Midweek briefing

Really? Now, Del. Landes?

Steve Landes clearly has noticed that he has a challenger in the House District 25 race, which presumably has something to do with the bill he announced Monday.

The Republican incumbent says he’ll introduce legislation in January that will provide $2 million in state grants to companies adding 10 to 50 workers and keeping them for two years. Outfits located in towns with unemployment rates a fourth higher than the state average would get preference.

Democrat Greg Marrow, Landes’ opponent in the fall election, called this a case of “too little, too late,” and mused over the bill’s impact, since the money comes later rather than up front.

A centerpiece of Marrow’s campaign has been to slap Landes with the stain of the economy’s stumbling. This, we’ve opined before, is more than a trifle unfair. Asking a delegate from a tiny district in Virginia to forestall the worst national recession in a generation strikes us as a bit much. Recall that major employers in Landes’ district, starting with Invista, are directly dependent on new home construction nationwide. How does he spur that?

But Marrow’s criticism is fair on two counts. Landes’ bill looks and sounds a lot like simple election politicking. And businesses need help now, not later. Try again?

Make but don’t smoke ‘em

Shaking the jet lag from his noggin Monday after having logged more frequent flyer miles on behalf of the Democratic National Committee, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced Monday that Japan International Leaf Services would open a tobacco processing plant in Danville, providing 39 full-time and 150 seasonal jobs.

This, of course, is welcome news in Danville, which has been devastated by the recession that so many economists insist on telling us has ended. It also evinces another in the series of curious juxtapositions associated with this state’s current chief executive.

In this case, the guv champions JTI, as do we from afar, several days after making the rounds to eateries to champion the state’s restaurant smoking ban. This, of course, follows a particular pattern of his party, to curse foul tobacco and relegate puffers to the ranks of pitiable pariahs. Smoke in the back alleys, you dogs.

The troubling thing is, dear old JTI is one of the world’s leading producers of tobacco products, counting Winston, Camel, Benson & Hedges and others in its long and impressive line of wheeze inducers. So, governor, you welcome the makers of the dastardly stuff but bar its use in the public place where last the practice had been allowed? Your inconsistencies, sir, are consistently remarkable.

We’re still waiting, Sen. Deeds

Last week in this space, we called on state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds to respond to our requests for an endorsement interview. We’ve heard a silence since to rival the one heard in downtown Waynesboro on a typical Saturday night. Really, senator, we don’t bite. Well, maybe just a little.