1st District: Just in case you were getting bored with the 2nd, 5th, 8th, 9th and 11th districts, we now add a fun twist in the 1st – Catherine Crabill has declared her intention to challenge incumbent Rep. Rob Wittman. Apparently this challenge has a little to do with revenge, as Crabill is upset Wittman did not support her in her attempt to become a delegate in the 99th District. Crabill is perhaps best remembered for her theory that the Oklahoma City bombing was the work of our own federal government.

2nd District: Ken Golden was recently in Oxford to present a seminar on US-China relations as a guest lecturer.

Ben Loyola solves the carrier dilemma by calling on the country to build more carriers:

Ben Loyola proposes the building of two additional carriers to meet all core competencies of the Unified Maritime Strategy, including power projection, forward presence, sea control, maritime security, deterrence and humanitarian assistance/disaster response. The additional carriers will also allow for shortened deployment cycles addressed in the Fleet Response Plan and lessen the demands that are straining our service members and their families.

And, Scott Taylor appeared on Fox News to discuss the trial of Navy SEALS:

In the 5th, Feda Morton got a huge endorsement from the Eagle Forum PAC and Phyllis Schlafly:

“Feda is exactly the kind of leader we need in Washington,” said Eagle Forum founder and president, Phyllis Schlafly. “As a career schoolteacher who has taught at public schools, private schools, homeschooled her children and was elected to serve on the Fluvanna County School Board, Feda knows how badly federal meddling impacts education.”

In the 8 11th, Keith Fimian has released several more “Fimian Minute” videos and, as reported here on BD earlier by Krystle, the big news is he has a 5 point lead in a head-to-head with Gerry Connolly.

Pat Herrity is campaigning by noting that the Board of Supervisors in Fairfax County recently voted to raise taxes on homeowners by $100 – something he has opposed. He also noted that under then Chairman Gerry Connolly, homeowners’ taxes nearly doubled. Herrity is saying that all government has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

In the 9th, Morgan Griffith has already hit the NRCC’s first benchmark in the “Young Guns” program achieving “On the Radar” status.

And, in the 11 8th, not only has Mark Ellmore left the race, he has left the party. In an email exchange with Bearing Drift, Ellmore said:

“I have left the party and am not interested in participating at any level.”

And, finally, Matthew Berry went after incumbent Rep. Jim Moran in a recent email regarding Moran’s “corruption”:

this weekend’s Washington Post revealed more details about Jim Moran’s corruption. In one case, internal company e-mails show that officials at Innovative Concepts clearly perceived that they needed to contribute to Moran’s campaign in order to receive his help obtaining an earmark. As the company’s Chief Technology Officer memorably told another executive, who was complaining about being required to attend a Moran wine tasting fundraiser when he didn’t drink wine, “You don’t have to drink. You just have to pay.” Well, the executives paid, and Innovative Concepts received an $800,000 earmark.

In another case, the chief lobbyist for Argon ST, a company that had benefited from earmarking, asked Moran’s campaign staff how much the company was expected to raise for Moran at an upcoming fundraiser. The response: “Jim was expecting 10K.”

Remarkably, Jim Moran continues to deny any link between the earmarks that he requests and the campaign contributions he receives. Indeed, as the Washington Post reports, despite the fact that he makes fundraising calls two to three times a week (and attends his own fundraisers), Moran claims to be unaware of who is making donations to his campaign or how much donors are contributing!

Del. Kirk Cox, Republican Whip in the Virginia House of Delegates, explains to Shaun Kenney and me the status of budget negotiations between the House and Senate. Each chamber is under a different party’s constrol, which can make budget negotiations challenging, but, ideally, a budget needs to be produced by this Friday so that the rest of the legislature has a chance to review the bill.

Show notes:

0:35 Cox points out that the “forgotten man” in Richmond is often the average taxpayer
1:03 The good news – restoring the car tax is not going to happen
1:17 Cox describes the senate fees and other “gimmicky-types of things”
1:45 The House has a $165 million reserve in its budget
2:03 “It’s easy when you have $600 million in funny money” – referring to the Senate budget
2:20 Cox describes the offers and counter-offers and what fees the Republican House might consider raising
3:35 “We’re not gonna stick the Governor with unrealistic revenues – we want a reserve that’s at least somewhat decent.”
4:10 Cox describes that they only just received a brand new Senate proposal tonight and discusses his frustration with the process and the speed the Senate is moving. “[The Senate] just won’t sit there and work hard enough [to meet deadlines]”
6:02 He does not see the negotiations going until June
6:25 Withtout the big sticking point of the car tax – or some sort of hybrid – Cox believes they should be able to get the budget done
7:00 Cox talks about the cuts to K-12. He says they’re not deep and that from 2000-2009, education spending increased by 58%.
7:20 He compares higher ed cuts to K-12 cuts (25% vs. 8%)
7:35 The Kaine budget and its cuts to support personnel, which has been growing twice as fast as instructional personnel and describes the capbbetween the ratio of instructional to support personnel
8:15 Cuts to travel expenses and expansion of the lifecycle of school buses
8:35 Describes the reduction in block grants for early reading, pre-K, etc. and says the onus is on localities to fund them and the defunding of SOQ planning periods (which was supposedly funded by then Governor Mark Warner’s 2004 tax increase)
10:06 “The cuts are not Draconian. 30,000 teachers are not going to get laid off. I think it’s outrageous some of the numbers the VEA is putting out.”

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In the 11^th District, there is a lot of people unsatisfied with Rep. Gerry Connolly and his votes in Congress. With all of this dissatisfaction, it was no surprise to see a poll released by McLaughlin & Associates, which shows Republican candidate Keith Fimian defeating Connolly 40-35%. Additionally, the poll also showed that independent voters also favored Fimian in an even wider margin, 43-28%.

Jim McLaughlin, who is Fimian’s pollster and also served as former Congressman Tom Davis’s pollster, said:

“Keith Fimian is in an outstanding position to win the race for U.S. Congress in Virginia’s 11th District. Voters are extremely disenchanted with the current state of affairs in Washington and are significantly more favorable toward a Republican candidate,” Jim McLaughlin, Fimian’s pollster said. “Congressman Gerry Connolly’s favorable rating and vote share are both well below the 50% thresholds for strong incumbents. The fact that Keith Fimian is already beating Gerry Connolly shows how vulnerable Connolly is to Fimian’s challenge.”

Fimian, who challenged Connolly in 2008, made the following statement about the poll results.

“I am excited that this poll shows that I am the best candidate to win this seat.” Fimian said. “This is because of my energetic grassroots support, strong fundraising results, my message of fiscal responsibility and the concrete proposals I am offering to create a vibrant environment for job creation. Voters also welcome my commitment to eliminating the culture of wasteful spending and corruption that career politicians have created in Washington.”

So far, Fimian has outraised Connolly for two consecutive quarters and was named a “Contender” in the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Top Guns program.

So, here we are.

Bob McDonnell has been elected Governor. Bill Bolling re-elected as LG. Ken Cuccinelli our new Attorney General.

All campaigned, mainly, on creating jobs and a positive economic climate in the commonwealth.

All good men. All well intentioned. But why in the heck are we talking about protected status for gays and lesbians in the midst of a budget crisis?

Well, of course it’s about jobs! This wouldn’t even be an issue if it weren’t for Maryland trying to lure Northrop Grumman away from the Commonwealth.

But that’s a diversion.

Let’s start at the most logical place: Governor McDonnell.

McDonnell told Bearing Drift in an exclusive interview that he accepts the responsibility that comes with being a decision maker, and, in the case of providing protected status to homosexuals at universities, it was McDonnell, as Attorney General, who advised then Governor Tim Kaine that signing an executive order maintaining protected status for sexual orientation was not under the authority of the executive branch and needed to be codified by the legislature.

Now, as governor, McDonnell has made a similar decision by not renewing that executive order, thus inviting his Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, to advise state universities and colleges on what they should do.

Should we then be surprised by Cuccinelli’s advice? Cuccinelli advised, virtually identical to McDonnell’s as AG: don’t make decisions based on sexual orientation!

According the Attorney General’s office:

“The Attorney General is telling the universities what the law is. The people coming out against this don’t dispute his understanding of the law. The simple fact is that some Virginia Universities are not in line with the law because the General Assembly is the only body in Virginia which can create a ‘special class’ of protected people. If you want a policy change, you need to follow the law and change state policy, not exceed your jurisdiction and establish special classes of individuals.

“The Attorney General is upholding the rule of law.”

I don’t fault Cuccinelli at all. He is on about as solid ground as you can get.

And I certainly don’t fault the governor: He’s been on solid ground since being Attorney General.

No, in reality, the issue lies with the General Assembly – and specifically, the General Laws Committee of the House of Delegates.

Government is about laws – not interpretation.

Warner and Kaine tried to “interpret” what the anti-discrimination “laws” should include…but “laws” are left to the General Assembly – which McDonnell and Cuccinelli have clearly stated.

Under Warner and Kaine, they knew that they couldn’t have a new “protected status” pass the legislature, so they added it as an executive order.

Now, along comes McDonnell who merely upholds the laws as written, along with his diligent Attorney General, and suddenly we live in an era where it’s the executive branch that is supposed to dictate policy?

No.

Last I checked, how a bill becomes a law starts in the legislature.

And three times – HB 1116, HB 1287 and SB 66 – the legislation failed.

But why?

Perhaps the best argument comes from Sen. Mark Obenshain who said that should a bill protecting ’sexual orientation’ become law the Commonwealth would open itself up for extensive litigation by those who claim they have been discriminated against regardless of their job qualifications.

Perhaps.

But the bottom-line is this: if ‘we the people’ want this law changed, we should elect people who believe in changing it in the right and proper way – through the legislature. We run a very dangerous and slippery slope if we expect the law to be changed by fiat by the executive branch – or at least it we expect the law to be put on hold every year by executive order.

Personally, I think the legislature should add “sexual orientation” to the books as a “protected status”. I also think most, if not all, Universities in the commonwealth are still going to uphold gays and lesbians as protected when it comes to employment and enrollment. But that’s irrelevant.

We live in a system of laws. We should not take the easy way out by having the executive branch interpret the law for us as the Democrats have for the past eight years.

It’s about time we followed Virginia Code again in the commonwealth.

I haven’t started a good messy fight in a while, so I thought why not now?

I’m getting emails so often about the state budget, trying to make it seem like Armageddon if someone has to pay an extra court cost or a few dimes more for a fifth of Jack Daniels.

Sorry, that’s not the same as raising taxes in the minds of the public.

I don’t favor going fee crazy either. That’s the nuttiness that creates abuser fees for speeding tickets. But the bottom line is this: Most people see fees and taxes as different things. It’s the truth, and it’s backed up by every poll I’ve ever seen.

If government’s getting the money is all that is required for something to be called a tax, then the lottery is a tax, and when a scratch ticket price goes up another buck, Americans for Prosperity can attack legislators for the massive tax increase.

And every will laugh at them.

Take transportation. Every poll will say tolls are more preferable than taxes when building a new road. Why? Most people won’t have to pay a toll. Don’t drive the road (and most won’t), don’t pay for it.

Studies show that 2/3rds of the voters in Hampton Roads don’t regularly travel between the Southside and the Peninsula. So, building a Third Crossing with a tax increase fails with about a 2/3rds no vote. Surprised? Build it with tolls? Giant levels of support.

It’s why cigarette taxes are met with very little voter opposition. 70% of people don’t smoke. Red light cameras are supported by vast majorities, because most people don’t run red lights.

So, when the General Assembly says no to increased income taxes, and no to increased sales taxes, and rightly so, an email from Americans from Prosperity talking about the economy-collapsing effects of an 18-cent phone fee, I start to roll my eyes and wish they read “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” when they were younger.

I know we’re against taxes and all, but are we to believe that Virginians would be driven to economic ruin over paying another $2.16 a year in a phone bill? I’m against drowning, but that doesn’t mean I won’t take a shower.

The hyperbole is on both sides. Rolling back government spending to 2006 levels isn’t exactly throwing teachers out on the streets either, so the teachers’ unions can save their email blasts, too.

In fact, I invite any teacher who is unhappy with the prospects of teaching in Virginia to warm up that resume and test the job market out in the private sector. I’m sure you’ll find it lovely.

Bottom line – It’s a very tough economy, and 100 Delegates, 40 Senators, and a very good Governor are trying to hold things together while putting some things in place to get the economy moving again. If a few fees are part of getting us to that point, I’ll be the first one calling for their repeal when the economy improves, but I’m not going to scream about a 99% victory as if it was a 1% defeat.

And I’m not going to lessen the effectiveness of real critiques by crying wolf constantly. We’ve already won a major victory, in that a very partisan Democrat Senate crossed off income taxes and sales taxes despite many efforts by Senators to increase them.

We’ll soon see if the House and Senate can agree on a state budget. I hope they can. I also hope that those who benefit from complaining the loudest on both sides can chill a bit. We only get a budget if both sides agree. No one’s getting everything they want.

Let’s let the McDonnell and Bolling work at turning the state economy around, which is the reason they were elected. Success in that will lead to fixing any budget imperfections in the next session.

Now….fire away!

Bearing Drift, Virginia’s home for conservative news and information, will begin publishing a magazine to complement its already outstanding coverage of Virginia politics.

To start in that direction, we’ll begin with a monthly newsletter of our best and most exclusive content – including this month an interview with Governor Bob McDonnell, an analysis on health care and offshore wind energy production, biographical sketches of some freshmen legislators, and Ward Smythe’s original political cartoons.

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Don’t you just love when newspapers call on others to do what they are unwilling to do themselves?

Sunday’s editorial criticizes the Virginia Beach School Board for holding candidate interviews in private.

“Private conversations may indeed be more candid, but they shut out the very people the candidates are vying to represent: the public.”

As we enter elections scheduled for May and November, guess who is going to be holding closed, private interviews with candidates for School Board and City Council?

The Virginian-Pilot!

That’s right. The same editorial writers that tell others that candidate interviews need to be public and open for all to see will gather candidates in the Pilot offices, close the door, and conduct their private interviews with candidates and the public not knowing a single issue that was said or discussed.

The Pilot talks a lot about leadership. Here’s a chance for them to show some. They’ve called for candidate interviews to be open and public. Will theirs be?

Is the Pilot interested enough in transparency to practice it?

The stimulus is finally creating jobs, for the Chinese. As the Obama Administration wants to base a new economy on green jobs which will require new products like solar panels and wind turbines, the expectation was the U.S. would lead the way in innovation in building the green products everyone in the world would want after signing off to Cap and Trade at Copenhagen and in turn boost exports to unprecedented levels. The one minor problem with the idea is that foreign countries like China already can make wind turbines cheaper than the U.S. can to the point even the folks down in West Texas are giving the Chinese a contract.

If we truly want America to lead the way to a better environment and help our economy at the same time, then let our engineers compete with the best of the best and attract the best talent from around the world by creating an economy that does not punish 40% of your success. Unlike my father, fewer foreign students of our engineering graduate programs are staying in the U.S. because the opportunities back home are increasingly better.

Better technology will lead to a cleaner environment and more jobs but that is best achieved via the Free Market which has proven time and time again it can innovate and not subsidies which continues to deflate our progress.

Over 1200 people showed up for Eric Cantor’s campaign breakfast March 5, 2010. They were greeted with the title of a new campaign video, “What a Difference a Year Makes.” Barbara Comstock, delegate from Virginia’s 34th district, served as EmCee. Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and AG Ken Cuccinelli were on hand, with most of the Republican state legislature’s delegation.

The brief campaign video highlighted Cantor’s increasing status in the GOP. The video included clips from a skit on Saturday Night Live in which he was depicted, and his “honor” of being chosen by a low-rated cable television host (Olbermann) as the “worst person in the world,” as well as photos from Capitol Hill and the Republican Roundup.

Cantor’s speech delivery was low-keyed, but his words set out night-and-day differences between Republicans and Democrats. A few excerpts:

“The Democratic agenda in Washington is a systematic attempt to remake America into the image of Europe.” “The greatness of America lies not in the redistribution of wealth but the creation of greater and greater wealth, benefitting all.” “Simply put, we have to stop borrowing and spending so much money! As government shrinks, the private sector will grow, creating droves of new jobs.”

What a sweet story in the newspaper today about a grandmother and a bake sale to balance the state budget.

Shame it’s fake.

The “bake sale” on a Virginia Beach streetcorner was organized in Charlottesville by a group called “Virginia Organizing Project.” Quaint enough, right?

Virginia Organizing Project lists as its beliefs:

“every person in the Commonwealth is entitled to a living wage and benefit package”
“the elimination of the extremes of wealth and poverty”
“democratic self-organization” (Unions!)
“the elimination of the death penalty in all cases
“adequate care is available to low and moderate-income residents.”

So, eating that cupcake meant swallowing Socialized health care, Unionization, eliminating the death penalty, income redistribution, living wages and mandatory benefits.

Sweets for Socialism?

“Tim McCarthy, a social worker from Virginia Beach, said he’d rather pay higher taxes” (Pilot)

Be my guest, Tim. Instead of buying cookies from Charlottesville, write a check to Richmond.

“I can’t wait to hear what the governor will learn from this,” Stanley said of her group’s efforts.

Neither can I. Maybe it’ll be something like “hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.”

My dad was the best auto mechanic I ever saw. I’d sit for summers watching him repair cars with no computers, no manuals, and second set of hands. I couldn’t count the number of times he could diagnose a car problem by sense of smell or sound. He could find that one thing wrong in a machine that was 99% right.

Always thought I got that talent from him, but not with cars – with arguments.

Unfortunately, my hometown newspaper has only come close to 99% right when it snowed too much for the paper to reach my house and I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

But today, they were pretty much right about Phil Shucet and HRT.

But where the Virginian-Pilot got it really wrong is here:

“Shucet has already found savings equal to more than his contract is worth, but that’s to be expected.”

Expected? It is? If it’s expected, where is the Pilot holding every other person paid by government to the same standard? Imagine if everyone paid by government simply lowered government spending by more than his salary. Budgets would be balanced in a week!

Shucet’s renegotiating and cost savings have already paid for his entire 18-month contract many, many times over in less than a month.

Why the Pilot brushes this aside is obvious to me, given their proclivity for endeavors that only expand government and spending. Actually lowering costs doesn’t impress them (as I can tell by their advertising rates. No wonder everyone’s shooting TV commercials, which as an actor I guess I should thank the Pilot for generating so much work for TV talent)

Shucet’s paying for himself and then some. That is the whole point, and it shouldn’t be pushed aside. That alone makes him a good investment. The Pilot’s political purposes are irrelevant. The only thing they’re interested in is light rail moving forward, and they sound as if Shucet accomplishes that, the costs are but a only detail in a larger story.

They have it backwards. Now, they need to hold more government types accountable to the “expected” standard of cutting spending by an amount greater than their own salaries.

Not holding my breath.

Real Clear Politics has an humorous article about a rising tide of “nerds” in the Republican Party. They single out for this honor individuals like former Rhodes Scholar and Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal, and former OMB Director and Indiana Governor, Mitch Daniels.

The column counters by stating that “the jock-GOP culture remains strong” and notes “[the GOP's] jocks have beat up nerds since the word ‘nerd’ entered our vocabulary – from general Ike versus ‘egghead’ Stevenson to W versus Kerry.”

So is the GOP warming up to nerds? I sure hope so.

It would certainly be refreshing to see voters migrating to substance over style. After electing a series of Presidents who were viewed as guys you’d “want to have a beer with,” the voters may be souring on the idea of a “buddy” President. Perhaps the complex problems facing our nation might cause folks to consider voting for someone they’d rather have as their boss than their co-worker.

Only time will tell, but the longer our nation’s economy remains stagnant, the more the American people may go looking for a leader who has actually solved problems instead of one whose flowery words are backed up by little in the way of action. If that’s the case, it seems the GOP’s wealth of nerds could come in quite handy.

Looks like the White House is getting to blame last month’s blizzards on for this month’s poor job numbers…according to the Republican Leader John Boehner’s web site:

With the recent February blizzard still fresh in our minds, some people, most notably National Economic Council (NEC) director Larry Summers, have suggested that the poor weather will take a toll on the February job numbers, out on March 5 from the Labor Department. In particular, Goldman-Sachs has looked at data on the job effects of a storm in early January, 1996, which pushed about 200,000 jobs into future months, and postulated that the similar effects will be seen in the February jobs data.

I guess we’re not quite done shoveling after all.

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) has been in the news lately for his most recent ethics scandal, where he neglected to tell the IRS about the money he received when he rented out his Caribbean villa. It’s especially troubling considering that Rangel is still Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee (he decided to temporarily step aside from his post).

Aside from Rangel’s woes, could it be that three Virginia Congressmen are impacted by his recent scandal? Reps. Glenn Nye, Tom Perriello, and Gerry Connolly, who are all in the Freshmen class together, received contributions from Rangel, and they have not shared whether or not they will be voting to remove him from his Chairmanship.

Congressman Glenn Nye’s contributions from Rep. Charlie Rangel

• $2,000 from Rangel for Congress on June 9, 2008
• $5,000 from Rangel’s leadership PAC “National Leadership PAC” on June 9, 2008
• $2,000 from Rangel for Congress on June 30, 2008
• $5,000 from Rangel’s leadership PAC “National Leadership PAC” on June 30, 2008
Total: $14,000

Congressman Tom Perriello’s contributions from Rep. Charlie Rangel
• $2,000 from Rangel for Congress on June 20, 2008
• $5,000 from Rangel’s leadership PAC “National Leadership PAC” on June 25, 2008
Total: $7,000

Congressman Gerry Connolly’s contributions from Rep. Charlie Rangel
• $2,000 from Rangel for Congress on June 24, 2008
• $5,000 from Rangel’s leadership PAC “National Leadership PAC” on June 25, 2008
Total: $7,000

That’s a lot of contributions from someone who is in a heap of trouble. RPV Chairman Pat Mullins decided to shed some light on to Virginia’s version of Charlie’s Angels.

“Rep. Charlie Rangel has had ethics issues for a long time, but the allegations that came to light last year were truly extraordinary,” said Mullins. “Rangel conveniently ‘forgot’ to tell the IRS about the money he got from renting out his Caribbean villa. That’s a no-no for anyone, but it’s especially bad for the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee — the body that writes our country’s tax laws.”

“When Republicans tried to hold Rangel accountable, Charlie’s three Virginia angels — Representatives Tom Perriello, Glenn Nye, and Gerry Connolly — rode to his rescue on the floor of the House of Representatives,” he said. “They had a good reason. All three have taken thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Rangel and his leadership PAC.”

“Rangel’s announcement this morning that he’s ‘temporarily’ giving up his gavel shows just how serious these ethical breaches are,” Mullins said. “It also makes the behavior of his three angels all the more inexcusable.”

“Late last year, the public found out that Rangel had been breaking House gift rules by taking free trips to the Caribbean. The ethical breaches were so bad that not even the Democrat-lead House could turn a blind eye and sent the issue to the House Ethics Committee. And yet our three freshmen have yet to even acknowledge that their benefactor has done anything wrong.”

“And finally just last week the House Ethics Committee admonished Rangel for his ethical lapses and there was quite a debate taking place overnight last night and this morning about whether or not Charlie Rangel will remain Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.”

“Now that even the Democratically controlled Ethics Committee has admonished Rangel for his antics, it’s time for Charlie’s three Virginia angels to give back his tainted campaign contributions and vote to remove him from the Chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee,” Mullins said. “Virginians need to know that their elected representatives haven’t been bought and paid for by a corrupt politician.”

Today, the RPV released their web ad, “Most Ethical Ever” to shed light on these three Virginia Congressmen. Call them today and urge them to give back the money. When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised to make Congress the “most ethical ever,” she must have neglected to notice the allegations that were about to rise surrounding Rangel.

UPDATE: Keith Fimian, who is challenging Connolly in the 11^th District, released the following statement regarding Connolly’s silence on the Rangel donations.

“Gerry Connolly should immediately return all funds he accepted from Rangel,” Fimian said. “As bad as it is that he is still holding onto to those tainted funds, it is even worse that Connolly voted to let Rangel off the hook for his ethical violations after having accepted campaign contributions from him in 2008. As the saying goes, money talks…and Gerry Connolly listens.”

“Aside from the campaign cash, Connolly’s vote to give Rangel a pass on his ethics violations should come as no surprise to anyone who remembers Connolly’s tenure on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors,” Fimian said. “When it comes to ethical lapses, I have no doubt that Gerry Connolly can empathize with the situation Representative Rangel finds himself in.”