Meanwhile, back in my adopted home state: Virginia Leaders Warn of Shortfall. Gov. Gilmore has certainly made a mess of the budget. Democratic criticism is a given, but Republicans have joined the chorus as well. Just a year ago, Gilmore was held up as the exemplar that proved Bush's budget policy could work: "See, you can cut taxes and balance the budget at the same time," we were told. Easy enough in boom times, I suppose, but now that the economy has slowed, even massive spending cuts can't stop the deficits from reappearing in Virginia. And that kind of sounds like the problem we have on the federal level. Virginia voted for Gilmore in 1997 and voted for Bush in 2000 — the state was fooled twice by the same rhetoric, and now it's paying the price.

And speaking of Virginia, here's what I found in my inbox this morning: "…Mark Earley and Mark Warner have agreed to participate in a statewide, televised debate hosted by the UVA Center for Governmental Studies and the Virginia Capitol Correspondents Association. The debate will occur on October 7 from 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. in the WDBJ studios in Roanoke and will be carried by stations in Virginia's major media markets." (For those who don't know, they're running for Governor.)