Livid Gov. Kaine Rips Republicans as on "Ideological Crusade"

An obviously livid Gov. Tim Kaine rips General Assembly Republicans - and rightly so - for rejecting $125 million in federal stimulus money that would have gone to helping unemployed Virginians. If what went down in the General Assembly yesterday is not enough incentive for you to get involved, to toss out these far-right-wing extremists from our House of Delegates this November, then I don't know if there will ever be enough incentive. With that, here's Tim Kaine:

*"I just can't imagine why we would leave $125 million in taxes paid by Virginians (many of them) on the table, instead of helping Virginia workers who are so hard hit."

*"This was not about the federal government, this was not about an ideological battle with some distant foe, this was about looking into the eyes of Virginians who have lost their jobs. Our unemployment rate is the highest it's been in the last 20 years. Parents with kids worrying about health care for their kids, worrying about how they're going to pay their rent and mortgage, worrying about how they're going to pay for their kids schooling. That's what this is about, it's about the people that you were sent to represent."

*"The notion that this was some jolly ideological crusade to shake our fists against somebody up in DC is just such a misunderstanding about what this job is supposed to be about."

*"You know, I assume everybody always acts on their own principles. But I've just got to say, I just don't understand what some of those principles are."

*"There's an awful lot of people who are hurting in Virginia in ways that they haven't hurt in the last generation in this Commonwealth, and the message to them seems to be, just, 'we don't care, we don't care, fend for yourself, be a hunter and gatherer, go out and live off the land, and the government you put in place that you expect to be...for the people is just turning a deaf ear to you."

*"Virginia has had a history of wanting to shake their fist against Washington. It has never, ever worked out right. It has never worked out right. When we try to divide ourselves from our national government and pretend that they're evil and we're somehow paragons of virtue, we unfailingly have made huge mistakes."