RICHMOND--Call it the "Tim and and Jerry" show. Like the old cartoon, "Tom and Jerry."
You remember the cartoon, right? Tom's the big gray house cat who can't ever catch Jerry, the little brown mouse.
Despite his lack of size, Jerry always outsmarted the famished feline.
In one of my favorite moments, Jerry once stuck his thumb in his mouth and blew his fist up to at least twice his body size so he could pop Tom in the noggin.
When I was a little kid, I tried this and was very disappointed to find it didn't work.
But if a modern-day Jerry would have attempted this on Wednesday, no one would have been surprised. Why? Because Tim--not Tom--was getting the best of him.
See, the "Jerry" I'm talking about is state Attorney General Jerry Kilgore. And "Tim"? Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine. They appeared at "AP Day at the Capital," an event put on by the Virginia Associated Press Managing Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists.
And though the joint appearance wasn't officially labeled a "debate," it looked like one, and Kaine came out from his corner--or, from his side of the aisle, really--swinging.
BEGIN JONATHAN'S DISCLAIMER: Before I go any further, let me mention this: I know many of you still have the presidential election on the brain. If you're a Republican, you're still celebrating. If you're a Democrat, you're still mad.
But in Virginia, as most of you probably know, we have elections every year. Next year that means we have a gubernatorial contest, and Kilgore is the likely GOP nominee; Kaine, the likely Dem choice.
So this is just a preview. It's not a test; you don't have to remember anything because you'll hear plenty more before November 2005. It's more like a movie trailer, letting you know what you'll see in the coming weeks and months. END OF JONATHAN'S DISCLAIMER.
Anyway, Kaine hit Kilgore hard. On an eavesdropping scandal. On Kilgore's stand on taxing and money matters. Even on the format of the debate: Apparently, Kilgore's folks said their man wouldn't show if the format allowed the politicos to ask each other questions. He wanted to take inquiries only from the moderator, University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato, or from the audience of journalists.
The eavesdropping deal has been somewhat of an inside-baseball topic. So here's some quick background: In 2002, a handful of GOP operatives got unauthorized access to two conference calls that Democratic bigwigs had scheduled to talk about how to counter a Republican plan that redrew legislative boundaries.
Of special interest in these parts is that one of the folks implicated was Edmund A. Matricardi III of Spotsylvania County, formerly the state GOP's executive director. Kaine on Wednesday twice referred to him as a "crook."
Kilgore, on the other hand, has been portrayed as the hero of the GOP because he alerted authorities when he found out about the eavesdropping. But Kaine charged--and legal depositions suggest--that Kilgore knew enough after the first call was monitored to stop any GOP spies from listening to the second one.
Kaine hammered Kilgore over and over again on the issue, and all Kilgore would say was that he had done the right thing, and that Kaine was beating a dead horse.
Maybe Kilgore's right, but Kaine certainly won the battle of political theatrics on this one.
The same went for the issue of the difficult budget negotiations of last year's General Assembly session. Kaine said Kilgore lobbied Republicans to defeat the spending plan that included $1.4 billion in tax increases, but then bragged to his hometown paper that the budget helped his home area of Southwest Virginia.
"You can't have it both ways, Jerry," Kaine said.
Kilgore, for his part, tried to paint Kaine as a pie-in-the-sky liberal.
Voters, Kilgore said, "will learn that he was an ACLU lawyer. They'll learn that he not only opposes the death penalty but [that] he has actually represented death-row inmates, those who escaped from prison."
So much of political posturing is about nuance, and without doing more research, I'm not going to back everything Kaine said. But he certainly "won" the debate, if you base a win just on how things looked. He wiped the floor with Kilgore, whom I know can appear more polished.
The pair got into a similarly heated argument at last year's AP Day event, so I figured this year's would be more toned-down.
But University of Mary Washington political scientist Stephen Farnsworth, who sat near me on Wednesday, said Democrats have to be really aggressive to defeat the GOP in this "red" state.
I don't really think the state's going to fall apart no matter which Honorable Mr. K is elected next year.
But the year will certainly be filled with more harsh words from both sides.
If you don't like negative political campaigns, you may not like it. But look at the bright side: As some said after the presidential debates this year, at least you won't have a hard time telling the candidates apart.
JONATHAN HUNLEY is Viewpoints/Op-Ed editor and a columnist with The Free Lance-Star.