One Northern Virginia politician used to frequently stump advocates for this or that with a question that seemed simple on the surface but tripped up many.
“What problem,” he would ask, “are we trying to solve?”
It is a question we would put to state Sen. Dave Marsden (D-Fairfax), who did his darndest, unsuccessfully as it turned out, to ram through enabling legislation to permit a casino complex in Tysons.
A powerful Senate committee last week opted to punt the legislation into 2025, a perfectly logical response.
It may turn out that, on balance, a casino is a great idea. But there were way, way, way too many concerns that Marsden and other backers of this measure were unprepared to answer, and too little time in what remained on the 2024 legislative calendar to tackle them all.
It seems the responsible thing to do to kick the can down the road to 2025. Why Sen. Marsden was so hell-bent in getting it through in a hurry is a question only he can answer.
