Washington Post: Why Won't McDonnell Talk About "Social Issues?"

This Washington Post editorial - questioning why Bob McDonnell believes it's suddenly off-limits to talk about abortion, contraception, embryonic stem cell research, gay rights, separation of church and state, and other important "social issues" - is right on target, especially considering that McDonnell's own website touts several of his accomplishments in this area:

Bob McDonnell is pro-life. As Attorney General, Bob supported numerous bills to protect the unborn and defended the Commonwealth’s ban on late-term partial birth abortion.

As a legislator, Bob McDonnell helped lead the effort to ban late-term partial birth abortion (House Bills 2513 & 1541, 2003), fought to successfully enact parental notification and informed consent (Chief Patron, House Bill 1110, 1992; HB 2570, 2001), and encourage adoption.

Bob McDonnell believes marriage is the union between one man and one woman. As a legislator, Bob McDonnell was chief sponsor and author of a constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage (Chief Patron, HJ 187, 2004). As Attorney General, Bob supported Virginia’s marriage amendment and wrote an official opinion explaining that it would not affect the current legal rights of unmarried persons.

In the House of Delegates, Bob McDonnell was twice named “Legislator of the Year” by the Virginia Family Foundation. In his 2005 race for Attorney General, Bob was honored to receive the endorsement of the Virginia Society for Human Life.

By the way, since McDonnell boasts about his support from the Virginia Family Foundation and the Virginia Society for Human Life, it might be nice to know something about these two groups.

Family Foundation: Believes that "an embryo is a human life from the point of fertilization," therefore "emergency contraceptives" such as the "Morning After Pill" have "no moral distinction from surgical abortion." The Family Foundation also wants to use taxpayer money to provide a "a tax credit for families that choose non-public schools," apparently violating the constitutional separation of church and state. The Family Foundation also says that "Investment in embryonic stem cell (ESC) research is a waste of taxpayer dollars," even though there's a huge amount of evidence indicating the tremendous potential therapeutic value "ESC" research could provide to people suffering from cancer, diabetes, heart disease, paralysis, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and many other diseases. By the way, the Family Foundation says it is "proud to be associated with Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family." Here is some more information on that group, including its crusade against the "homosexual agenda," you might find interesting. Enjoy, and keep in mind that Bob McDonnell brags about his long-time support from this group.

Virginia Society for Human Life
Among other bizarre and extreme statements on its website, this group claims that "elective abortion" is the "leading cause of death among Black Americans...not heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or other illness." The group also compares embryonic stem cell research to heinous medical "experiments" performed - often without anesthesia - "by the Nazis at Auschwitz and Dachau" and also to "the syphilis experiments performed on uninformed African Americans at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama." I wonder if Bob McDonnell agrees with these comparisons.

Bottom line: given his extremist, far-outside-the-mainstream record on so-called "social issues," it's no wonder Bob McDonnell, a Pat Robertson/James Dobson Republican through and through, doesn't want to talk about these topics.

P.S. If you want to read an excellent example illustrating the mindset of McDonnell supporters on "social issues," click here - and try to keep yourself from busting a gut laughing at the "through the looking glass" claim that it's really Creigh Deeds who's the "zealot" for being squarely in the mainstream, while Bob McDonnell is buys "putting forward a constructive, solutions based platform for Virginia." What's truly hilarious is that this isn't satire, it's totally serious, presented without any sense of irony. Do pro-McDonnell bloggers even know what "irony" is?