Ralph Northam is now just holding Virginia hostage.
He can’t govern. The Democratic caucuses in both the House and Senate have said, twice, that he should resign. You don’t go back from that to, OK, so, what about this or that piece of legislation.
Republicans in both houses, of course, it’s no surprise that they’re not rushing to look for ways to help Democrats remove Northam from office.
There are elections in a few months. The kind of elections that determine who controls each house of the General Assembly.
In a cycle that will determine who redraws political district lines.
The official status of the Republican Party right now: yeah, you guys, have fun with that, in the meantime, we’re going to make Ralph Northam the running mate for how many ever candidates you line up to run this fall.
Nobody is going to want Northam to appear at their … whatevers. Grand openings, conferences, rollouts.
Companies getting ready to make announcements about expansions, new lines, new facilities in Virginia.
No, thanks, we’d prefer not to have the governor’s name in our press release.
The next really big economic-development project … may not be happening. If a car company, for instance, is looking to locate here, who are they going to negotiate with?
Well, sure, we could work with your governor, but is he going to be governor tomorrow? The day after?
His strategy, as I wrote on Saturday, 18 hours after the photos of him and somebody in blackface and a KKK getup first surfaced, was, survive today, survive tomorrow, survive the next day, eventually, this blows over.
For him, it can blow over. Republicans aren’t interested in helping Democrats impeach him, for the obvious reasons.
You can’t make somebody resign. You can’t make somebody do the right thing.
For everybody else, it doesn’t blow over.
Legislation gets done, or doesn’t get done, without the participation of a guy who still holds veto power, but nobody listens to.
Business deals get done or don’t get done. Logically, they just don’t get done.
The governor is persona non grata at public events.
Who, seriously, wants this guy at their event now?
You don’t want his name or face or the thought of him anywhere near whatever you’re doing.
At this stage, he’s a welfare case with a State Police detail, living in a big house that we pay for, getting in the way of important stuff getting done.
A ghost governor, haunting us all, moonwalking in our nightmares.
Column by Chris Graham
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