Monday, February 25, 2013

Ken Cuccinelli Slammed by Virginia Business Leaders


UPDATED:  Salon also has great coverage of the beat down that Kookinelli received at what was supposed to have been his coming out cotillion before the GOP money men and women.  I love it and hope more rational Virginians come to the realization that Cuccinelli is harmful to Virginia's future.  Here's a sampling:

Attorney General of Virginia Ken Cuccinelli made himself a national political figure by following the Tea Party script: Get the attention of the liberal media and the affection of pissed-off old white conservatives by loudly opposing Barack Obama and embracing all sorts of far-right issues.

He’s endorsed antiabortion and anti-contraception laws. He supported an Arizona-style immigrant-harassment policy. He opposes gay rights. He opposes fuel efficiency standards. He’s the sort of post-Bush era ultra-conservative Republican who is supposedly making the party unable to compete outside the old Confederacy and parts of the Southwest. Now he’s running for governor.

Virginia isn’t the Virginia it used to be, though. It went for Barack Obama twice, and Democrats are regularly elected to state office. This puts the party in a bit of a bind: A “reasonable” Republican would have a good shot at being the next governor, but Cuccinelli scared the “reasonable” Republican out of the race.

Virginia “business leaders” Bobbie Kilberg, a longtime Republican donor, and Gary Shapiro, an independent Romney supporter, both harangued Cuccinelli at a Republican Governor’s Association “roundtable” in Washington last Friday, mostly for being a bad candidate  . . . .

So Cuccinelli just met the Republican donor base, and learned that what they’re looking for in a candidate has recently grown pretty far apart from what the Republican activist base wants.

I have been on the record for a long time maintaining that Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli is (i) insane in my opinion, and (ii) bad for business in Virginia.  While Kookinelli may be the darling of the Christofascists and the Neanderthals of the Tea Party here in Virginia, rational people in the business community find Kookinelli down right toxic.  In fact, business leaders slammed Kookinelli at a meeting of the Republican Governor’s Association’s “Executive Roundtable,” which was supposed to have been an opportunity to showcase Cuccinelli as one of two Republican gubernatorial candidates this year (Chris Christie of New Jersey is the other).  A piece in Politico looks at the rough treatment received at the Executive Roundtable.  Here are highlights:

Two prominent northern Virginia business leaders got into a heated exchange with Virginia Republican gubernatorial hopeful Ken Cuccinelli in front of a few hundred top GOP donors at a closed-door meeting Friday, multiple sources told POLITICO.

Bobbie Kilberg, a longtime Republican donor and CEO of Northern Virginia Technology Council, and Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Arlington-based Consumer Electronics Association, stood up separately to confront Cuccinelli about what is on the minds of many Virginia and national Republicans: whether the Tea Party-backed attorney general can, or wants to, run a pragmatic campaign in the increasingly moderate Old Dominion.

The face-off took place at a meeting of the Republican Governor’s Association’s “Executive Roundtable,” a group of national CEOs and business leaders, Friday morning at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington. The event was meant to showcase Cuccinelli as one of two Republican gubernatorial candidates this year.

But instead of simply making his pitch and picking up a few business cards from potential donors, Cuccinelli was all but dressed down by two fellow Virginians.

Kilberg, who is close with Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, spoke first and noted that the state has become “purple.” She pointed out that McDonnell has sought to govern in the mainstream. But then she wondered aloud if Cuccinelli’s crusading brand fits Virginia’s present political and demographic reality.

Shapiro spoke up next and was even tougher on Cuccinelli. As a hushed room looked on, Shapiro, who sits on the board of the influential Northern Virginia Technology Council, said the state’s centrist-oriented business community won’t back the Republican standard-bearer because he’s out of the mainstream.

Shapiro expressed deep reservations about Cuccinelli and said he feared hard-core social conservative policies would make Virginia less attractive for business.  “I’ve told Cuccinelli I would not support him,” said Shapiro,an independent who supported Mitt Romney last year and has criticized Cuccinelli in a Washington Post op-ed. “Virginia’s incredible tilt rightward, thanks to a lot of Cuccinelli initiatives, has not been helpful at promoting Virginia as a diverse, pro-business state.”

Friday’s back-and-forth is so embarrassing for Cuccinelli: A coming-out party for the attorney general in front of a national big money crowd turned into another reminder of the internal difficulties he’s faced since pushing Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling from the race in November.

High-level Republicans have privately worried for the past two months that Cuccinelli was not taking steps to mount the sort of campaign — focused on jobs, roads and schools — that McDonnell ran on with great success in 2009. The attorney general has discussed contraception with an Iowa conservative talk radio show host and was a no-show at both McDonnell’s State of the Commonwealth speech and a major fundraiser a few weeks ago in Richmond

And most recently, Cuccinelli has been on a publicity tour for his new book chronicling his battles with the Democratic president who has twice carried Virginia.

But it was his opposition to McDonnell’s transportation legislation — a legacy bill for the outgoing governor that includes new taxes — that has many establishment Republicans at their wit’s end.

Will the increasing insane base of the Republican Party of Virginia wake up to the reality that Cuccinelli is toxic and likely unelectable if the business community walks away from him?  I doubt it.  The base is so controlled by the Christofascists - think The Family Foundation - and the Tea Party that logic and objective reality no longer matter.


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