Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Editorial: A marriage made in politics
Top elected officials shouldn't bless the work of lobbyists by appointing members to their "commission."
From the RoundTable blog
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Victoria Cobb is the president of Family Foundation, a socially conservative, biblically based lobbying group. Her husband, Matt Cobb, is an assistant attorney general working for Virginia's equally socially conservative Attorney General Bob McDonnell.
And now Mr. Cobb has Mr. McDonnell's blessing to work with Mrs. Cobb and others behind the sanctity of closed doors to find ways to preserve marriage. Or at least that's how the foundation spins it.
What they really want is to gain new life for their bills that died this year in the General Assembly that would have made it difficult for unhappily married Virginians to divorce. The foundation has grown into a savvy, powerful lobbying force that understands it needs big-name backers to advance its agenda.
And, according to the (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot, they're getting them before Virginians can rise and object.
Not only has McDonnell sanctioned this union with his politically incestuous appointment, but Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling has named a member and Gov. Tim Kaine's spokesman said that he, too, might be sending a representative to the commission's next gathering.
All three need to divorce themselves from this unholy alliance.
The goal of strengthening marriages and families in Virginia is a worthy one, but the means the Family Foundation seeks run contrary to good public policy.
It wishes to chip away at Virginia's no-fault divorce laws and return to the system that pitted warring couples as legal adversaries litigating their grievous injuries in court. Victims of physical and emotional abuse would find obtaining a divorce more cumbersome. Couples with children would both need to agree to a divorce.
For certain, there are far too many Virginians heading to divorce court, nearly half as many each year as who walk down the aisle.
But trapping people, especially poor spouses without the means to employ powerful attorneys, in devastating circumstances does not serve the commonwealth or its people.
There are ways Virginia could strengthen marriages.
Good public policy would provide abundant opportunities for low-income couples to benefit from premarital counseling before exchanging "I dos" and would establish plentiful resources for troubled couples to tap to resolve conflicts before they bring irreparable harm. Virginia could also sponsor programs that help couples sort through financial, sexual or child-raising conflicts -- among the top reasons that marriages fail.
A commission to develop recommendations isn't a bad idea if it is an independent body established by the governor or lawmakers to develop policy recommendations free from special-interest groups -- and if it does its work in the public's view.
