Less than 48 hours into the 60-day legislative session, and a familiar 10,000-pound gorilla has already been let loose by Senate Democrats.

It's called raising the gas tax.

Chap Petersen, the Fairfax County Democrat who defeated Republican Congressman Tom Davis's wife, Jeannemarie, in the recent election, has introduced a bill that would raise the gas tax from 17.5 cents to 19.5 cents per gallon.

(Lawmakers say it is one of several bills that includes a gas tax.)

Under Petersen's plan, one-half of the increase would go into a Biofuels Production Fund for grants to producers of biofuels pursuant and one-half would go into the Highway Maintenance and Operating Fund.

Some think it makes sense given remarks Petersen made on the campaign trail last year.

Republicans say it is a non-starter and likely it will go nowhere.

But it could make for good political theater, especially if Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, Fairfax County Democrat, leads the charge.

While Republicans usually do not agree with him philosophically, they do love the fact that "Dick" is brutally honest.

For example, Saslaw warned colleagues searching for a state song in 1998 that a state panel tasked with a similar job in the 1980s suffered through some jarring tributes to Virginia's mountains and beaches that "sounded like rejects from 'The Gong Show.'"

Asked yesterday about whether Democrats will push hard for a gas tax increase to help pay for transportation maintanence, Saslaw offered a little sample:

"What we did last year was essentially postpone doomsday about three or four years on the maintenance funds," he said. "Sooner or later we are going to have to come to grips with the fact if we don't do anything in the next several years, you are going to reach a point — in 2012 — when all the statewide construction money goes to maintenance."

Saslaw says the state will likely need to find a "few hundred million" dollars in the next few years to keep with the road repair.

He also shared this:

"The other thing that we never discuss, and we ultimately are going to have to discuss, is how are we going to get (people) out of the cars? How do we get them out of the cars, you know? Because you can't road bill your way out of this. Ultimately, people are going to have to get out of the cars."

He added, "And this comes from a guy who sells gasoline."

— Seth McLaughlin, Virginia politics reporter, The Washington Times