Rep. Glenn Nye Fends off Challengers' Attacks

Last night was the first debate for the candidates running for incumbent Democrat Glenn Nye's seat in the 2nd Congressional district. The greatest threat to Nye (pictured at left) is Republican Scott Rigell who is throwing huge amounts of his personal money - actually, some say his wife's family money - into the election in an effort to buy a seat in Congress. Rigell who is pretending to be a "pro-business" candidate makes Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell look like a moderate and is in reality a clone of Virginia's certifiably insane Attorney General Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli. The independent candidate, Kenny Golden (a former local GOP chair)will hopefully drain votes away from Rigell who alienated a number of libertarians during the GO, P primary back earlier this year.

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While Nye has voted the correct way on LGBT issues, he has disappointed on some issues such as health care. In Nye's defense, his district includes much of the far right areas of Virginia Beach and the even more reactionary Eastern Shore. In my view, Nye's main task will be making sure that voters understand just how dangerous an extremist Rigell is in fact even though he will try to hide his extremism during the campaign - at least when he knows members of the media are present. From my days as a Republican and the period that Rigell and I lived in the same neighborhood I know first hand that Rigell is an ultra-far right, Pat Robertson worshipping Christo-fascist (Rigell received his MBA from Robertson's Regent University). If elected, he could be Virginia's equivalent of Michelle Bachmann. From his campaign website and his public statements Rigell is anti-gay and anti-immigrant. Indeed, for those who know him first hand, he's anti-minority as well. Here is what Rigell's website says about LGBT Issues (I suspect he'd even support reimposing the sodomy laws):
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As a nation, we must support legislation that will reaffirm marriage and family life as the foundation of a healthy society. Over the last decade we have seen an assault on the institution of marriage and our core family values. In 2006, I was proud to have joined a majority of Virginians as we voted to protect traditional marriage in our state Constitution.

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Rigell also is supportive of Arizona's racial profiling and likely unconstitutional immigration law. BOTTOM LINE: If you are black, Hispanic, non-Christian, Jewish, LGBT and/or believe in the separation of church and state, Rigell is your worse nightmare. More details can be found at the Virginian Pilot on the first debate.