My latest Seattle Times op-ed is online:

It has been about a year since I left Seattle for a Northern Virginia exurb in a fit of political angst, and the time allows for a bit of measured reflection about the change.

When I lived in Seattle, one of the city’s facets to which I quickly grew accustomed was the integration of Asian Americans into the city’s mainstream life. This was not surprising, of course. While Seattle does not boast a large number of Asians in absolute terms, they form the largest nonwhite population at over 13 percent of the total — a rarity outside Hawaii. [Snip]

Some of the same dynamics are at work in the fast-growing exurbs of Northern Virginia where I now live. The area has had explosive growth in the past several years, fueled by a strong economy, especially in the tech sector and the defense industry, as well as a business-friendly regulatory environment. What was once a sleepy rural area (perhaps akin to the outer Eastside of the Seattle area) now boasts affluent, ethnically diverse communities. [Snip]

The city’s life is overwhelmingly dominated by the industry of politics, which, unlike information technology, is an old business. It requires, by nature, discretion and even secrecy. Where trust and loyalty are at such a high premium, nepotism and clannishness are often rational responses, given that family and friends are generally more trustworthy than outsiders, however capable or intelligent.

Thus, it is not that there is significant racism against Asians. It is, rather, that the system erects a high barrier against late entrants, and Asian Americans tend to be late arrivals, particularly in political terms (a friend familiar with the entertainment industry observed something similar, and perhaps not coincidentally, politics is said to be show business for ugly people).

Read the whole thing here.

There is an excellent article today in The Christian Science Monitor about the differences between the Democrats and Republicans at the grassroots level (h/t RealClearPolitics):

The Democratic and Republican parties cultivate the grass roots quite differently. The GOP promotes its causes through naturally occurring community groups of like-minded people, such as conservative churches and pro-business associations. Democrats, however, often outsource their politics, relying on artificial, virtual networks and professional canvassers to evangelize their message and build their party.

That’s particularly ironic, because many Democrats oppose corporate outsourcing. There is nothing inherently wrong with their strategy; it is a successful method of contacting voters and bringing in money. But the repeated experience of painful losses on Election Day suggests it’s a flawed approach that’s hurting Democrats over the long term.

The Democratic Party and left-leaning political groups rely on outside organizations to hire young people who recruit members, collect funds, and contact constituents through quota-based pay systems. Since many hires don’t have strong ties to the places where they work, this approach to gaining support and getting out the vote fails to capitalize on existing personal bonds among like-minded Democrats.

These observations are right on the mark — as of today. In the past, the left, particularly communist and socialist groups, excelled at what is today called grassroots organization. Despite their flawed, and later clearly disproven, ideology, they continued to attract passionate members. Indeed, the very term “communist cell” evokes the organic, grassroots nature of their organizations (everyone involved in politics should read, for example, Mao Zedong’s “On Guerilla Warfare,” masterfully translated by Samuel Griffith; unlike poseurs like Che Guevara, Mao actually led a peasant communist organization to total victory in a long, difficult war and won power).

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Last week, the Washington Post confirmed the obvious . . . . that drivers in Northern Virginia and the D.C. Metro area generally, have one of the worst commutes in the nation.

Washington area workers are more likely to travel to jobs outside their home counties than commuters in any other region in the nation, according to a new study.

A higher percentage of Virginia residents live and work in different counties than commuters in any other state; Marylanders ranked second, according to “Commuting in America III,” a national report on commuting patterns and trends published yesterday by the Transportation Research Board.

The Washington region is second only to New York for the percentage of workers with “extreme commutes,” which the study defined as 90 minutes or more each way. Of the 12 counties with the highest percentage of long commutes, the region had three: Prince William, Prince George’s and Montgomery.

While traffic hasn’t really emerged as a major issue in the high profile Allen Webb campaign (they’ve decided to take the low road and focus on Senator Allen’s apparent penchant for racial slurs and Jim Webb’s fondness for pedophilia) it has emerged as an issue in our local congressional campaigns and will almost certainly be the leading issue in next years state elections.

As a resident and commuter in this area for almost 10 years, I have very definite opinions on the subject, having made the commute into D.C. from the McLean/Tyson’s Corner area in nearly every way possible.

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As many Virginia conservatives know, one of our most urgent objectives today is to keep the Organized Left from winning control of the U. S. House of Representatives.

But when our own Tenth District incumbent Frank Wolf develops chronic tin ear, it puts conservatives in a hard place.

On the one hand, Wolf-challenger Judy Feder would be a consistent and diligent advocate of big and intrusive government.

Whatever expansive government schemes Mr. Wolf might flirt with and nurture, we can be sure that Mrs. Feder would proceed in lock step with the House Democratic Caucus, systematically to rein in both our enterprise and our liberties.

On the other hand, conservatives must have the forebearance of a saint in coming to terms with Mr. Wolf’s unrevealed earmarks and his apparent indifference to our property rights.

A just-released Congressional scorecard under the auspices of the American Land Rights Association gives Mr. Wolf only a 68 per cent rating - - - compared with 100 per cent ratings for four other Virginia U. S. Representatives (Eric Cantor, Thelma Drake, Virgil Goode, and Bob Goodlatte).

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On Friday, I argued that the “U.S. House of Representatives has, on most survival issues, been the unrecognized strongpoint for conservatives.”

Yesterday National Review on Line commentator Mark Levin struck and amplified the same chord. Levin writes:

“The fact is that the House is more conservative than either the Senate or, in many cases, the executive branch. The House pushed for energy exploration in places like ANWR, only to be thwarted in the Senate. The House pushed for a border-security- first agenda, against the “comprehensive” amnesty bill first demanded by the Senate and the president. And while the House can be blamed legitimately for spending too much, the Senate spends more and the president refuses to use his veto. Moreover, some of those who condemn House spending are unwittingly condemning the House for getting behind the president’s big-government initiatives, including Medicare prescription drugs, expanded farm subsidies, and federalizing education.

We conservatives need to be honest with ourselves. If the House, the most conservative of the elected bodies, is not conservative enough, then the Republican Senate and the Bush presidency are worse. Yet I don’t hear much clamoring for sweeping the Senate clean or much criticism of the president from our corner. And the most effective politician at obstructing many conservative polices initiated by the House and the president is John McCain. But McCain is said to be among the top candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. Somehow he escapes the wrath of those who are frustrated with Republicans. As I write, he is busy traveling the country raising money, securing endorsements, and campaigning for, well, Republicans.”

After watching the Republican pundits “pile on” and patronize House majority whip Roy Blunt during the January leadership contest, I began to suspect many center-right bloggers of sharing some of the same class outlooks as their left-wing contemporaries.

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As I often repeat, Northern Virginia has experienced a tremendous demographic growth, particularly in the outer suburbs and the exurbs. An accompanying trend has been an increase of non-white residents in the area. Loudoun County, where I now live, is a prime example (many of my neighbors are ethnically South Asian or East Asian). Since non-whites tend to trend Democrat in voting, this has raised a concern among some Republicans that the region will increasingly vote Democrat.

However, the latest report from the Census Bureau that ethnic minorities have relatively high home ownership rates in metropolitan Washington area, including Northern Virginia, ought to give them a ray of hope:

Particularly striking was the growing number of Hispanics who bought homes in the Washington area from 2000 to 2005, many of them settling in expensive suburbs such as Fairfax and Montgomery. Across the region, Hispanics surpassed blacks in homeownership rates last year. [Snip]

Almost 100,000 Asians own houses, condominiums and townhouses locally, triple the number in 1990. Homeownership among Asians increased about 71 percent regionwide between 2000 and 2005. Asians posted particularly high rates in Loudoun County, where about 96 percent owned their homes last year. That’s far above Asians’ national rate of 59 percent.

Farhan Syed, a real estate broker in Loudoun, knows this phenomenon well. “Most Asians happen to be dual-income families, well-educated, able to afford a home,” he said. “Everyone wants the American dream.”

While home ownership does not guarantee voting Republican, increased home ownership correlates well with more Republican voting. Those who own homes are more likely to be married, have children and vote Republican than those who do not (see the last two pages of this study). In fact, the trend is even stronger at higher home value ranges.

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One view of the Allen-Webb contest has it that perceived racial or sexual insensitivities won’t matter, but Bush’s standing in Virginia and the Allen-Webb fundraising gap will (h/t RCP):

Far more telling in the end, I’d wager, will be two other factors: President Bush’s popularity on Election Day and whether or not Allen maintains his current, enormous fundraising advantage over challenger Jim Webb. That’s where the numbers come in.

If Bush’s popularity and that of the war in Iraq are tanking on Nov. 7, then the combination offers Webb, a former Navy secretary and highly decorated Marine, his best - perhaps only - hope of an upset victory. [Snip]

Webb’s prospects shrink dramatically if Allen maintains anything close to his summer fundraising advantage. At the last accounting a couple of months back, Allen had $6 million in the bank, compared to Webb’s $424,000.

While I agree that these two factors matter a great deal, I disagree that these are the two most important factors in the contest.

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Last July 17, in one of the House of Representatives leadership’s less prescient moments, that body approved arguably the largest earmark of modern times — $1.5 billion to the management-challenged Metro transit system. This stand-alone package (HR 3496) authored by Representative Tom Davis and supported by Representative Frank Wolf, two Virginia Republicans, has a special gift for the unwary taxpayer. In Heritage’s Ron Utt’s words:

As troubling as this inequitable transfer would be, Mr. Davis’s proposal also requires that, as a condition of Metro receiving the $1.5 billion federal bailout, all communities in its service area establish a “dedicated funding source” (a euphemism for a tax increase) to match the federal subsidy.

The danger is that this succubus could be attached to a genuinely urgent Senate vehicle and slide through to the president’s desk where veto pens may still be on order, if not under construction. Mr. Davis has no shame about standing behind this measure, and, consistently, voted for greater transparency on earmarks last Thursday. Mr. Wolf, on the other hand, appparently believes that the less sunshine the better on such dark matters and voted the other way on sunshine.

Some old-line Virginia Republicans, even if not entirely comfortable with these raids on the U. S. Treasury in behalf of local outstretched hands, nonetheless object to such public scrutiny of Republican spending during an election year. What they entirely miss is that this kind of egregious spending jeopardizes the House Republican majority nationally even if such Congressional largesse may go down relatively smoothly in northern Virginia.