R (Chesepeake, Va)
Tom Periello- D (Ivy, Va)
Frank Wolf-R (Philly, PA)
Glenn Nye-D (Philly, PA)
Robert Godlatte-R-let me know on this one
Gerry Connoly-D (Boston, MA)

We always here that we are all products of our youth and the environments in which we were raised, so there should be very little surprise that our current leadership on balance in Washington has moved far away from Virginia's historic stands on free speech, taxation, spiritual significance of the Declaration, property rights, government intervention, and frankly the guiding principles of our U.S. Constitution.

There is a line in the great movie "Amistad" where Anthony Hopkins portraying John Q. Adams states that sometimes we have to realize that "who were are IS who WE were".

160 Families Face Obama's Empty Campaign Promises

Well, it did not take long for Virginia which along with California have significant exposure to the defense industry as well as the active armed forces to experience yet another broken promise from the Obama administration.

Not only in the coming months will Virginians be deploying to the other front against the Taliban, but now some 160 Virginia families will be faced with deployment of their loved ones from Ft. Eustis to Iraq.

Thats right. Iraq. So much for bringing the troops home or limited the exposure of the reserve forces to further overseas deployments.

The first two months of this new adminsitration has been one broken promise after another.

Governance certainly is alot harder than campaign rhethoric isn't it?

At some point, President Obama will have to be accountable for something instead of repeatedly using the excuse that he was left with this bag by the former administration. Here in Virginia, we respect real leadership and not those who seem too easily to blame others when push comes to shove for real hard solutions.