Actually, Scott....

Looks like the evil bloggers (and evil environmentalists, and evil "leftists," and evil Miles Grant supporters) have gotten under Arlington Sun Gazette editor's skin. Ha. In the third part of his "Editor's Notebook" entry entitled, "Truly a Global Disaster" (referring to the Air France tragedy, not to his real estate advertising rag "newspaper"), McCaffrey whines about "all the venom being spewed my direction yesterday among bloggers, over the paper's decision to endorse Patrick Hope and Andres Tobar in the 47th House of Delegates race." According to McCaffrey, who (just to remind everyone) endorsed George Allen over Jim Webb in 2006, and whose paper is by most accounts a Republican rag in service of the Arlington real estate industry, the "vitriol" proved that "those in the leftie blog world are increasingly antsy over the chances of their preferred candidates in next week's primaries, from the top to the bottom of the ticket."

Actually, Scott (can I call you Scott?), you've got it completely wrong as usual. In fact, all the Miles Grant for Delegate supporters I talk to are growing increasingly confident about his chances next Tuesday. In fact, most of us believe that the "vitriol" you spewed against Grant, environmentalists and "lefties" only reflects well on all of those folks. More broadly, the people I talk to in Arlington believe it's completely bizarre for you, a George Allen Republican, to be endorsing in a Democratic primary at all. Do you even live in the 47th district? Have you spent more than 5 minutes talking to any of the candidates? Do you care about any of the issues? Do you agree with the candidates on any of the issues? Nope, didn't think so.

Bottom line: for a person who professes his contempt for "environmentalists" and "lefties" to be endorsing a candidate in a Democratic primary in liberal Arlington, where "environmentalists" and "lefties" are as common as high rises, is almost beyond bizarre. Again, do you really think that the endorsement of a George Allen Republican would be a positive thing in a Democratic primary in Arlington?

As to the top of the ticket, I remain confident that Terry McAuliffe will win next Tuesday. But regardless of which Democrat emerges from the primary on June 9, why don't you just endorse Bob McDonnell already and save us all the pain of having to read your daily ramblings to find out? Thanks.

You Know What's Also a Bad Idea, Scott?

In the soon-to-be-bankrupt Arlington Sun Gazette, editor-for-now Scott McCaffrey threatens my friend Miles Grant:

Soooo Desperate for Attention in the 47th?

Looks like the Miles Grant for 47th House of Delegates campaign is so desperate for attention these days that it's (a) putting out press releases announcing it "won't take any Dominion Power money" (although I'm pretty sure none will be forthcoming) and then (b) blasting me -- li'l old me! -- for not covering that press release.

Sigh.

I really have no interest getting into a pissing match with a campaign that's near the back of the pack - my trajectory is so much longer out there in public that it's not a fair fight - so I'll let their jibes pass. But I will note that, until the newspaper industry finally passes into oblivion (if it ever does), it's still a really, really bad idea to, as they say, pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.

Well, you know what's an even worse idea than picking a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel, Scott? Picking a fight with people who don't HAVE TO BUY INK AT ALL! They're called bloggers, by the way, and they use pixels by the megabyte. Good luck fighting that, dude. Meanwhile, I urge everyone to support Miles Grant and to send a message to the "dead tree media" about what they can do with their fishwrap and "ink by the barrel."

P.S. Recall that the Sun Gazette endorsed Bill Bolling over Leslie Byrne in 2005 and George Allen over Jim Webb in 2006. What more is there to say?