My New Favorite Blog (On the Left Anyway)

Though I've been a longtime reader and personal admirer of "Charlottesville's favorite enfant terrible" I must admit another left-of-center blogger has captured my heart. J. Sarge's New Dominion has fast become one of my favorite reads. Everyone should be checking him out everyday (if only to make sure he keeps up his recent pace of daily postings).

Larry Sabato (the original) often talks about the impact that untimely death has taken on the history of Virginia politics. On our side, we look to our beloved (and rightfully so) Richard D. Obenshain, who would've been U.S. Senator, and then would've been a figure of nationwide importance, a strong anchor for our party's conservative values, and a rallying point to help us unify in the wake of our sometimes bloody primaries. On the other side of the aisle, Sabato points to two. J. Sargent Reynolds died while holding the number two spot in VA government in 1971 (post-mortem most political observers agree he would've been Governor in 1973). State Senator Emily Couric was on her way to a Lt. Gov. bid. Though easy to characterize at first blush as a Charlottesville Liberal (so was Tim Kaine, btw) she would have been a very strong contender for that office and would have stood a fantastic shot of becoming the Commonwealth's first female governor.

P.S. Though Sabato never brings it up, the early death of Governor Dalton clearly had an impact on the Republican party in the late 1980s and even today. Who else in the recent history of Virginia politics has left us before their time?