Weenie of the Week #8 of 2006

It was a tough call this week, but the winner is Dave Albo, for voting against Brandon Bell's smoking bill. 

There's no question this bill enjoys overwhelming support in Albo's district.

J.C. Wilmore has the full coverage here.

Albo won this election because people in his district like him.  If he continues to push this attitude of "Albo knows best" to his constituents, he won't have personal popularity to rely on in the future.

Comments

[Albo for Governor]

WHAT???

[linda ronstadt]

No reward for my main man
Virgil "You're No GOODE" ???

[truthteller]

If Albo keeps it up, the voters of Springfield may elect a Werkhorse rather than a Showhore (aka. Dave Albo) in 2007.

[truthteller]

showhorse that is

[Mike]

Folks, remember that Kaine said he would veto the bill if it hit his desk. Stop looking for reasons to bash Albo. I don't care if you love him or hate him, but be reasonable in the attacks or praise.

Bell's bill was bad policy. The anti -smoking crowd should focus on educating younger people about the dangers of smoking and leave the adults that chose to smoke alone.

I smoke maybe 10 cigarettes a e year – when I am totally inebriated. I hate the way cigarette smoke smells in my clothes. When I take my family out to dinner, I pick non-smoking restaurants if possible, and the non-smoking section if that is the only option. Mainly because I do not want my sons exposed to a smoking lifestyle.

A smoke free environment is available if you take the time, and the responsibility upon yourself, to find it. Kaine recognized this as a bad bill and was ready to kill it. Give Albo credit for recognizing it as well.

And for those of you upset about smoking, why don’t you try what you ask people who are offended with television programming to do? Change the channel - eat somewhere smoking is not allowed.

[Not Jack Herrity]

Unlike the above poster, I'm not prepared to say this was a bad bill. But you can't pound Albo for opposition to this bill when no less than the Governor himself threatened a veto.

I wanted Leighty for Weenie! How about next week?

NJH

[Rtwng Extrmst]

NLS, very poor choice given the competition this week. This was definitely a BAD bill. If smoking is so bad, ban it altogether, but don't tell business-owners they can't allow their patrons to engage in a legal activity.

I think anti-smoking stuff is sort of a pet issue for NLS. So I don't blame him.

[Not Ben]

Rtwing: "don't tell business-owners they can't allow their patrons to engage in a legal activity"

Does that mean every restaurant should be allowed to sell alcohol? The liquor licensing boards may be interested in this concept...

[Query]

Can anyone point me to the Governor making his veto comment?

NLS - where do you come up with the idea that Albo's district overwhelmingly supports this bill? Did you do polling or something?

[Rtwng Extrmst]

Good point Not Ben. However, "regulating" the use of tobacco is a much different proposition than banning it outright. If the government wanted to take such an action to define "smoking" restaurants and bars as a licensed activity, much like alcohol, I'm not so sure I would object. I have posted before that a great solution to this problem would be to define "smoking" and "non-smoking" establishments in law and allow proprietors to define their establishments as one or the other. Health code policies should be firmly entrenched in the "non-smoking" definition and fines applied to those who ignore them. This is not much different from the "licensing" requirements for establishments that serve alcohol. I bet such a bill might just pass both houses. It makes me wonder why it wasn't attempted. Perhaps some of those legislators in favor of the bill that failed really didn't want change, but did want to have their names associated with an "anti-smoking" bill?

[Not Larry Sabato]

NJH, I try to post it on Friday, so even when "Weenie" is posted late, I try not to select from Saturday incidents onward.

Leighty is certainly eligable this week.

1052 anon- No polling, just demographics and talking to a lot of people.

[Not Jack Herrity]

"No polling, just demographics and talking to a lot of people."

Careful, Ben. I'm not sure the people you or I talk to are necessarily representative of the district. From what I've seen, NoVa is about 50/50 on this issue. And I support the smoking ban.

NJH

[Virginia Centrist]

RWE:

Your idea isn't that bad, but there's no way it would pass the house. You're talking about creating another state agency to regulate smoking...seems rather silly.

[Virginia Centrist]

Albo For Governor:

You must be kidding. If Albo can barely get 50% in the home district WHERE HE GREW UP, he doesn't seem like much of a statewide candidate...

[Not Harry F. Byrd, Sr.]

According to the Virginia-Pilot only one other Delegate has accepted more tobacco money than Dave Albo has ($10,000).

Dave Albo has consistently shown more interest in rewarding the special interests who fund his campaigns than he does about his constituents.

Many of the bills he introduces every year benefit the alcohol industry. His conveniently self-serving personal responsibility rhetoric is transparent.

[republitarian550]

Tim said it on "Ask the Governor"

[NLS]

You've GOTTA put McDonnell ahead of Leighty.

[Not Larry Sabato]

Please don't use the screen name "NLS", or people will think it is me.

[Not Albo for Governor]

Virginia Centrist is right. Albo has a long history of being in bed with Special interests. His vote on the smoking bill is just the latest permutation of that practice.

[Not Albo for Governor]

"Albo won this election because people in his district like him. If he continues to push this attitude of 'Albo knows best' to his constituents, he won't have personal popularity to rely on in the future."

Actually, Albo's personal popularity faded significantly vis-a-vis that of Werkheiser during the '05 race. What pushed him over the top was not popularity but his willingness to say whatever he needed to just to get elected.

[Not Ben]

Rtwing, I like your idea as a happy middle ground, but unfortunately it seems too logical to ever become law.

I personally oppose an outright ban ideologically, but I certainlly wouldn't complain about coming home from bars and not stinking like an ashtray from second-hand smoke. I'm looking forward to going out in DC when their smoking ban goes into effect.

[Not Dave Albo]

Why does Albo always sound so angry when he's quoted in the news media? He's got to be the angriest member of GA. He's the Hillary Clinton of Virginia Politics.

[ZB]

NLS,

Sorry about that... I meant to type "NLS---You've GOTTA put McDonnell ahead of Leighty." Inadvertantly, I typed the NLS in the "Name" line (must have it tab).

My bad.

Though I'd still say McDonnell is a bigger weenie than I am.

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

NLS, this is the perfect choice, actually. Albo is the biggest weenie this week. For this and many other reasons, the real crux being what others have pointed out about his coziness with every cash-doling special interest PAC known to man.

I agree with ZB on McDonnell.

Oh yeah, Albo's also the right choice because the whole Leighty thing was a big trumped-up non-contextual bru-ha-ha.