State and National Government
Gentry Locke photo
Former Delegate Greg Habeeb may have left the General Assembly, but he isn’t leaving Richmond. Habeeb will oversee the Gentry Locke law firm’s expansion to the capital city, leading the firm’s government and regulatory affairs team there. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more:
As the fight over redistricting continues between Republicans and Democrats in Richmond, one group believes politicians should not be the ones redrawing boundaries. WFIR’s Ian Price has more:
WASHINGTON (AP) — A memorial service for the late Sen. John McCain on Saturday turned into a clear rebuke of President Donald Trump’s divisive politics as his daughter, two former presidents and political dignitaries used their tributes to call for a return to civility. “The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great,” daughter Meghan McCain said, setting the tone for eulogies by Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. The audience of Washington power players erupted in applause.
Standing near McCain’s flag-draped casket and with Trump’s daughter among the audience at Washington National Cathedral, Meghan McCain delivered a broadside against the uninvited president without mentioning his name. “We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness — the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served,” she said, her voice first choking back tears, then raising to anger.
McCain asked Obama and Bush to speak, choosing the Democrat and the Republican who had blocked his two bids for the White House. The former presidents drew on the senator’s legacy at home and abroad to speak of the nation’s values. Their pushback to Trump was more subtle than Meghan McCain’s but unmistakable nonetheless. Obama spoke of the long talks he and McCain would have privately in the Oval Office and the senator’s understanding that America’s security and influence came not from “our ability to bend others to our will” but universal values of rule of law and human rights.
“So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage,” Obama said in a not-so-veiled nod to Trump. “It’s a politics that pretends to be brave and tough but in fact is born in fear. John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that.”
Bush said one of the great gifts in his life was becoming friends with his former White House rival. He said they would in later years recall their political battles like former football players remembering the big game. But mostly Bush recalled a champion for the “forgotten people” at home and abroad whose legacy will serve as a reminder, even in times of doubt, of the power of America as more than a physical place but a “carrier of human aspirations.” “John’s voice will always come as a whisper over our shoulder — we are better than this, America is better than this,” Bush said.
Washington’s past and present political elite bore witness. Among those in the front row at the cathedral were Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as Dick Cheney and Al Gore.
McCain’s motorcade arrived from the Capitol, where he laid in state overnight. Along the way the procession stopped at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where McCain’s wife, Cindy, placed a wreath. It was the last public event in Washington, where McCain lived and worked over four decades, and part of McCain’s five-day, cross-country funeral procession. He died Aug. 25 at age 81.
“This week’s celebration of the life and values and patriotism of this hero, I think have taken our country above all that,” said former Sen. Joe Lieberman, considered by McCain as a running mate in 2008. “In a way, it’s the last great gift that John McCain gave America.”
McCain had long urged the Senate and the polarized nation to recognize the humanity even in bitter political opponents. McCain’s request for speeches by the former presidents, to some, represents that ideal. “We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe,” McCain wrote in his farewell letter to the nation, read posthumously by a longtime aide. “We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.”
McCain is to be buried Sunday at his alma mater, the U.S. Naval Academy, next to his best friend from the Class of 1958, Adm. Chuck Larson. “Back,” McCain wrote on the last page of his recent memoir, “where it began.”
Bi-partisan legislation addressing black lung disease among coal miners is waiting on President Trump’s signature. It’s a disease that’s had a significant impact on southwest Virginia, as WFIR’s Ian Price reports:
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Republicans who control the Virginia House of Delegates say a Democratic plan to fix what a federal court found were unconstitutionally gerrymandered districts is a partisan power grab with no chance of passage. Lawmakers sparred over the Democrats’ proposal Thursday, the first day of a special session. Gov. Ralph Northam called the session so lawmakers can comply with the court’s order to redraw the legislative map. The court found lawmakers illegally packed black voters into certain districts to make surrounding districts whiter and more Republican. A committee held a hearing on the Democrats’ proposed maps but took no action to advance or amend them. Lawmakers adjourned without setting another meeting date, leaving next steps unclear. Democrats say Republicans, who are appealing the court’s ruling, are trying to stall.
Virginia lawmakers are back in Richmond today for a special session, one called by Governor Northam in hopes of redrawing legislative boundaries in 11 House of Delegates districts. He did so after a federal appeals court ruled that the districts in question were unconstitutionally racially gerrymandered. Our political analyst says Democrats have everything to gain and nothing to lose, as WFIR’s Evan Jones reports:
The federal appeals court ordered Virginia to draw new legislative boundaries by October 30 for use in next year’s General Assembly elections.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Virginia House Democrats have unveiled their proposed fix to the state’s electoral map after a court ruled that 11 legislative districts were unconstitutionally gerrymandered. Democratic House Minority Leader Del. David Toscano discussed the proposal at a news conference in Richmond Wednesday, a day before lawmakers are to reconvene for a special session. In June, a federal court ordered lawmakers to redraw the map after finding they had illegally packed black voters into certain districts to make surrounding districts whiter and more Republican. GOP lawmakers are appealing that decision, though judges ordered the map be redrawn by Oct. 30. Toscano says the proposal should be immediately referred to a committee for consideration Thursday. Parker Slaybaugh, a spokesman for GOP House Speaker Kirk Cox, couldn’t immediately be reached.