The last word

When in the summer of 2002 I was approached about writing this column, I saw it as an opportunity to merge two personal interests: writing and politics. I’d be able to use one to expand our collective thinking about the other.

In accepting roanoke.com’s offer, however, I’d want to write not just about politics, but also policy. While I’d certainly want to espouse the “Republican view” -- after all, that’s why I took the gig in the first place, to offset fellow columnist Barnie Day’s “Democratic view” -- I’d want to look beyond what is all too often the simple politics of issues. I’d want to put the day’s issues into perspective, frame their political and policy pros and cons, and suggest what their downstream effects might be if they played out this way or that.

As much as anything, though, I wanted to teach. I’ve been extraordinarily fortunate to be a part of the Western world’s oldest, continuous democratic body -- one whose nuanced processes are rooted in Jefferson’s brilliance and whose participants are as decent and honorable as they are, at times, downright maddening -- and I wanted to share what an incredible and wholly fascinating and complex system of government we have that brings order to more than 7 million people.

So for the past two-and-a-half years, I hope I’ve been true to the broad-minded mission I imposed upon myself, and I hope I’ve been able over about 125 consecutive weekly columns to give folks a glimpse into the world of Virginia’s politics.

Now, though, it’s time to retire the column.

The decision to do so wasn’t easy. I’d thought about it for several months and decided a few weeks ago to make this, my first missive in ’05, my last regular one.

The column has afforded me the opportunity to throw out into the public domain ideas to be batted around by pundits and policymakers alike. When nearly two years ago I suggested the free-market should be more a determinant of colleges and universities’ tuition than the artificial constraints put upon it by the General Assembly, other editorial pages picked up the idea and ran with it. Low and behold, it turned into a legislative policy that’s increasingly taken shape. Today, our higher ed institutions are more free-market driven in certain areas than they once were, and there’s still a desire to give them the freedom to be even more so.

Nearly a year ago, when for the first time in nearly 400 years our General Assembly failed to craft and adopt a budget on time, I was able to provide a unique voice on the day’s driving politics. In this column, I shared my frustrations. I expressed my deep concerns over what short-sighted budget politics was doing to our commonwealth. Doing so rather propelled me to the forefront of the debate.

I’m the first to admit that this column has been a double-edged political sword for me. While I’ve been able to air thoughts and often promote ideas, I can’t say that they’ve always been popular. But they have been honest -- like ’em or not, they’ve been honest.

What sword cuts -- and stabs -- I’ve gotten have resulted from my want to look at issues beyond their mere politics. That doesn’t just stem from my desire to write something more than spin; it springs equally from my deep-down desire as a legislator to go about policy debate based on facts and what’s in the best interest of Virginia.

In writing this column, I’ve learned a lot about myself. I’ve been forced to construct and deconstruct and construct again my own positions before committing them to paper and posting them for the world to see. It’s a process that on many occasions has helped me affirm long-held beliefs and better define defenses of them. At other times, though, I’ve had to come to grips with facts that have empirically disproved a position that I’d originally wanted to promote -- and then fess up the truth.

When I first ran for office a dozen years ago, I relished the bare-knuckled side of the game. Today, I’m much keener on the policy side of it all. That said, I am certainly aware that such evolution can’t ever totally leave behind raw politics. After all, it’s still survival of the fittest -- and you’ve got to survive if you want to continue thinking broadly, speaking truthfully, and acting responsibly.

Perhaps it’s now time that I refocus on the game, that I return to the mindset I had a dozen years ago, all so that I can regain some slightly lost footing and tackle policy goals anew.

Then -- who knows? -- maybe I’ll have gained a whole new vantage point from which to begin again writing about the world around me.