Bob McDonnell Lies and Claims Never to Have Opposed Gay Judges

In his apparent quest to be Mitt Romney's VP nominee, Bob "Governor Ultrasound" McDonnell is trying to rewrite history and conveniently forget his past statements and video taped interviews.  McDonnell's claim is that he has never opposed the appointment of gays to the judiciary.  Having followed McDonnell's role in the lynch mob like crucifixion of former Circuit Court Judge Verbena Askew, there's only one word that describes McDonnell who earned the nickname "Taliban Bob" during the obscene treatment of Askew: LIAR.  McDonnell's claims are diametrically opposed to what actually happened and what is recorded in numerous local media accounts.  Here are highlights from a Washington Post story where McDonnell fabricates a new version of history:

Bob McDonnell would like you to know that he has not, in fact, evolved on gay judges.  Earlier this month, just before Virginia’s General Assembly rejected a gay judicial nominee, the Republican governor said that homosexuality should not disqualify someone from serving as a judge. He reiterated that stance on a radio program Tuesday and said that’s always been his position.

What about in 2003, host Mark Segraves asked. Back then, while leading a successful effort to unseat a lesbian Circuit Court judge, then-delegate McDonnell questioned whether someone who had engaged in oral or anal sex could serve as a judge because that behavior would violate the state’s anti-sodomy statute.

“It certainly raises some questions about the qualifications to serve as a judge,” he told the Daily Press of Newport News at the time. Segraves quoted that line back to McDonnell.

McDonnell: “No, I think you got that out of context.”  Segraves: “What is context for it?”  McDonnell: “What I said was someone, at the time, actually there were certain acts that would be a crime —”

Segraves: “It’s 2003. Anti-sodomy laws.” McDonnell: “Right. If someone had [committed] a crime, honestly that would call into question their ability to be a judge. But I was very clear in other statements of the time that those factors should not be an element of the decision making.”

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down anti-sodomy laws later in 2003. Segraves asked if the now-invalidated law could still be used to disqualify gay judicial nominees — at least those who were sexually active in Virginia before the Supreme Court ruling. The question appeared to catch McDonnell off guard.

Segraves: “If a judge came before the General Assembly for confirmation now who is openly gay, admitted was openly gay in 2002, and having sexual relationships, and anal sex, which was against the law back then, would that disqualify them from serving as a judge now?”

Once he’d gathered his thoughts, the governor went on to say that he would not object to a gay nominee “if they are otherwise qualified to be on the bench based on merit, ability, judicial temperament and ability to follow the law regardless of what their political beliefs are.”

It should be noted that even though Lawrence v. Texas invalidated Virginia's sodomy statute, Bob McDonnell and his Virginia GOP cronies have blocked every attempt to have that statute repealed and  removed from the Code of Virginia.  Actions do speak louder than words.