A Walk in the Wilderness?

For Republicans I would recommend for summer reading two oldies but goodies, It’s My Party Too, by Christine Todd Whitman, and A National Party No More, by Senator Zell Miller. The former author is a Republican and the latter a Democrat. Both are conservatives. The party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan seems to have lost its way.

Open any Loudoun County newspaper and you will find many articles about Republicans. Democrats are hardly ever mentioned. Normally Republicans would be delighted with this attention, except this news is almost totally negative. Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment was, “Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican”. But every meeting of Republicans in Northern Virginia is filled with hate, not directed toward liberal Democrats, but at fellow Republicans.

It is evident to me that much of this animosity is over social issues. Gay marriage and abortion leads the list. These are issues about which strong feelings exist universally. Trying to legislate morality or even defining what is moral is a tall order.

Our county’s founders declared "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." They did not declare who this Creator was or how he created anything. Why, because it is irrelevant to democracy.

The religious right takes credit for George W. Bush’s win in the 2004 election. But as Whitman points out, it was the smallest margin of victory of any incumbent president ever, just 3%. Social conservatives are driving away moderates who believe in what used to be core Republican values – lower taxes, less government, and strong national security. Without this moderate base, the advantage shifts to the liberal Democrats. Their best strategy, which they seem to be implementing, is to just to standby and watch the Republicans implode both locally and on the national stage. Remember when Ronald Regean was asked why he left the Democratic Party, he replied, “I did not leave the Party, the Party left me.” Could the reverse occur where moderate Republicans become moderate Democrats?

Perhaps, as an astute political analyst friend for whom I have great respect said, "Maybe this is the year the Republicans need to take a walk in the wilderness." I hope the big bad wolf leaves the moderates intact to take back the Party and focus on those core values – national security, lower taxes, free markets, and less government.

Bad to Worse

For the last couple of weeks I have been hearing rumors about a proposal by Leesburg Mayor Umstattd to require that advisory commission members report their real estate holdings. The Town’s advisory commissions are made up of volunteers who presumably have some expertise in a certain area and can add their knowledge to a particular commission, which in turn advises the Town Council. Advisory commissions have no power to award contracts, spend Town money, or set policy. All this rests with the Town Council.

What started as a small irritant of an idea was expanded with the help of the Town Attorney to include full financial disclosure. The stuff hit the fan last night when commission member after commission member protested. I understand that at least one entire commission privately threatened to resign.

Vice Mayor Susan Horne objected when this idea was originally surfaced but apparently everyone else was either asleep or absent. Last night, thank God, the majority woke up. And the motion was tabled. This example of government run amok should have been killed not tabled to raise its ugly head again. (Leesburg Today reported the details.)

East Meets West

The Sacramento Union is a newspaper much like Leesburg Today, free on newsstands and published weekly, but a paper with a much longer history. It was founded in 1851. One of the early staff writers was Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. The paper went through some hard times, but recently was acquired by an innovative publisher who designed the new business model, and attracted some modern day “Mark Twain’s”

What caught my eye was the editorial page, a favorite of mine in most newspapers. One very perceptive editorial, A Wake-Up Call for College Administrators, discusses the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech. As the parent of a college junior, at a university not far from Blacksburg, I keep asking myself what early warning signals can prevent this from happening. The “Wake-up Call” editorial answers this question. The early warning signals were all there, but were ignored. Thankfully my daughter attends, what the writer describes as a “smaller less liberal campus” where personal interviews by an admissions officer are required and the administration follow the doctrine of loco parentis. Social education goes hand-in-hand with academics at this school, deeply loved by parents and students.

So where did this publisher of a paper in the land of liberal thought, home of the ACLU, and hippie culture, find such writers. After a little detective work, I deduced that answer might be Leesburg, Virginia. The writers share the talent of Mark Twain, witty and wise.

After reading “Wake-up Call” and thirsting for more, check out two of my personal favorites, Today San Francisco, Tomorrow the World, and How to Handle College Protestors.

First Step a Stumble

Randy Shoemaker, the director of Leesburg's water and sewer department recently recommended to the Leesburg Town Council a cost-sharing concept of a dual-service sewer line. The idea received luke-warm reception from the Council. To me this sounded like a great first step to my "Water Balloon" article. I respect Randy’s opinions, even though he did not leap on my “balloon”, the suggestion of merging the Leesburg utility department with Loudoun County Sanitation Authority. LCSA provides identical services to Loudoun County, but Randy and I have not had an opportunity to sit down and discuss the idea fully.

Randy told the Council, "It would allow the town to recapture some of the $15 million it has already invested in building plant components to handle an eventual expansion to 10 mgd."

Part of this $15 million investment was to allow the Town to service the proposed Meadowbrook development. After a nasty battle three years ago, that rezoning application was been withdrawn. So now the Town has nowhere to go with its expanded sewer - except Crosstrail and Ridgewater Park. But wait! These developments are not in the Town but in the County. They could have been within the Town, but Mayor Umstattd and her supporters on the Council killed the annexation plan several years ago. Now Umstattd wants Leesburg to have exclusive rights to provide water and sewer to Crosstrail. Kelly Burke led the fight for the Council last summer to stall Crosstrail until the Town could annex the property.

Leesburg Today reports Umstattd saying, "I've had concerns about this since the very beginning, I just cannot imagine that this is a good use of our capacity."

Where in the world does she think she is going to use it? After Meadowbrook there is not a single large piece of land in the Town to develop, and the Council has killed this opportunity.

This debate should prove interesting to the homeowners who recently saw a 100% rate increase in their bills from the Town for water and sewer because they live across the Town line in the County. These homeowners are suing the Town. One of the Town’s defenses is that rates must be increased because of increasing costs, and the majority of these costs must be passed on to non-residents.