UPDATE: Hi, to all the folks from Raising Kaine and VB Dems. Note: Most of the rest of the stuff on this blog will probably bore you to death (unless you live in Caroline County!).
From Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary [emphasis mine]:
Main Entry: mook
Function: nounslang : a foolish, insignificant, or contemptible person
Delegates, what the hell were you thinking? You nominate this mook, Robert Wittman? What the hell has this guy ever done?
Director of field operations, Division of Shellfish Sanitation? What the hell?
You turn down the retired firefighter (Chuck Davis), the retired FBI agent and Marine (David Corderman), the retired 20-year military veteran (Jim Browden) for this guy?!
What has he done besides get local party officials to endorse him that then run a crooked mass meeting for him?
I’m sure that crooked mass meeting had nothing to do with the following, from The Free Lance-Star: Wittman seeking Davis’ seat:
Wittman said he would step down from his House seat and help find a Republican candidate to fill it, if he wins the congressional seat.
And guess what? The Republicans have lost another seat in the House of Delegates in the mean time! From The Free Lance-Star: Wittman wins district nod:
If Wittman wins, there will be yet another special election to fill his seat. That’s likely to be set by House Speaker Bill Howell, and it’s not yet clear whether it would run afoul of a state law prohibiting elections in the 60 days before a primary–in this case, the presidential primaries in February.
It’s possible Wittman’s seat, which covers the Northern Neck, would be empty during the 2008 legislative session.
[…]
In a speech to delegates, Jost supporter Del. Jeff Frederick earned some boos from Wittman supporters for saying Wittman had supported “one of the largest tax increases in Virginia” and that delegates should remember that.
Don’t forget the abusive driver fees!
And further proof this guy is an ass, from his biography:
Rob was elected to the Westmoreland County Board of Supervisors in 1995, where he was the chair from 2004 [through 2005] until he resigned to fulfill his role as delegate.
Well, consider the following, from The Free Lance-Star: Westmoreland faces civil action:
A civil-liberties group and a state agency have raised possibilities of legal action against Westmoreland County for failing to provide handicapped access to public buildings.
In a letter sent Monday, an attorney for the Virginia Office for Protection and Advocacy charged that the county had not complied with all terms of a 2003 settlement agreement to provide handicapped access to the George D. English Sr. Memorial Office Building in Montross.
“It is my hope we can bring this matter to a swift conclusion without the need for litigation,” wrote VOPA Managing Attorney Jonathan G. Martinis. “After three years, Westmoreland County owes its citizens with disabilities nothing less.”
On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia notified the county that it intends to file a lawsuit under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act unless the county promptly provides handicapped access to the offices of the Circuit Court clerk.
County Administrator Norm Risavi said that a team composed of a professional engineer, a building inspector and the county’s maintenance supervisor inspected all county buildings yesterday for ADA compliance.
Risavi said he hoped to have a plan and a budget for ADA projects ready for approval by the Board of Supervisors at its April 10 meeting. A supplemental appropriation by the supervisors may be necessary to fund the work, he said.
Risavi would not estimate when the various ramps, curb cuts, bathroom renovations and signage would be installed.
He said some of the work could be done by county staff, but other jobs would be put out for bids under the county Procurement and Contract Administration Policy.
But last year, Risavi waived bid requirements for renovating the old courthouse’s second floor as an office for Circuit Court Judge George Mason III.
“I have determined that competitive sealed bidding would not be practicable or fiscally advantageous to the county,” Risavi wrote in a finding on the judge’s office. “Competitive negotiations would better serve the county.”
Last year, the judge’s office was expected to cost $100,000. Now, Risavi said it will cost $140,000.
Crookery isn’t just for Caroline County!
A story in the March 15 Free Lance-Star attracted the attention of both the ACLU and VOPA, Willis and Martinis said. The story described Mason’s expensive office and problems of handicapped accessibility at it and other county buildings
“This is almost hard to believe,” said Willis.
“It’s bad enough to flaunt the law by ignoring the rights of disabled persons, but it is an outright affront to human decency to spend more than $100,000 to renovate a building without adding something as simple and inexpensive as ramps that rise 3 feet.”
In a March 17 letter to Gayle Harding, a wheelchair-bound resident of Coles Point, Martinis said he had sent a VOPA paralegal to survey the English Building and the old courthouse 200 yards away.
Harding complained to the county and VOPA in 2000 about accessibility problems at the English Building. In April 2003, the county finally agreed to fix them.
It only took you guys over six years to do it!
“What, me worry?”
Martinis gave the county five days to notify VOPA “how Westmoreland County will rectify these violations of state and federal law.”
(Hat tip: Tom James’s Caroline County, VA JUSTICE Blog)
For Christ’s sake, I’m writing-in James Bowden (or not voting at all)!