Thursday, July 23, 2009

Is Tim Kaine Governing Via BlackBerry?


New Released Travel Plans Show That Tim Kaine’s New Gig Is Still Taking More Time Away From His Day Job.


Gov. Timothy M. Kaine rejected Republican charges Wednesday that he is spending too much time traveling the country as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Kaine's comments came a day after he released records that catalogued his whereabouts since he took on the second job in January. After weeks of resisting calls to be more open about his DNC travels, he promised to release a similar summary each month until the end of his term in January.
The records showed that from March 5 to the end of June, Kaine spent all or part of 30 days outside Virginia on DNC business, including 14 trips to 12 states and the District. He picked up the pace of his travel significantly in June, when he spent some or all of 15 days outside the state on DNC business.

"I am working pretty much all the time. I never am anywhere where I'm not working on state business. I'm taking material with me, on the cellphone, on the BlackBerry, looking at the computer," he said at a news conference Wednesday. "While I understand that people might say what they want from a political standpoint, I'm not running into any people who are questioning the amount of work I'm doing in the state, and I think the results we're showing as a state government in very, very tough times demonstrate that."

Kaine insisted he has always been open about his travels, despite the repeated refusals by his office to release a work schedule or an account of his party activities.

House of Delegates Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) said Kaine released the records only because he was forced to do so by public pressure.

"The people in my district do consider him to be a part-time governor who is more concerned about raising money to help Democrats on a Washington agenda than he is on pursuing a Virginia agenda," Griffith said.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this issue really resonating with anyone? It seems to be a non-issue and that Gilmore held the same position just makes the argument look ridiculous. Surely there are other more relevant concerns about this administration.

Anonymous said...

All I ask is that he stops by Richmond once and a while to check up on things...

Anonymous said...

I think it resonates because Virginians are seeing that his absenteeism is hurting Virginia. Just look at how we lost the $1 billion Apple deal because Kaine took his eyes off the ball. Or how the nearly $3 Billion deal on our IT equipment is out of whack because Timmy cares more about pushing Obama's agenda in Missouri. While Timmy fiddles, Richmond is burning.