Shortly after I took that photo, I recognized my own Congressman, Frank Wolf, emerge from the crowd and head for the parking lot. Wolf is a Republican, so I'm guessing he was there campaigning for himself rather than on behalf of Webb. As he walked by, I said something along the lines of "I'm surprised to see you in this crowd." Wolf just smiled, jotted down my license plate number, and said the IRS would be in touch with me.
Wolf was first elected in 1980, the same year as Ronald Reagan. He's been pretty popular in the state of Northern Virginia and usually gets re-elected with well over 60% of the vote. Democrats rarely succeed in running a significant opponent against him.
But in keeping with the anti-Republican tide sweeping the nation this year, recent polls show Wolf leading by only five percentage points. His challenger is Judy Feder, who is a Dean of something or another at Georgetown University. If Feder manages to pull out a victory, it would be a major upset.
Personally I've routinely voted for Wolf in the past, but not this time. He lost my vote during the Terry Schiavo circus last year. Although the congressman was out of the country and didn't vote to continue her life support, he later said that if he had been present, he would have. If only he had kept his mouth shut, Wolf would still have my vote.
The two signs on the right are for Tom Davis, also a Republican. Davis is a shoe-in to be re-elected. His district and Wolf's border on one another in the Vienna area, which explains why one often sees signs for both in the same area.
Later in the morning I was at the metro station again when a guy with Allen literature approached me. I told him I wasn't interested, and that I considered Allen to be an embarrassment for Virginia. The guy replied, "Webb is the one you should be embarrassed by. He's a pornographer." I asked if this was in reference to Webb's books, and he said yes, that the books were pornography.
All of a sudden I wished I were Darth Vader, and that I could just use The Force to make this guy's head explode like a melon.
I pointed out that the books were NOT pornography, that they merely contained a couple of sex scenes. Then I asked the guy how he "got here." He hesitated and said he drove. I said, no, that's not what I meant. Then I went in for the kill and told him that the reason he was here, on Earth, was because his parents had sex at least once. The guy then mumbled something about that being different and walked away.
Incidentally, earlier I made reference to the "state of Northern Virginia." The Washington Post recently had a good article about the differences between the state's northern counties and the rest of Virginia. Basically, it says those of us up here identify much more closely with DC than with Richmond, the state capital. It goes on to say that given the profound differences in politics, values and priorities, there are essentially two Virginias.
And as far I'm concerned, George Allen can stay down in HIS Virginia.
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