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By JOHN GOOLRICK
I've jul? returned from an excursion to Richmond where I visited the Virginia General Assembly.
I am happy to say that the regular surly attitude that seemed to prevail the past few years has disappeared at least for the present and relations between members of opposing parties are much more cordial.
Of course, this is a year when three statewide offices and all 100 seats in the House of Delegates are up for grabs so I won't be too surprised if some intense partisan warfare breaks out in the session’s waning days a week or so hence.
During his first few years in office, Governor George Allen championed his own agenda with a frontal attack on Democrats who opposed parts of it that they regarded as outrageous.
Thus the legislative sessions of 1994 and 1995 were among the most contentious of modem times.
Both Republican and Democratic leaders agree that business has been conducted this year with considerably more civility.
Speaker of the House Tom Moss told me it had been difficult at times during the past few years to preside over the House with as much impartiality as could be mustered at a time the Governor and others took every opportunity to portray Democrats as far out liberals with a socialistic agenda.
Moss, who has won high praise from veteran nonpartisan observers of the Assembly for his skillful direction of the House, held his head high under heavy fire. "There's always going to be a level of partisanship in a democratic form of government, but it’s not in the Virginia tradition to take 'it to extremes. . . there's been a definite improvement this year."
State Sen. John Chichester, a key Republican leader, agreed. "There are differences of philosophy between the
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