One thing that struck several of us bloggers during our day in Richmond last Thursday was the amount (and intensity) of discontent expressed to us, unprompted, about Sen. Majority Leader Dick Saslaw (D-Fairfax). Whether the issue was Alicia's Law, payday lending, or the environment, we kept hearing that Sen. Saslaw was an obstacle to progress. Personally, I was surprised about this (although I'd certainly heard grumbling about Sen. Saslaw prior to Bloggers Day), and wondered whether people were simply taking out their overall frustration with the state Senate on the guy in charge. Kind of a "comes with the territory" thing, in other words.
Well, now the grumbling about Sen. Saslaw is showing up in the press. For instance, the Bristol Herald Courier goes after him pretty hard on payday lending:
Earlier in the week, Virginia senators scuttled a serious payday lending reform proposal sent to them by the House of Delegates. Shame on them. Their alternative proposal - blessed by the industry - is reform in name only. It will do nothing to protect low-income payday loan customers mired in a hopeless cycle of debt.Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw deserves an extra helping of reproach for his role in the affair. Saslaw, a Northern Virginia Democrat, has said that only an industry-approved bill will be acceptable. Saslaw appears to be in the tank for an industry that gave him $27,000 during the last election alone, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, an independent, nonprofit tracker of money in politics.
That certainly doesn't look good, that's for sure. Supporting the powerful over the people is certainly not progressive, nor is taking large sums of money from an industry as sketchy as payday lending. Blech.
In other news, the Richmond Times Dispatch reports both on Gov. Kaine's "anything but virginal" language about the state Senate as well as on Del. Lionell Spruill's tirade against Sen. Saslaw. First, here's the Spruill story:
Del. Lionell Spruill of Chesapeake tore into Saslaw for threatening to block a clampdown on payday lenders as perceived payback for their thousands in contributions to a Saslaw-controlled campaign fund.Spruill, for whom restrictions on the high-cost instant-loan industry are a non-negotiable demand, accused Saslaw of behaving like a king. So agitated was Spruill that Kaine literally called "time out."
Wow, usually when I hear someone calling "time out" it's a parent or teacher to an unruly 4-year-old. Obviously, Del. Spruill is not happy with Sen. Saslaw, to put it mildly.
Then there's Del. Shuler and the SCC:
Another delegate, Jim Shuler of Blacksburg, fumed over the evolving deal between Senate Democrats and the House Republican majority that would assure an all-GOP State Corporation Commission by installing Judge Catherine Hammond of the Henrico Circuit Court.
The Washington Post reported on this story February 23, pointing out that Hammond "was appointed to the court in May 1999 by then-Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R), a big selling point with House Republicans." Hmmmm...that doesn't sound very promising at all -- a Gilmore appointee named to the most powerful state body you probably never heard of? What's up with this situation, Sen. Saslaw?
Meanwhile, Gov. Kaine "is furious over the Senate defeat of his tax breaks for homeowners because of defections by Finance Committee boss Chuck Colgan of Prince William and Phillip Puckett of Russell." In fairness, given that Sen. Saslaw voted with the governor on this issue, the only conceivable thing you could blame him for is not keeping his troops in line. Senators Colgan and Puckett, on the other hand...
Anyway, getting back to the main question of this diary, I wonder if any of you have any ideas as to why there seems to be so much discontent with Dick. Also, if you have any general thoughts on how Dick Saslaw's doing as majority leader, I'd love to hear 'em. Thanks.
P.S. For the record, I support Sen. Saslaw on several issues -- banning smoking in restaurants, pushing for a statewide transportation solution that includes a 5-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase, and opposition to immigrant bashing.
Leadership means working with opponents and allies to get compromise legislation through. Nobody making the tough decisions of governance is going to make everybody happy all the time and to target Saslaw or Webb on single issues or single votes undermines us. We need moderates in both parties and people here are always attacking our moderate leaders when their positions are not aligned with ours. If we start taking absolutist positions, we will exile ourselves to minority status.
Yeah, that'll go far.
Lemme ask you - how many lobbyists stay silent when someone goes against their position? How many activist groups hold their tongue when their core belief is under fire? Do you think all the Chambers of Commerce sit quietly on the sidelines if their representative is voting against the interests of their members?
These may be examples of (usually) single issue groups, but those group are effective. The point being that we can stay silent and NOT be heard, or we can speak up like those organizations.
Do you seriously think Saslaw would realize that many of us are unhappy with his positions if we don't say anything? Do you seriously think we, as both bloggers AND citizens of Virginia, will have any say in OUR government's actions if we just let them do what they do with letting them know how we feel about it? Do you seriously think kissing Saslaw's or Webb's ass on every position is going to make the Democrats/Progressives stronger - and if so, what's the point of stronger Democrats/Progressives if they only vote that way half the time?
Look, I agree with you that we won't ever agree 100% with any elected official. But to sit by silently in the name of team spirit when we disagree (with a single position or many), is total capitulation of our civic responsibilities and a surrender of our own beliefs in the name of someone else's definition of the greater good.
So if you want to mindlessly tow the party line in the name of getting any old legislation passed, be my guest. But you're not going to find that we embrace that philosophy.
I feel my Democratic party is being ripped apart by factions that get motivated by single issues (pay day loans, where I think Saslaw is wrong for the record) and loosing sight of the bigger picture (getting a working majority in the Senate - which we still do not have).
Top 5 Va Senators
=============================================
Saslaw, Richard L (D-S035) $55,000
Stosch, Walter A (R-S012) $28,000
Potts, H Russell Jr (R-S027) $23,500
Stolle, Kenneth W (R-S008) $18,818
Watkins, John C (R-S010) $15,500
And this was before the Democrats won back the Senate. Not a pretty picture.
All that said, progressive groups need to do a LOT of organizing in his Annandale-based district. I don't think most progressive groups are well-organized there, even though he's in a well left-of-center district. When Saslaw was first elected, his challenges came from the right, and I woner if he still thinks that way. Now, his challenges should come from the left, and it's up to us to make that happen.
I'm happy with the way our new Democratic senators have performed, I only wish our new Democratic senate leadership could turn in a matching performance.
http://www.dailypress.com/news...
While she rails against and hammers on Sen. Saslaw for Payday Lending, maybe this touches on something more fundamental. Is Senator Dick Saslaw out of touch with the reality of living, working, raising a family outside of Northern Virginia? While Predatory Payday Lending is just one issue, the fact remains that most Virginians don't live like his constituents in Fairfax County, where as Tamara Dietrich point out, the household median income is around or just over $100,000 per year and he only has one Payday Loan store in his entire district.
If the discontent in the rest of Virginia with Sen. Saslaw does reach into the Senate Democratic Caucus, is it possible to have a Senate Caucus coup like last year in the House of Delegates with Del. Armstrong becoming the Democratic Leader? It is obvious that there are strong feelings among some key Democrats in the General Assembly towards Sen. Saslaw. How effective will Senator Saslaw be during the Special Session to get a real solution to fund Virginia's transportation crisis? Will the leader of the Senate Democrats please stand up? Any thoughts?
btw-is this a Democratic blog? Well with friends like this who needs enemies? perhaps you should call the blog "Raising Republicans."
As far as heaping all this praise on Sen. Saslaw for being the savior of the Senate Democrats and getting the majority, I'm giving Republicans most of the credit on loosing the majority. They ran out of social conservative issues to run on and didn't have any orginial ideas or a bold vision of how to move the whole Commonwealth forward that didn't involved tax cuts for the uber-wealthy or cutting funding to education. As a whole, Republicans recruited some real winners for candidates too. (I'm being sarcastic) Virginia was ready for a change just like the rest of the nation, and if the Democrats didn't make gains, some really big names would have been taken to the woodshed.
If we can't hold our "so-called" Democratic Leaders feet to the fire on the basics of social and economic justice, then how do you think we are going to be able to finally undress the Republicans and expose them for who they really are, puppets of corporate America, Grover Norquist, and the Fair Tax wack-jobs. Sheeese! Pull you head out of the sand and wake up, its what you call holding our elected leaders accountable for their actions. It applies to everyone of them, regardless of Party. Quite frankly, some of the Republicans are acting more like Populist Democrats than the Democratic Leadership. What gives?
As for your facts, what exactly are they? You seem certain we've got 'em wrong, so consider this an invitation to enlighten us.