GOP's Compromise Now Democrats' Dilemma

Transportation Is the General Assembly's Must-Fix Problem, but Election-Year Angling Makes Things Complicated

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), flanked by his wife, Ann Holton, and greeting William Leighty, said the issue is not political leverage. (By Robert A. Reeder For The Washington Post)

RICHMOND -- As they gathered in a basement meeting room in the Commonwealth Park Suites Hotel last month, a handful of Virginia's top Republican lawmakers secretly sought an end to their bitter feud over whether to raise taxes for the state's transportation system.

But another goal remained front and center: to save the Virginia Republican Party.

Shocked by George Allen's loss in last year's U.S. Senate race and fearful of losing their majority in the elections this fall, the top lieutenants in the House of Delegates and Senate put aside years of philosophical differences and personal hostilities during closed-door meetings arranged and hosted by Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R).

The announcement of a deal Thursday is meant to reverse years of bad press and to convince voters that Republicans are part of the solution, not the problem. By agreeing on a multibillion-dollar plan, the six one-time GOP adversaries hoped to shift the pressure for a traffic fix to the Democrats and their leader, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

"The Democrats have long telegraphed that they were going to use a failure to get a transportation proposal as a political tool," McDonnell said Friday. "Now the burden is on them. The question is, do they want to have a political response? Or do they want to get something done?"

For Kaine and his party, the seemingly sudden burst of Republican unity brings with it a serious political dilemma. Which is better? Urging voters to replace a do-nothing Republican General Assembly, or taking part in a transportation solution that helps their adversaries escape blame?

The governor said Friday that he is not interested in using the transportation debate as political leverage. "The best position for everyone to be in is to get something that works," he said. "If we do something that's good for Virginia, everyone will have something to benefit from that."

But it's not that easy for many Democrats, who have labored under GOP rule for the entire decade. They see a tantalizing chance to pick up seats in the House and perhaps even take control of the Senate later this year.

Their initial responses to the GOP plan suggest that many Democrats have mixed feelings.

Republicans "have gotten an absolute dump-truckload earful of 'You didn't get this problem fixed, and I'm going to remember that in November,' " said Del. Ward L. Armstrong (D-Henry), a senior House Democrat. "That having been said . . . it's better for Democrats to achieve a viable solution."

'You Have 35 Days'

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The first meeting at the Commonwealth Park was tense, according to participants.

The lawmakers munched on cranberry oatmeal cookies as McDonnell offered them a history lesson, first in GOP victories in the 1990s and then on the Republican civil war that erupted in 2001. He showed them newspaper clippings quoting them saying nasty things about one another, including one instance in which a Republican senator called GOP delegates "dumb as rocks."