Kaine, Kilgore on opposite sides of Tech-UVa. rivalry

Jerry Kilgore was getting ready to talk hard politics.

Which makes sense, given the stakes. There’s a state to be run, after all, not to mention a gubernatorial election – Kilgore, the attorney general in Virginia, is the frontrunner for the Republican Party nomination to run for governor in the Old Dominion in 2005.

After an exchange of pleasantries with the reporter on the other end of the phone line, though, Kilgore let on that something else was on his mind in addition to what one might otherwise expect.

“I’m not doing well, I have to admit. I’m still not over the Miami game,” said Kilgore, a native of Southwest Virginia and a lifelong fan of University of Virginia sports. Read more

Welcome to winter golf

Golf Things Considered column by John Rogers
JSpencerRogers@msn.com  

Welcome to winter golf.

Technically, we’re only half way through autumn, but golfers know that winter starts when the clocks fall back. That’s when the sun slinks away westward to the Alleghenies before the nine-to-fivers even punch out for the day; when the straightest drive can be lost among the thousands of noisy leaves that pepper the fairway. It’s when the clubhouse gets crowded with retirees and shift-workers who sip coffee and tell stories while waiting for the morning rays to reclaim the greens from the frost that crept in under a cold crescent moon. This is when only true golfers remain. Read more

Kerry’s latest betrayal … my son

Column by Max Friedman

As a longtime investigative researcher and journalist, I knew that politics could be down and dirty, but I didn’t expect (despite premonitions thereof), that Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., would betray my son in the same manner that he had betrayed his fellow Swift Boat servicemen, and then all the American servicemen and women who served honorably in Vietnam so long ago. But I was wrong. Read more

A battle of high principles

Golf Things Considered column by John Rogers
JSpencerRogers@msn.com  

This will be the thirteenth time that the Walkers and Riders have knocked heads.

It all started in 1997, when Casey Martin, a Tour player with a circulatory disease in his leg, sued the PGA for the right to use a golf cart in their tournaments. Late that year, a group of members from Lakeview Golf Course were sitting in Luigi’s restaurant nursing their own legs after a grueling hour of wallyball, which is volleyball played in a racquetball court. It’s one of those things that golfers do when the days are too short for nine holes after work. Read more

40 years and counting: Dems fall short in bid for Virginia’s electoral votes … again

Story by Chris Graham

Virginia Republicans were a bit worried when they saw the exit polls that were coming in Tuesday afternoon were showing that George W. Bush would win the balloting in the Old Dominion by a slight three-point margin. Read more

Is Virginia up for grabs? State has voted GOP since ‘64, but shift could be in order

Story by Chris Graham

What happens in today’s voting in the Old Dominion could have something to say about who ends up being handed the keys to the White House for the next four years.

It’s been a long time since you could get away with saying that with a straight face, incidentally. Read more

Kaine, Kilgore have eyes on ‘05

“Two years ago, or a year ago,” Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine told a Waynesboro audience last month, “if you would’ve asked Larry Sabato or one of these pundits, tell us about the governor’s race, they would have said, Look, Tim Kaine is a great guy, he’s a hard worker, but he’s going to have a hard time winning. It’s a Republican state, and he doesn’t have Mark Warner’s checkbook. It’s going to be hard for him to win. Read more

The youth vote and the ‘04 election: Will twentysomethings decide who gets the keys to the White House?

The Top Story by Chris Graham

It’s the great unknown in Election 2004.

Nobody knows how the 18- to 29-year-old social demographic will break on Election Day – if it will break at all, that is. Read more