Virginian Pilot Endorses Shannon and Trashes Cuccinelli

Not surprisingly the Virginian Pilot has endorsed Steven Shannon in the race for Virginia's next Attorney General. In the process, the endorsement utterly trashes GOP candidate Ken Cuccinell who would be better suited to be working at Family Research Council or Focus on the Family furthering his extreme Christianist views on abortion, hatred towards gays, etc. - anything but a public office where he can seek to inject religious extremism into the civil laws. Bab McDonnell may be Pat Robertson's boy, but he comes across as down right rational and moderate when compared to Cuccinelli. I shudder at the consequences should Cuccinelli be elected. Here are highlights from the Pilot's endorsement of Shannon:

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In the attorney general’s race, Virginians have a choice between a low-key fellow partial to brown suits, and a pugnacious culture warrior more apt to need flameproof gear. Steve Shannon’s style is the better fit for Virginia. His thoughtful approach would preserve the reputation of the state’s law firm as a source of reliable legal advice. Ken Cuccinelli’s antics would be more entertaining, but drama is something best left to TV shows.

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As a Democratic delegate, Shannon has been a centrist who gravitated toward bipartisan compromises on budget and transportation issues. That background will lend him a steady hand as he guides the legislature through what promises to be a tumultuous effort to redraw political districts in 2011.

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[W]ould he [Cuccinelli] feel an obligation to all Virginians? He sponsored a bill to waive unemployment compensation costs for companies that fire workers for not speaking English on the job. The measure would have affected only legal workers because illegal immigrants don’t qualify for unemployment benefits.

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Cuccinelli’s views on reproductive rights don’t align with those of most Virginians. He favors legislation that would grant legal rights to fetuses at conception. He has sponsored bills requiring strict regulations that would put most abortion clinics out of business. He voted against a bill stating that contraception is not abortion.

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He declined to commit to a nondiscrimination policy against gays and lesbians observed by former Attorney General Bob McDonnell: “ My view is that homosexual acts, not homosexuality, but homosexual acts are wrong. They’re intrinsically wrong. And I think in a natural law based country it’s appropriate to have policies that reflect that. ... They don’t comport with natural law. I happen to think that it represents (to put it politely; I need my thesaurus to be polite) behavior that is not healthy to an individual and in aggregate is not healthy to society.”

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To put it politely, Cuccinelli’s election would bring embarrassment to Virginia, instability to the state’s law firm and untold harm to the long list of people who don’t fit his personal definition of morality.

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Personally, if Cuccinelli needs anything, it's to be placed in a mental institution because no one is as whacked out as he is unless they have some severe emotional/psychological issues. The fact that he received the GOP nomination speaks volumes about just how outside the mainstream the GOP has become.