Potts dodges payback for independent streak

Richmond Times Dispatch ^ | April 8, 2005 | Jeff Schapiro

[Corin Stormhands]

Conservative Republicans in the Virginia Senate yesterday failed to strip breakaway Republican H. Russell Potts Jr. of his committee assignments as punishment for his independent bid for governor.

Potts, a curmudgeonly Winchester sports promoter elected in 1991, survived on a procedural ruling by the GOP-controlled Senate's president, Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, the likely Democratic nominee for governor.

[Corin Stormhands]

Sesame Street is brought to you today by the letter "C"

"C" stands for "collusion"

[Gabz]

Ya think?????????????

[P8riot]

No doubt in my mind.

[Gabz]

OK - now that I've had a chance to wake up, ingest some caffeine and read the full article.....I still agree this doesn't exactly pass the smell test.

OTOH - I know I personally used a similar constitutional provision in Delaware to kill legislation on more than one occassion.

Could they have not finished the constitutionally mandated business of the session, adjourned the session and turned around and come back into session to address other issues? that was also frequently done in Delaware to get around the constitutional restraints of specially called sessions.

I realize these sound like dumb questions - but I'm trying to learn the system as quickly as I can.

[Corin Stormhands]

Oh, I have no doubt that this passes the "letter" of the law. But it stinketh to high heaven.

I'm convinced that Potts and Kaine signed a deal and that Linwood Holton was chief negotiator.

Mark my words. If (God forbid) Kaine wins, Potts will get a high level appointment.

[Nick The Freeper]

In case you didn't see this from Sen. Cuccinelli.

---

Dear Fellow Republicans,

While it may not come as a surprise, it was nevertheless shocking.

About an hour ago, I requested that the Lt. Governor, Tim Kaine, the presiding officer in the Senate, find that Senator Russ Potts had left the Republican Party. This would have been a ruling under Senate Rule 20(a), and Senator Potts would have lost all of his committee assignments as a result.

However, in a desperate attempt to avoid making a ruling, Kaine held that the Virginia Constitution doesn't allow us to consider such "business" as enforcing our own rules during the veto session!

Tim wants to be the leader of the Commonwealth and yet he abandoned the simple leadership obligation of making a ruling as President of the Senate. How's that for leadership?

Naturally, I appealed his ruling to the full Senate. With Senator Potts recusing himself from the vote, and only 37 total Senators present, we only needed 18 votes to prevail. Unfortunately, only 9 Republicans voted to reject Tim Kaine's ruling protecting Russ Potts.

The 8 joining me were Bill Bolling, Jay O'Brien, Brandon Bell, Nick Rerras, Mark Obenshain, Frank Ruff, Steve Martin and Steve Newman.

Some of the Potts/Kaine votes came from Republican Senators that have been publicly professing their intention to take strong action on this issue, and yet when the time came to vote, sadly, they were not with us.

To me, attempting to enforce Senate Rule 20(a) was a simple act of keeping faith with the GOP grassroots. Unfortunately, many others did not agree with my effort, as evidenced by the vote.

On your behalf, I tried. I'm sorry that I did not succeed. But I'll keep fighting for you.

Sincerely,

Senator Ken Cuccinelli

[Gabz]

I don't disagree.

It smells like bait that got left in the cooler after a fishing trip.

[Gabz]

The 8 joining me were Bill Bolling, Jay O'Brien, Brandon Bell, Nick Rerras, Mark Obenshain, Frank Ruff, Steve Martin and Steve Newman.

I'm glad to see that my Senator is acting responsibly.

[Nick The Freeper]

I wish mine (Watkins) was.

[Corin Stormhands]

With a couple of exceptions, those are basically the same Senators who voted against last year's tax increase.

[P8riot]

The 8 joining me were Bill Bolling, Jay O'Brien, Brandon Bell, Nick Rerras, Mark Obenshain, Frank Ruff, Steve Martin and Steve Newman.

I'm glad to see that my Senator is acting responsibly.

Mine too.

[Gabz]

That was going to be my next question.

[Corin Stormhands]

I missed this in the TimesDisgrace on Monday. But it's posted on the Kilgore website.

In Brief

April 4, 2005
Richmond Times-Dispatch

At a campaign stop for his son-in-law Tim Kaine, former Republican Governor Linwood Holton said, "The press asks me questions about a Republican voting for a Democrat. They make me sound like a skunk at a garden party. But I'm a reasonable Republican." This particular "reasonable Republican" supported Chuck Robb in 2000 and Mark Warner in 2001. He declined to endorse Jim Gilmore in 1997, and remained strangely silent -- perhaps a first for him in his lifetime -- during the Warner vs. Warner battle in 1996. Question: When does a "reasonable Republican" become a Democrat by another name?

[Yuengling]

I've created an audio file of the debate and posted on Sic Semper Tyrannis.

http://sicsempertyrannis.blogspot.com/2005/04/audio-file-of-russ-potts-failed-ouster.html

Sen. Cuccinelli is spot on about Kaine using a procedural dodge. Also, Sen. Norment stood up and said, "I am a Republican, but..." Everyone knew what was coming next.

[Gabz]

OKAY - I need to stop being afraid of stepping on Virginian toes and start posting this stuff when I see it.........I saw that on Monday.

My biggest problem is half the time I don't know where to post stuff.........

[Corin Stormhands]

Post it over here to one of the existing threads. Or maybe I'll start a Monday campaign thread and we can encourage folks to post all their stuff there. Yeah, I'll do that...starting Monday.

[Gabz]

Sorry for resurrecting the old thread folks - but I need some help - and I need it ASAP.........

I have searched and can not for the life of me find the anti-Potts website.....I need to know the URL by 6am........

HELP HELP HELP

[Corin Stormhands]

http://www.stoppotts.com/

Hope you're still around to get this.

[Gabz]

Thank you, my Friend - thank you.