Goode gone

With his name, and his peculiar history, it's almost impossible to avoid the puns. So, maybe for the last time, here it is in a nutshell: Goode Grief!

Yes, according to the official count, Virgil Goode has lost his 5th District seat in the House of Representatives to Democrat Tom Perriello. Click here for the Washington Post article.

Originally elected as a Democrat, warmed over from the bad old Byrd Machine days, the opportunistic Goode eventually migrated to the GOP. Only four years ago, it still looked like a move that would put him in line to move up the ladder of what would be the dominant party in the Commonwealth of Virginia for a long time.

Then with the elections of 2005 and 2006, it appeared the Old Dominion's political landscape was turning purple, even blue. Still, it was thought only two years ago that Goode's district was so conservative/backward that he would outlast the problems that Republicans in Northern Virginia, and elsewhere, were facing.

The sweet irony that Rep. Goode's loss in 2008 came in great part from his opponent riding the coattails of popular Democrats should not go unnoticed. Perriello won because he was the Democrat.

-- Words and art by F.T. Rea