One of the highlights of today's debate in Williamsburg was getting a chance to hang out with my friend - and Creigh Deeds supporter - Alan Zimmerman, aka "Aznew." I just got home a few minutes ago, and one of the first things I did was to check out Aznew's most excellent blog, Virginia Democrat. Lo and behold, Aznew wrote almost exactly what I was thinking, although I hadn't thought of the eerie Animal House/"Otter" comparison to Brian Moran's response on the defense contractor contributions issue. Check out Aznew's take:At one point during today's big debate at William & Mary, Andrea Mitchell asked Brian Moran about all those contributions he's been receiving from defense contractors, and whether something would be expected from him (or his brother) in return.
Moran clumsily, but effectively, ducked the question. He launched into a statement about how those defense contractors made things like bullet-proof vests that saved lives, which indeed they do. Moran even got a little self-righteous about it.
The problem with his response, of course, is that he was indignant about an allegation that had never been made. No one questioned the legitimacy of the work these contractors do; rather, the question was whether Brian's Moran's powerful brother in Congress had anything to do with the fact that an inexplicably high percentage of their contributions in the race so far have gone to him.
Aznew then reminds us of Eric "Otter" Stratton's defense in the movie Animal House - "Well, you can do what you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and let you badmouth the United States of America!!"
That, essentially, is Brian Moran's response to the Washington Post and New York Times articles on questionable contributions he's received from the defense industry: "You're not attacking Brian Moran, you're attacking the United States of America!" And here I thought that's what REPUBLICANS did every time someone disagreed with them, accuse them of being against America. Niiiice.
