Potomac Confidential fills the midday lull with discussion by Metro columnist Marc Fisher of the latest news and a rigorous slicing and dicing of the issues that define who we are and where we live.

Fisher was online Thursday, Oct. 13, at Noon ET to sift through the fog after the firing of American University president Ben Ladner, leap into the flames of the Virginia governor's race and search for a way to get his chat on one of those new iPod video gadgets.

Today's Column: Kilgore's Ads Make No One Look Good (Post, Oct. 13)

In his weekly show, Fisher veers wildly from serious probing to silly prattle, and is open to topics local, national, personal and more.

Archives: Discussion Transcripts

A transcript follows.

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Marc Fisher: Welcome aboard, folks. Hoo-boy, you really don't like the District's zero tolerance approach to drinking and driving, as revealed this week by Post reporter Brigit Schulte.

But hold on a minute: While it's true that the D.C. cops have basically decided to ignore the law on what blood alcohol level it takes to be officially considered a drunk driver, it's also true that plenty of folks drive in an impaired fashion after having had less than the legal limit of alcohol. And it's also true that some folks drive like maniacs even without having had a drink. So what are the cops to do? As I understand it, the D.C. cops don't enforce their zero tolerance regimen unless an officer sees you driving in some wacky way. So it's not really a zero tolerance rule, is it? They're not going after people who've had one glass of wine, they're going after dangerous motorists who, it may turn out, had a small amount of alcohol and went out and drove in a way that attracted official attention.

We'll get deeper into this during the hour ahead, and into the wild doings in the Virginia governor's race, and into the continuing questions about just how much more incredibly rich American University plans to make Ben Ladner, even after they've sacked the president for his wayward spending.

But first, the Yay and Nay of the Day:

Yay to the students, professors and a few trustees of American University, who created the pressure that led to this week's removal of Ladner as president. That pressure, combined with the stellar reporting of my colleagues Valerie Strauss and Susan Kinzie, is making it harder for AU's trustees to do what trustees all too often do in such cases: Throw good money after bad by paying the disgraced leader huge money to go away. That may yet still happen, especially after two important protectors of student money on the board have now quit, but the pressure is so far working nicely.

Nay to those Virginia Republicans who fail to speak out against Jerry Kilgore's dark appeal to the worst voter prejudices. Kilgore's new ads, reminiscent of the Jesse Helms black hands spots and the Willie Horton/George Bush ads from 1988, suck the life out of any of the real issues facing Virginia and focus attention instead on a classic wedge issue--the death penalty--and top it off with the ultimate scurrilous weapon--the invocation of Hitler.

Lots to chew on. Your turn starts right now....

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One is one drink too many: Let's face it, this notion of being busted for a DUI at less than the legal limit is all about the police screwing with you. Did you mouth off? Did you question their motives for stopping you? Or maybe it's your race or maybe they're just mad about something (see the movie Crash).

Marc Fisher: Right--the issue here is really one of officer discretion. Is the cop harassing you or were you really driving like a drunk? The advantage of having a numerical cutoff is that it clarifies the relationship between officer and citizen and removes a lot of the subjectivity from the decision to arrest. But the disadvantage is that plenty of us really are impaired by an amount of alcohol well below that legal cutoff.

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DUI in D.C.: Marc,

Can I buy you a drink for lunch or are you worried about being thrown in the slammer overnight?

Marc Fisher: The question would be who would get to me first, the D.C. cops for drinking the drink or the ethics police for me letting you pay for it.

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Washington, D.C.: Marc -- What can we do to get this pernicious .01 DUI law off of the books? My friends and I used to joke that it was absolutely impossible to get a moving violation in D.C. unless you were visibly smoking crack or waving a pistol out the window. What happened? Is this Tony's fault? Who's watch was the bill passed on?

Marc Fisher: Sadly, it's a whole lot easier for police to stop a wayward driver and administer a breath test than it is to investigate a crime and put away a really bad guy. But let's not go too far in mixing our fruits--the fact is that there are way too many dangerous drivers out there, and I like having cops on the street trying to remove some of those folks from the roads.

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Washington, D.C.: Marc --

This DUI thing is crazy! But this sounds like a way DMV can steer people into an "alcohol counseling" that may not be the best use of resources. It seems like it's a way to fatten someone's wallet ...

I wish we could be so stringent -- but more helpful -- when dealing with other forms of drug use and addiction in D.C.

Marc Fisher: We need to check out those alcohol counseling classes that the city is making people pay for and attend. I have a sneaking suspicion based on past stories about the city's remedial driving classes that this will not turn out to be an inspiring educational experience.

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Zero tolerance : Zero tolerance for alcohol but 100 percent tolerance for unpaid taxes. Hmmm. D.C. does have its priorities, I see.

Marc Fisher: Touche.

Pretty soon, not paying taxes will be viewed as the surest path to political office in the District. Imagine the campaign slogans: Vote Integrity and Consistency: No Federal Taxes Paid Since 1985

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Arlington, Va.: Your column today is right on. I found Kilgore's ads disgusting. They are so completely over the top I wonder if they will really sway anyone to his side. Yes, I am sorry that your husband was murdered, that is awful. But seeking revenge by killing his killer isn't going to bring him back. Let the guy spend the rest of his life rotting in jail where he belongs. I'm sure life in prison is worse for the guy than ending his life. That woman needs to find a way to get on with her life. Did you notice they also manage to squeeze into that ad a jab at the immigration issue by pointing out that the murderer was in this country illegally?

Marc Fisher: I've been wondering the same thing since I first looked at the ad (if you haven't come across it on TV, it's available for viewing at jerrykilgore.com): Are voters really swayed by such messages? And judging by the extremely fine crafting of the ad, I'd have to say Yes. This is an emotional powerhouse of a commercial, almost perfect in every way. So the real question for me is whether the uproar about the ads and the huge coverage of the ad game will create a backlash that negates the initial impact of the commercial. And that I really don't know.

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Washington, D.C.: Marc - I was just reading that the guy behind Kilgore's ads is the same guy who destroyed war hero Max Cleland by questioning the patriotism/trust of a triple amputee, and helped elect the man with the most WASPy name in congress, Saxby Chambliss. Say it again ... the name sounds like a character from daytime TV.

Marc Fisher: The maker of the Kilgore ads is Scott Howell (scott-howell.com) and you'll see from his site that he's handled quite a few senatorial and other campaigns, including that of President Bush. A couple of the Bush ads on his site have very much the same look and music and approach of the new Kilgore spots, but the Bush ones touted on the site are positive ads. Howell seems to view his negative ads as bad PR; they're not on his site.

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washingtonpost.com: Kilgore for Governor

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Opal, Va.: Marc --

Isn't the large problem re: Kaine/Kilgore that, in Virginia (and most states), Dems are deathly afraid of being labeled "liberal tax raisers" and thus have to foreswear (with their hands behind their backs) any thought of increasing taxes while Republicans have to take the no tax-pledge to please their conservative base, but also have to promise more spending on education, roads, pub safety, et al, to appeal to the dominant, middle-class suburban voter? And the third option, a tell-it-like-it-is candidate (Potts in this case) is not viable b/c voters will simply reject any pol promising to raise their taxes? Any answers? I mean ones that are politically realistic given the two parties and their followers and the realities "on the ground" once they get elected.

Marc Fisher: That's a very good synopsis of where we are in politics in Virginia and the nation. And yet I think we're at a moment in this country where the vast middle stands ready to respond to a more mature appeal, one that recognizes that things are not going well and that offers a link between smart management and the need for additional resources. I think the appeal of a John McCain (and the success of non-pols like the Governator and the zillionaire senator from New Jersey) shows that the country is ready for something like the Progressive movement of the Teddy Roosevelt era, a good government approach that cuts across the current paralyzed ideological lines.

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Alexandria, Va.: Marc -- you say that the candidates are operating under the assumption that voters are dumb as stumps. As long as the gods/gays/guns approach to campaigning works in vast swaths of the state, who is to say that assumption is wrong?

Marc Fisher: I don't think it's yet entirely clear that the cynical approach will work this year. Kaine and Kilgore are running in a virtual tie in all the recent polls.

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Washington, D.C.: Have you noticed that in Kaine's recent TV ads, he sounds exactly like the Perdue chicken guy? Do you think this work for or against him in his campaign?

Marc Fisher: Hadn't noticed that. It's Russ Potts, the independent, who has more Frank Perdue to him. Neither Kaine nor Kilgore has much of a speaking voice, nor much screen presence. The Kilgore campaign has gone out of its way to minimize the candidate's speaking in his ads. And then there's the whole semi-sub-rosa issue of Kilgore's accent.

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washingtonpost.com: Scott Howell and Co.

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Germantown, Md.: Where's today's poll?

Marc Fisher: The polling division of PotoCon Enterprises has the day off--sorry. Poll returns next week. Proposed questions are always welcome if you'd like to email them to me.

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Chevy Chase, D.C.: The "zero tolerance" policy gives way too much power to the police and they, of course, abuse it. A friend of mine was parked illegally after having had one drink. The officer made her get out of her car, threw her up against the car, handcuffed her and put her in jail for the whole night. Her BAC was too low to even register on the breathalyzer. She was never charged with anything. After that happened, I made a donation to FOP and put a sticker on my car. Ever wonder why the District has so many FOP supporters?

Marc Fisher: And you think the FOP sticker will protect you from such incidents? That seems way too easy. Then again, this is a city in which I heard a cop on 18th Street in Adams Morgan tell a woman who had approached him for help dealing with a fender bender, "Girl, they don't pay me enough to give a ---- about that ----."

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Arlington, Va.: Marc,

As I recall, you are a teetotaler, right? Anyway, you just wrote: "But the disadvantage is that plenty of us really are impaired by an amount of alcohol well below that legal cutoff." Doubtless, this is true, particularly someone on another medication, etc.

Conversely, a (perhaps small) portion of the population are NOT seriously impaired 'above' the legal limit of .08 -- particularly if they are well, rested, experienced drivers, driving slowly, etc. If drivers can still get arrested for being impaired, but under the limit, should they also be able to get acquitted by being not impaired, but over the limit?

Marc Fisher: Me, a teetotaler? Sorry, wrong chat. Ask Weingarten--he went through a teetotaling phase at some point.

And I'm sorry, but I don't buy the argument that some people are just peachy drivers even at levels over .08 The studies I've seen on that just don't allow for much possibility that anyone can have full control of judgment at that level, even if they've been blotto so often that they know how to drive in a relatively straight line.

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Arlington, Va.: Let's see ... If I have a drink at a restaurant in D.C. I'll be arrested, in Virginia I may have some guy with a gun strapped to his hip and in Maryland the nanny state won't allow me much of a selection of wines.

Where do I go for a night out? Philly, NYC?

Marc Fisher: Solution: Jetpaks. No one ever stopped George Jetson for DUI.

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Arlington, Va.: Remembering all the dire warnings I have heard that as little as two drinks can put you in danger of reaching the legal intoxication limit, it makes me think I'd blow a 0.01 by just watching a Miller Lite ad.

Marc Fisher: I'd have thought that watching too many beer ads on TV would have a much more sobering effect.

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Washington, D.C.: Marc, is your comment about New Orleans pets going to haunt you for the rest of your career or are you capable of rising above it?

Marc Fisher: Oh man, am I still beating my wife? Was I conducting my own investigation? Are you now or have you ever been?

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Catonsville, Md.: Does Ladner remind you a bit of Raffy Palmeiro? If he can explain away what happened, why doesn't he?

Marc Fisher: I had the painful experience of watching an unbelievably fawning interview with Ladner conducted by an AU student on AU's campus TV station. Man, I thought the kid's next question would be, "Can we please share a hug?"

Anyway, this was Ladner's chance to spin the story however he pleased, and all he could muster was a bunch of whining about how he's been misunderstood and how it was necessary to spend madly to boost the school's image to its potential donors. It was a sadly unpersuasive performance.

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Ladnerland, D.C.: Question about the two trustees who resigned. I just don't understand it. They favor firing Ladner with no severance, complain that others disagree, and then QUIT because others disagree? That's two less votes for the result they favor. Seems like they aren't doing what's necessary to get rid of this guy, but are running away. How can they possibly think they are helping things, are part of the solution? They should have stayed and VOTED against the severance.

Marc Fisher: I agree entirely. Apparently, they just couldn't take being in a room with trustees who accused them of being too public or too critical of the prez. The resignations were poorly timed and feel all too selfish. That said, one of the trustees who quit, Paul Wolff, deserves an enormous amount of credit for going public earlier in the scandal with a lot of the detail that helped to foment the public pressure to get rid of Ladner.

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AU campus: Does The Post have any openings for a man who can consume twice his weight in per diem? Benjamin L.

Marc Fisher: Our per diems are on something of a diet here at the paper, so I don't know how comfortable you'd be here, Benjamin, but I do think we could learn a thing or two from you about how to throw a fine bash. The celebrations here tend to be limited to sheet cake, something I know you'd never allow to cross your threshold.

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AU: And they are still ignoring the staff at AU. We haven't had a raise pool above 3 percent in more than 10 years. We're all invested in this place -- many of us are also students or alumni -- and we want to see it succeed. But the board needs to take us into account along with the students and the staff, or they will see AU begin to hemorrhage staff. And somehow, I think that hiring to replace us is going to be difficult.

Staff needs a voice on the board too, and the board needs to recognize that Dr. Ladner's spending and their blindness to that spending have made this a difficult place to work.

Marc Fisher: AU, despite Ladner's excesses, is not a rich university; it lacks the large endowments that power many of the top private colleges. So I doubt the staff will see much relief anytime soon, sad to say.

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Waynesboro, Va.: I was embarrassed watching Kilgore's latest ad on WTTG before ALCS game 1 Tuesday night (and isn't it nice to see the "other" Sox in, rather than those pompous Bostonians and New Yorkers?). We have so many problems in this state, and yet we elect candidates on the most visceral social issues? One wishes Russ Potts, who has largely eschewed such irrelevancies, was more of a factor in this election. (Perhaps he isn't because of that.) It's back to the image of Virginians (at least those outside metro northern Virginia) as backward, NASCAR-loving fundamentalists again. Sigh.

Marc Fisher: The culture clash between northern Virginia and the rest of the state seems to grow ever more severe, yet the candidates this year are all but ignoring the region that accounts for the great majority of the state's job and revenue growth. But will northern Virginians vote their region over ideological distinctions? Don't bet on it.

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Berryville, Va.: Isn't Kaine's position, though based on his religious beliefs, rather like those of many/most of us? That is, we don't like abortion but still yield to a woman's right to choose for herself. If Kaine is cynical in how he states his case, he may still be honest in his mixed feelings.

The death penalty is a somewhat more complex issue in my mind, since we have many politicians (and Supreme Court nominees) who believe that it's defensible to kill someone convicted of murder, even if evidence can later be used to prove his innocence. I wish Kaine had drawn that distinction.

Kilgore's ads show him to be morally bankrupt. I hope that undecided voters are as repulsed by this tactic as I am. I can now vote for Kaine with enthusiasm -- for his own sake, but also because of the vileness and malice of his opponent.

I'd rather be mired in traffic than mired in the filth of a Kilgore governorship.

Marc Fisher: I agree that most of us hold highly conflicted views about many of the social issues that are portrayed by politicians as black or white. But I don't hear that in the way Tim Kaine talks about abortion or the death penalty. In both cases, he presents his personal views as very clear and definitive; he accepts his church's teachings on life--period. He opposes abortion and the death penalty. Where he gets into trouble is in the next piece, where he says that despite his personal views, he will uphold Virginia's laws. Does he say that because he truly believes that his personal principles should play no role in his work as governor? Or does he say it because he knows it is politically unpalatable to too many Virginia voters to support a gubernatorial candidate who is anti-death penalty? I don't know the answer to that, but I do think Kaine's failure to clarify or to be consistent between hell thought-out candidacy.

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Plato's Republic: Marc -- Voters are dumb as stumps.

Marc Fisher: Was that Plato who coined that phrase? Somehow, I thought it was one of Nixon's handlers. Wouldn't a nice secret plan to end the war be a good relief right about now from the more convoluted deceptions of this era?

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Virginia governor's race: Is there any way to stop those political ads from crossing the border into Maryland's airspace? I'm sure I'll get my share when Douggie D. begins his campaign.

Marc Fisher: Not likely. You didn't see anything remotely like this from Gov. Haircut last time out, nor from the Dems in Maryland. Maryland lacks the same kind of values-driven politics that Virginia has has for the past couple of decades. You'll see some very tough ads next year in the Maryland governor's race, but I think they're likely to have more to do with crime in Baltimore or slots than with social wedge issues such as guns, death penalty, abortion or gay adoption.

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Washington, D.C.: I think The Post is going waaaay overboard in its coverage of Ladner. Sure, he's a thief and a jerk, but don't you realize how few people in the metropolitan area this actually affects? And believe me, fewer even care about it at all.

Marc Fisher: There are lots of AU alumni in this area, and I've been getting a ton of mail on this story since it started, as have our reporters on the story. In addition, the Ladner story has frequently appeared on the Big Web site's lists of most emailed stories, so apparently there is an audience for a juicy scandal in which an overpaid academic acts like royalty while running a money-challenged school.

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Expensive tastes? : OK, conduct a softball interview with me and I'll give you a bottle of Mouton Rothschild. Fair enough?

Ben L.

Marc Fisher: And it seems Ben loves to hang out here at the Big Web site.

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AU 08: Marc, based on President Ladner's chat on Monday, I am assuming you can pick and choose which questions to answer. I, fellow AU students, and alums bombarded his chat with negative comments but, more importantly, a desire that he in fact give us his side of the story, not that piece of ---- that appeared on last Saturday's Op-ed page. One chatter, presumably a Ladner family member, even said that if the trustees were to double his salary, that would still be insufficient! I hope he at least read all the critical questions. It's hard to believe he's so completely out of it that he doesn't realize the frustration over tuition money being used to send his private chef to cooking schools in Paris and Rome.

washingtonpost.com: Ladner Discussion (Live Online, washingtonpost.com, Oct. 7)

washingtonpost.com: My Side of the AU Debate (Post, Oct. 8)

Marc Fisher: Yes, this is a cardinal truth about chatdom and you should have it in mind whenever you're playing around in our or any other chat rooms--the host controls the agenda and gets to scroll through the questions and choose the ones he wants and use them in the order he wants. You see that at play quite often in guest chats by politicians and folks like Ladner, who often choose only the most complimentary questions. But the truth is that the fun of this medium is taking all comers and tossing up the most challenging and powerful posts, whatever side of an issue they may take.

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Washington, D.C.: Looks like AU's President Dr. Ladner finally got the boot (no surprise there), but at least he can take some solace in the fact that the scoundrels who waged a malicious and dirty campaign to get him fired aren't going to be around either. Not many people in America can say that today. Any idea why The Post's coverage was so biased in this regard? When did The Post's objective change from reporting facts to groveling for powerful interest groups?

Marc Fisher: Groveling for which powerful interest groups? The students who were embarrassed for their university? The parents who were footing the bill for Ladner's playtime? The faculty who are severely underpaid?

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Washington, D.C>: Re: Ladner

Seem to me that the best way to assure that Ladner doesn't get a golden parachute is for someone to get BIG donors (or potential donors) to AU to make clear that not one penny will be forthcoming if Ladner is given an unreasonable settlement. Follow the money!

Marc Fisher: Right--the big moneybags on campus can have a strong impact on the trustees' decision if they make it clear that they don't want their bucks going to the Ladner Enrichment Fund.

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Dunn Loring, Va.: Free campaign ad idea for Jerry Kilgore: Get yourself in the window of Victoria's Secret giving a semi-nude dummy a lethal injection. Intro line: Yes, she's already dead, but why take chances. Tim Kaine will. Jerry Kilgore won't. But I will offer better highways to and from Tyson's Corner . . ."

Marc Fisher: And you win the ThreadWeaver of Last Week award, since we haven't gotten back into the Vicky's Secret story from the last show.

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Washington, D.C.: Plato's Republic: Marc -- Voters are dumb as stumps.

I prefer the comment of a Roman Senator, "Julius Caesar" Act I, Scene I, when describing the mob awaiting Caesar's triumphal return: "Those blocks, those stones, those worse than senseless things."

Marc Fisher: Hey, wasn't that the tagline on the Kilgore spot?

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Re: Plato: Actually, it was Plato's teacher, Socrates, who held that citizens were dumb as stumps. Socrates loved freedom of speech, but he thought that democracy produced some unpalatable outcomes, hence his preference for philosopher-kings. One of my favorite books is I.F. (Izzy) Stone's "The Trial of Socrates", which dissects Socrates's obstreperous behavior. Stone, who was told by his doctor to quit his day job as a writer/editor, learned Greek in order to research his book. Nice retirement hobby, I'd say.

Marc Fisher: Stone, a monumental figure in the history of American journalism, brought his talents for digging and for clarifying the essence of any topic to philosophy and politics toward the end of his life. A powerful book.

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I am not a cr, OK: Regarding Nixon's secret plan to end the war: I just read an article by Nixon's DefSec Mel Laird, who "revealed" that when Nixon selected him, he told Laird that there was no secret plan but that Laird had better come up with one in a hurry.

Marc Fisher: That's a shocker, huh? And I bet Laird got right on it. Speaking of Harriet Miers and her comment that this president is the smartest man she'd ever met, I once worked for a publisher who was so dim that he couldn't wrap his mind around the idea that a newspaper should be politically neutral in its corporate policies. That publisher had come to the paper after a stint working for Melvin Laird, whom he deemed "the smartest man I've ever met." Wow.

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Woodbridge, Va.: Marc,

I read the article printed in The Washington Post about the poor young lady who was set on fire by her estranged husband.

The Judge in this case, Judge Palumbo, did not take into consideration the insistence by the wife that her husband was going to harm her.

What can citizens do to relieve a Judge (fire) from his duties if he or she is not competent?

Marc Fisher: Man, that judge got caught looking in today's excellent story by Allison Klein and Ruben Castaneda. Judges are way too eager to move through the calendar and I know many judges who live in fear of exactly this sort of thing happening. But the pace is so fast in most such courtrooms that this sort of event is inevitable. It's often not the judges, but the social workers and lawyers who prep the cases who are to blame when the wrong guys are let out or when protective orders are permitted to lapse. (And yes, those social workers and lawyers also have preposterously huge caseloads. And the beat goes on....)

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Ashburn, Va.: Marc, for me it comes down to this: I won't vote for Kaine, Kilgore or anyone. The way traffic and housing prices are in Virginia, their ideas aren't going to help short-term, so more than likely I won't even be living in Virginia before their term ends. The problems of today are still 10-15 years away from being close to being solved. By that time, I may have to commute from Ohio.

Marc Fisher: Tough commute, but you would be able to drop in on a Reds game on the way home.

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Death Row: Remember, it takes K-i-l to spell Kilgore. The last l is silent.

Marc Fisher: And as we noted in 11th grade, you can't spell funeral without F-U-N.

Fun with Letters, a new chat coming up later today here on the Big Web site.

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Arlington, Va.: Actually, the full quote is "Voters for the other party are dumb as stumps".

Marc Fisher: But Virginia has the best, most historically important stumps around.

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Alexandria, Va.: George Jetson is an FUI (Flying While Intoxicated).

Marc Fisher: It's only FWI if he's over a certain oxygen limit; otherwise he's FUI, and if he's under a certain cloud cover, then he's FUCC. Which is as far as we can go here in a semi-regulated environment.

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S. Rockville, Md.: Did anyone else notice the large article in Saturday's Real Estate section about Gibson Island, where Ladner has a vacation home? It would sure be terrible if he couldn't afford to keep up the mortgage payments on his house on a private island!

Marc Fisher: Any Gibson Island residents who'd like to invite me over for a look at the Ladner spread?

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Leesburg, Va.: Why is it that Kilgore's twin brother IS better looking?

Marc Fisher: I've devoted too much time to this question over the years, and suffice to say that I think it's the hair. Also, there's a skin quality thing, but I'm entering a realm of speculation there that I can't really support.

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Washington, D.C.: Marc,

While I appreciate today's column, do you think Kilgore's ads are going to hurt Kaine? As I recall, way back in 1988 everyone denounced those Willie Horton ads, but they did an effective job of making Dukakis look bad and hurt him badly in the polls.

Marc Fisher: Yes, I think Kilgore gets a significant bump out of this. Even with the firestorm of criticism over the ads. Maybe even because of the firestorm.

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The District: During presidential elections, those of us who live in the D.C. area are blessed with relatively few presidential campaign ads (I visited Wisc. right before the election last year and it was incredible the number of ads.). But with the Virginia governor's race this year and the Maryland race next year (which is sure to be u-g-l-y).

I know this is in no way, shape or form possible, but it sure would be nice for those of us who live in the District (and Va./Md. depending on which election we're talking about) to not have to see those TV ads ... It's not as anyone learns anything from them anyway ...

Marc Fisher: I dunno, I love seeing political ads on TV, especially for places that I don't live in. Remember a couple of years back when there was so much money in a West Virginia race that they pumped some of it into the DC TV market? I had no clue who those candidates were and that made the ads even more entertaining.

And it's nice to know that the broadcasters have to give the pols a cut rate on the ads, so the TV and radio outlets are taking a financial hit, which is also somewhat comforting.

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Ay yi yi: Okay, I understand that last poster's frustration over the situation in Virginia. But people who say "oh well, everything stinks, so I'm not gonna vote" make me want to hit my head against the wall. Nothing ever gets better unless you do something. Voting is the very least ...

Marc Fisher: Agreed. You do sometimes have to swallow hard, but there is a civic obligation to make a choice, because your considered choice is more important than some bozo's unthinking choice.

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Springfield, Va.: Sorry, "preposterously large caseloads" doesn't cut it. I work in a public school in special education, with 55 students on MY caseload. If I ever thought one of them was in harm's way, I would not hesitate to call in the cavalry (and in fact I'm required to). Why should others working with the public be allowed to use lame excuses?

Marc Fisher: You're right, of course, but there are limits to what a person can do, and I've seen prosecutors and defense lawyers and social workers with loads of up to 200 cases, which means that it's physically impossible to do the home visits or intensive interviews necessary to flesh out a case. That said, you're right that if someone is claiming a risk of immediate physical danger, that person should get the benefit of the doubt.

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au revoir AU: Synder just invited me over to his place to "prune" some more trees. Later.

Benji L.

Marc Fisher: Danny--Lock the icebox!

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Re firing the judge: Protective orders do not necessarily work. If someone is determined to hurt or kill someone they will unless they are in jail or dead. And in jail is not necessarily a deterrent if they hire someone to do it.

Marc Fisher: Quite right--they are too often merely symbolic, but judges tell me that the word of the court can have a deterrent impact on some potentially violent folks in domestic cases. People do have an aversion to jail and to publicity about their personal failures.

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Arlington, Va.: Waaaay back near the beginning of today's chat, you mentioned "look-ing into" the compulsory social drinker education classes in D.C. Whaddya bet that a casual inquiry would find out that the owner of the company that provides this service (at $400 a pop) has ties to someone in the D.C. government?

Marc Fisher: I wouldn't be stunned.

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Vienna, Va.: Regarding the culture clash in Virginia, I read an article in the Fairfax Weekly which I doubt many people are aware of. While Northern Virginia sends the most liberal legislators to Richmond, it also sends the most fundamentalist conservative as well.

Marc Fisher: Yes, ideology still trumps regional solidarity. That's why the transportation mess persists.

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Old Dominion: One year I wrote in a West Virginia candidate's name because I'd seen more of his ads, and I didn't want to choose between the two Virginia candidates.

Marc Fisher: Wouldn't it be fantastic if write ins for an out of state candidate beat the in-state candidates in some race?

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Re: driving in some wacky way: The 2nd night after our 2nd baby was born in Sibley my wife was craving for some fried chicken around midnight. So I got up from hospital's pull-up chair/bed and headed to McDonalds on Van Ness. Needless to say I was dog-tired so on my way back I kinda zoned-out a little and edged the red light and wasn't going dead straight. Minutes later I was pulled over by four cops, and one of them was calling for backups.

Thank god I was sober, sort of.

Insane.

Marc Fisher: Yeah, if we were being rigidly honest about what impairs driving, it would be illegal to have babies in the backseat or in-laws in the passenger seat.

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Wheaton, Md.: As an AU alum and wife of an AU librarian, I can say that the first thing my husband and I do each morning is to check The Post for coverage of the Ladner story. Not only do I not think that The Post is making too much of it, I'm disappointed when a day goes by without an article! In fact, I've started reading the Metro section much more regularly as a result of the coverage -- so keep the info coming.

Marc Fisher: A great paper rides a story like this hard, every day. Alas, the Ladner story is heading into its final chapter.

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Metro Center, Washington, D.C.: I was walking around at lunch the other day and have to say that I am astonished that the old convention center site is not big enough for the new basball stadium.

Having been to games in urban stadiums like Wrigley and Fenway that site is certainly bigger than the land those two stadiums take up.

Maybe it would not be ideal but since the city council is again squabbling about the SE site and costs and most people seem to agree that RFK is not a good site perhaps someone should take a look at this site again even if it requires a smaller park? Has anyone at The Post actually examined the mayor's claim that this site is in fact too small?

Marc Fisher: It would be a very tight squeeze. You could fit a Fenway or Wrigley there, barely, but you'd have zero room for any of the ancillary stuff that a stadium involves, and you would not be able to fit a modern stadium with all of the bells and whistles that fans and players have come to expect.

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Richmond, Va.: Re: the below. There are plenty of other sophisticated, cosmopolitan voters south of the Rappahanock who feel much like NOVA'ians do about such tactics, Marc.

Marc Fisher: The culture clash between northern Virginia and the rest of the state seems to grow ever more severe, yet the candidates this year are all but ignoring the region that accounts for the great majority of the state's job and revenue growth. But will northern Virginians vote their region over ideological distinctions? Don't bet on it.

Marc Fisher: Absolutely there are, but my point was that NoVa residents have all sorts of additional reasons to band together, yet they don't. Did you notice that not one northern Virginia reporter was included in the panel of five reporters who asked questions at the one TV debate between Kaine and Kilgore? And was it therefore any surprise that only one question in the entire hour had any northern Virginia content?

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Washington, D.C.: Since when did the IRS start sending Hallmark cards to folks reminding them to pay their taxes? If it was anyone else they'd be tackled in their front yard, handcuffed and poky bound.

Dearest Marion,

Just a quick note to remind you that you haven't paid your income taxes in the last three years.

The favor of a reply is graciously requested.

Best wishes,

Your friends at the IRS.

Marc Fisher: And just imagine the arrogance and cockiness it takes to ignore a missive from the IRS! I quake at the mere mention of the idea.

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Virginia Voter: Marc:

If any of the Kilgore or Kaine people are monitoring your chat, let them know this:

Kaine's position on the death penalty is too clever by half, as you pointed out in your column. And Kilgore's ad is truly despicable. This whole thing has left me with only two choices:

a. sit it out

b. vote for Potts

Nice going, you two. Maybe in four years we can come up with a more palatable choice.

Marc Fisher: Don't sit it out. Nobody wins from that.

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Clarksburg, Md.: Marc, I know I'll hate myself in the morning for asking, but is there an update on the principal that lied about her PhD? I suppose not, but what was the justification for keeping her on board after she was revealed as a liar? Is having a Ph.D. a requirement for the position? Is there any information on how she has performed in her job?

Marc Fisher: Last I heard, she was still employed at Eastern High School as an administrator.

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Gaithersburg, Md.: Does it bug you that the title of your chat is grammatically incorrect? I like "Slicing and Dicing of issues about which people are talking."

Marc Fisher: I'm not sure where that subtitle came from or how it stuck and now that you mention it, we should scrub it out. Thanks.

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Arlinton, Va.: Texas, where I'n from has drive thru beer ... I guess it wouldn't work in D.C. ...

Marc Fisher: Well, it would make things easier for the D.C. cops.

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.01+ is a great idea: Marc, I agree with you that there needs to be a mechanism for police to deal with impaired drivers below the legal level. Frankly, in this case, the woman was driving her car without her lights on, so she got stopped, fine. Then, when the officer was asking questions, she first denied drinking, then admitted to having one. So he administered a field sobriety test, during which she was cocky, talkative and giggling, by her own admission (all can be signs of intoxication, as well as innocent character traits)

She may not have been drunk, but her behavior certainly demonstrated, on the scene, impaired judgment, wouldn't you rather not have the cops take the chance of letting her go? (by the way, if she had struck someone on the way home and killed them, we'd all be paying the settlement to the victim's family after the police let her go, while suspecting she was impaired, right?) I'm not sure a DUI is the appropriate mechanism, but I think hauling her into the drunk tank was the right thing to do.

And yes, I am a D.C. resident who is sick of dodging impaired drivers at night.

Marc Fisher: Yeah, I didn't have much of a problem with it either. It's like the red light cameras. If you really have a problem with their existence, don't run red lights.

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Arlington, Va.: Wow! Just skipped over to look at some of Kilgore's ads. They are all great in terms of production values. It's sickening to think of the money that goes into either (a) not saying anything or (b) saying something that distorts the truth.

Count me in as one who is ready for the good government, truth-telling approach you describe.

Marc Fisher: Yeah, aesthetically, they're just gorgeous.

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Re: Kilgore for governor: I wasn't planning to vote -- the choices seemed a bit equal, but after having seen Kilgore's ad, I am definitely going to vote -- for KAINE! What a disgusting ad. Even if I didn't believe that the death penalty IS murder, the ad is just too over the top.

Marc Fisher: Maybe there will be something of a backlash. More likely, we'll never know for sure.

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Washington, D.C.: Linda Cropp gave hints the other day that she might raise the issue of whether the city can save up to $200 million in expenses by building the new ballpark by RFK rather than the South Capitol Street site. In addition, given the delays by MLB in selecting a new owner for the Nationals, how likely is it that the proposed stadium site might be changed?

Marc Fisher: I have a sinking feeling about the whole Nats in D.C. situation--stadium lease, property acquisition, new owner, TV deal, radio deal. In every way, the situation is up in the air and no solutions are in sight.

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Dulles, Va.: Marc, you are right on with your column today. It makes it hard to make a good decision on who to elect when all this time and energy is placed on an issue which (while important) affects a tiny percentage of people, while key quality of life issues go unaddressed. I guess that is because the candidates prefer to avoid the real and difficult problems. With regard to Kilgore's add, I agree with your Taliban comment. I lean Republican, but after those adds I'm afraid Jerry is going to be pushing for public lynchings soon. Has either candidate put forth a plan on No. Virginia transportation problems?

Marc Fisher: Nope. No significant plan from either of them. Just different forms of punting.

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Brookland, Washington, D.C.: Do you think Jack Evans's egregious misuse of his PAC's money will be sufficient to derail his Council Chair campaign? Maybe he will be chosen to replce Benjamin Ladner as President of AU!

Marc Fisher: Too soon to say. But fascinating to watch Cropp moving against Evans on this.

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Unfair to AU president: Well, if that's the way you feel, then you can take back the golden parachute, but don't come crying to me when lobster quiche falls because the chef didn't get adequate training!

Marc Fisher: Insufficiently trained personal chefs--next Oprah!

And that kicks it in the head for today--thanks for coming along and the usual apologies to the unusually many of you I couldn't get to today. Come on back next week. Thanks.

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