As noted before on this blog, Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell apparently should have thought a little bit more about his political future rather than following the demands of the Christofascists at The Family Foundation. Over the weekend Taliban Bob - whose seems to be acquiring the new moniker "Governor Ultrasound " - appeared on Meet the Press and seemed to be paying a price for his blind allegiance to the religious extremists in the Christian Right and the Virginia GOP base. Spotlighting Taliban Bob's awkwardness was the fact that he shared the guest slot with Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley who understands that we are in the 21st century, not the 19th century (or even the 11th century). The Maddow Blog has these highlights on McDonnell's problems during the appearance:The host [David Gregory] asked the governor a pretty straightforward question: "You backed an abortion bill initially that included a very invasive procedure as part of an ultrasound that the state would have required and then you backed off of that. Were you wrong to support that initially or did you simply back off because the political heat got turned up the way it did?"
Under the circumstances, that was hardly an unfair inquiry. McDonnell had announced his support for a measure that would have required women in Virginia to undergo a state-mandated vaginal probe in order to terminate a pregnancy. Once the proposal generated a national controversy, the governor dropped his support and opted for a different forced-ultrasound measure.
Despite weeks of debate, McDonnell struggled with Gregory's question, repeatedly trying to change the subject. For those who can't watch clips online, the full transcript is available, but after repeated exchanges, the Virginia governor eventually offered this underwhelming defense.
GREGORY: This was the state of the Virginia mandating women have an additional procedure, a mandated health procedure. I thought that's exactly what conservatives opposed?
McDONNELL: David, this was about stating what informed consent is and saying that women have a right to know certain things before a procedure. Every invasive procedure has an informed consent requirement.
The Virginian obviously still hopes to be added to his party's presidential ticket, but before McDonnell packs his bags for Tampa, he'll need a more coherent explanation of his record.
He publicly endorsed a proposal to require women, against the wishes of physicians, to undergo an invasive, medically-unnecessary procedure, because some right-wing culture warriors want to shame patients. McDonnell ended up signing an only-slightly-less outrageous measure that still requires Virginians to undergo state-mandated, medically-unnecessary ultrasounds, to satisfy the demands of far-right activists.
McDonnell claims to want smaller, less obtrusive government. Yet he just signed a law that mandates unnecessary procedures - which may not be covered by insurance - against the will of women even as he whines about the insurance mandate of what he derides as "Obamacare." Which is more intrusive?
On the issues outside of forced intrusive medical procedures, O'Malley walked all over McDonnell. Here's some analysis from Blue Virginia:
Although Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is cordial to his "friend" (in quotes because I have no idea if they're really friends, although they do seem to get along pretty well) Bob McDonnell, he nonetheless demolishes McDonnell's record as governor. Key points:
*Creating jobs and expanding opportunity should be the central issue, but these "divisive wedge issues...rollback of women's rights...rollback of voting rights, rollback of workers' rights, all of these things that take us back are not strengthening our economy and creating jobs."
*"People start to see a pattern emerging in states like Wisconsin...even in Virginia, where these cultural issues are crowding out the things that really should concern us most."
*"The question is whether we're making the right investments in jobs, education, more affordable college that will keep Virginia in that top ranking [economically] in the future; Maryland's there -- we're making college more affordable, we're creating jobs at twice the rate of Virginia -- and these cultural battles that drive people apart are not helpful to driving us forward."
McDonnell, of course, has no answers to any of this.
If McDonnell gets passed over for the VP nomination slot - which would be the best thing for the nation - I do hope he will wake up to the fact that his pandering to religious extremists is what did him in.
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