Providing Washington Post Metro section readers a review of the just-closed legislative session of the Virginia General Assembly, staff writers Rosalind Helderman and Fredrick Kunkle today deployed some colorfully loaded language that portrayed conservative Republicans in an unfavorable light.
For example [emphasis mine], the "divided legislature reached a compromise on budget amendments that mollified Republicans bent on paring government to its core services and Democrats eager to restore spending on schools, health care and other priorities as the economy improves."
But what really struck me was the part a few paragraphs later where Helderman and Kunkle described the successful effort Republicans waged to pass a bill opposed by pro-choice activists and politicians [emphasis mine]:
[T]he session ended with a dramatic fight over the emotional issue of abortion rights, as Republicans maneuvered the Senate into an unwanted late vote on a bill that requires abortion clinics to be regulated as hospitals.
Unwanted by whom? The vote on passage in the upper chamber was 20-20, with all 18 Republicans and two Democrats voting for the bill. Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R), who presides over the state senate, broke the tie in favor of passage.
The vote was certainly unwanted by the 20 Democrats who voted "no," including Majority Leader Richard Saslaw (D), whom some liberal bloggers are excoriating for being out-manuevered by conservative Republicans on parliamentary procedure.
