The battle for the heart and soul of the GOP

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The Top Story by Chris Graham   For a brief moment or two after the 2006 midterm elections, it had seemed that the Republican Party was perhaps going off its ideological moorings. The talk was reaching the level of near-clamor regarding how the GOP was going to have to consider retreating from the right-wing conservative…

Right to left? In what direction will Dems take national politics?

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The Top Story by Chris Graham   It hasn’t been that long since some in the punditry and the blogosphere were speculating aloud about how Republican victories in the race for the White House and in Congress in 2004 might be signaling the dawn of a GOP century. And it seems that now, instead of…

What the heck just happened?

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The Top Story by Chris Graham   You listen to Bob Goodlatte, Republican congressman from the Sixth District of Red State Virginia, heading into his eighth term, finishing out his second two-year term as chairman of the powerful House Agriculture Committee, talk about life on Capitol Hill, and you realize pretty quickly that a sea…

Can we all just get along?

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The Top Story by Chris Graham   The Shenandoah Valley is usually pretty tame as far as its politics goes – but even the solid Republican Mountain Valley has seen its share of contentiousness this political season. To wit … – One of the highlights of the Augusta County Fair this summer was an episode…

Marriage amendment – a lose-lose-lose situation?

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The Top Story by Chris Graham   It’s politics to some people – the debate over a proposed amendment to the Virginia Constitution that would prohibit gays and lesbians from being able to enter into a state-recognized marriage or civil union. For those whose lives would be impacted directly by the much-talked-about change to the…

Warner bows out of ’08 nomination field

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The Top Story by Chris Graham   Former Virginia governor Mark Warner was being talked about as a top contender for the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nomination. To say that his announcement in Richmond today that he will not seek the nomination was a surprise, then, is a pretty good understatement. “It was definitely a…

Race issues dog Allen

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The Top Story by Chris Graham   A group of former University of Virginia football teammates of U.S. Sen. George Allen alleges that the former quarterback regularly used the n-word to refer to African-Americans. A second group of the Republican’s former teammates has stepped up to say that this is not true. Meanwhile, the state’s…

Can Webb bite into GOP advantage on vet vote?

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The Top Story by Chris Graham   The conventional wisdom is that the military vote and veteran vote both tend to lean strongly in the Republican direction – but Democratic Party Senate nominee Jim Webb, a Vietnam War veteran and former Reagan administration Navy secretary, might just be able to turn the conventional wisdom on…