Some Republicans Say It is Time for Bob Marshall to Disappear

Bob Marshall - A Virginia Embarrassment

As noted in the last post, GOP Del. Bob Marshall had nothing good to say about yesterday's ruling in Bostic v. Rainey.  But then again, the man has stated in interviews that he'd like to drive all gays from Virginia.  The crazier a bill in the Virginia General Assembly is and the more focused it is on forcing far right religious views on all, the more one can be assured that Bob Marshall's fingerprints will be all over it. Finally some Republicans have had enough of Marshall's demagoguery and the bad image he gives to both Virginia and the the Republican Party of Virginia.  A piece in Bearing Drift makes the case of why Marshall needs to simply disappear from the Virginia political scene.  I would make the case that the same holds true for The Family Foundation.  Here are column excerpts:

It’s time for Bob Marshall to go away.  To finally retire from public life and allow the Republican Party in Virginia to heal the damage he and his terminal foot-in-mouth disease have done to the Party.  He turns 70 years old this year and has spent 11 terms in the Virginia House of Delegates.  It’s time for fresh blood in Prince William.  Anybody who cares about their constituents and about their party would be ready to hand off the reins to the next generation.

So that’s why Bob Marshall is, instead, throwing his hat into the ring in the 10^th Congressional District race.

Did anybody expect anything less of him?  I know I didn’t.  This is a man who is a pariah in Richmond, who his own colleagues shun, who routinely skips hearings (he’s been to almost no Counties committee meetings, and almost no Science and Tech meetings) and party meetings so he doesn’t have to talk to the rest of the Republican delegation who are trying to actually accomplish things in Richmond.  I guess that gives him more time to work on the ridiculous pieces of legislation he introduces, like creating a Virginia currency, creating our own incandescent light bulb regime (that even AG Cuccinelli opposed), and refighting the Civil War with his incessant anti-Obamacare bills relying on the discredited and unconstitutional doctrines of nullification (which has the blood of hundreds of thousands of Americans on it) and interposition (which has the blood of Civil Rights heroes on it).  Or this little gem from this session, HB 90, a worthless bill designed to ensure that federal employees don’t have their power shut off in the event of a Federal Government shutdown.  Great work, Bob.  That’s going to really help with job creation in Prince William.

Bob Marshall’s political career has been one long, self-aggrandizing ego trip.  He’s never satisfied with simply being the Delegate from the 13^th District, and has spent the last 6 years trying desperately to find a way to Washington.  None of those attempts have been successful.

That’s what Bob is, folks.  A Virginia embarrassment.  This is a man who, while claiming to be pro-life, said that disabled children were punishment from God for the sins of their parents.  Ignoring the fact that most of these disabled kids are born to pro-life parents, it was one of the most fundamentally demeaning and idiotic statements made by a man whose entire career has been bouncing from one demeaning and idiotic statement to the next.   The man makes Todd Akin look reasonable.

It's stunning that this was written by a dyed in the wool Republican.  One has to wonder when the Virginia GOP as a whole will wake up to the poisonous nature of the Christofascists and the hate and division that is all they bring to the public arena.