Get Ready for a GOP Cat Fight between Bolling and Cuccinelli

With Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli's announcement yesterday that he's running for governor of Virginia in 2013, the stage has been set for a monumental cat fight among Virginia Republicans. One the more deranged side will be Kookinelli and the forces of Christianist evil, if you will, and on the other will be Bill Bolling and his mentor Governor Bob McDonnell. While Bolling will try to "out conservative" Kookinelli, I suspect that McDonnell realizes that Kookinelli is simply too crazy and extreme to win in the 2013 general election - especially if the Democrats field a well financed candidate who is NOT from Southwest Virginia. Here are highlights from the Washington Post on the coming contest:

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who has said for years he would support Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling for governor in 2013 said Thursday that he plans to continue to do so despite news that Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli would jump into the race.

“Since early 2008, I’ve been clear that I will strongly support Bill Bolling for governor in 2013,’’ McDonnell said in a statement. “Bill is a trusted adviser and a close personal friend. As lieutenant governor, Bill has been a key member of our administration. Serving as our chief job creation officer, Bill has been tireless and successful in his work to bring more jobs and economic opportunities to the commonwealth. I look forward to supporting Bill in his campaign for governor.”

Meanwhile the snipping has begun among conservative blogosphere. Too Conservative has this to say about Kookinelli's "narcissism":

The timing of this “announcement” by Cuccinelli is disgusting and extremely self serving and selfish. He does this right before The Advance when people would have been otherwise fawning all over Bill Bolling with his new found power as the Senate tiebreaker. Or maybe Bob McDonnell and his election as RGA Chair. Instead Cooch takes this particular moment to upstage Bolling so people will talk about this all weekend and fawn all over Cuccinelli. Cooch has always been all about Cooch before anything else, so this really shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Think about it, he leaks out a non-announcement “announcement”, saying he’ll make a more formal announcement later after all these other things happen so as not to divert attention from those important things. And in doing so he creates a media frenzy surrounding himself right before the big annual state GOP GTG. Completely narcissistic self promotion. But that’s the Cult of Ken Cuccinelli for you.

On the other side of the GOP spectrum - the side even less in touch with objective reality - Mason Conservative unleashes a broadside at Bolling:

The panic spreading across the social mediaverse I've been watching the last 24 hours is frightening if you hope to support Bill Bolling. The Bolling people clearly were not ready for this to happen this early and have been caught flat-footed and have not thought before expressing their reactions.

Just as a little history lesson for those out there who don't know. The deal brokered by McDonnell and Bolling in late 2008 was between them and nobody else. Ken wasn't part of that . . . in fact, he has reason to hold it against them. It was McDonnell and Bolling that got John Brownlee in the race for AG to *keep* Ken off the ticket because they thought he would be a drag. For proof I point to both logic and Phil Cox was Brownlee's consultant throughout the campaign. So for these guys to suddenly express "regret" that Cuccinelli has changed his mind is laughable. Secondly, for the line of McDonnell and Bolling showed us how to win is only a half-truth. Ken was a key to that sweep, and he got more votes than Bolling statewide, by about 15,000.

Bolling comes out of the Richmond machine of Tom Bliley that has given us Jim Gilmore, Eric Cantor and a plethora of state legislators and I would expect better from them. They need to take a deep breath, inhale . . . exhale . . . inhale . . . exhale. Its a long way away and I can't believe they weren't ready for this because it was always going to happen. They've had six years of preparation for this run, if not one person ever gave thought and had a plan in place for a primary challenger then they all need to be fired.

The coming drama, back stabbing and back biting is going to provide high entertainment value. With luck, Kookinelli and Bolling will greatly damage one another and ultimate help their Democrat opponent. And with the two of them trying to be more conservative - read reactionary and insane - than the other, there should be a lot of batshit craziness flying around that will make for great Democrat ad material.