It's Virginia's big show this year, and Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine wants Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore front and center. Democrat Kaine figures that the more Republican Kilgore is seen and heard during the 2005 governor's election, the less likely voters will be to favor the attorney general's candidacy.
Oh, Kilgore is perfectly capable of cooking up a plate to satisfy the Republican red-meat eaters: state-sanctioned prayer, lower taxes, more executions. But when he emerges from the kitchen for a personal appearance, the effect dissipates. Think of a Tennessee version of Mr. Rogers.
(Jerry W. Kilgore , Left, And Tiimothy M. Kaine/photos Steve Hel)
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Virginia Republicans generally have leaned toward exuberant militants such as now Sen. George Allen and former governor James S. Gilmore. They like the unambiguous point of view, the swagger, the readiness to mix it up and dish it out. In Kilgore, they get more diffidence than defiance. Kilgore is game, but someone must hand him the right script.
Kilgore and Kaine have twice appeared together in Richmond before an annual gathering of Associated Press editors and reporters. In both instances, Kaine was the cagey aggressor and Kilgore the befuddled victim.
In 2003, Kaine cross-examined Kilgore on his role in the GOP eavesdropping scandal. (In March 2002 Republican Party officials twice listened in to telephone conference calls -- a federal felony -- that included Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) and Democratic legislators.)
"Four members of your staff sat down with Ed Matricardi [Edmund A. Matricardi III, the state GOP's executive director, who orchestrated the eavesdropping] and brainstormed about strategy -- minutes before he got on a phone call and committed a second crime. That was wrong," Kaine said.
Kilgore, who never has explained why he didn't call the governor when he found out about the eavesdropping (his staff contacted state police three days after the first call), snapped, "I have no duty to answer to you, Mr. Lieutenant Governor." Then he played his kid card.
"What I will not tolerate, as a father, [is] having a 10-year-old son asking as these stories continue, 'But, dad, you did the right thing, why are they criticizing you?' " Kilgore said.
Many in the audience that evening thought the eavesdropping episode would not figure prominently in the 2005 race, but they were astounded that Kaine was able to rattle Kilgore so easily.
Kilgore's handlers apparently concluded that they needed to be more careful. So Kilgore agreed to appear with Kaine at the same event last month only if the Associated Press restrained Kaine from asking Kilgore any direct questions.
"Leaders are not afraid of their opponent," Kaine proclaimed at that event before hurling more darts at Kilgore for allowing his staffers to meet with Matricardi between the illegal phone intercepts.
Kilgore tried to shrug it off, but the shrugging led to mugging, and the mugging to adolescent eye-rolling. Kaine had his cameras rolling, so an excerpt of the encounter now sits on the Democrat's campaign Web site as part of a fundraising appeal.
What about the issues?
Early on, Kilgore offered some refreshing departures from right-wing Republican orthodoxy by addressing domestic violence and Internet crime. But on the all-important subject of state finances, he has been stalked by Gilmore, who continues to claim that Warner lied about the state's fiscal condition and that the world was a far, far better place when Gilmore was governor. Gilmore has not ruled out another run for governor.
