VA-05 Danville Register-Bee Blasts Virgil Goode

In the middle of what should and has been the strongest area of support for Virgil Goode (R), the local newspaper has lowered the boom on Virgil.

In one day, the Media General-owned newspaper printed both an article and an editorial. The article has to do with Virgil's wife sitting on the board of the North Theatre Group, while at the same time, Virgil was busy doing what he does best.

The Danville Register Bee:

Goode’s wife, Lucy, served on the board of directors of the North Theatre as the congressman was securing $150,000 in federal funds for the project. Linwood Duncan, Goode’s press secretary, continues to serve on the board.

The editorial was not kind, to put it nicely.

The article in itself is bad enough for Virgil. Especially since he has declined to debate several times this year, even after he had asked organizations to plan events last summer.

The editorial, coming 19 days before the election, is stunning.

If anyone in Washington gets the idea that the United States should join with Canada and Mexico to form a “North American Union” similar to the European Union, or build some sort of NAFTA Superhighway, they’ll have to go through Rep. Virgil Goode first.

That is, if anyone in Washington ever decides to advance either one of those ideas.

Remember, this is the same company that owns the Richmond Times-Dispatch (ugh). This is before either candidate is endorsed.

For Virgil to be so put in his place in practically speaking, his own backyard, is a huge change of direction for this area.

What we have here is a proposed resolution protesting an idea whose time has not come - and may never get here. While an Internet search of both terms does return results, it’s not clear that anyone in Washington is seriously proposing either the North American Union or the NAFTA Superhighway.

Goode’s resolution appears to tap into the fear some people have that large forces are conspiring to strip the United States of its sovereignty and make it subservient to an unelected group. In the past, the targets of this kind of worry were the United Nations and later, to the enforcement arms of various disarmament and trade pacts.

It’s hard to understand why Goode would be worried about a political marriage that hasn’t been proposed or a road that nobody appears interested in building. The sovereignty of the United States is worth preserving, but what is Goode really doing with his sponsorship of this resolution?

Ahhh, fear. Where would the Republicant's be without it? They wield it like a mighty sword, trying to intimidate the populace with it like a bully on a schoolyard.

Virgil has yet to make any disparaging comments about the war in Iraq. That's because he is a war profiteer. His relationships with nefarious characters such as convicted felon Mitchell Wade, criminal Richard Berglund, and others has changed him.

He gave up his party for a seat on the Appropriations Committee. I wonder if it was worth it? As for the answer to the newspaper's question, I'll let them finish up themsleves, they are doing a great job.

Perhaps it has more to do with the conservative nature of the 5th District than the North American Union or NAFTA Superhighway. In the southern end of the 5th District, thousands of jobs have been lost to trade pacts. The idea that the United States could lose its ability to shape its own future would be a frightening prospect - if it were true.

But it’s not.

So that's Virgil Goode; always proposing to do worthless things elsewhere, unless it pays better to do it here.

It's time for a change.