As expected the Republican Part of Virginia tapped Robert "Taliban Bob" McDonnell as the party's standard bearer for the race for Governor of Virginia. Adding to the ticket's extreme anti-gay tilt is Ken Cuccinelli - who I view as nothing less than a far right religious fanatic - as the candidate for Attorney General. Short of having a ticket comprised of James Dobson and Tony Perkins, it would be difficult to find candidates more hostile to LGBT equality. At the state convention in Richmond, McDonnell again stated his opposition to any legal recognition of gay relationships. To date all of McDonnell's campaign ads have tried to depict him as a moderate pro-job growth candidate. It will be essential that whoever wins the Democrat primary on June 9th blunt this tactic and bring out McDonnell's true Christian Taliban mindset. Here are some highlights from the Virginian-Pilot:*
Party activists gleefully awarded the nomination to Bob McDonnell on Saturday on the expectation that he will end the Democrats' eight-year occupation of the Governor's Mansion. . . .The thousands of delegates at the convention were eager for that rescue, a fact not lost on the nominee.
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"There's renewed optimism. There's renewed enthusiasm. There's tremendous excitement on the ground for this ticket," McDonnell declared Saturday at a news conference with his running mates, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and attorney general nominee Ken Cuccinelli, a state senator from Fairfax County.
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In his address to the crowd of nearly 11,000, the largest to attend a state party meeting in 15 years, McDonnell struck a moderate tone. His speech touched on economic growth and job creation, expanded education options for Virginia students, his opposition to federal legislation to make it easier for workers to form unions and support for offshore energy exploration.
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One other issue that I hope gets asked of McDonnell is why he covered up for former Congressman Ed Schrock after being told of Schrock's use of Mega Phone for gay trysts roughly seven months BEFORE Mike Rogers outed Schrock on BlogActive.com. I suspect that if that cover up comes to light, some of McDonnell's Christianist supporters will get their panties in a serious knot.
1 comment:
Holy shit! This is discouraging news. I live in VA too, man and I gotta tell ya, this place is off-the-hook with reactionary assholes. We just have to work that much harder to stop them.
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