Your morning funny-the Va. Republican party

[underpants]

Issue numero uno in Northern Va. and Hampton Roads (SE Va.-Hampton Va.Beach Norfolk) is TRANSPORTATION

How to fix it without *GASP* raising taxes? How about raising the fees and punishment for BAD DRIVERS? This article (surprise it is the T-D) doesn't point out but these fees only apply to habitually bad drivers not everyday speeding tickets. The Republicans were actually trying to apply "market forces" to the situation and their base has risen in righteous anger about it :rofl: They just had themselves and absolute bloodbath of a primary and Stosch mentioned here barely survived in what should have been a walk.

So here is basically what happened. At no point in the following process did any of the flock every engage nor were they compelled to engage in THEIR GOVERNMENT

Tim Kaine held meetings with regional leaders including the I-81 corridor out in the Shenandoah Valley that included and were lead by calls for input in the form of emails, telephone calls, public townhall meetings and the like.

Subcommittee hearings (transportation and funding subcommittees)

Committee hearings

Open debate on both floors of the General Assembly

but when it passed HO!LAWD WHAT HAVE THEY DONE calls of torment and anguish arose from the right.

This and general angst about losing the Governorship once again caused what they must now try to fix starting with a press conference at 10:30 AM.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:


http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-08-23-0201.html

Fix for driver fees in the works
Republican leaders will present a plan that says fees should apply to all

Speaker of the House William J. Howell, R-Stafford, and Senate Majority Leader Walter A. Stosch, R-Henrico, have called a news conference for 10:30 this morning to reveal details of a plan that they hope will quell a spreading voter revolt against the fees.

Republicans, under fire from the party's conservative base, have said they will work to apply the fees to out-of-state motorists as well.

Court decisions in Henrico, Richmond, Hanover and other localities have either affirmed the fees or thrown them out as unfair because they apply only to in-state drivers.

Though the fees were largely a Republican initiative, they nonetheless were supported by many Democrats. Among them was Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who proposed -- and won -- revisions to the transportation bill that made clear the financial penalties would be limited to Virginia drivers.

In response to voter anger, legislators in both parties have proposed scrapping the fees altogether or urging Kaine to call an immediate special session to rework them.

Kaine and the leaders of the GOP majority have dismissed calls for a special session, saying that repairs to the disputed law could be made when a newly elected legislature -- perhaps one with a fortified, largely Democratic presence -- convenes in Richmond in January.

Republicans pressed for the fees as part of an election-year effort to advance a remedy for Virginia's road-and-rail network without raising taxes. However, the fees have been depicted by anti-tax activists as a backdoor breach of the GOP's no-new-taxes pledge.