From today?s Washington Times comes this telling story about budget struggles in Virginia and the inability, there or elsewhere, to use party affiliation necessarily to predict views on issues:

A key Republican state senator says Virginia needs more new taxes despite the improving economy, but the state’s Democratic governor said more tax increases aren’t necessary.

Both Gov. Mark Warner and Senate Republicans favored tax increases earlier in the year and, eventually, more fiscally conservative House Republicans caved. Here?s the irony of it all:

The legislature passed a record $1.38 billion tax-increase last month. This month, the state Finance Department said that the economy is rebounding and that by June 30, the end of the state’s fiscal year, there could be a budget surplus of about $300 million.

[The aforementioned senator] championed a much larger tax-increase package ? about $4 billion ? during the legislative session, but ultimately supported the compromise plan that raised the state sales, cigarette and real-estate taxes.