Columba Bush - Another Maureen McDonnell?

With former Virginia first lady Maureen McDonnell sentenced last week to a year in prison - a far too light of a sentence in my view - for her role in the criminal corruption rampant at the Governor's mansion, some are speculating that Jeb Bush's wife has similar extravagant spending habits and issues with truth and veracity.  Obviously, the Bush clan has far more money that the McDonnells did, but some are none the less vetting Columba Bush.  Here are highlights from the Washington Post:

In 1999, Columba Bush, the famously private wife of then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, was detained and fined by federal customs officials for misrepresenting the amount of clothing and jewelry she had bought while on a solo five-day shopping spree in Paris.

The incident left the Florida first lady deeply mortified and her husband politically chagrined. Jeb Bush said the first lady had misled customs officials because she did not want him to know that she had spent about $19,000 on the trip.

The ordeal did not stop her from spending freely, however. Less than a year later, she took out a loan to buy $42,311.70 worth of jewelry on a single day, according to records filed with the state of Florida by Mayors Jewelers.

That purchase was part of a pattern by Columba Bush of borrowing to buy tens of thousands of dollars of jewelry at a time from the South Florida store over a 14-year period. Documentation available online, which does not include the details of two transactions made less than six weeks apart in 1995, shows that she spent a total of more than $90,000 at the store.

That kind of spending, though well within his means, may present a challenge for Jeb Bush as he prepares for a presidential run with a message that the playing field between rich and poor is not fair or level.

In recent years, candidates in both parties have had to answer questions about high-dollar transactions by themselves and their family members, whether a $400 haircut for John Edwards, six-figure speaking fees for Hillary Rodham Clinton, or the number of homes and cars Mitt Romney owned.
While spouses are not on the ballot, they too find their lifestyles the focus of curiosity — and, frequently, partisan attack.

During Bush’s two terms as governor, from 1999 to 2007, the first lady maintained a low profile, living much of the time in their Miami-area home rather than in the state capital, Tallahassee.

While the 2000 purchase listed the governor’s mansion as her home address, documents suggest that, on at least one earlier occasion, Columba Bush wanted the paperwork sent to a postal box.

In 1997, when she bought a Roman coin necklace for $15,000 and a $16,600 Rolex watch studded with diamonds, she listed as her mailing address one that is currently used by a UPS Store in Miami. At the time, the shipping facility operated under the name Mail Boxes Etc.

After Columba Bush was forced to pay $4,100 in fines and duties for the purchases she had tried to slip past customs agents at Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport, the governor said her shopping habits were no one else’s business.

“It is a lot of money. But look, that’s between her and me,” he said. The episode happened at a particularly sensitive moment, because Jeb Bush’s brother George, the governor of Texas, was making the first of his two successful bids for the White House.

The Bob/Maureen McDonnell Soap Opera Continues

PHOTO - BOB BROWN/TIMES-DISPATCH

As the sentencing of former Governor and now convicted felon, Bob McDonnell approaches, the unseemly soap opera "family values" of the Virginia GOP continue to make the stomach turn.  Earlier in the week, as reported by the Richmond Times Dispatch, two of the McDonnell children, Jeanine McDonnell Zubowsky and Cailin Young, threw their mother under the bus in a letter to the Court asking for leniency for their father.  As a column in the same paper notes, however, all of the McDonnells were in on the take and showed a rapacious greed that reflects on the true "conservative Christian values" of the Virginia Republican establishment.  First, highlights on the trashing of Maureen McDonnell:

Two children of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell say his stunning downfall and conviction on public corruption charges can largely be attributed to the corrosive effects of just one person: Their mother.

Jeanine McDonnell Zubowsky and Cailin Young wrote in blunt — and at times scathing — letters to a federal judge that it was former first lady Maureen McDonnell's materialism and mental-health issues that derailed the rising political career of her husband. The letters of support for Robert McDonnell were part of a trove of 440 submitted by his attorneys, who are seeking leniency at his Jan. 6 sentencing in Richmond.
"My mom . . . has always been concerned about getting discounts or freebees," McDonnell Zubowsky wrote. "She hid her coordination with people for free or discounted things or services and she didn't communicate with my dad because she knew he would not approve. . . . The testimony about my mom was not just part of a defense strategy and was not an attempt to 'throw her under the bus,' but unfortunately, was the reality."

 The column in today's Times Dispatch gives a truer view of the matter.  Here are highlights:

One of the more dramatic moments of the Bob and Maureen McDonnell corruption trial was the testimony of an FBI agent who was asked by a prosecutor to identify item-by-item the Rolex wristwatch, golf equipment, designer clothes, shoes and handbags that Jonnie Williams Sr. showered on the former first family.
For more than a half-hour, the swag was paraded across the courtroom, handed by the bailiff to jurors for their examination. It was a display of legal theater that made clear the eye-popping, cash register-ringing scale of Williams’ beneficence.

Christmas, it seems, came almost every day for the McDonnells — all of them.

It’s a point overshadowed, if not altogether lost, by the orchestrated appeals of the five McDonnell children for leniency for their father. In letters to the federal judge who next week could send him to prison — 10 to 12 years for trading on his office, if the prosecution gets its way — the three daughters and twin sons, all recipients of Williams’ sometimes-garish largesse, say that Bob McDonnell doesn’t deserve to be locked away.

If it was OK for mom and dad to avail themselves of Williams’ generosity, then it was OK for the kids, too. Children learn from their parents, especially from their parents’ conduct. Some of the most powerful lessons from this are absorbed by children when parents don’t think the children are watching.

Privately, Bob McDonnell set a different example. There are few indications that, before the former first couple came under federal scrutiny, they or their children fully considered how unseemly it was to accept or solicit gift after gift after gift from a rich man looking for favors from the government that McDonnell led.  But maybe that’s because the family, in general, and McDonnell, in particular, didn’t think anyone would notice. 

Under Virginia law, it was up to McDonnell — and McDonnell, alone — to make public the goodies that he and his family harvested from Williams.  Two features of the ethics statutes allowed him to obscure, if not conceal, the gifts and sweetheart loans: First, the law relies on the official to police himself or herself. Second, that allows the official to determine whether a benefactor is a relative or personal friend. Gifts from either do not have to be disclosed.

Are not their [the McDonnell children] appeals to Spencer, while emotionally moving and emblematic of a deep devotion to their father, somewhat diminished by a troubling fact? They were a party to this tawdry enterprise.

Cailin’s 2011 wedding at the Executive Mansion was paid for, in part, with $15,000 from Williams. Daughter Jeanine and her husband took $10,000 from Williams as a wedding present, only returning it — as Jeanine testified in a scripted utterance at her parents’ trial — “after we realized he was a criminal.”

Sons Sean and Bobby were given golf clubs, a bag and shoes by Williams as well as occasional privileges at his exclusive country club outside Richmond. The twins, both of whom have had dust-ups with police over their after-hours conduct, resisted pressure from their father to return the equipment. They dismissed his concerns that it was inappropriate for them to accept it.

The "conservatives" in the Virginia GOP disparage gays and many others as "sinners" and "immoral."  Perhaps they need to take a good look at themselves in the mirror.  They are modern day Pharisees who daily exhibit behavior that makes the case for walking away from Christianity.

Bob and Maureen McDonnell Convicted of Corruption

I hope Maureen REALLY enjoyed that dress!!

The Richmond Times Dispatch (as are other news outlets) is reporting that both Bob and Maureen McDonnell have been found guilty of criminal corruption earlier today.  This makes McDonnell the first Virginia governor in the Commonwealth's history to be convicted of a felony.  Part of me feels some sorrow for Bob and Maureen McDonnell who I have known for 20 years.  But another part of me feels no sorrow.  Why?  Because along the way in the pursuit of power, both of them sold their souls.  And not just for money.  Bob McDonnell's lust for power made him further the interests/agenda of vile groups like The Family Foundation and those who hate others based on their skin color or national origin.  None of those are things that a decent Catholic would ever do.  Here are highlights from the Dispatch article:

Bob McDonnell is the first Virginia governor convicted of a felony.

 A federal jury today convicted Virginia’s 71st governor and former first lady Maureen McDonnell on multiple counts in their corruption trial in U.S. District Court.

Bob McDonnell has been convicted on 11 of 13 counts.

Maureen McDonnell has been convicted on nine of 13 counts.

Both McDonnells sobbed openly, but quietly as the verdicts were read. Family members and supporters also wept openly.

Sentencing will be Jan. 6 at 10 a.m.

The Virginian Pilot also aptly notes:

It has been a precipitous fall for Bob McDonnell, who held elective office for 22 years, much of it as a state delegate from Virginia Beach, and as recently as two years ago was a rising star in national Republican politics.

I suspect that the McDonnells will appeal, but it looks like an uphill battle given the number of counts they were each convicted on.  So much for Virginia GOP family values.   Now we need to see Rick Perry and Scott Walker convicted of felonies!!

For McDonnell Jury, It’s Back to the Basics

Virginia's ongoing soap opera - i.e., the criminal corruption trial of Bob and Maureen McDonnell - has now moved into waiting mode much like the summer wait for the answer of who shot JR on the old Dallas series.  The case has gone to the jury which received over two hours of instructions from the presiding federal judge.  A column in the Richmond Times Dispatch looks at the waiting game which, no matter the result will leave Virginia looking like a corrupt banana republic politically.  Here are highlights:

“And with that, we will send you out to begin your deliberations,” said U.S. District Court Judge James Spencer, concluding — after 2 hours and 10 minutes Tuesday — his detailed instructions to jurors in the Bob and Maureen McDonnell corruption trial. “You take your time. It’s your business now.”

Moments later, as the jurors filed out of Spencer’s seventh-floor courtroom, the prosecutors, the defense lawyers and the accused rose in the customary gesture of respect for the seven men and five women whose decisions could lead to the once-unthinkable: a former Virginia governor and his wife behind bars.

To convict or acquit Bob and Maureen on any and all of 26 counts requires the agreement of all 12 jurors. An 8-4 vote won’t cut it. A unanimous vote is mandatory to find the McDonnells guilty or not guilty.

Also, the trial could yield multiple verdicts, muddying a case that prosecutors represented as a clear example of government-for-sale.

The jury could convict Bob and Maureen on some charges; deadlock on others. If there’s a hung jury on certain counts, Spencer could direct jurors to keep working. Were the jury unsuccessful, he could declare a mistrial on the outstanding counts. The verdict on resolved charges would stand. The U.S. Justice Department might attempt a do-over on the unsettled issues.

For instance, Bob could be convicted on a single count of bank fraud; specifically, failing to disclose loans from the protected-from-prosecution Jonnie Williams Sr. on a refi application for the McDonnells’ cash-hemorrhaging resort properties.

Maureen, alone, could be found guilty of obstructing a criminal investigation. After she had been questioned by state police in 2013 on her relationship with Williams, Maureen returned the $20,000 in designer clothing he bought for her in New York. The togs were accompanied by a note in which Maureen said she’d planned to give them back. The government says she was trying to mislead investigators.

The government, Spencer said in his instructions, is not required to produce a contract or expressed agreement to a conspiracy. Plus, it’s not necessary to prove the scheme was successful; unsuccessful schemes are illegal, too.

Further, this corruption case does not require, nor does it rely on, an explicit exchange of goods for services, the so-called quid pro quo. The law recognizes — and the courts have affirmed — that such a trade could be based on a knowing wink and nod.

As for the penalties the McDonnells could face, they’re tougher for bank fraud than corruption.

A conviction for false statements to a federally insured financial institution carries a sentence of up to 30 years and a $1 million fine.

Twenty years is the maximum prison term on each of the corruption charges: conspiracy to commit honest-services wire fraud; honest-services wire fraud; obtaining property under color of official right; conspiracy to obtain property under color of official right, and obstruction of an official proceeding. These offenses can also carry financial penalties.

All in all, this case has been a train wreck for Virginia, but especially for GOP's pretense of upholding "family values."

Bob McDonnell's "Crazy Wife" Defense Is Totally Unprecedented

As the Vatican continues to demonstrate its sense that it is above the law when it comes to the sexual abuse of children (see the prior post), in Richmond, Virginia, the criminal trial of Bob and Maureen McDonnell similarly shows the nasty reality of GOP "family values": sham marriages, unbridled greed, back stabbing, throwing one's spouse under the proverbial bus, and levels of dysfunction that are off the charts.  Perhaps I should not be surprised given what went on in the strong Republican neighborhood I lived in during the closeted period of my life.  Outwardly, everything was perfection with perfectly maintained homes and yards, but behind closed doors, some husbands beat their wives, many marriages were strained at best, and at least one husband was recently caught by one of his children having sex with a woman not much older than his children.  A piece in Talking Points Memo looks at the culmination of all of this in Bob McDonnell's "crazy wife" legal defense scheme.  Here are highlights:

Over five weeks of testimony, jurors have heard a barrage of details about the McDonnells’ finances and about their interactions with a wealthy Virginia businessman, Jonnie Williams, from whom the couple is accused of taking $177,000 worth of gifts and loans in exchange for lending the credibility of the governor’s office to Williams’ dietary supplements company.

But without a doubt, the most engrossing aspect of the trial has been the revelations about the McDonnells’ marriage. In testimony, the governor painted a picture of his marriage veering so far into soap opera territory that pundits began referring to it as the “crazy wife” defense. Legal experts told TPM that was an unprecedented strategy to deploy in such a high-profile criminal case.

When the former governor the took the stand, he cast his wife as a mercurial thorn in his side — not to mention that of the entire Executive Mansion staff. Under questioning by the defense, various other witnesses described Maureen McDonnell as a hoarder, "diva-ish" and "pathologically incapable of taking any kind of responsibility." One former aide testified that the governor was "in denial about Mrs. McDonnell’s mental capacity."

Defense attorneys are hoping that all this testimony proves to jurors that communication between the McDonnells was too strained for them to have been able to conspire together to promote Williams’ company.

Barbara “Biz” Van Gelder, a criminal defense attorney with Dickstein Shapiro, said it’s not unusual in a criminal case for one spouse to claim that he or she wasn’t aware of what the other spouse was doing, particularly in regards to finances. For example, a couple may share a joint account that just one spouse manages.

But “this is much different. This is saying not that they do that portion of the shared work, but this is like, ‘I’m not even talking to them so I don’t know,’” she told TPM.

Julie Rose O’Sullivan, a law professor at Georgetown and a former federal prosecutor, agreed that the McDonnell defense’s “crazy wife” theory was a departure from cases she’s seen.

“The more that he describes his wife as crazy, then it begs the question of well, if your wife was crazy, why didn’t you stop her?” he told TPM. “Why didn’t you shut her down? Like many defenses, this one is also a two-edged sword.”

Certain gifts that McDonnell himself received from the wealthy businessman, such as golfing trips and a ride in Williams’ Ferrari, don't quite fit that narrative (The Washington Post has an excellent graphic visualizing all the luxury goods, vacations and loans given to each member of the McDonnell family for reference). In those cases, McDonnell acknowledged that he shouldn’t have accepted the gifts but argued that Williams’ largess never earned him more than basic constituent access to the governor’s office.

So how might the "crazy wife" defense shake out once the trial goes to jury?

Cowan believes that the broken marriage story may not be enough to convince a jury that the McDonnells were unable to conspire to promote Williams' company.

"If at the end of the day the jury says, you did enough, you knew enough, then this is really not only a trainwreck for a political career, it’s also an incredible trainwreck to publicly display all of this for naught," Van Gelder said.

The Myth of "The Virginia Way" and the McDonnell Corruption Trial

Having lived half my life now in Virginia I am well acquainted with what often is a pretense of civility - especially in politics - when behind the veneer things are down right cut throat and dirty.  No one is more skilled in knifing you in the back than genteel Virginia belles and gentleman.  Feigned courtliness doesn't lessen the pain of the knife slipping between one's ribs.   One positive aspect of the Bob and Maureen McDonnell criminal corruption trial is that it has perhaps once and for all destroyed the myth of "the Virginia Way" - the myth that civility and the best interests of the public are forever foremost in the minds of Virginia politicians.   The truth is that Virginia politics is a snake pit where greed and seeking advantage through any means are the norm.  A column in the Richmond Times Dispatch looks at the issue.  Here are excerpts:

No verdict is necessary in the Bob and Maureen McDonnell corruption case to know that the wrenching scandal is certain to change Virginia politics. It will probably get worse before it gets better.

The historic five-week trial will lay waste to the notion of the “Virginia way,” a quaint concept that elections and governance are conducted with mannered dignity by men and women who — because they have an agonizing sense of public mission — know what’s best for the rest of us.

This idea has been on life support for years, weakened by the rise of two-party competition, beginning in 1969 with the election of the state’s first modern Republican governor, Linwood Holton. The GOP wanted in on the big feed that had been reserved almost exclusively for Democrats for most of the 20th century.

Having used the poll tax and literacy tests to disenfranchise African-Americans and poor whites, Democrats kept the electorate small and manageable — and largely in the dark about their continuing manipulations of the system.

 

Favor-seeking and back-scratching — acts that a federal jury could criminalize by finding the McDonnells guilty of trading booty and bling for state support of a disputed dietary supplement — have long been the rule in Richmond.

But it wasn’t called that. Rather, it was known as “sound policy,” a way to preserve the state’s business-friendly climate — and, by extension, the control of cliquish conservative, often-prosperous politicians who did the corpocracy’s bidding.

This arrangement may have helped profits, but it didn’t always help Virginia’s people. . . . Politics was a members-only activity, the prerogative of the few. It was intentionally opaque. If the personal became public, it was dealt with swiftly and sternly.

It’s no wonder, then, that Garrett Epps, who famously chronicled the clash between Old and New Virginia in his 1977 novel, “The Shad Treatment,” now refers to his home state as the “Banana Dominion.”

Fast-forward to 2014: Not only have Virginians been told for more than a year by newspapers and prosecutors about the alleged misdeeds of the McDonnells on behalf of the fully immunized Jonnie Williams Sr., Bob and Maureen also have — as the cornerstone of their defense — shared tawdry details of their life together apart. It may be TMI — too much information — but get used to it.

Political candidates have long bared their souls, but usually according to a script. The idea is to establish a bond with voters; that they’re inclined to support the candidate who is most like them.

McDonnell mastered this. Running for attorney general in 2005 and governor four years later, he was an easygoing, typical suburban kid from Fairfax County, talking about kitchen-table issues with friends and family. Now we know the conversation apparently was conducted with flying plates.

In Virginia, political parties and the political press will now feel compelled to more closely vet candidates and officials. But the magnified scrutiny will likely extend to those who usually receive little or none: spouses and children.

The picture that emerged of the McDonnells — one painted by the prosecution and, to a lesser degree, the defense — is of a sprawling family for which gift-taking was a full-time enterprise. Living in the fishbowl that is the Executive Mansion, they availed themselves of Williams’ gaudy largesse: a Rolex watch, designer togs, five-figure checks as wedding presents, weekends at posh resorts, golf outings and sports equipment. The McDonnells chose not to notice that eventually the public would.

Next year, Virginians decide control of the House of Delegates and state Senate. Partisan redistricting will protect many seats, particularly those of Republicans, whose brand has been badly dinged by the McDonnell mess. Their tailor-made districts can’t protect them from shame.

Bob McDonnell Is Now Living With Catholic Priest Busted For Public Gay Sex

The night time soap opera aspects of the Bob and Maureen McDonnell criminal corruption trial just continue to go off the charts.  That McDonnell was ever seen as a rising star in the Republican Party shows just how bankrupt that party has become.  Now, on top of everything else, we find out that Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell has moved out of the family home and is living with a Catholic priest who was busted in Norfolk for public gay sex.  Seriously, it would be hard to make up stuff this good!  As Joe Jervis notes, one of McDonnell's first actions as Governor was to strip LGBT people of protection under a statewide anti-discrimination executive order, declaring that there is no evidence of such discrimination.  The Contributor has more details on this soap opera:

The following story most definitely falls into the "you can't make this shit up" category. Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, now on trial for corruption as governor (and busy throwing his wife under the bus while rolling back and forth over her a few times, proving he's a complete cad as well as a sleazeball), has moved out of his home with Maureen and moved in with a priest: Rev. Wayne Ball of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Richmond. Well, how about we meet the good Reverend (note: thanks to Ben "Not Larry Sabato" Tribbett for the tip on this one).

Yeah, it's this same guy.

The Rev. Wayne L. Ball, a Norfolk priest who pleaded guilty late last year to a misdemeanor sex offense, has been reassigned to St. John's Catholic Church in Highland Springs, according to The Catholic Virginian, a biweekly diocesan newspaper. The move is effective June 2.

Ball, 42, has served as pastor of Norfolk's Holy Trinity Catholic Church since 2000. The current pastor at St. John's, the Rev. David V. McGuire, will replace Ball at Holy Trinity.

In December, Ball pleaded guilty in Norfolk General District Court to the misdemeanor charge of frequenting a bawdy place. Norfolk police arrested Ball and a 41-year-old Richmond man on the night before Thanksgiving in a parked car in a Norfolk park. The judge continued Ball's case until July 8 and will dismiss the charge if the priest has no further criminal problems and completes 80 hours of community service by June 3. The man in the car with Ball received a similar deal.

Anyway, this is the priest - Wayne Ball - who "Homophobe Bob" McDonnell is now living with in a rectory in Richmond. Just when you thought this trial couldn't get any more soap opera-ish or bizarre...

P.S. Again, let me just emphasize that I don't have any problem whatsoever with Rev. Ball being gay. I do have a problem with Bob McDonnell spending his career telling everybody what's right and wrong sexually as well as who they can and can't marry; voting for anti-gay legislation; and generally being a homophobic jerk; and then moving in with a gay priest after moving out with his wife Maureen.

Bob McDonnell Blatant Hypocrisy

In political campaigns from the time he first ran for the House of Delegates, Bob McDonnell has always sold himself as a champion of "family values" and shamelessly prostituted himself to Christofascist organizations like The Family Foundation.   He has condemned gays and blathered about the "sanctity of marriage" and the biblical model of "one man and one woman" even though the Old Testament model for marriage is polygamy.  McDonnell has always been a huckster pandering to those who need someone to hate and look down upon so that they can feel better about their own small minded, often miserable lives.  The ongoing criminal corruption trial in Richmond has underscored just how phony McDonnell as been in the public persona he has marketed.  A piece in the Daily Progress looks at the fraud that McDonnell has proven himself to be all these years.  Here are excerpts:

"The real enemies of the traditional family (are) materialism, irresponsibility, feminism, lust, and ultimately selfishness." - Bob McDonnell

We've been told for years by people like Gov. Bob McDonnell that allowing homosexuals to marry would mark the beginning of the end for Virginia's families and their values. Ironically, while we wait for the Supreme Court to rule on gay marriages, McDonnell is doing a fine job of destroying his own.

Whether Bob McDonnell's behavior as governor was legal or not will be decided by a jury, but no matter the verdict, receiving over $150,000 in loans and "gifts" from entrepreneur Jonnie Williams tarnished the public image of the office. With his testimony in the trial, McDonnell seems willing to break the covenant he made with his wife Maureen, and tarnish the image of his marriage, in an attempt to avoid prison. McDonnell's defense in the couple's public corruption trial appears to be centered on painting a picture of his wife Maureen as a nutbag who he was forced to placate while making apologies for her during his time in the Governor's mansion. 

Bob McDonnell has been running on the issue of "family values" even before he was a candidate for any office. In his Master's degree dissertation at Regent University, McDonnell laid out the case for a Republican campaign on family issues as the best way to lead the country and win elections."

The traditional family is the cornerstone upon which Western civilization has been built, but changes in demographics, ideology, and political philosophy during this century have resulted in the decline in the strength of the family institution. … Republicans must stay consistently committed to their principles, communicate more effectively with the American public, and take bold action to restore the family to a position of strength in modern society."

During the Governor's race, McDonnell distanced himself from some of the more controversial statements he made in the paper, but his devotion to marriage never wavered. During his decade in the House of Delegates, he was a patron of a "Covenant Marriage" bill which would indicate he considered his own marital bonds to be stronger than a piece of government-issued paper.

Bob McDonnell failed his office and the people of Virginia. He's brought shame to himself and to our state. He can be forgiven for those mistakes, he's a human being. But failing his Covenant to his wife in an attempt to escape justice is indefensible. No matter how you vote, ask yourself if you would do the same?

Sadly, I believe that McDonnell is typical of the "family values" politicians in the Virginia GOP. They fear the Christofascists that they helped to empower in the Party and now lie and prostitute themselves simply to stay in office.  It is they, not gays and "liberals" who have no values, no integrity and no honor. 

Bob and Maureen McDonnell - A Case Study of Virginia GOP "Family Values"

While thousands were at Norfolk's Town Point Park supporting marriage equality in Virginia, the federal criminal trial of former GOP governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen continues to provide a case study in the type of marriages the Virginia GOP and the hate merchants at The Family Foundation want to protect.  Candidly, there seems to be little "sanctity of marriage" in the McDonnell's marriage and all too many of the marriages I witnessed during the "straight" phase of my life in a outwardly perfect high end neighborhood in Virginia Beach.  A column in the Richmond Times Dispatch looks at the ongoing spectacle of  back stabbing and throwing one's spouse under the bus that is one of the main theme of the McDonnell trial.  Here are excerpts:

Former aides Mary-Shea Sutherland, Sarah Scarbrough and Phil Cox and sister-in-law Mo Carney McDonnell chucked Maureen McDonnell under the bus. Then, husband Bob backed over her — gently.

The thread running through the testimony of prosecution and defense witnesses is that Maureen is volatile and insecure, if not unstable.

Depending on who’s asking the questions or who’s answering them, she embodies the rage of Lady Macbeth, the emotional frailty of Blanche DuBois, the blonde ambition of Eva Peron and the subtly of Snooki.

For 20 days, Maureen has quietly endured a carefully scripted trashing. Her freedom could depend on it.

Her husband of 38 years, the man with whom she held hands in public as a wife, first lady and co-defendant, now barely speaks to her. As the former governor squirmed past Maureen in Judge James Spencer’s courtroom Friday, they repelled each other — much as magnets do when their like poles are placed together.

Bob knows he’s in serious trouble; that getting out of it is serious business. He’s been in tight spots before — but politically. Each time, he successfully extracted himself on the strength of his on-cue earnestness, his talent for parsing words, and his deeply held belief that if he says something often enough, people will actually believe him.

There was Bob’s artful use in 2003 of a phrase heard often during his three days of testimony this past week on damning details of his backroom dealings with the protected-from-prosecution Jonnie Williams Sr.: “Not that I can recall.”

Eleven years ago, when Bob was chairman of the House courts committee, that was his response when asked whether he — as a married man with five children — had violated a since-scrapped prohibition on sodomy that was a factor in the doomed reappointment of a female judge accused by another woman of sexual harassment.

Possibly facing decades in prison and millions of dollars in fines, Bob — in his latest and riskiest charm offensive — is relying on these time-proven skills. But he is throwing in — or is that throwing out? — Maureen for good measure.

Bob lives for another day, but chivalry is dead.

This requires piling on Maureen — and requires that she take it. A reminder of that will be how closely, if at all, her lawyers question Bob. They’ll have a shot at him starting Monday, followed by prosecutors. And the feds are certain to have a slew of questions.

Further, Maureen’s continuing silence is interpreted as consent to the defense’s argument that she and Bob, their marriage having collapsed, were utterly incapable of communication.

Ergo, they couldn’t possibly conspire to trade on Virginia’s governorship for at least $177,000 in gifts, trips, cash and loans from Williams. A rich man, he was angling for state support of a supposed, tobacco-derived cure-all that, he hoped, would make him even richer.

McDonnell driving Jonnie Williams' Ferrari

Virginia GOP Family Values: Throw Your Wife Under the Bus

The criminal corruption trail of former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen seems to get more and more tawdry and night time soap opera like with each passing day of the trial.  One thing that has become abundantly clear is that to be a good Republican family, one needs to play act in public even as shrew like behavior and estrangement are the norm behind closed doors.  Or at least that is the take away if one believes Bob McDonnell - who opposes gay marriage despite the sanctity free nature of his own - and his defense team.  Oh, and let's not forget the greed and avarice that seems to have had free rein.  Here are highlights from the New York Times on the tawdry reality  of  Virginia GOP family values in action:

Defense lawyers have portrayed the couple as incapable of conspiring with Mr. Williams, who gave the couple and a family business $120,000 in low-interest loans, paid for much of their daughter’s wedding, took Ms. McDonnell on lavish spending sprees, bought a Rolex for the governor, footed the bill for golf outings and made his Ferrari available to them. 

The defense painted Ms. McDonnell as a vitamin-obsessed “nutbag” smitten with Mr. Williams, and Mr. McDonnell, once considered a contender for the G.O.P. presidential nomination, as at once a naïve Boy Scout and an accomplished governor too busy to notice Mr. Williams’s entreaties.

The initial shot the former governor took at his wife was a teaser, devised by the defense lawyer Henry Asbill at the very beginning of his client’s testimony. Mr. Asbill then turned to Mr. McDonnell’s career and his interactions with Mr. Williams.

Even in those early biographical sections, client and lawyer mustered a few veiled shots at Ms. McDonnell. The former governor spoke at length of the difficult times the family faced when he quit his business job and went to law school. He rejoined active duty in the Army Reserve, helped distribute newspapers in Virginia Beach and sold toys with his wife, who pitched in by waiting tables.

After he graduated, Ms. McDonnell “was a little surprised, maybe disappointed, when she looked at the salary” her husband would be making as a local prosecutor, which was lower than his paycheck four years before.

Mr. McDonnell’s main task on Wednesday appeared to be showing that for all his largess, Mr. Williams received no quo for his quid. The Richmond-based insurer Genworth Financial won a $7 million tax savings from the McDonnell administration. A local brewery here got a bill-signing ceremony. The governor pulled out all the stops to help an Israeli firm partner with Pepsi-Cola to make Sabra hummus in Virginia. A DuPont battery facility in Chesterfield County got a visit from the governor.

In contrast, Mr. McDonnell said, Mr. Williams’s Star Scientific company got no grants, no earmarks in the Virginia budget, no economic development assistance, no governor’s visit — just one event in the governor’s mansion, one of “300 or so” where 25,000 people were invited.

But the fireworks still lie with the marriage, which has looked picture-perfect in public but is being portrayed as icy, roiled by a mercurial wife who loathed her role as first lady.

A management consultant hired in 2011 to calm the first lady’s ready-to-revolt staff testified Wednesday that he had discussed reducing her time at the governor’s mansion, limiting her public speaking and getting her therapy, possibly for depression.

Indeed, only in this soap-operatic trial would evidence of affection between the McDonnells be seen as a victory for the prosecution. Prosecutors on Wednesday tried to undermine the defense’s contention that the McDonnells’ marriage had become a sham, highlighting an email exchange between Ms. McDonnell and Mr. Burke in January 2012 as they hashed endlessly over getting her through a coming public event.

Mr. Burke testified that he was brought in to calm “an undue amount of chaos” in the first lady’s suite. He spoke of shouting matches over telephones while trying to stop Ms. McDonnell’s entire staff from quitting, a private appeal to the governor to get his wife into therapy, and hours coaching Ms. McDonnell through speaking engagements and public appearances.

The McDonnells quickly exchanged high-interest credit card debt for Mr. Williams’s lending terms: 2 percent interest to be paid after three years, with no monthly payments necessary.

Sadly, I suspect that many of the marriages of the "godly Christian" crowd are shams and psychodramas like that depicted by the defense team.  The irony is that, if this is true, having gays legally marry could only help the status of marriage across the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Think about it, what kind of marriage can a hate filled, perpetually lying, frigid bitch like Victoria Cobb have? 

Bob McDonnell, Maureen McDonnell and GOP Family Values - Lies and Undisclosed Loans

Towne Bank's Will Sessoms

In some ways I was wondering why Will Sessoms, Mayor of Virginia Beach, was a witness in the corruption trial of Bob and Maureen McDonnell.  Now, it appears he was called as a witness not because of his political office but rather his position as a banker.  The Richmond Times Dispatch has focused on McDonnell's financial difficulties surrounding Virginia Beach investment properties.Now, the focus is on the loans that were undisclosed on financial statements submitted to Towne Bank and the lies Maureen McDonnell told to State Police investigators.  Here are excerpts:

Prosecutors put the mayor of Virginia Beach on the witness stand Tuesday and shifted the focus of the trial of Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen from corruption to fraud.

Shown a copy of a personal financial statement completed by the former governor, William Sessoms, Jr., president of Towne Financial Services Group, said it failed to include loans from either Jonnie Williams Sr. or Starwood Trust.

One of 14 charges against the McDonnells alleges Bob McDonnell broke the law when he submitted a personal financial statement to TowneBank in October 2012 in which he failed to disclose he owed at least $50,000 to Williams.

Sessoms helped the McDonnells and Bob McDonnell’s sister, Maureen McDonnell finance two Virginia Beach properties, one for $249,990 in 2005 and another for $722,550 in 2006.

Shown payment records for the loans, Sessoms, who said Bob McDonnell is a friend he has known since the 1980s, said that from 2009 to 2013 it appeared late fees were imposed 18 times for the smaller loan and 29 times for the larger one.

Late fees were assessed when a loan payment was 15 days late. Sessoms said he had several conversations with McDonnell about not letting a payment get 30 days late or it would be reported and affect his credit score.

Hagan, the state police investigator, said he and fellow investigator James Lyons interviewed the first lady on Feb. 15, 2013 to discuss an aspect of the ongoing investigation into theft from the Executive Mansion by former chef Todd Schneider.

Hagan also said the interview was to learn more about two checks -- a $50,000 payment to first lady Maureen McDonnell as well as a $15,000 check drawn on a Williams account that was written to Schneider's catering company as payment for food at the June 2011 Executive Mansion wedding reception for the McDonnells' daughter, Cailin.

Hagan testified that in the 2013 interview Maureen McDonnell said her husband had known Williams for years and had been a “friend of the family for a long time” -- having met the governor right after he left his service in the Army.

Evidence, however, suggests that McDonnell and Williams did not meet until 2009, when Williams provided the use of his private plane to help McDonnell in his run for governor.

Hagan also said that Maureen McDonnell told him that the $50,000 check she received from Williams in May 2011 was a personal loan, for which she had signed a loan agreement and had been making payments to Williams.

The investigator said that at the end of the interview he asked the first lady to produce the paperwork for the alleged loan, to which the first lady said she had signed the documents and sent them back to Williams.

Hagan testified that Mrs. McDonnell did not know before the interview that she was under investigation. Hagan testified there were no bank records showing Maureen McDonnell making payments to Williams.

There's more, but the overall picture is tawdry at best.

There Are No Innocents in the McDonnell Corruption Trial

After taking positions that have made Virginia a laughing stock and earned him nicknames such as "Taliban Bob" and "Governor Ultrasound" former GOP governor Bob McDonnell continue to put Virginia in the tabloid headlines as the federal criminal corruption trial of McDonnell and wife Maureen continues like more episodes reruns of Dallas or Dynasty from the 1980's.  Sadly, as a column in the Washington Post notes, there are few, if any, innocent players in the sordid saga of greed and political bribes.  The bottom line is that Bob and Maureen McDonnell knew better, but tossed integrity aside.  Here are column excerpts that looks at the tawdry storyline:

There are no innocents among the star characters in Courtroom 7000, where the former governor of Virginia and his wife are standing trial in a federal public-corruption case.

The prime players are all manipulators — the helmet-haired politician who once aspired to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.; his striving, ex-cheerleader wife; and the fast-talking nutritional supplement entrepreneur.

On Wednesday, the rapt gaze of former Virginia first lady Maureen McDonnell followed Jonnie Ray Williams, a former car salesman turned nutraceutical entrepreneur, as he strode across the courtroom and took the witness stand for the first time. I was waiting for her to clasp her hands together and moon, “Oh, Jonnie,” or maybe blow him a kiss.

Her puppy crush is a sad act scripted to avoid jail time for allegedly selling the prestige of the governor’s office in exchange for the Rolex on her husband’s wrist, the Ferrari joy ride, the private jet trips, the $70,000 life raft to save a real estate investment, the vacation at the lake house, the help with a daughter’s wedding, the fancy golf gear and the rounds of golf Bob McDonnell and his sons played at $300 a pop.

No wonder one of the jurors got sick in the middle of the trial this week. 

It’s no secret that the picture-perfect political families we see on campaign posters are usually the Dysfunctional Family Robinson behind closed doors. Governors can be especially messy when it comes to family affairs.

The McDonnells are no different. They were an upper-middle-class family with five kids when they landed in a high-profile world of money and prestige. And they were in over their heads.

Williams saw them as an easy target — self-made folks who never saw a silver spoon until they earned one themselves.

This wasn’t about a disintegrating marriage and an emotional, needy wife. This was a couple who presented themselves as a shining example of all that is moral and righteous. And once Virginians, believing that they were good people, had put McDonnell in office, they allegedly sold off what the people of Virginia had given them — the public trust. That’s why they were charged in a 14-count federal indictment.

Most of us play by the rules, refusing to give in to greed on a daily basis. . . . . Integrity and honesty abound in this country. 

The McDonnells, by contrast, seemed all too eager to cash in. Ferraris? Plane rides? Golf clubs? A wedding catered? They knew better.

 Ouch!!! 

The McDonnell Soap Opera Trial Continues - GOP Family Values on Display

While Victoria Cobb and similar neurotic Christofascists continue to lament the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision striking down Virginia's same sex marriage bans, Bob and Maureen McDonnell are providing a glimpse at what a godly Christian marriage really looks like: rapacious greed, a willingness to ignore the law, alleged alienation, and putting on a show to satisfy what others expect.  Seemingly, all that is fine from a Christofascist perspective since (i) marriage is only for procreation - and according to past fathers of the Catholic Church even that is sinful if the couple enjoys physical sex - and (ii) one's allegiance is supposed to be subservient to one's slavish obedience to God/the church fathers.   The Richmond Times Dispatch continues to provide coverage of the McDonnell corruption trial show what a GOP version of a godly marriage is all about.  Here are highlights:

Williams earlier testified that after a stock transfer to then-Gov. Bob McDonnell could not be arranged, he had a $50,000 check from the Starwood Trust, a trust for his children, made out to MoBo Realty.

"What did you expect to get in return from the governor," asked Michael Dry, an assistant U.S. attorney.

"To help me move this product forward in Virginia," said Williams. He said he hoped the governor could assist with testing of Anatabloc by the state medical schools, by publicly supporting it and in other ways.

"If you need cash, let me know," he wrote to the governor, adding that his business "was about to break out strong."

Williams told the court that later that summer, he expensed to Star Scientific a trip to Cape Cod, which included McDonnell and his wife, McDonnell's friend and political action committee director Phil Cox and his spouse and a doctor with whom Williams worked on Anatabloc.

Star picked up the tab for golf, sailing, lodging and private airfare on Williams' jet and a clambake on the beach of the luxury resort, capping the evening with a $5,000 bottle of Louis XIII cognac.

Dressed in a dark suit and muted tie, the short and soft-spoken dietary supplement impresario testified that he was with Maureen McDonnell at the Executive Mansion on Aug. 1, 2011, when she asked him what kind of watch he was wearing. He said he told her it was a Rolex and she remarked she would really like the governor to have one.

"You want me to get you a Rolex for the governor?'" he said he asked. "'Yes,'" she said.

He said he bought the Rolex for $6,000 to $7,000 at a store in Malibu, California. Williams said his wife suggested getting it engraved. He called Maureen McDonnell from the store to ask what she would like the engraving to say. She said "71st governor of Virginia."

The transactional nature of the relationship between the governor and his wife and Williams is central to the case being brought by the federal government, which has charged the former first couple with using the governor's office to illegally assist Williams and his company in exchange for the personal gifts received.

Dry asked Williams whether he thought he would have had the launch for his product at the Executive Mansion if he hadn't spent the money he did on the McDonnells.  "No, I did not," he said.

Williams explained the circumstances surrounding the May 31, 2011, trip to Sarasota Florida during which he flew then-first lady Maureen McDonnell on his private plane to participate in a research conference and fundraiser for Anatabloc.

Under questioning from prosecutor Dry, Williams told the eight men and four women of the jury that he put up the first lady and her aide, Mary-Shea Sutherland, at the Ritz Carlton hotel, and that she did not hesitate at the opportunity to address the crowd of doctors, researcher and investors assembled at the Roskamp Institute. 

There's much more.  The take away?  The Christofascists/Virginia GOP support corrupt marriages like that of the McDonnells but oppose loving same sex relationships where no member of the couple is out to rip off Virginia taxpayers and put government favors up for sale. 

The Faux Family Values of the Virginia GOP

Just as Republican voodoo economics involve a lot of smoke and mirrors to depict a picture far different from objective reality, so too does the "family values" image of GOP politicians.  As noted before on this blog, seemingly 90% of the time when a political sex scandal explodes, it's a Republican, not a Democrat involved.  Especially, if it involves gay sex, something the "family values crowd claims to eschew.  With the Bob and Maureen McDonnell corruption trial getting under way, it seems will will get yet another glimpse behind the smoke and mirrors and learn that Republicans are the last people who should be preaching family values, seeking to police the sex lives of others and trying to position themselves as arbiters of morality in general.  A column in the Richmond Times Dispatch looks at the image Republicans like Bob McDonnell seek to project while in truth, behind closed doors it's a veritable Peyton Place.  Here are highlights:

When Bob McDonnell ran for governor in 2009, he depicted his family as the Cleavers: bustling and wholesome. Five years later, running for his life, McDonnell is depicting his family as the Bundys: bitter and dysfunctional.

In opening arguments Tuesday, federal prosecutor Jessica Aber offered a methodical, detailed case for convicting McDonnell and wife Maureen of public corruption. She focused on the transactional nature of the couple’s relationship with Jonnie Williams Sr., whom Aber labeled a “vitamin salesman.”

Aber outlined the government’s view that McDonnell went to elaborate lengths to conceal his relationship with Williams, even withholding on bank documents any mention of a $50,000 loan from Williams and disclosing it only after learning that he and his wife were under federal scrutiny.

In return for his beneficence – at least $165,000 in cash, stock, gifts, vacations, designer clothes, and posh jewelry – Williams expected McDonnell to use the weight of the governorship to legitimize his disputed, tobacco-derived dietary supplement, Anatabloc, Aber said. Williams envisioned state research of his product and making it available to public employees.

[A] tidbit bordering on the salacious: Maureen McDonnell had a crush on Williams, regarding him as her “favorite playmate,” Burck said The former Washington Redskins cheerleader was drawn to the multimillionaire executive because of a deep fissure in her marriage, widened by the demands of McDonnell’s career.

The McDonnells’ body language has been saying as much for days. The two routinely make separate entrances at the fortress-like federal courthouse on East Broad Street. And in U.S. District Judge James Spencer’s cavernous, wood-paneled courtroom on the seventh floor, they are seated apart, separated by two lawyers. McDonnell coolly greeted his wife ahead of Tuesday’s proceedings. They were expressionless as defense sketched a portrait of their marriage.

Maureen McDonnell, Brownlee said, had grown to hate her husband, angry that there “was not enough money, not enough time, nothing left for her.” Brownlee continued, “This broke their marriage apart.”

Juxtapose that with the image Bob McDonnell advanced as a candidate for governor. To blunt his controversial graduate school thesis – it decried working mothers, cohabitation, homosexuality, and premarital sex – McDonnell ran television commercials in which his wife and five children were front and center.

In one “Leave to Beaver”-esque advertisement, Bob and Maureen were a model of suburban contentment, sitting in front of a trim house as their smiling, chattering kids bounded out the front door, with one of the twin boys cheerfully demanding the keys to the family car. Now, several of those children are witnesses at their parents’ trial.

As I said, it's a veritable soap opera.  Meanwhile, I cannot help but wonder what really goes on behind the doors in the home of the always heinous, anti-gay animus filled Victoria Cobb.  Is she spinning a similar fairy tale to her cretin like followers at The Family Foundation?