anon – I knew you were serious. But when you get to be an old person like me, you’ll be more restrained, too

So in my opinion, game on. Vivian’s a much more restrained person than I am, though.

Are you being deliberately antagnostic or do you truly not understand the nature of politics? Wedge issues such as taxes and guns? C’mon. It’s a setup, pure and simple.

Mouse – his example is not flawed, not in the sense that voting records are mischaracterized. If last year’s election didn’t show you that, you weren’t paying attention. There will be committee votes on bills that stand no chance of passing the legislature, yet those votes will be touted in 2009 campaign lit.

Note that I’m not the only one who picked up on this. The Washington Post blog post I linked above in the update shows the same thing.

It creates a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation that is quite often not reflective of a person’s stances. Kinda like what we’re seeing with Obama’s votes of “present” on certain bills.

When does it stop? It stops when the people are put first. I don’t like what the Rs are doing to the Ds but you can bet the Rs didn’t like it when it was being done by the Ds to them. The same arguments you are using against Bill Howell were used against Tom Moss. The pendulum keeps swinging back and forth – and it’s the voters who end up losing.

It’s way too easy to mischaracterize a voting record. All they’re looking for is fodder and statistics they can spin.

By the way, stop molesting children.

Vivian, when does it stop? Apparently when Democrats roll over and Republicans get their way on everything AGAIN in spite of the fact that they keep losing elections. That’s the message Howell is sending by punishing Democrats because voters keep throwing Republicans out of office. “My way or the highway; how dare you oppose us?” You think he won’t pull more stunts like this if the Senate doesn’t give in to him this session?

And “roundly criticized…” I have to disagree, Vivian. He’s been criticized on a few blogs. The overwhelming majority of Virginians aren’t going to know this happened, they’re not going to care, they’re not going to punish him because they’ll have forgotten about it in two years, and as a consequence he couldn’t care less what people think. Doing what’s right for the voter is a worthy goal — the most worthy — but no one’s even going to be in a position to do what’s right for Virginians on the issues that matter to them if Bill Howell isn’t brought to heel.

Hopefully it won’t come to using redistricting to force him to do that, but I think we need to be willing to use every tool at our disposal to punish him until he remembers that he’s supposed to be *listening* to voters, not punishing the opposition party when voters dare to disagree. Punishing the House GOP for its vindictive recalcitrance is completely in keeping with the principles of representative government.

I do not understand. If he intends to run for governor, he should not be ashamed of his views or be afraid to have his vote recorded on any issue.

anon & eileen -I totally disagree.When does it stop? The R’s are doing to the Ds what the Ds did to them for years. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Someone has to get off this merry-go-round and do what is right by the voters.

What Howell has done is despicable. He’s been roundly criticized for it. His actions have deprived the voters of Virginia of having the most experienced people directing our policies. We don’t need that kind of stuff happening in Virginia, regardless of who is in charge.

Why is that a problem?