Where Have You Gone, Vance Wilkins?

There is a crisis in the Virignia Republican Party right now. Despite being the majority party (by far) in this commonwealth, we have been consistantly beaten back by an unholy alliance of a united Democratic caucus in both houses, Squishy Republicans more addicted to power than taking and principled stance (Chichester, I'm looking at you), and a Democratic governor. Conservatives are in the minority in Capitol Square, and it seems like there is no end in sight.

Why?

A staggering lack of leadership.

Republicans seemed to bristle under the stern hand of Gov. James Gilmore back in the late nineties, but don't those seem like the good ol' days? Our legislative leadership laid down as Warner, Kaine, the Democrats, and the Squishy Republicans shoved a tax increase down our throats that the people of NoVa and Hampton Roads BOTH rejected only a year earlier. And yet those increases are favored 2-1 now! No wonder Jerry Kilgore lost? When the people of Virignia look at this new Republican Party, they roll their eyes. They say, "oh, they say they will cut taxes, but yet someone, despite being in the majority, taxes STILL got raised." People stayed home on Nov. 8 because people have lost faith in this party, and have bought the media line that the Democrats are the party of the sensible centrist.

This all started in 2002, when Speaker S. Vance Wilkins was forced to resign because of a sexual lisason. In Wilkins, we had a quiet leader who understood what it meant to be in the minority. When he arrived in Richmond, he was one of 25 GOP Delegates. They were ignored, abused, and discriminated in the legislature. Wilkins had a unique understanding of what it meant to be a majority, and how important it was to be the party of action and ideas to stay in the majority. The Democrats of the 70s, 80s, and early 90s were lazy, content with their power, and vunerable when they did not even realize it. Sound familiar? Wilkins built our local party from the ground up. He cultivated younger members, those very members who cling to power now, diversified the chairmanships and subchairmanships in the committees, and generally kept the Hosue in order. He had the ability to please everyone, and keep the agneda moving forward.

Right now, somebody for this party better step up and become a leader. Whether its Bill Bolling, Bob McDonnell, Ken Cuccinelli, Paul Harris, Kate Griffin, Chris Saxman, Jim Gilmore, or Tom Davis or someone we haven't even heard of yet. The Democrats were fat and lazy in August 1993 when Mary Sue Terry was sitting on a 30 point lead on an obscure one-term congressman named George Allen. By six years later, they were sulking in the minority, hit by a meteor they didn't even see coming.

"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
--George Santayana

Comments

[Shaun Kenney]

Excellent!

[Waldo Jaquith]

You downplay Wilkins' downfall. He sexually assaulted a 26-year-old and then paid her $100k to keep quiet about it. Del. Dick Black reported that he'd received credible evidence that Wilkins had done the same thing to another young woman, calling it a part of a pattern of behavior on Wilkins' part. He was a lecher, plain and simple -- a dirty old man.

All of this contrasts pretty sharply with his family-values, clean-cut Christian schtick. His entire image was built on being precisely the opposite of the guy that he was. He was a hypocrite.

You also gloss over the great distaste that many Republicans in the House had for Wilkins. He had to be a real asshole to keep everybody in line. It was hard work getting Republicans to form a meaningful majority, and he stepped on a lot of toes and twisted a lot of arms to get them to unify.

When Wilkins' back was against the wall, he assumed he could just weather the storm, that his caucus would back him up. But they didn't -- many of them disliked him so much that they turned on him, and it was, what, four days until he lost the speaker's post? A month until he resigned?

Wilkins was a hypocrite, greatly disliked by his contemporaries. Yes, he got the job done. But the manner in which he did it was not appropriate to develop the long-term hegemony that Democrats maintained for so long. Republicans are still in this position three years later -- tenuously grasping onto power as it slips through their fingers, unaware of what it will take to keep it.

It'll take somebody with the ball-breaking abilities of Wilkins to keep Republicans in the majority, but it'll take somebody with a whole lot more vision. Plus, he'll have to be able to keep his zipper up.

[Chris]

I downplayed what happened to Wilkins because thats not what I was going for. Rather, I was trying to show that we have fallen off since he left. We need someone LIKE him, not necessarily him. My point was to show that when Wilkins was in charge, we were a united party because he knew what it was like to be in the ultra minority, so he understood what it took to keep the majority. Nobody in the GOP leadership has that memory except maybe Callahan. I completely agree that what happened was Wilkins's own doing, and I'm not defending him. I am pointing out that we need leadership like he provided.

[GOPHokie]

So is it your belief Chris, that Speaker Howell should have basically shut the gov't down in order to block the tax increase?
Lets review... AFTER raising taxes and seeing a huge surplus, the Virginia electorate still largely agrees with the increase. Had our leadership shut the gov't down it is very possible that the dems would have taken many more seats this time than they did. Warner forced our hand, and we had no good choice and he knew it.
I was against the increase, but I realize why our party did what it did. If they raise taxes again, I say we fire the leadership. Until that day, I think they have done a great job.

[Chris]

I'm sorry if this seems like I am bashing Speaker Howell, which I am not. I[m just saying, we are the majority and we have been getting pushed around. Why is that? We are a ship without a capatin. I'm talking about the party in general, not necissarily the House of Delegates alone. Howell is fine I guess, but we are suppose to be doing something with a majority. Whats the point of being the anti-tax party if we are just gonna raise taxes? Howell and those boys are creatures of the system, I'm talking abotu somebody, and I don't care who, taking the helm of our ship and sterring it into the right direction. By dragging this down into arguments over individual leaders and their qualifications isn't what I am talking about. The Democrats have Mark Warner as their unquestioned leader and Tim Kaine as his surrigate. What do we have? You talk about the taxes. The year before, both Hampton and NoVa shot them down in referrendums, but a year later the electorate supports it as you say. What on earth happened? How did we lose that debate in a year? While the Democrats had Warner, popular and credible talking it up, we had nobody step up and take him on point by point. Why didn't we have someone going across the state, on tv, in the newspaper putting forth our position? Why? Because we lack leadership. I'm not talking about the kind of leadership that sheppards bills through the house. I'm talking about vision. Where is our vision? And who is going to put it out there? Since Gilmore won, Republicans have just assumed we will keep winning. Like I said in my post, thats what the Democrats were like. We are sitting ducks, and if we don't get the hell out of the way soon, somone's gonna shoot us down. We've already lost five hosue seats and two governor's races since 2001. The snowball is slowly rolling down the hill, and we have nobody to step up and stop it.

[GOPHokie]

Agreed on the vision problem. We do need some folks to think of some new ideas.
I apologize for misunderstanding what you meant.
My fault.

[Atomopawn]

It's Bush's fault -- the economy was so good that no one really felt the impact of the tax increase on their pocket books.

Seriously, though, I totally agree that the VAGOP needs new leadership. As we saw with the Miers debacle, ability often trumps having the right stance on the issues. A dynamic, inspiring pro-life conservative CAN win votes in NOVA and pull this party back together. We need a Ronald Reagan.

I think Delegate Melanie Rapp could be that candidate, in 2009. There are probably other excellent choices.

[Notta Libb]

Check out a funny site dedicated to the absurdity and satire nature of saying "It's All George Bush's Fault!"

http://www.itsallgeorgebushsfault.com

Regards,
Notta Libb