THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 28, 1996 TAG: 9602280001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
The other day, U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley was explaining his decision not to seek re-election. In the old days, he said, he had Republican friends in the Senate. He played basketball with some, borrowed milk money from one with whom he'd just had a heated debate.
Back in the mid-'80s, while Republicans controlled the Senate, Democrats and Republicans respected each other more than they do now, he said. If he had a good idea, he said, something would come of it because Republicans would steal it.
Today, Bradley said, Republicans, again in the majority, never steal his good ideas. Distrust and disdain have shouldered aside respect.
Apparently Democrats and Republicans in the Virginia General Assembly still have some respect for each other's ideas. Chesapeake Del. J. Randy Forbes, a Republican, pushed five straight years for the state Tax Department to establish guidelines for disputes with taxpayers - a ``Taxpayer Bill of Rights.''
This year, the Democrats adopted the idea, obviously a good one, as their own. In fact, Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr., a Democrat, made it part of his legislative agenda.
Recently, just before the House unanimously supported a freshman Democrat's bill establishing a Taxpayer Bill of Rights, Forbes said, ``I rise to support this measure because I wrote it.''
The state is well-served when both parties steal - or better, share - good ideas. by CNB