Kaine In Arkansas On DNC Business As Va. Floods

Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, appeared with Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe at a closed $250-per-ticket luncheon at a home in Little Rock.

Kaine issued the emergency declaration Wednesday night, putting state agencies on alert to respond to flooding from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida.

Aides said the governor was in constant phone contact with the Emergency Operations Center and his chief of staff in Richmond. He returns to Virginia late Thursday and plans to visit flood-damaged areas across the state on Saturday.

Republicans, meanwhile, assailed Kaine's absence as "political dereliction."

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