BY WESLEY P. HESTER

For weeks, Republicans have been hammering on Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Timothy M. Kaine to take a position on the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.

Last week, President Barack Obama opted to delay action on TransCanada Corp.’s planned pipeline, which would run from Alberta to Texas, until after next year’s election.

The decision has unleashed a torrent of criticism from Republicans, and as always, Republicans are eager to link Kaine, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, to Obama.

And despite the fact that the pipeline would come nowhere near Virginia, Republican front-runner George Allen has been outspoken in his support of the project. Arguing that energy will be a key issue in the race, Allen and Republicans have for weeks urged Kaine to take a stand.  

Thus far, he hasn’t. Repeated requests for comments from Kaine’s campaign have been unsuccessful.  

“So far, Tim Kaine, President Obama’s hand-picked Chairman of the Democratic National Committee is following his lead — refusing to take a position,” said a release from the Republican Party of Virginia sent out Monday.

The RPV also takes Kaine to task for “taking the same ‘wait-and-see’ approach” on another out-of-state issue — a lawsuit filed by the National Labor Relations Board against Boeing, alleging that the aerospace giant illegally moved union work in Washington state to a nonunion factory in South Carolina.

Kaine declined to comment on the specifics of the case, noting that law requires that a company not retaliate against employees for bargaining activity.