McDonnell As A Whipping Boy In The Midterms

I have a great idea for Democrats in tough midterm election races. I know many races will have a Tea Bagging candidate running far to the right, but other races in purple districts will have Republicans trying to masquerade as moderates so as not to scare off voters. If Democrats are smart they will us Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell as a whipping boy to run against those allegedly moderate Republicans. Pointing out that McDonnell also billed himself as a moderate and then immediately upon taking office showed himself to be a big time right winger going so far as to celebrate a Confederate History Month and then tying him to those moderates would be like found money. Not only will it get voters to look at them suspiciously, it will also force the moderates to take stances on very controversial subjects potentially pissing off their own right wing base. That's what's called going on the offensive and I hope some Democrats at least have the same thought.

Bob McDonnell Has A Joe Biden Problem

Bob McDonnell has been furiously trying to rebrand himself as a moderate as he tries to win the Virginia governors race. Unfortunately for him his ticket mate for attorney general Ken Cuccinelli sounds like a blogger at Red State. Here is what he had to say about President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

"Well, it's official, the Nobel Peace Prize is officially meaningless," Cuccinelli opened his Cuccinelli Compass newsletter to supporters Friday. He went on to quote commentator John Podhoretz about what Cuccinelli termed the "Nobel hilarity." Podhoretz argued that the win is not surprising because Obama represents the Nobel committee's highest ideals because he is "an American President queasy about the projection of American power."

"I suspect that whoever nominated him actually did it as a joke. And how about that, it really did turn out to be a joke," Cuccinelli concluded on the subject.

It will be interesting to see how McConnell tries to spin himself away from this kind of over the top right wing rhetoric. I am pretty sure that the people of Virginia do not share Cuccinelli's partisan views on the Nobel Peace Prize and if enough of them start to notice that this is the company McConnell is keeping they may wake up and realize that he is selling them a false bill of goods. If and when that happens you can expect those lofty numbers of his to take a preciptious slide but it is still up to Creigh Deeds to show himself to be something more than just "not McConnell". Unfortunately as weak kneed Democrats often do Deeds tried to put some air between himself and a very popular President at the first sign of President Obama's poll numbers slipping a little. If he was smart he would go running back like a prodigal sun and hug the hell out of Obama for the rest of his campaign.

Make Bob McDonnell Own His Shit!

Looks like Republican candidate for Governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, is trying to run from his wingnut culturally conservative philosophy and his record in office when it comes to womens' rights and gay rights among other things.

At age 34, two years before his first election and two decades before he would run for governor of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell submitted a master's thesis to the evangelical school he was attending in Virginia Beach in which he described working women and feminists as "detrimental" to the family. He said government policy should favor married couples over "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators." He described as "illogical" a 1972 Supreme Court decision legalizing the use of contraception by unmarried couples.

The 93-page document, which is publicly available at the Regent University library, culminates with a 15-point action plan that McDonnell said the Republican Party should follow to protect American families -- a vision that he started to put into action soon after he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.

During his 14 years in the General Assembly, McDonnell pursued at least 10 of the policy goals he laid out in that research paper, including abortion restrictions, covenant marriage, school vouchers and tax policies to favor his view of the traditional family. In 2001, he voted against a resolution in support of ending wage discrimination between men and women.

In his run for governor, McDonnell, 55, makes little mention of his conservative beliefs and has said throughout his campaign that he should be judged by what he has done in office, including efforts to lower taxes, stiffen criminal penalties and reform mental health laws. He reiterated that position Saturday in a statement responding to questions about his thesis.

snip

One controversy that drew wide attention was an effort in the General Assembly in 2003 to end the judicial career of Verbena M. Askew, a Circuit Court judge from Newport News who had been accused of sexual harassment by a woman who worked for her. As chairman of the Courts of Justice Committee, McDonnell led the effort in the House. He said he was opposed to Askew's reappointment because she didn't disclose, as required, that she was a party to a legal proceeding.

McDonnell was widely quoted at the time as saying that homosexual activity raised questions about a person's qualifications to be a judge. Spokesman Tucker Martin said McDonnell was misquoted and does not consider homosexuality a disqualifying factor for judgeships or other jobs.

Askew, who was not reappointed, denied any wrongdoing and was never found by a court to have harassed the employee.

I saw recently that his Democratic opponent, Creigh Deeds was actually hitting him on his opposition to abortion, something that not many Democrats have the balls to do anymore. When I heard about it I was on the one hand happy that Deeds wasn't hiding from the issue but on the other hand I did wonder about the political implications. In the back of my mind I kept thinking that McDonnell must have some radical skeletons in his closet or something when it comes to abortion and I guess we see now that this is certainly the case. But what we need to do is keep him on the defensive and keep hitting him on these issues.

Every liberal and progressive blogger who is concerned about the race in Virginia should be bringing this issue up a couple of times a week. For as much as people may have some personal reservations about abortion I don't think his views on it are even close to being mainstream. Its time that we started labeling the anti choicers as the real radicals as we should have been doing from the start.

Make McDonnell own his past and then see how many Republicans continue to try to fight these culture wars.

(h/t O Dub)

They Said "Thanks But No Thanks" To That Crazy Chick From Alaska

Evidently there are still some Republicans running for office who don't mind keeping it real. While all of the GOP pundit, strategists and bloggers are spinning furiously over Sarah Palin's future with the party, at least two Republican candidates aren't buying it.

NEW YORK (AP) — Sarah Palin's decision to step down as Alaska governor was driven in part by her wish to help Republican candidates across the country, associates say.

But in New Jersey and Virginia, two states with competitive governors' races this year, the prospect of a visit from the party's 2008 vice presidential nominee has so far drawn a muted response from the GOP contenders there.

In Virginia, a historically conservative state where Barack Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate since 1964 to win, Republican Bob McDonnell said Tuesday his campaign had had conversations with the Palin camp but stopped short of saying whether he wanted her help.

snip

"I don't know how this recent announcement — which I still don't fully understand; I only know what I've read in the media — how that fully plays out and whether she's going to prefer a private life or whether she still wants to stay actively involved," McDonnell said.

In New Jersey, where President Barack Obama trounced the McCain-Palin ticket by 15 percentage points last November, state Republican Chairman Jay Webber said he'd had no contact with Palin or her team about a campaign visit on behalf of GOP candidate Chris Christie.

Several statewide polls have shown Christie, a former U.S. attorney, leading Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, who is running for re-election.

"We don't have any plans on having her in," Webber said. "We're busy working to get Chris Christie elected and telling people about the failed record of Gov. Corzine."

Of course if the economy turns around and health care reform gets passed and in turn these guys lose, of course the Bill Kristols of the world will claim that its all because they didn't invite Palin. Such is the wingnut hive mind these days.