Not So Goode

Tom Perriello would do well to send Al Weed a "thank you" note. That'd indicate good Southern breeding. And reality. Perriello's sometimes-funny, often aggressive campaign against entrenched Republican bozo Virgil Goode owes a lot to Weed's groundwork in 2002 and 2006, both losing--but softening-up--efforts by a candidate who would have made an outstanding congressman from the 5th District.

Weed ran hard each time, even living in Danville--the Old South heartbeat of this 19th Century district--for six months at one point to meet the voters. Everybody liked Al, but not enough, by a lot, voted for him.

Perriello is probably a better candidate than the southern reaches of the 5th District could expect if Charlottesville weren't on the top end: He's an internationalist who fought Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, helped Sierra Leone find peace and founded a couple of faith-based, humanitarian organization.

Perriello, who went to Yale and spent a summer in New York organizing a faith-based organization to help the poor (he's done a lot of that) is called by the bigoted, oafish Goode "a New York lawyer" meaning, I suppose, "You ain't from around here, are you?" Well, yes, he is. He's from Albemarle County, part of the 5th District. Perhaps, paired with a distorted picture of Periello, it's a racial, ethnic and xenophobic statement--not a pretty picture of Goode.

Looks like Al softened up Goode (not to be confused with Good) and may have set him up for retirement.