Freshman Gov. Youngkin whipped out the ol’ veto pen recently, nixing some bills patroned by local legislators and in the process drawing the ire of Democrats and Virginia’s punditocracy, who have not clutched their pearls and fallen victim to the vapors so extensively since Donald Trump was in the White House.
And the complaints ring true: Some of the vetoes seemed, mmm, odd and scattershot. Even perhaps mildly vindictive, or at least punitive.
The commonwealth’s left-leaning punditocracy and blogosphere has portrayed this as coming from someone who doesn’t know what he is doing. But until events prove otherwise, we continue to believe that Youngkin is far more clever than that, so the vetoes obviously were done with a purpose in mind.
The fact everybody in the political class, ourselves included (if we qualify), can’t figure out exactly what the purpose is may say more about them than it does about Youngkin. Time will reveal all.
Also raising hackles is the governor’s attempt, by amending a piece of legislation that came to his desk, to force new elections for Loudoun County School Board. From a policy perspective, it’s a bad idea; from a making-friends-with-Democrats perspective, ditto. But we’re not sure our new governor cares on either score. He promised his voters he’d take on that nutty School Board, and so he is.
Whether his proposal for early elections in Loudoun survives (guessing not), Youngkin still picks up plaudits from his side of the electoral divide. Bad policy but good politics? Most politicians, particularly those who can’t run for a second term and are thus thinking nationally about their next step, will make that deal just about every time.
From creating a new political-action committee to appearances on TV whenever called, the governor certainly aims to elbow himself into more national notoriety. A prelude to a 2024 presidential run or positioning for VP availability? Seems a little premature, but who knows?