and we'll all live happily ever after (or at least for a term)

Once upon a time, the Davises must have been either sufficiently impressive candidates/incumbents or incredibly lucky on their election days. That was then.

Recently, Jeannemarie Devolites Davis publicly and proudly called herself a Republican In Name Only, a/k/a, a RINO. Yesterday, Tom Davis effectively told the National Press Club that he couldn't even withstand the fight for the Republican nomination for Senate next year, let alone hope to defeat Mark Warner. But Tom, ever the babbler, gratuitously added the following, "so what? I've been a committee chairman in the House. I've got my portrait hanging on a wall. I've been pretty productive legislatively."

To recap, we're supposed to vote for Jeannemarie three weeks from yesterday, ignoring the party banner she and her husband have been running under their whole careers and which party they've reliably supported on issues from embroiling our military in the middle of a civil war in Iraq to imposing four digit fines for speeding? And, next year, we may have to consider sending Tom back for another two years, overwhelmed by the fact that there's a picture of him on wall and he's been "pretty productive?"

Tom Davis is many things, but he's not stupid. In fact, he's so taken with his own intellect that he just had to confirm what we all know about the virtual impossibility of getting the Republican nomination for Senate via a convention and he just had to signal yesterday that he thinks his wife will lose to Chap three weeks from yesterday. He knows better than anyone that if he can't even get his own wife re-elected this year, not only does he lack the support of the Republican faithful outside VA-11, his support within his district is gone.

Unfortunately, because Jeannemarie can't convert her campaign warchest to personal use, and because there are few other RINO's out there to donate the money to, the next 20 days will see more negative and lying ads about Chap. I suppose Republicans in Jeannemarie's district were so depressed anyway that her crappy campaign couldn't do any more harm to bringing out her vote. All she has left is trying to depress Chap's support.

The good news is that not only is Chap running a brilliantly uplifting campaign, but we have the power to do something quite easy to help ourselves for the next four years (and beyond, if Tom hangs it up) by getting off our butts for a few minutes on election day and voting.

If we do, like all good fairy tales, this one will have a happy ending.