Among his ideological brethren, many of whom reside in this town, Frank Lucente’s rasp is coated with cordiality as a safeguard against giving offense and taking it in response to criticism. These contrasts in tones frequently are heard here from Waynesboro’s vice mayor in the aftermath of this space being occupied with an assessment of the city’s shortcomings. And so rise conundrums.

Having stepped with precision across the ideological divide and resuscitated in the process an ostensibly broken conservative movement, Robert F. McDonnell pledges fealty to the pragmatism that swept him to Richmond. If that fares him so well as it did on election night, the governor-elect will have provided a formula that others in his party surely will replicate.

As time goes about healing wounds, the City Council’s so-called Three Amigos brandish pleasant public faces. This is a product of necessity: Majorities require their constituent parts to remain whole. But whatever the fellas might say when notebooks are open and tapes are rolling, this is plainly not the same trio who assumed power, and apparently other things, a year ago this morning.

A local twist on a popular holiday poem.