How about that Republican retreat they call, for some reason, the Advance. Some 300 of the anointed ones gathered to backslap themselves and bray about no new taxes, but you get the feeling that what they’re really thinking is, "Gosh, we ARE right, aren’t we? Aren’t we right about that?"

They even trotted out Gilmore at the last minute. Probably an afterthought. Hey, Gov, don’t take that last minute invite as some slight. It HAS to be afterthought. That’s the only kind they have anymore.

Didn’t bother Jim, though. Heck, he’s still caught up in the campaign. No, nothing recent. His last campaign. Still trying to sell that stupid car tax idea. Jim, you won, for God’s sakes. Sure, all of Virginia lost, for the next few generations. But that’s no big deal. Keep saying that that lamebrain campaign gimmick that’s turning Virginia into the next Mississippi is not the problem long enough and maybe, in your doddering old age, even you will begin to believe it. Give me an eye twitch, a tic, something, if you get my drift.

Oh, did I forget to mention that senior Republican legislators, as in Hanger, et. al., are trying to brace the good citizens of Virginia for tax increases? Thoughtless of me. Didn’t you catch the reportage from the four day gig the Council of State Governments held in Richmond? What gives with that? What are ya’ll up to next? Trying to snatch ‘good government’ and ‘common sense’ away from the Democrats and claim THEM too?

You see, here’s what’s got the Rs in the grip of unease. Here’s the undertow that pulls at their cold hearts with the dread of third shift on Christmas Eve. For the first time in the history of the universe, Virginia Democrats can’t raise taxes. They can’t do it! They don’t have the votes!

Democrats can put in every good government bill they can dream up. They can huff and puff about the cigarette tax. They can screech about tax reform. They can make compelling cases for adjusting the Northern Virginia Welfare Program -- sorry, I meant the car tax giveaway -- nothing personal. They can do all of that and more. They can even work themselves up over that portrait flap. But, guess what?

For the first time ever, Democrats are going to be saved from themselves. They don’t have the votes. Whatever gets done -- smart, stupid, good, bad, indifferent -- during the coming legislative session is going to have ‘Republican’ stamped all over it.

That would be enough to keep me up at night. If I was a Republican. Perish the thought.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, Warner took K-12 education funding off the table the other day. Smartest move he’s made. And he did it emphatically, saying he’d veto any bill to the contrary that came his way.

Despite the brave faces some are putting on, this is going to be the winter of Republican discontent in Virginia. They’re in disarray among themselves. Warner is, in fact, finding some semblance of a groove. K-12 funding is going to remain a Democratic issue, despite the fact that thinking Republicans would love to claim it, may even make some effort to do just that with one little pitiful bill or another here and there, come January.

The higher ed community is up in arms. Did you see Charlie Steger’s comments the other day? He’s stepped up and taken his place among the Big Three -- with Casteen and Sullivan. Higher education leaders leading. Imagine that.

And still, Dec. 20 hangs out there like doom. That, of course, is when Warner is expected to lay out the rest of his budget thinking.

Things keep going like this and some of these tee-totalling, pious Republicans are going to be reaching for the eggnog a little early. But then again, ‘tis the season.