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Feb. 3, 2006 - Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has only been in office three weeks, and he’s already signed a lot of letters to the families of dead servicemen. To combat falling numbers in his state’s National Guard, he’s proposed re-enlistment bonuses. The historically pro-military state has seen enlistments drop by 100 a month, a significant reduction, Kaine told reporters over a breakfast to preview his response to President George W. Bush’s State of the Union speech.
Kaine created quite a stir last November when he won election in Red State Virginia while touting his religious faith and his opposition to the death penalty. The media lauded him for discovering a possible blueprint for Democrats to regain lost ground, and party leaders tapped him to speak for Democrats on Bush’s big night, a slot rarely awarded a novice.
Though Kaine is little-known outside of political-junkie circles, his theme that “management matters” is at the heart of the Democrats’ message going into the November ’06 election. As his speech illustrated, Kaine symbolizes the common-sense pragmatism that elects Democrats on the state level. He doesn’t fire up the base, but if Democrats want the voters to put them in charge again, they have to establish governing credibility again.
Liberal bloggers went nuts at what they saw as a missed opportunity to zing Bush on national television and stick it to him on the war. That wasn’t Kaine’s mission. He barely mentioned Iraq or the lobbying scandal consuming Washington and instead presented a non-ideological case for “a better way” to run the government. He repeated the phrase several times in his speech, perhaps unaware of its satirical use in the 1972 movie “The Candidate,” where Robert Redford plays a citizen-politician ruined by consultants and media manipulators. In the film, the slogan “For a better way, Bill McKay” heralded the takeover of politics by the consultant class, the exact opposite message that Kaine wanted to send Tuesday evening.
Kaine’s speech will be forgotten and the unfortunate slogan shelved, but his presence on the national scene is reassuring as the Democrats put the pieces in place for electoral wins this fall. Democrats are doing well in governing Red States--Kansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Montana, to name several. With 36 gubernatorial elections in November and Republicans in Ohio and other key states weakened by scandal and unpopular policies, Democrats are poised to capture a narrow majority of governorships, a major comeback and an important bellwether for ’08. They’ve done it by making government work for the people, and not just the special interests. Kaine likes to brag about the fact that Virginia was named the best-managed state by Governing magazine last year. “It’s kind of wonky, kind of technical, but I got a lot of head nods and applause after Katrina,” he told reporters.
Asked why he thought the Republicans, a smart and well-disciplined party, had made such a mess of management, he responded with a quote from Dickens, “From the stuff of details, a life is made.” He singled out Michael Brown’s appointment to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency when there was nothing in his background that suggested he could do the job at FEMA. “I still find that staggering,” Kaine said, calling Brown “emblematic” of the Bush administration’s attitude toward government.
The case against the GOP for mismanagement extends beyond Katrina to the Iraq war, the Medicare prescription-drug fiasco and even mine safety, as we learn more about the administration’s disregard for regulations that might have saved lives in the recent West Virginia accidents. The people who fill these jobs aren’t that enthusiastic about government. They think government is part of the problem, not the solution. They often come from industry or interest groups opposed to the very existence of the programs they’re paid by taxpayer dollars to administer. The problem is compounded by Bush’s CEO mentality, where all information is fiercely safeguarded among a small group and there is no effort to reach out, which might burst the bubble of self-reverence that permeates this White House.
Spending an hour in Kaine’s company, I came away thinking he is refreshingly ordinary, a politician in the best sense, and like a cop on the beat, unaffected by his mini stardom. Watching him deliver the Democratic response Tuesday evening, it was impossible not to notice one errant bushy eyebrow dancing wildly as he spoke. Kaine’s media debut was otherwise uneventful, but with so much of politics today resting on style, he recognizes his shortcomings. In an interview last fall with USA Today, he said, “I start with looks that appeal to the homely,” adding, “Homely polls well.”
But Kaine isn’t running for president, a much more intensely public role than managing a state. Voters are not looking for a governor to be a presence in their lives. It’s OK for a governor to be a technocrat, but Democrats will fall short if they think they can use the same strategy for the presidency. Still, in a party lacking leadership and inspiration, Kaine’s way is a first step on a long road back to power for the Democrats.
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