Quick, someone call a mediator, I think we have another
transportation crisis on our hands in Virginia! Ah, there’s Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling,
once again playing his newfound role as ‘the middle way’.
On Thursday, Bill Bolling offered this idea at compromise in
a letter addressed to 10 members of the Virginia General Assembly[1]:
Republicans should give in to new gas taxes while Democrats should cave in to
the idea of shifting general fund money to building roads.
Said Bolling in his letter, “Now is the time for compromise
and consensus building. It is not the time to draw lines in the sand or take
positions from which one cannot retreat.”[2]
A little dramatic, perhaps, but Bolling’s fig-leaf has nonetheless been issued!
It’s unclear, however, just how much ‘political capital’
Bolling has to righteously cajole members from either party out of their
political entrenchments. That is, Bolling may be whistling in the wind (with a
few political points scored along the way).
Even though it’s difficult to forgive and forget Bolling 1.0
(i.e., the pre-middle-of-the-road Bolling), one has to applaud any politician
who is willing to wedge himself in between the enmity of two dominant political
parties for which partisanship is the rule, not the exception (one party more
so than the other!).
In terms of big ideas, Bolling hasn’t actually electrified the
political arena, but what he may do (which is even better) is neutralize the effectiveness
of Virginia Attorney General Ken
Cuccinelli’s political campaign if he does decide to run for governor as an
independent.
Indeed, Bolling should run while his profile is bright in
the public mind. Why wait another four years when an even more formidable
political stud could easily steal the political spotlight? Cuccinelli is a
political star, of sorts, but for most of the wrong reasons.
Bolling’s political star would certainly shine a little bit
brighter if he can pull off a compromise on the transportation bill that leaves
both political parties somewhat less upset than they were pre-transportation
bill.
Bolling 2.0 to the rescue!
