Second Woman Accuses Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax

The damage from the political tricks of far right Republican operatives against Virginia's top Democrats continues as a second accuser has come forward alleging to have suffered sexual assault at the hands of Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax.   The timing of this and the first accusation, to me is suspect given that the assaults allegedly took place 115 and 19 years ago respectively.  Where were the accusers in 2017 when Fairfax was running for office?  The other irony is that the Legislative Black Caucus - which lead the rush to judgment against Ralph Northam as it salivated at the prospect of a black governor in the form of Fairfax if Northam resigned - now finds itself calling for Fairfax's resignation. Would any of this rolling catastrophe have continued to unfold if the Democrats had used calm, reasoned analysis and understood that they had been played by the right wing when the photos in Northam's yearbook had first been floated?  We will never know for certain, but I suspect ALL of the accusations against Northam and Fairfax were carefully pre-planned, with the far right counting on the Democrats to self-destruct.  And by Democrats, I mean numerous Virginia elected officials and national figures, including would be presidential candidates (all of whom will never receive my support), not the men and women on the street who seemingly have not leaped on the rush to judgment train wreck.  Here are highlights from the Washington Post: 

A Maryland woman said Friday that she was sexually assaulted by Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) in a “premeditated and aggressive” attack in 2000, while both were undergraduate students at Duke University. She is the second woman this week to accuse him of sexual assault. Fairfax forcefully denied both allegations.

Democratic Party leaders quickly called for Fairfax to resign, including the influential Virginia Legislative Black Caucus. Many who had withheld judgment after the first allegation this week said they could no longer stand by him, including most of Virginia’s Democratic congressional delegation and national Democrats with presidential aspirations.

While Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.) said Fairfax should resign if the allegations were true, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) offered no such equivocation. “The allegations against him detail atrocious crimes, and he can no longer effectively serve the Commonwealth,” Kaine said in a statement. “We cannot ever ignore or tolerate sexual assault.

Meanwhile, Gov. Ralph Northam (D) told senior staff that he would serve out the remaining three years of his term and would not step down amid his own scandal involving a racist photograph from his 1984 medical school yearbook.

It was a head-spinning turn in a spiraling week of chaos in Virginia. Only a week ago, Fairfax, 39, was preparing to take over as Virginia’s second African American governor when it looked as though Northam, 59, would be forced out over the racial issue.

The new accusation against Fairfax came from Meredith Watson, who said Friday in a statement through her attorney that she shared her account with several classmates and friends immediately after the alleged assault occurred. Watson did not speak publicly Friday, and her lawyer did not make her available for an interview.

Democratic U.S. Reps. Gerald E. Connolly, Don Beyer, Elaine Luria, Abigail Spanberger and Jennifer Wexton, in a lengthy joint statement, called for Fairfax to resign. National Democrats piled on, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) — who said “it is no longer appropriate for [Fairfax] to serve” — and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)

Republican leaders in the Virginia state Senate called for criminal investigations while Democrats in the Senate and the House issued a joint statement calling for Fairfax’s resignation.

Fairfax’s statement said he would not step aside. “I demand a full investigation into these unsubstantiated and false allegations,” the statement said. “I will clear my good name and I have nothing to hide. I have passed two full field background checks by the FBI and run for office in two highly contested elections with nothing like this being raised before.”

Where it all ends nobody except, I predict the GOP will retain control both houses of the Virginia General Assembly which is why all of these crises were deliberately ignited.   The GOP is playing three dimensional chess while the Democrats have continued their circular firing squad. 

The Bonfire of the Democrats

While Virginia is the immediate focus of the Democrats (in my view) politically foolish "no tolerance, no forgiveness ever" policy towards anything that might offend some fraction of the party base, as a piece in Politico lays out, the problem extends far beyond Virginia and will impact other states and most visibly, candidates  in the Democrat presidential 2020 primary contests.  Yes, the author is a Republican who is editor of the National Review, a pro-Republican publication, but he makes the valid point that what the Democrats are doing will likely guarantee that no candidate capable of winning the general election will get the nomination. From my many years in the GOP in the past, I learned that the entire purpose of a political party is to win elections and maintain your party's candidates in office so that they can further the party's policies and agenda.  You never push to remove an officeholder of your party unless they are guilty of true crimes or perhaps abuse of their office. These concepts are seemingly totally lost on today's Democrats, especially those under thirty based on what I have observed on social media.  To me, Democrats need to decide whether they want to win elections and further their governing policies or self-destruct and allow their political opponents to win the battle (and the war) and put in place the antithesis of what Democrats supposedly want.   Here are article excerpts:

All statewide officials in the Commonwealth of Virginia should resign if Democrats are held to their own standards.

Even if Gov. Ralph Northam didn’t appear in blackface in an image on his medical-school yearbook, he confessed to once darkening his face as part of a Michael Jackson costume.

Attorney General Mark Herring, who called Northam’s conduct indefensible, also used blackface once when dressing as an African-American singer.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax has been accused of sexual assault and been harshly dismissive of the accuser (he reportedly said of her in a private meeting, “f--- that b----”).

If ever wearing blackface, even in the 1980s as both Northam and Herring did, is a career-ender, and if we are supposed to “believe all women,” then all three of these Democrats have to go.

Only Northam has been thrown overboard by the party, with Fairfax and Herring getting passes so far because Democrats don’t want to nuke the entirety of a state executive branch they control.

Regardless, Virginia is an indication of an inflamed and unforgiving Democratic mood that will define the party’s battle for the 2020 presidential nomination.

Democrats are about to embark on the first woke primary, a gantlet of political correctness that will routinely wring abject apologies out of candidates and find fault in even the most sure-footed. The passage of time will be no defense. Nor the best of intentions. Nor anything else.

Any lapses will be interpreted through the most hostile lens, made all the more brutal by the competition of a large field of candidates vying for the approval of a radicalized base. The Democrat nomination battle might as well be fought on the campus of Oberlin College and officiated by the director of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

Being a progressive hero of long-standing doesn’t afford any protection. Consider Sen. Elizabeth Warren. She certainly deserves all the grief she gets for her laughable identification of herself over the years as an American Indian. But for the identity-politics Left, her fault runs deeper: In trying to rebut the allegedly racist mockery of her as “Pocahontas,” she herself committed a racial offense. . . . Cherokee Nation activist Rebecca Nagle told CNN last week that Warren needed to apologize “to the tribes that she has harmed and to Native people broadly.”

Sure enough, she apologized, and presumably will keep on doing it as long as she’s running.

In this environment, being a white male, particularly a white male not obsessed with gender and race, is a risk factor. This is a major vulnerability of Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose outright socialism is no defense.

Segments of the Left jumped on him this week for doing the same State of the Union response that he’s done for the past couple of years. This time was different because he’d be following the African-American activist Stacey Abrams, and somehow or other supposedly upstaging her. Activist Marc Lamont Hill called Sanders’ choice “racially tone deaf.” Never mind that Sanders had praised the choice of Abrams for the formal rebuttal.

In every presidential campaign, candidates have to explain and backfill to get with the party’s latest program. What will make this process so much more intense for Democrats is the belief that even past mistakes involving the choice of words or symbolism are affirmatively injurious of other people. And the belief that such mistakes represent deep sins to be repented.

Even Sen. Kamala Harris, who calls racism, sexism, and trans-phobia matters of “national security,” isn’t safe. She was once a prosecutor, after all. Reviewing her record, a New York Times op-ed writer said “she needs to radically break with her past.”

Who doesn’t? No one will be woke enough to emerge from this process unscathed.

While perhaps well intentioned - the saying goes that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions -  the Democrats' "zero tolerance, no forgiveness" policy is unworkable and is likely to paralyze the party and drive away good candidates.  If the Democrats want to be politically competitive, they need to rethink this idiocy. Otherwise, be prepared for many years of GOP rule.  

GOP Operatives Succeeding in Causing Virginia Democrat Party to Implode

Tuesday's Wall Street Journal reported today as follows:

The website [Big League Politics] that broke the story of the racist yearbook photo that is imperiling the governorship of Virginia Democrat Ralph Northam is a scrappy, pro-Trump outfit backed by Republican operatives, part of a growing wave of low-cost, ideologically driven news publishers.

The same site reportedly leak a story about Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax alleging he was involved in a sexual assault some years back.  

The goal of both stories?  To send the Virginia GOP into chaos and weaken the party before the crucial elections in November, 2019, which will determine which party controls the the Virginia General Assembly.  So far the gambit has worked amazingly well.  Rather than taking a deep breath and taken the time to know all of the facts, the political correctness obsessed Democrats from Mark Warner and Tim Kaine on down have by played like trained circus dogs and have done exactly what the far right elements of the GOP wanted. They have rushed to judgment and demanded Northam resign and some have wondered out loud if Fairfax has a problem as well.  

Sadly, the knee jerk rush to judgment has not been confined to elected officials.  A number of self-styled leaders of the Virginia LGBT community - e.g., Equality Virginia and locally the LGBT Life Center - have joined the stampede of lemmings and signed an anti-Northam statement notwithstanding that Northam has been one of the strongest allies they have ever had.  And never mind that many in the LGBT community still strongly support Northam and do not want him to resign. 

Long term, this apparent from conception forward "zero tolerance"standard is going to make it very difficult for the Democrats to recruit candidates in the future.  Anyone who has anything in their history that might offend someone in one of the Democrats' special preferred classes is on notice that they can be drummed out of the party should that information ever surface.  

As the Washington Post reported, some seem to be realizing that the rush to judgment has been ill-advised and may have consequences those rushing to jettison Northam failed to take into consideration.  Here are key quotes:

But there is also a quieter concern that the party has come to react too quickly. Some of Franken’s supporters are still bitter over how the end of his career played out, and several senators have said they regretted pushing him to leave office.

The new atmosphere can catch even the most seasoned politician off guard. The accused feel denied any sense of due process. Supposed allies quickly turn into enemies. And, they argue, Republicans are refusing to play by the same rules.

I think there’s a rush to judgment that is unfair to him,” Joe Lieberman, the former Democratic vice presidential nominee, said Monday on CNN about Northam. “One, he says he wasn’t in that picture. Two, I think we ought to fairly ask him, did he know the picture was on his page of that yearbook. And then three, really, he ought to be judged on the context of his whole life.”

“I think he deserves a chance to prove what really is his essence,” he added. “Not to rush him out of office, unfortunately for political reasons.”

But Lieberman is in the distinct minority in a party newly animated by women and nonwhite candidates and voters, who have provided the ballast for swift decisions.

Yet a party that is moving swiftly to oust anyone with suggestions of racism or sexism could soon confront more questions: Virginia’s Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who would take over if Northam resigns, held a news conference on Monday to deny allegations that he sexually harassed a woman in 2004.

I believe the Democrats have opened a Pandora's Box for themselves and that in their eagerness to pander to one group of voters, they are alienating many others.

I left the GOP years ago because of what I saw is the unfairness and ruthlessness of the Christian Right and those who pandered to them.  Now the Democrats are acting just as bad but on the opposite end of the spectrum.  The husband and I are definitely rethinking who we support and what candidates and organizations deserve our financial support.   By their rush to judgment on Northam, a number of would be Democrat presidential candidates have shown they do not have the calm and steady analysis for the White House.

Hypocrisy and Backstabbing on Display in Northam Controversy

Like many in Virginia, the ongoing drama surrounding Ralph Northam has been  on my mind throughout the day yesterday and today.  I spent part of the day yesterday with a political insider who likewise supports Northam and are disgusted by the hypocrisy and rush to judgment on display. One point of interest seemingly missing among the LGBT community, is the fact that this controversy was ignited by far right anti-abortion extremists who somehow dug up the 1984 EVMS yearbook.  These people are not only seeking to destroy Northam, are also the principal opponents of LGBT rights in Virginia and have made sure that the Republican controlled House of Delegates kills every pro-LGBT bill every year. Gays and supposed LGBT allies jumping on the anti-Northam bandwagon are unwittingly aiding their own enemies.

Like so many others, the husband and I watched Northam's press conference yesterday afternoon.  Frankly, our hearts broke seeing Pam Northam, who we adore, looking so devastated. Through it all, my thoughts are that the uproar is not really about possible transgressions 35 years ago, but rather (i) political hypocrisy, (ii) a dangerous demand for lifelong ideological purity, and (ii) politcal backstabbing. 

Ironically, Northam has been one of the strongest advocates pushing for the restoration of felons' voting rights which would disproportionately benefit black Virginians since years of Republican control of the General Assembly has seen blacks disproportionately prosecuted and convicted thanks to draconian laws. One reader summed the situation well: "Same people calling for his head are the people who believe in restoration of voting rights and second chances." 

As for the new cult of life long ideological purity, another reading was on point and commented: "What the Democrat Party is now saying is that there is no room for those who have canged their views and norms of past times Once in black face always in black face . . . you are not welcome in our "big tent." Good luck winning elections with that." The writer is on point, in my view, and in their rush to judgment on Northam, Democrat elected officials may have just ensured that the Republicans will retain control of the House of Delegates after the November 2017 elections.   Newport News Mayor McKinley Price has been one of the few with common sense:

“I think if people are true to what they will admit, everybody has had some bigotry or racism in their life,” Price said Friday. “I think this should be looked at as an opportunity for us to do what, quite frankly, we haven’t done, and that’s (having) an open and frank discussion about bigotry and its effects."

Surprisingly, Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax has not yet demanded Northam's resignation.  Sadly, the black caucus in the Virginia General Assembly has shown no such moderation and seems most motivated to force Northam out of office so that they can have a black governor in the form of the Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax who has never held elected office until being sworn in in January 2018.  This motivation also seemingly holds for at least one senior individual in the Virginia Democrat Party who is has demonstrated an active, anti-white racism (this will be the subject of a future blog post with documentation).   I have two worries about Fairfax should Northam be forced to eventually resign: (1) his inexperience, and (ii) his failure to convince me that he is a real ally to LGBT Virginians.  Should Northam resign, LGBT Virginians will lose the most powerful ally they have every had in Richmond and find themselves with a replacement who is an unknown quantity and perhaps more vulnerable to pressure from anti-gay black pastors who are regularly cynically manipulated by the anti-gay and white supremacist descended Family Foundation . 

On the backstabbing from, many Virginia Democrats now rushing to denounce Northam and call for his resignation include a number of those elected to the House of Delegates in 2017 who owe their election to the efforts of Northam's ground game.  Leading this list is Danica Roem who has lost all of my respect.  Roem, however, is not alone.  In his rush to call for Northam's resignation, Mark Herring has lost our respect and I have already withdrawn our previous promises of money and hosting a fundraiser in our home for his gubernatorial campaign.  Tim Kaine and Mark Warner have likewise lost my respect. What disturbs me most is the fact that the truth and what Northam has done over the last three decades doesn't matter to these politicians who are posturing, in my opinion, to (A) appease the  black vote and (B) appease the strident ideology police of the Democrat left.  What they are seemingly ignoring is that some of us want elected officials who are honest and stand by principle not political expediency.  This year, Virginia Democrats seeking money from us will go away empty handed. 

The winners in all of this?  The anti-abortion extremists and Virginia Republicans who are likely salivating at the thought of the inexperienced Fairfax as governor and the reality that he would likely be unable to win re-election in 2021.  Closer at hand, the Virginia Democrat Party is tearing itself apart and will now go into the 2017 elections deeply divided. While these Democrats may curry favor with the black voters, I suspect some white voters in the critical urban crescent of Virginia may sit out the election and guarantee 2 more years of Republican control in the legislature.