It's never quite an easy task to figure out what makes partisan Democrats say nice things about Republican leaders, but we'll take Paul Goldman's comments on Virginia Republican House Speaker Bill Howell at face value. Since we blog.rslc.com folks happen to know the Speaker, and agree with a good amount of Paul has to say about the Speaker – not all of it – he is a Democrat operative remember!

The best-kept secret in Fredericksburg has now been exposed by the front page of the  Washington Post. According to the latest public opinion poll, the new miracle worker of Virginia politics is Republican William J. Howell, who represents the City of Fredericksburg and part of Stafford County in the state legislature. Bill is also the Speaker of the House of Delegates, only the second Republican to hold that position. Mr. Speaker has done something this former Chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party didn't think possible in the current political climate. Despite the hugely negative view Virginian's have of the Bush Administration, Bill has managed to develop a solidly positive image for the Virginia GOP. 54% of the Virginians surveyed view the state's Republican Party in a favorable light even though these same citizens have a distinctly unfavorable view of the GOP national leaders about 50 miles away on the Washington side of the Potomac River…

Bill Howell deserves a fair share of the credit for helping to get us to the top position. He is a soft-spoken guy who is not a high-profile, public-relations type politician. Some say he is too cautious, not political enough. In that regard, Bill Howell is his own man, with a firm grasp of how he best operates to get things done.    
Read the full post here.