Posts Tagged ‘David Englin’
Legislative laugh factory
It has been an interesting year in the Virginia General Asssembly. Monday night at 11 on NBC12 I took a look at the “legislative laugh factory”.
Amidst the hot topics at this year at the General Assembly — there’s also been a lot of laughs. The respected institution has generated plenty of comedy in 2012, some by accident, and others on purpose.
The Virginia General Assembly is the oldest legislative body in the Western Hemisphere. It has survived both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, and counts presidents among its alumni.
It makes you wonder what has happened in 2012.
You’ve seen the late night jabs taken at Virginia’s expense.
“I love transvaginal. It’s my favorite airline,” said Amy Poehler on NBC’s Saturday Night Live referring to the heated debate over Virginia requiring ultrasounds before abortions.
But as groups like Saturday Night Live use the Commonwealth as comedic punching bag, members of General Assembly have decided to make jokes of their own.
“The boys in bed, wife’s here,” said Del. Dave Albo (R-Fairfax) from the House floor. “TV check.”
Late last week, Albo regaled his colleagues with a story of romancing his wife. It was something that was interrupted by the national coverage of the Virginia legislature.
“The Gentleman from Alexandria’s face as big as my wall going ‘trans-ve buh bu buh,” he said in reference to fellow Del. Dave Englin (D-Alexandria)
Note, the use of the word “gentleman”.
Then today, Del. Scott Surovell a Democrat from Northern Virginia stepped to the microphone to debate against the “castle” doctrine which would allow someone to use deadly force to protect their home.
“I’m a delegate running for office,” he said talking about walking door to door during his campaign. Another unidentified member of the House yelled, “SHOOT HIM!”
The back-and-forth led to hearty laughs from both republicans and democrats.
read the rest of the story on NBC12.com
Here are the full clips. First from Monday Del. Scott Surovell and the “Shoot him” clip:
And the Albo clip. (our version) The version from the blog Not Larry Sabato has recieved over 200 thousand views.
Albo demands apology from Englin
After several weeks of bitter partisan battles over social issues, the Virginia House of Delegates took a deep breath and had some fun with the all the national attention the issue has been getting.
Below is a moment on the House floor that brought quite a bit of laughter between Del. Dave Albo (R) and Del. David Englin (D).
Could Armstrong’s ad jeopardize his leadership position?
Virgina House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong is already feeling the reverberations from a controversial campaign ad that puts distance between he and President Barack Obama. In the ad, Armstrong touts his “pro-life, pro-gun” record and calls any comparisons to him and Mr. Obama a “stretch.”
Armstrong has not returned our inquiries about whether or not he supports the president’ re-election, but it is clear that his efforts to retain his seat could make life a lot different for him come January.
Armstrong, already one of the most conservative democrats in the House, will face a fickle House minority that may look to replace him with a member that more accurately represents the voice of the left in Virginia.
“This makes it harder to justify Ward as the primary voice for our party in the House,” said Del. Dave Englin a liberal member from Northern Virginia and a rising democratic star. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. “
Englin has been rumored to be considering a run for house leadership, a position that could propel him to future run statewide, and make him a powerful liberal voice. A voice that could get a great deal of attention, especially if Virginia gives control of the Senate to republicans.
“A number of people have asked me to run for higher leadership in our Caucus,” Englin told me. “We have several talented Members who could provide that, and we’ll work out the details within our Caucus family after November 8.”
Englin is not alone in his criticism of Armstrong. Lowell Feld of the influential Blue Virginia blog wrote Friday that Armstrong should not expect any help from the blog in the future.
“Whether Ward Armstrong wins his race for delegate or not,” wrote Feld. “He can forget about any support whatsoever on this blog for statewide office in 2013, or for any other office for that matter.”
But Armstong, who hasn’t responded for comment on this story, still has his supporters including in Northern Virginia. Del. Bob Brink told me that he wasn’t ready to talk about organizational matters for the upcoming session, but had high praise for his democratic leader.
“Ward has been a skillful and articulate floor leader for House Democrats,” said Brink. “The issues on which we agree far outnumber those on which we disagree.”
Armstrong won’t be able to escape the specter of Obama anytime soon. The president’s bus tour scheduled for next week is expected to roll through the Southside. Virginia republicans are already asking if one of the leading democrats in Virginia will be there to greet him.
McDonnell responds to Englin’s “presidential” tweet
It is a sign of the times. During Governor Bob McDonnell‘s State of the Commonwealth speech Wednesday night tweets were flying fast and furious. It gave those interested, an instant reaction to the Governor’s words.
Some came from journalists. Like myself, or NBC29′s Adam Rhew or Kimball Payne of the Daily Press’ Shad Planking. Then there were pundits and bloggers like Ben Tribbett of Not Larry Sabato and Vivian Paige of “All Politics is Local”.
Even the Governor’s staff shared some behind the scenes tweets. Deputy Press Secretary Taylor Thornley gave her followers this preview shot of the Governor preparing for his address. Outgoing Press Secretary Stacey Johnson shared her view from the gallery of what was happening down below.
But perhaps the most interesting and telling tweets came from the people McDonnell was speaking directly to, the legislators themselves. Newly elected Republican Greg Habeeb could not contain his excitment at being at his first State of the Commonwealth, although he was a little dissapointed in his seating.
One particular tweet that was re-tweeted often and caught my attention was this one from Alexandria Democrat David Englin.
Afterward I asked the Governor what he thought about people tweeting during his speech and what response, if any, that he had to Del. Englin’s to presidential cyber proclamation.
“I wish he hadn’t a tweeted, I wished he had paid attention to what I had to say,” The Governor remarked. He then went on to say once again that he has no interest in giving up the Governor’s mansion, for a run for the White House.
“I’ve got the best job in America,” he said. “That is why Thomas Jefferson said on his tombstone, he was a President you know, he left that off his tombstone. He listed Governor, author of the Declaration and founder of the University of Virginia. So I, like Jefferson, believe this is a far better job.”
The video from his response is below:
UPDATE: More than a few astute DV readers have pointed out that Governor McDonnell’s claim about Jefferson’s tombstone was a bit off the mark. Yes, the founding father did not mention that he was President on his grave marker, but he also left out that he was Governor of Virginia. Here is a photo of Jefferson’s grave at Monticello:
