Jim Nolan reports that with little to legislate while House lawmakers across the hall engage in partisan parliamentary jousting over transportation funding proposals, state senators are spending the afternoon waiting, like the rest of Virginia.
The Senate side of the reconvened special session has been punctuated by repeated recesses as House Democrats and Republicans jockey for position on who will take the blame for not passing a plan.
A handful of Democratic senators are huddling around a laptop computer carrying a live broadcast of House proceedings. Some Republicans, meanwhile, amiably chatted about baseball and other topics on the other side of the aisle, welcoming into their conversation bouquet Sen. Dick Saslaw, the Democratic majority leader, whose gas-tax bill was still waiting to be considered and amended in the House.
Sen. Ralph S. Northam, D-Norfolk, used one of the many breaks in the action to run over to the Library of Virginia parking lot to put air in a leaky tire. Meanwhile, Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, lamented the extra $300 she had to fork over to change her flight plans to attend her grandson’s wedding in Denver this weekend.
Upstairs at the governor’s suite in the Capitol, Gov. Tim Kaine could be seen pacing from his office with a cell phone glued to his ear, reading glasses propped on his forehead. Administration officials were not optimistic a day of delays and debate would yield a plan to fix Virginia’s roads. But whether they agree or not on how to fix the problem, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle know that it isn’t going away, especially during tough economic times and skyrocketing gas prices.
Sen. Richard H. Stuart, R-Westmoreland, said he turned in his wife’s large SUV for a minivan. His pickup truck has been replaced with a mid-sized Toyota sedan.
-- Jim Nolan
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