which is slightly reworked from a comment on another thread last night.
I would very much have liked to have seen Tom Vilsack as the choice, and not just because we are personal friends. I know him as a man of insight, integrity and courage. He has like Kaine been a city councilman, a mayor and a governor, and he has legislative experience, albeit it only in the Iowa Senate. He had 8 years as governor and now 7.5 as Secretary of Agriculture, where unlike most cabinet secretaries he does not leave the day to day running of his department to his #2 but actively runs the department himself, just like he actively ran the state government of Iowa.
He has some international experience, having visited more than 30 countries in his capacity as Secretary of Agriculture, and some other overseas travels promoting Iowa while Governor.
He has like Kaine some political leadership experience outside of government.
What he does not have is the national security experience that Kaine has from both Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees. While Tom Vilsack has an understated way, he will at times use his quick wit with some dry and very effective humor.
There have in the 30+ years since I came to the DC area been a handful of politicians I knew who if they asked me to come work for them, it would have been almost impossible for me to say no. My now retired dear friend Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of NY was one, but when someone in House leadership was exploring giving me a job and I had already decided I would not go there, my wife wanted me to see if I at least got it and Carolyn provided some very blunt advise which I cannot repeat here but was right on target both as far as most Members of the House and as far as me. If Jim Webb had gotten onto the HELP Committee as he requested, he would have asked me to work with him on the issues of that committee and I would have done so. My current Congressman Don Beyer, whom I got to know during the Dean campaign, is another.
I was about to go to work for a statewide candidate after I had retired when I accepted a request from my first principal to fill in at an inner city school.
If Tom Vilsack ever asked me to work for him, I would drop what I was doing and respond immediately. I respect him that much.
I also respect Tim Kaine that much, but I am simply an acquaintance, one with whom I have had a number of conversations on policy and politics over the years, but not as I am with Tom Vilsack a good friend.
On a personal level I would have liked my good friend to get the nod.
On a political level, I am absolutely thrilled with the selection of Tim Kaine, as should be clear by the posts I have done in the past few days. I hope those who saw him in Miami today began to get a sense of why those of us in Virginia who have worked with him in any capacity think so highly of him.