Just so you know, I had always planned to make this the final edition of the Odd Dominion column. When I first started scribbling this occasionally amusing trifle way back at the dawn of 2007, I assumed that I’d keep writing it until I ran out of jokes, or material, or both. Now, I’ll be […]
Although it seems almost impossible to believe, this is the final column we will publish before the awesomely epic election of 2016. Yes, we will pen one more before the last votes are cast and counted, but it will not see the light of day until the polling places have closed, and the new president […]
Believe it or not, election day 2016 is now less than eight weeks away, which means that finally—after a seeming eternity of arguments, attack ads, innuendo and outrageous antics—Virginians will get a chance to vote and, in so doing, put this interminable election season out of its misery. And so, as we gear up for […]
There’s a basic truism in modern American politics: The more people vote, the more Democrats win. This trend began in 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. This, in turn, prompted Richard Nixon’s electoral “southern strategy,” which explicitly courted the racist [...]
Believe it or not, we were not wholly unsurprised by the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling invalidating the multiple counts of corruption against former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell. The main reason we were expecting the supremes to issue a “get out of jail free” card for McDonnell is simple: [...]
Although it’s not something most voters tend to notice, Virginia’s upcoming congressional and presidential elections have already, to a surprising large degree, been shaped and remolded by a number of crucial court rulings (with one of the biggest still to come). The first of these legal [...]
Greetings, dear readers. Before we dive mirthfully into the fact that Donald John Trump is now the de facto Republican presidential nominee, we’d like to hop into the wayback machine and take a quick trip to the evening of Saturday, April 30, when Republican Party of Virginia state convention [...]
Okay, we’re calling it. As of this moment, it is virtually guaranteed that Hillary Clinton will be the 45th president of the United States. She has an almost insurmountable delegate lead over her Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders, and even if she should lose every remaining primary and caucus, [...]
So here’s the thing: For many who don’t pay close attention, Virginia’s legislature still tends to be viewed through a prism of bipartisan compromise. It is still considered, by some, as an exemplar of the fabled Virginia way, in which all arguments are settled through convivial relations and [...]
First off, here’s a newsflash for you: Neither Jim Gilmore nor Jim Webb is going to be president of the United States. With Gilmore finally dropping his embarrassing (and largely invisible) quest for the Republican nomination, and Webb recently announcing that he will not mount an independent [...]
We’re going to kick off this week’s column with an unusual bit of product placement. Although we rarely endorse anything outside of C-SPAN call-in shows, we would like to take this moment to declare the Broadway musical Hamilton the best piece of politically inspired stagecraft since [...]
There’s no doubt that we have hobby horses we love to ride. Redistricting is a huge one, along with voter suppression, income inequality and the improbable perfection of Mark Warner’s teeth. But, believe it or not, we do not relish yet another opportunity to write about gun violence. Especially [...]
You know, it takes a special kind of politician to unite elected officials from all points of the political spectrum. When was the last time you can remember a lone figure whose bold actions drew the same response from his own party and his opponents, from liberals and conservatives, and, [...]
Hard to believe, but yet another election is upon us, bringing with it the annual deluge of attack ads, yard signs, candidate forums and billowing clouds of special interest money. Per usual, a vast majority of the General Assembly races that will be decided next Tuesday are a foregone [...]
So here are a few things you should know about Virginia’s Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment and Senate Minority Leader Dick Saslaw. They have a combined senate tenure of nearly 60 years, and have spent much of the recent past switching leadership positions as the Republicans gained, then [...]