"Resurgence"...of Empty Republican Rhetoric

Courtesy of Mark Sanford's Republican Governor's Association, Bob McDonnell is spending serious cash to run the ad, "Resurgence," on our tee-vee's for 10 days or so. Aside from the question of how wise it is to be spending $300,000 on this when nobody's really paying attention, the ad simply makes no sense beyond empty Republican rhetoric. A few points:

1. Bob McDonnell says "this is a tough time for Virginians." Well yeah, no s***, but what on earth do Republicans - the very people who got us into this economic mess through their trickle down/supply side/deregulation economics - plan to do about it? Nationally and here in Virginia, Republicans like Bob McDonnell opposed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, including $125 million for unemployed Virginians struggling to make ends meet during this "tough time." Republicans are also opposing health care reform that will greatly help Americans by giving people more choices at better prices - and covering millions more American families - for their health care needs. Republicans like Bob McDonnell even oppose kickstarting an energy efficiency and "clean tech" revolution in this country, which has the potential to create millions of jobs that can't be "outsourced" and to enhance our national security by getting us off our addiction to Saudi oil. In sum, Bob McDonnell's line about how "this is a tough time" would be fine except that McDonnell/Cantor Republicans offer no solutions, just empty rhetoric.

2. Bob McDonnell says, "I want to see Virginia be the most business friendly state in America..." Uh, Bob? If you hadn't been spending your time hanging out with national Republicans like Sean Hannity, Mark Sanford, Mitt Romney, etc., you might have noticed that Virginia has been the most business friendly state in America for years now. Just yesterday, in fact, "Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced...that Virginia’s pro-business environment has garnered the Commonwealth its latest No. 1 ranking nationally." Perhaps Bob McDonnell doesn't want to acknowledge this fact, given that Virginia's tops-in-the-nation business rankings have come under two Democratic governors, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine? Fascinating. UPDATE: Karen at AIAW has more on Virginia's #1 business ranking.

3. Bob McDonnell says "I like fixing problems and working across party lines without regard really to who gets the credit." Yeah, that's a great sentiment, but since when have Virginia Republicans done that? This, after all, is the same group that said "no" to just about everything Mark Warner and Tim Kaine proposed, that nearly ran Virginia completely into the ditch under Jim Gilmore, that has been soundly thrashed at the polls for years now (Warner, Kaine, Webb, State Senate, House of Delegates, Tom Perriello, Glenn Nye, Gerry Connolly) because Virginians see Democrats not Republicans as the people who are about "fixing problems and working across party lines without regard really to who gets the credit."

Other than that, great ad by Bob McDonnell! ****snark****