Washington Post Calls Cuccinelli an Extremist

Yet another major newspaper has called Ken "I'm a total kook" Cuccinelli out for the extremist and nutcase that he is. Why it has taken so long is baffling given Cuccinelli's consistent record of religious extremist positions both in the General Assembly and in his statements around Virginia. To use Pam Spaulding's terminology, he's batshit crazy. One can only wonder what type of lunacy might ensue should Cuccinelli be elected to the Office of Attorney General since he is basically a refined version of Fred Phelps. Should Taliban Bob McDonnell and Kook Cuccinelli win next week, a very strong message will be sent to the world that Virginia is a reactionary and bigoted state- and that progressive businesses and anyone who is not white, far right Christian, and straight might be well advised to avoid the state entirely. As I have said before, but for our businesses and elderly parents, the boyfriend and I would seriously consider leaving Virginia. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post column:

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KENNETH CUCCINELLI, the Republican candidate for Virginia state attorney general, believes it's "appropriate" to formulate public policy on the premise that homosexuals engage in behavior that is "intrinsically wrong" and offensive to "natural law." His comments -- which retrofit the old rhetoric of racism, bias and intolerance in a new context -- were made in an interview with the Virginian-Pilot, a newspaper in Norfolk. Homosexual acts, said Mr. Cuccinelli, currently a state senator, are "intrinsically wrong. And I think in a natural law-based country it's appropriate to have policies that reflect that. . . . They don't comport with natural law. I happen to think that it represents (to put it politely; I need my thesaurus to be polite) behavior that is not healthy to an individual and in aggregate is not healthy to society."
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[L]et's call his comments what they are: bigotry. Bigotry is as pernicious today, applied to homosexuals, as it was a century ago or less, when immigrants and minorities were its main victims. And it is just as familiar. Appeals to "natural law" and "intrinsic" rights and wrongs were the usual cliches deployed to justify the old-time religion of hatred then directed at African Americans, Jews, Italians, Irish and other immigrants.
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It is especially alarming that this ugly nonsense is coming from Mr. Cuccinelli, who, if he becomes the attorney general of Virginia -- a job that combines aspects of chief government lawyer and top cop -- would be in a position to act on it. . . . As a lawmaker in Richmond, he has displayed contempt for non-English speakers; for those who care about global warming; and for the First Amendment. Many of his fellow Republicans regard him as occupying the far-right fringe of the party, the ultimate small tenter. The more immediate concern is this: If he is elected attorney general, Mr. Cuccinelli would drive away qualified lawyers from an office that functions as the state government's law firm, and, given his bizarre ideas, he would very likely become an embarrassment for the commonwealth.

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All well said and unfortunately 100% true. I pray that voters will grasp the far right extremism of Cuccinelli's views and that he would be a disaster for Virginia if elected. For non-Virginian readers PLEASE urge your family and friends in Virginia to get out and vote against Cuccinelli.

Belatedly More Coverage of Ken Cuccinelli's Extremism

Anyone who has followed Ken Cuccinelli's career in the General Assembly and remarks he has made over that period realizes that the man is a religious right nutcase who is utterly unable to separate his Opus Dei - think the Davinci Code and the Spanish Inquisition - like Catholic beliefs from how he wants the civil laws to be applied. When he was interviewed by the Virginian Pilot, he made extremely anti-gay remarks and now that his opponent, Democrat Steve Shannon, is calling him out on them, Cuccinelli is crying foul. The only thing foul is Cuccinelli himself and his theocratic mindset and inability to see others not like himself as fully human and as equal citizens. In my view, Cuccinelli is unfit for any public office, much less the office of Attorney General of Virginia. In fact, given his religious extremism and intolerance of others, he is better suited to be seeking a job with Family Research Council, Focus on the Family or even some anti-gay hate group. Here are highlights from the Washington Post that have also gained coverage in the Richmond Times Dispatch:

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In a phone call with reporters, Shannon cited comments that Cuccinelli made to the editorial board of the Virginian-Pilot newspaper of Norfolk, which quoted the Republican as saying that "homosexual acts" are "intrinsically wrong" and violate "natural law" and that this view should be appropriately reflected in state policies. The state senator made the remarks, according to the Virginian-Pilot, when asked for his views on the state's nondiscrimination policy toward gay men and lesbians.
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"I happen to think that it represents . . . behavior that is not healthy to an individual and in aggregate is not healthy to society," Cuccinelli was quoted as saying. Shannon, a state delegate, called on Cuccinelli to apologize to "hardworking Virginians." He also asked for Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell to denounce Cuccinelli's statements.
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We should not be driving people out of state government who are committed to serving the public good based on sexual orientation," Shannon said. "That's not who we are as Virginians."
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As the Times Dispatch reports even the often pathetic and spineless Log Cabin Republicans are demanding an apology from Grand Inquisitor Cuccinelli.:
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The Log Cabin Republican Club of Virginia, a gay-rights group, issued a statement attacking Cuccinelli for his remarks in the Virginian-Pilot. "That Mr. Cuccinelli would make such incendiary and prejudicial remarks as a candidate for the state's highest legal office is truly frightening, and we call on him to apologize for injecting his personal and hateful opinions into this race," said David Lampo, the club's vice president.
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Cuccinelli is a menace to society and Virginia in particular and I hope to God Virginia voters wake up before November 3, 2009, and realize that Cuccinelli is totally unfit to be Attorney General.

Virginian Pilot Endorses Shannon and Trashes Cuccinelli

Not surprisingly the Virginian Pilot has endorsed Steven Shannon in the race for Virginia's next Attorney General. In the process, the endorsement utterly trashes GOP candidate Ken Cuccinell who would be better suited to be working at Family Research Council or Focus on the Family furthering his extreme Christianist views on abortion, hatred towards gays, etc. - anything but a public office where he can seek to inject religious extremism into the civil laws. Bab McDonnell may be Pat Robertson's boy, but he comes across as down right rational and moderate when compared to Cuccinelli. I shudder at the consequences should Cuccinelli be elected. Here are highlights from the Pilot's endorsement of Shannon:

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In the attorney general’s race, Virginians have a choice between a low-key fellow partial to brown suits, and a pugnacious culture warrior more apt to need flameproof gear. Steve Shannon’s style is the better fit for Virginia. His thoughtful approach would preserve the reputation of the state’s law firm as a source of reliable legal advice. Ken Cuccinelli’s antics would be more entertaining, but drama is something best left to TV shows.

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As a Democratic delegate, Shannon has been a centrist who gravitated toward bipartisan compromises on budget and transportation issues. That background will lend him a steady hand as he guides the legislature through what promises to be a tumultuous effort to redraw political districts in 2011.

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[W]ould he [Cuccinelli] feel an obligation to all Virginians? He sponsored a bill to waive unemployment compensation costs for companies that fire workers for not speaking English on the job. The measure would have affected only legal workers because illegal immigrants don’t qualify for unemployment benefits.

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Cuccinelli’s views on reproductive rights don’t align with those of most Virginians. He favors legislation that would grant legal rights to fetuses at conception. He has sponsored bills requiring strict regulations that would put most abortion clinics out of business. He voted against a bill stating that contraception is not abortion.

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He declined to commit to a nondiscrimination policy against gays and lesbians observed by former Attorney General Bob McDonnell: “ My view is that homosexual acts, not homosexuality, but homosexual acts are wrong. They’re intrinsically wrong. And I think in a natural law based country it’s appropriate to have policies that reflect that. ... They don’t comport with natural law. I happen to think that it represents (to put it politely; I need my thesaurus to be polite) behavior that is not healthy to an individual and in aggregate is not healthy to society.”

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To put it politely, Cuccinelli’s election would bring embarrassment to Virginia, instability to the state’s law firm and untold harm to the long list of people who don’t fit his personal definition of morality.

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Personally, if Cuccinelli needs anything, it's to be placed in a mental institution because no one is as whacked out as he is unless they have some severe emotional/psychological issues. The fact that he received the GOP nomination speaks volumes about just how outside the mainstream the GOP has become.

New Deeds Ads Target McDonnell on Thesis

Thankfully, Creigh Deeds' campaign has put together ads that will help insure that more Virginians know the real Bob "Taliban Bob"McDonnell - as opposed to the carefully crafted and false moderate image McDonnell needs to win in November. The ads - one of which is set out below - do what is needed most: they tie McDonnell's thesis views to his record in the Virginia General Assembly. In short, the thesis was not some academic exercise but has been in fact a blue print of how McDonnell has sought to govern. Deeds needs to keep the ads coming.

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On a similar note, I wish that Democrat candidate Steve Shannon would do something similar with GOP candidate Ken Cuccinelli who is so crazy he makes the real Bob McDonnell seem almost normal. Cuccinelli has fully supported every Christianist effort of Bob McDonnell and then some. The thought of Cuccinelli in the attorney general's office scares the daylights out of me. One can only hope that as voters come to realize that McDonnell is not what he claims it will begin to drag down the entire GOP slate.

It is one thing for candidates to hold their own religious views. It is something totally different when the candidates agenda is to force those views on all Virginians. McDonnell - like the majority of the Uber-Christians - view freedom of religions as their right, but want to restrict religious freedom for everyone else. This year's GOP slate MUST be defeated.

Is Creigh Deeds Getting the Message ?

I have complained numerous times about my frustration with the failure of the statewide Democrat ticket in Virginia, and Creigh Deeds in particular, to reach out to various communities within the Democrat tent. This is especially true of the LGBT community which to my knowledge has seen almost no outreach whatsoever. Finally, some Deeds staffers have begun some weekly outreach to the LGBT community in Hampton Roads (although so far not to the LGBT business community), but this should have begun immediately after the primary election, not months later. The problem with all three Democrat candidates doesn't appear limited to the Hampton Roads area as evidenced by a story from Northern Virginia, a must win area for any Democrat who hopes to be elected. While Bob McDonnell's thesis has energized some, much more excitement and enthusiasm needs to be generated by all three Democrat candidates. Here are some highlights:

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Alexandria is Brian Moran territory, and everybody knows it. During this summer’s gubernatorial primary, city voters overwhelmingly supported their hometown candidate — the younger brother of a former mayor and longtime congressman. Perhaps that’s why some say Creigh Deeds’ campaign for governor has been having a hard time gaining traction in the city. Or perhaps it’s because the campaign has been slow to reach out to local elected officials."For some reason, there seems to have been a lack of sensitivity to Northern Virginia," said Mayor Bill Euille, who has yet to be asked for a formal endorsement. "But that’s being resolved."

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ALEXANDRIA DEMOCRATS say the strategy session at the mayor’s house over the weekend was a step forward in terms of the campaign reaching out to local elected officials and party regulars. But even if the Deeds organization is listening, that doesn’t mean campaign officials are taking the advice. Some Democrats have expressed criticism of the campaign’s strategic decision to wait until the final weeks before Election Day to roll out paid campaign communications such as television advertising and direct mail solicitations.

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They say that the Deeds campaign is certain to win in Alexandria, and that the turnout in Northern Virginia could be critical to the outcome of the election. Many Democrats point to Bob McDonnell’s 360-vote margin of victory over Deeds in the 2005 attorney general race as an indication of how close the race is likely to be — and of how important get-out-the-vote operations are likely to be in Northern Virginia.

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Despite his post election failures to deliver on campaign promises, Barack Obama DID reach out to ALL of the communities under the Democrat tent and the three statewide candidates need to do so as well. And they need to get into high gear immediately. They cannot depend on votes solely because they are not the extremist slate fielded by the GOP.

Ken Cuccinelli Makes Taliban Bob Seem Moderate

I have done a number of posts on Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell's CBN University thesis and road map for a Christianist/GOP rule of society. Lost in all the discussion of McDonnell's extremism and out of the mainstream mind set is the fact that the GOP candidate for Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli (pictured at left), is even more extreme than McDonnell. Indeed, following Cuccinelli since he was elected to the General Assembly, in my opinion, he is a total whack job and cut from the same cloth as Bob Marshall, author of Virginia's "Marriage Amendment" that impacted not only same sex couples but also unmarried heterosexual couples who cannot formally marry because they would lose health insurance coverage or retirement benefits. In a speech nominating Marshall to run for U.S. Senate back in the spring (fortunately, Marshall lost out to lackluster Jim Gilmore), Cuccinelli described Marshall as a head of the curb. The same Bob Marshall who stated he'd be happy if anti-gay legislation cause all LGBT Virginians to leave the state.

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Like Taliban Bob, Cuccinelli is attempting to depict himself as a moderate - a disingenuous lie, of course - since if his real positions were known, moderates and independents would run screaming to pull the lever for Steve Shannon. Cuccinelli's much scrubbed website, however, still gives hints of his true agenda. Here is a sampling:

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As Virginia’s Attorney General, I will continue to support the sanctity of all human life, from conception to natural death. I will also strive to support women in crisis pregnancies.

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Marriage: I believe marriage should be protected as a sacred union between one man and one woman.

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I led the fight to pass the Marriage Amendment in Northern Virginia. I was one of only a small number of legislators around Virginia that actually went out and actively campaigned on behalf of the Marriage Amendment.
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I have proposed numerous bills to protect marriage and families, and to reduce the incidence of divorce in Virginia.

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Both the United States and Virginia Constitutions were written to permanently protect the individual right of law abiding citizens to own and use firearms for any lawful reason.

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Translated, Cuccinelli wants no legal abortions in the state, prefers that individuals remain trapped in failed marriages, wants same sex couples and unmarried straight couples to have no legal rights in respect to each other, and has no problem with citizens running around with assault rifles and automatic weapons. The Daily Kos did a piece that compared Cuccinelli to Steve Shannon on the issue of employment protections which is enlightening. Here are a few highlights:

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Although Ken will lead you to believe that he has "less friends" than Steve I think he is not realizing that his 0% rating from the AFL-CIO provides him with a great deal of "friends" within the big business community. Secondly, Ken's 100% NFIB rating compared to Steve's 50%. Again, a quick analysis will demonstrate a key difference between the two. Ken's 0% rating compared to Steve's 50% rating shows that Ken is absolutely unwilling to work with working men and women on any labor issue, consistently voting against it. You have to really work hard to obtain a 0% rating but Ken always succeeds.

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Also telling of what Cuccinelli's real agenda is all about is his cozy relationship with James Dobson's Virginia affiliate, The Family Foundation, one of the most powerful religious extremist organizations in the Virginia. In 2008 - that's right just last year - The Family Foundation awarded Cuccinelli its "Legislator of the Year" award. One needs to be pretty extreme to win that accolade from the Kool-Aid drinkers at The Family Foundation, a group that has utterly no regard for the religious freedoms of others. Here are some highlights from the Fairfax Family Forum about this most telling award:

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(Richmond, VA) – State Senator Ken Cuccinelli was named “Legislator of the Year” by The Family Foundation at their 2008 Annual Gala this evening. “It’s very humbling to be singled out among all of our dedicated pro-family representatives in Richmond,” said Cuccinelli. “But our efforts in Richmond on behalf of Virginia’s families couldn’t be successful without the hard work of groups like The Family Foundation.” “The traditional values we grew up with are under daily assault by liberals in Washington and Hollywood. We are not immune to the attacks on our culture here in Virginia and need to stand up for faith and families.”

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Truth be told, Cuccinelli is as whacked out as Sarah Palin and the voters in Virginia had best wake up to the snow job that McDonnell and Cuccinelli are trying to foist on the citizenry. Neither of them are moderates and both of them will work to impose elements of McDonnell's thesis on all Virginians.

Will Obama and Kaine Turn Virginia Red Come November?

From time to time I get contacted by political campaigns either to ask that I cover issues or opposing candidates or for my thoughts on how to reach out to the gay voters - not that any of the Virginia statewide Democrat candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, or attorney general have done much reaching out to date. I expect that to change very soon in the case of Jody Wagner, candidate for lieutenant governor, who I have previously endorsed and who has a gay-friendly track record. The same holds true for Steve Shannon the candidate for attorney general who publicly opposed Virginia's anti-gay marriage amendment and even wrote an editorial as to why the amendment should be voted down. As for Deeds, I unfortunately expect no outreach efforts to LGBT Virginians and I very much fear that he will lose to Bob McDonnell in November.

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Despite Deeds' shortcomings, the biggest problem that these three Democrat candidates face - and Wagner and Shannon are excellent candidates - is the dis-engagement of many Virginia Democrats who feel that they worked their hearts out and dug deep in their pockets to elect Barack Obama and elect addition Democrats to Congress and have received NOTHING in return for their efforts. LGBT Virginians have received nothing from Obama - ditto for Governor/DNC Chair, Tim Kaine. For gays and non-gays alike the same problem exists. With a Democrat in the White House and Democrat majorities in the House and Senate, little has been accomplished because of the ridiculous efforts for "bipartisanship" - i.e., reaching out to members of the GOP who will NEVER cooperate and who seek only to torpedo any real change. The public gave the Democrats all the tools they need to effect change and they have bungled it badly. Campaign visits to Virginia by Obama will not have the effect he believes - people are looking for delivery on promises, not more pretty words.

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Yesterday, when an aide from one of the state wide campaigns called me, I expressed the above stated view and to my surprise the aide acknowledge that it was a major concern that the failures of Obama and the Congressional Democrats to deliver would potentially severely compromise the statewide Democrat candidates. I expressed my view that unless Obama signs a stop loss order to suspend Don't Ask, Don't Tell or delivers on some other promise to LGBT voters BEFORE election day in November, he will have convinced LGBT Virginians that voting Democrat is a worthless effort - basically pissing into the wind - because the Democrats simply talk a good game but fail to deliver. Other core Democrat constituencies have likewise been left feeling they were lied to.

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I truly hope someone carries this message to the White House and Congressional Democrats because they are clearly putting Virginia at risk for a GOP sweep - something that will set the state back dramatically and allow McDonnell to appoint all kinds of Christianists and extremists to state positions. The mere thought of it makes me shudder.

AG Candidate Ken Cuccinelli Tries to Hide Extremist Views

I have written a number of times about Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell's efforts to market himself as a moderate in this years election contest for governor of Virginia - even though in actuality McDonnell is a puppet for Pat Robertson, James Dobson and the toxic Family Foundation. Now, Ken Cuccinelli, the GOP candidate for attorney general is apparently trying to use the same tactics as McDonnell even though as extremists go, Cuccinelli makes McDonnell look like a flaming liberal. Cuccinelli is a dogmatic Christianist who is anti-abortion in every case, would have gays rounded up and driven from the state if he could, and is a true Kool-Aid drinker when it comes to being a racist, anti-immigrant, anti-gay, religious extremist.

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Blue Virginia caught Cuccinelli trying to sanitize his campaign website to strip it of all its nut case fringe elements. Fortunately, a pre-sanitizing shot remains which shows Cuccinell's real nutcase agenda. If you want the Christian equivalent to a Islamic grand ayatollah, then Cuccinelli's your man. If you believe in secular government and religious freedom for all, then he MUST be defeated. Here are some highlights from Blue Virginia:
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[T]his is what it [the social issues page] used to look like, before he (apparently) started his faux-"moderate" makeover for the 2009 elections, just like Bob McDonnell. Fascinating.




This is what one finds now if they try to see where Cuccinelli stands on issues like marriage, gay rights, and abortion - the page has totally disappeard.

Again, it is absolutely critical that Cuccinelli's real positions be exposed and that he be defeated in November. He is nothing short of a clear and present danger to the rights and lives of other citizens of the Commonwealth. One has to ask again, where is the main stream media when it comes to reminding the public what McDonnell and Cuccinelli were preaching to the lunatic base of the GOP in prior years?

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P.S. Watch Cuccinelli talk about why he is not going to get a social security number for his soon to be born 7th child (something tells me that he's a "birther" too):