Gov. Kaine Rapped for DNC Reversal

January 05, 2009 12:07 PM

ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: Governor Tim Kaine, D-Va., Barack Obama's pick to head the Democratic National Committee, is coming under fire from Virginia Republicans for reversing himself on whether he can simultaneously serve as party chairman and governor during a budget crisis without taking his "eye off the ball."

"It is very disappointing that at a time when Virginia needs its elected leaders from both parties to come together and work to solve the serious issues currently facing our Commonwealth, Tim Kaine breaks yet another pledge, this time taking a job he said he wouldn't," said Delegate Jeffrey M. Frederick, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, in a statement e-mailed to reporters. 

The chairman of the Virginia GOP was invoking comments that Kaine made shortly after Obama's election as president.

Speaking at a Nov. 12 press conference, Kaine said that Obama's transition team asked him if he was interested in the position of DNC chair. He said his response was that he would rather be governor and that he will not do both jobs.

"That's not something I'm going to do. I don't view that, frankly, as consistent with being governor, so I'm going to be governor," Kaine said. "I would view it as taking my eye too much off the ball about things that need to happen here."

But after Obama and his senior political team put the full-court press on Kaine, the Virginia governor reversed his earlier opposition to splitting his time and agreed to succeed former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean as DNC chair.

Kaine, a former Catholic missionary who was considered as a possible running mate for Obama, will operate in a part-time capacity as party chairman until the beginning of 2010 when his gubernatorial term will end. Virginia governors are barred from seeking consecutive terms.

Democratic sources say Obama has chosen Jennifer O'Malley Dillon to serve as the DNC's executive director. Dillon ran Iowa for John Edwards before being tapped by Obama to serve as his battleground states director during the general election campaign.

ABC News' Jake Tapper contributed to this report.