Chancellor “Dr.” The Rev. Michael Farris of Patrick Henry Bible “College” in Purcellville, a major force within the Loudoun GOP machine, has offered another explanation for the far-right opposition to Metro that nearly sunk the project in last week’s cliff-hanging 5–4 vote by our unusually non-unanimous Board of Supervisors.
Metro made for some strange political problems for our normally very unanimous supervisors. Continue reading
Not to make this Pick on Ken Reid Week once again, but sometimes you just can’t help yourself given the material.
Yesterday Loudoun Supervisor “Ken” Reid (R-Leesburg) gave perhaps the single most bizarre interview by an elected official ever to appear in Washington Post. In an article charitably titled “Loudoun Supervisor Explains ‘Yes’ Vote on Metro,” Ken “explained” that he can sympathize with how opponents to Metro must feel about his providing the deciding vote in the Board of Supervisors’ 5–4 approval of rail to Dulles this week, since he was opposed to Metro, too (he even had a “No to Metro” sticker on his car) before changing his position at the last minute and voting for it — and thus Ken understands what it’s like to be on the losing side of this issue that he just voted on the other side on:
“I was an activist too. And I know what it means to taste defeat. I was devastated when I was working to stop Dulles rail, and it kept coming. I stopped my activities on Dulles rail because it was getting so frustrating. So I know how they feel…”
You can read the full interview here. I guarantee it won’t make any more sense when you’ve read the whole thing.
The all-Republican Loudoun supervisors certainly know how to get attention for themselves, don’t they? It only took them six months of very public agonizing to agree to do what the previous board had already agreed to do without all the fuss, and support extending Metro to Dulles Airport and Loudoun.
The very serious high-drama 5–4 last-minute squeak-through victory for Metro yesterday was not without its moments of comic relief, however.
First was the outrage expressed by Hillsboro’s far-right “street theater” activist John Grigsby, incensed that Supervisor Ken “Ken” Reid (R-Leesburg) would, as Grigsby fumed, betray the wishes of “your largest donor” and vote for the project.
Yes, nothing more outrageous than a politician you’ve bought and paid for who doesn’t stay bought: Continue reading
The No. 1 excuse that our local and state GOP officials have been preparing as the explanation for why they’re pulling the rug out from their previous pledges to support rail to Dulles and Loudoun is that the project includes a Project Labor Agreement, or PLA.
As noted earlier today, state attorney general and gubernatorial very-hopeful Ken Cucinnelli saw a chance to burnish his ideological credentials with the union-bashing right-wing of his party by suddenly deciding that the PLAs violate Virginia’s anti-union “right to work” laws. (Even though weeks earlier his office issued an opinion that that the negotiated PLA provision in the Metro project — which he himself helped negotiate — complied with Virginia’s laws).
Even our own big MetroRail supporter, Loudoun Board of Supervisors chairman Scott York (R-At Large), has been making ominous noises that the all-Republican Loudoun board can’t possibly vote for the Metro extension to Loudoun if the contracts contain a PLA.
It looks, though, that this fig leaf is not going to be large enough to cover GOP Supervisor Geary Higgins’s, er, problems. Continue reading
You won’t hear any of our stalwart local or state GOP politicians mention this amid all of their political posturing over Metro to Dulles, but didn’t there used to be something known as (a) civic duty and (b) living up to your word and promise?
The Washington Post has an illuminating article today reporting an e-mail trail that documents our Republican governor and attorney general’s trail of broken commitments over the Metro project. Continue reading
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