Ken Cuccinelli: Missing in Action on Voter Fraud But Actively Anti-Gay

Virginia Attorney General Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli continues to be a sweetheart of the objective reality untethered far right but when it comes to acting to stopping real voter fraud, Kookinelli is missing in action.  But never fear, Kookinelli is on the front lines when it comes to beating the drum of homophobia and doing all in his power to subvert the constitutional rights of LGBT Americans, be assured that Kookinelli will be there on bells on.  

 

First, it is informative to look at a piece in Not Larry Sabato that focuses on a situation of continuing voter fraud in Virginia where voter registration forms have mysteriously disappeared only to reappear after filing deadlines - or after election day in 2012.  If one believes the Republican Party of Virginia, one of the biggest threats to democracy is voter fraud.  Hence one would expect Kookinelli to be jumping to action.  But wait. Who is engaged in voter fraud and disenfranchisement activities?  Republicans, of course.  Hence Kookinelli is conveniently suffering from total blindness.  Here are some highlights concerning very disturbing events in Harrisonburg, Virginia, that involve Republicans Debbie Logan (pictured at right) and Suzanne Obenshain, the wife f a GOP state Senator :

Last week, after Colin Small was arrested in Harrionburg the national media began paying attention to the voter fraud issue and how it might impact this election in Virginia.  Here's the dirty secret about Virginia politics.  Yes, there are many areas of the state where voter fraud incidents are rare and elections are generally run well. There are also areas of the state, where elections always seem to have problems, suspicious activity and other irregularities. In fact, Harrisonburg where this scandal started is the voter fraud capital of Virginia.

[R]egistrars like Debbie Logan in Harrisonburg who didn't want college students to register have since made it as difficult as possible.  In fact in 2008 there was a massive irregularity in Harrisonburg.  
Students supporting Barack Obama dropped off one group of registration forms at the office.  Somehow those forms left the office, made their way over 100 miles to Richmond, where someone mailed them back to the office AFTER the registration deadline.

 [T]he forms disappear from the office, reappear in another city, get mailed in after the deadline from a fake address, and the registrar's son - who lives in that city where the forms ended up- starts calling people, lying about who he is, falsely identifies himself the same way the forms were falsely misaddressed and tries to threaten those who were upset about the situation.
 
Not only did the registrar or her son not get charged with a crime- but Debbie Logan is still the registrar in Harrisonburg today.

Who supervises Debbie Logan?  Members of the electoral board- including one of Debbie's good friends- Suzanne Obenshain- wife of the local Republican State Senator (and Attorney General hopeful for 2013), Mark Obenshain.  Suzanne served as a member during this whole 2008 debacle with the voter forms, until mid 2011, when the General Assembly passed a new law that said electoral board members could not be related to candidates or officeholders in their area.  That bill passed the Senate 39-0 with Sen. Obenshain abstaining.  Ms. Obenshain did nothing to remove Logan- her friend- after this 2008 debacle.

With the national press circulating, Logan is doing all she can to protect the GOP.  Her office has not finished processing all the voter registrations that came in before the deadline, and she told Ryan Nobles of NBC12 that she may not finish for two weeks.  This was on the 19th, meaning Logan may not be able to tell us who is- or is not- registered to vote until as late as November 2nd- the Friday before election day.

In other words- if your registration was destroyed, Logan won't even be able to tell you until it is too late to challenge it.

What has Kookinelli - who has not hesitated in injecting himself and the Attorney General's office into all matter of issues and lawsuits dear to the far right done to address obvious instances of voter fraud and illegal disenfranchisement?  Nothing.  Nothing at all whatsoever.

But jump to the issue of gay rights, and Kookinelli is as I said on the front lines supporting homophobia, denigrating LGBT citizens, and seeking to subvert the First Amendment of the United States Constitution which guarantees freedom of religion to ALL citizens, not just Christofascists.     Here are highlights from the Washington Blade on Kookinelli's efforts to deprive LGBT citizens of the constitutional rights while engaging in campaign events for Mitt Romney and George Allen, boyh of whom have pldeged to keep LGBT Americans 4th class citizens.:

The Washington Blade has learned Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is scheduled to speak at a rally against same-sex marriage at a Manassas church on Friday.

“He will be addressing the summit at 6 p.m. in Manassas,” said Cuccinelli’s spokesperson, Brian Gottstein, in response to questions about the upcoming gathering at Reconciliation Community Church. “Since the marriage amendment is the law in Virginia, the attorney general was asked to speak about it.”

The Manassas event is the latest of a series of rallies and other gatherings scheduled to take place across the commonwealth on Friday during what organizers have dubbed the Marriage Protection Virginia Bus Tour. Participants are scheduled to attend an early morning rally at Liberty University in Lynchburg before traveling to Richmond, where they are slated to gather at Capitol Square Grounds before eating lunch at a Chick-fil-A restaurant. Afterwards, participants are expected to attend a second rally at the Fredericksburg Prayer Furnace in Fredericksburg before traveling to Manassas.

Gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) also criticized Cuccinelli for agreeing to speak at the event.  “It’s clearly political posturing to assist divisive figures like [U.S. Senate candidate] George Allen and Mitt Romney,” he told the Blade. “Ken Cuccinelli knows full well that we have an anti-gay marriage amendment that he helped put in the Virginia state constitution. And I don’t know what pretense he’s using, but it doesn’t seem relevant to the economic issues Virginians are facing this year and the recovery Virginia is experiencing under the Obama administration. It’s a diversion, it’s divisive and it’s typical of Ken Cuccinelli. Fair minded people who oppose Ken Cuccinelli and bigotry should volunteer to support the president and [U.S. Senate] candidate Tim Kaine.”

Douche bag is too kind of a label to apply to Kookinelli.   As for the voter fraud issue in Virginia, I increasingly feel as if I am living in some sleazy banana republic of old compliments of the Republican Party of Virginia..