It seems I'm not the only one fearful of what Virginia's new Kool-Aid drinking attorney general will do to the state over the next four years inasmuch as he's already reaffirmed that gays in Virginia are second class citizens - indeed a class not even welcome to exist in Cuccinelli's world - and has now filed what is likely to prove to be a frivolous lawsuit that will deprive countless Virginians of health insurance coverage and/or the means to seek assistance with crushing insurance premium costs. Bob McDonnell, is not much better, although he is allowing Cuccinelli to be the out in the open lightning rod. All this in just two months from alleged "moderates." I pray to God that the media and voters will not fall for the obviously false moderate spiel from other GOP candidates. The Washington Post looks at Cuccinelli's teabagger jihad against progress and rationality. It is an unsettling situation and one has to wonder how McDonnell expects to be a "jobs governor" when the Cooch is doing all that he can to frighten people away from the state - including current residents. Here are highlights:*
Not five minutes after President Obama signed health-care legislation into law Tuesday, top staff members for Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II made their way out of his office, court papers in hand and TV cameras in pursuit, and headed to Richmond's federal courthouse to sue to stop the measure.
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Cuccinelli (R) went his own way, arguing that a Virginia law enacted this month that prohibits the government from requiring people to buy health insurance creates an "immediate, actual controversy" between state and federal law that gives the state unique standing on which to sue.
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The move was classic Cuccinelli -- bold, defiant and in-your-face, an effort to use any means at his disposal to stop what he sees as a federal government gone wild. That approach has transformed him in just a few months from being a fairly obscure state senator into a national conservative folk hero -- a tea partier with conviction and, more importantly, power.
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But as the fervency and number of Cuccinelli's supporters have grown, so has the vigor of his detractors, who are convinced that he is an ideologue using his office to further a political agenda and that he is interested only in representing those who share his views.
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"He thinks he's the attorney general for Fox News," said Paul Goldman, a Richmond lawyer and former head of the Virginia Democratic Party. "He wants to be Glenn Beck's favorite attorney general, and he's moving right on up there."
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Cuccinelli's newfound stature in his party could create tension in Richmond, where just a few short weeks ago it was Gov. Robert F. McDonnell who was being held up as the new face of the Republican Party, chosen by national leaders to deliver the response to Obama's State of the Union address.
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Although ideologically in line with McDonnell, who was also elected in November and supports Cuccinelli's lawsuit to stop the health-care law, Cuccinelli and his confrontational style could complicate the governor's efforts to rebrand the GOP as inclusive and pragmatic.
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"This back-of-the-hand, gratuitous, finger-in-your-eye, hand-on-the-chest stuff -- people don't feel good about it," said a senior Republican strategist in Richmond, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid creating a rift in the party. "It's not how you build a broad-based coalition."
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It is hopefully becoming clear to all rational citizens that Cuccinelli is a nutcase and that Virginia's interests would be best served with him out of office and safely in a mental institution somewhere under heavy meds. Some of us called out alarm back during the campaign yet sadly, voters fell for the McDonnell/Cuccinelli campaign based on lies.
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