In Praise Of A Brave Democrat

The Virginia Senate just did something amazing: passed a budget amendment that would de-fund Planned Parenthood for the next two years. The VA Senate is controlled by the Democrats, and the vote was tied, with the decisive vote cast by the Lt. Gov. The GOP-controlled House has been pushing this for years, so it is likely to be ratified there. Then it will just be up to the Gov. to decide whether he wants to fight the amendment.

The pointman was the VA GOP's redoubtable Ken Cuccinelli (who's eyeing a run for AG). But the real hero is the lone Democrat who voted in favor of the amendment: Chuck Colgan.

Senate Democratic leaders struggled for hours to defeat the amendment, but they were unable to stop Sen. Charles J. Colgan (D-Prince William) from voting for it. Colgan's decision resulted in 20 to 20 tie, which was broken by Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R), who voted for the restrictions.

Pro-lifers are delighted; predictably both the Cuccinelli and Colgan offices report being deluged with extremely nasty email from Planned Parenthood supporters. If you cared to write a note of gratitude and support, I think it wouldn't go amiss. I'll put the emails here in a form spambots won't recognize, trusting you to translate them into real addresses.

• VA State Sen. Chuck Colgan (D): district29 AT sovDOTstateDOTVADOTUS
• VA State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R) : district37 AT sovDOTstateDOTVADOTUS