Midweek briefing

Core values

Contrasts continue to strike. The Golden Corral soon will open its gates in the West End, another indicator that development will not soon abate in that section of Waynesboro where pulses still can be detected. Eastward, Roses, the discount clothing and retail store, is venturing back into Willow Oak Plaza. A smattering of small shops has opened in the vicinity.

A few cheery souls celebrate this. We would like to join them but facts cling to us. The recent openings are encouraging, but the calm downtown remains, and it is deadening. Waynesboro Downtown Development Inc. combats this nobly but futilely. Events to draw people to the city core do little so long as the city core remains substantively uninhabited. Similarly, low taxes are an alluring benefit – and those who have labored to keep rates from escalating win from us a tip of the cap – but few will come if few know.

The Mill at South River should be seized by the city as a potential catalyst. The modifier is important. The developers of that project have 500,000 square feet of space to fill. An economic development director could use that opportunity and the city’s low tax rate along with a sensible business approach to turn the faint trickle of new business into downtown into a gusher. Somewhere in the vast universe must be someone capable of filling that position and fulfilling its promise and the city’s.

Lowering Kaine

Somewhere, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, in between his various travels on behalf of the Democratic National Committee, must be checking off the days until his departure from office at term’s end. So, too, are others, with a distinct exception.

He began the week by, again, telling relatives of victims in the Virginia Tech massacre that despite a state investigation panel filing a report riddled with errors he will not reconvene that group to repair its own failings. The governor told families instead that he would allow corrections to be made to the document until Aug. 19. Some relatives, naturally, were not satisfied.

We don’t quibble with the decision not to reconvene. Why should the panel be expected to perform more ably now than before? But relatives have a legitimate beef: the same public safety consulting firm, TriData, that helped write the original report, and which therefore bears some of the stain of its failings, will produce the revised and final version. Isn’t this like asking the policeman to write himself the ticket for speeding?

Ruff going

Blue Dogs by their name are prey to strained puns. They bark but don’t bite. They roll over. They play dead. They fetch, too. Democrats who march under the canine banner also expose themselves to this by their nature. Their recent obeisance on health care reform is a case in point.

Like so-called moderate Republicans, Blue Dogs represent to that rare few left of center who chafe at unbridled government expansion and spending a voice of reason among zany ideologues. If only it were true. Blue Dogs in recent months showed promise before lilting. They cried out against last fall’s bailout of the finance industry then crumpled. They did the same on health care then hailed miniscule savings that dropped the bill from $1 trillion to $900 billion.

America could use an authentic version of what Blue Dogs claim to be, champions of fiscal conservatism within the Democratic Party. Too many Republicans have touted themselves similarly and falsely. Reviving their pragmatic sensibilities on health care would show Blue Dogs can hunt after all.