Over at Bearing Drift, at other conservative blogs, and out of Bob McDonnell's own mouth, we're hearing the argument made that McDonnell can't possibly be a right-wing extremist since Creigh Deeds voted for "98% of [McDonnell's] bills" offered while McDonnell was Attorney General. A few points on this (ridiculous) claim.1. As Attorney General, Bob McDonnell essentially was auditioning for Governor, and even more so for the gubernatorial campaign he's now in the midst of losing (heh). Not surprisingly, therefore, if you look at McDonnell’s legislative agenda during the period when he was AG, he played it safe, backed mostly non-controversial bills so that he could have statistics that looked "good" to the generally moderate Virginia public when 2009 rolled around.
2. Despite this, on his campaign website McDonnell brags that "[a]s Attorney General, Bob supported numerous bills to protect the unborn," that he "supported Virginia’s marriage amendment and wrote an official opinion explaining that it would not affect the current legal rights of unmarried persons."
3. Meanwhile, behind the scenes while he was being such a "moderate" as Attorney General, Bob McDonnell was busy speaking to far-right-wing groups like the "National Right to Life Committee" (where he said, "These elections matter because elections determine who's got the power and who's going to make the decisions and whether or not...they are Pro-Life or not will make an eternal difference in the statutes and in the legislatures all over this country" and also "I want to salute all you pro-life warriors for Virginia for all you’ve done to turn Virginia around and make it a pro-life state") and to Koch Industries' far-right-wing "Americans for Prosperity." He was also appearing on Pat Robertson's 700 Club, speaking at Regent and Liberty Universities, issuing an opinion that localities could regulate abortion clinics, fighting abortion all the way to the Supreme Court, and pledging he would protect the "unborn" as Governor.
4. McDonnell also was busy issuing an opinion that "without enabling legislation, no locality can include sexual discrimination in its non-discrimination policy" and also that "the law and public policy of the commonwealth of Virginia prohibit the Board of Visitors of a college or university from including ‘sexual orientation’ as a protected class absent specific authorization from the General Assembly."
5. In this campaign, McDonnell focuses on his legislative record as Attorney General but avoids discussion of his legislative record as a Delegate for 14 years (from 1992 to 2006). And no wonder, given that McDonnell sponsored 35 bills to restrict abortion, even opposing it in the cases of rape and incest. On his own website, McDonnell brags that "[a]s a legislator, [he] 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)." McDonnell also notes that he "was twice named 'Legislator of the Year' by the Virginia Family Foundation," a group whose "issues" include the following ideas: that "[h]uman life, from fertilization to natural death, is sacred;" that our schools should "clearly" teach America's "Judeo-Christian heritage" (which supposedly has been "under constant assault" for "over three decades"); that "the future of the family" depends - "as Dr. James Dobson has stated" - on making pornography illegal in Virginia; that "tighten[ing]" (and ultimately getting rid of) "no-fault divorce" laws in Virginia would be beneficial; that "gay-straight alliances" should be barred from Virginia public schools; that adoption by gays and lesbians should be outlawed; that Planned Parenthood should be defunded; and that the "morning after" contraceptive pill (aka, "emergency contraception") "takes an unborn human life" and "has no moral distinction from surgical abortion."
6. A few more important matters that Bob McDonnell's "98%" pseudo-statistic apparently doesn't count include McDonnell's opposition to federal stimulus money; his opposition to a restaurant smoking ban (worth noting: McDonnell was the #1 recipient in 2008 of campaign contributions from Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris); and, as the Richmond Times Dispatch reported in May 2009, "McDonnell declared that Gov. Tim Kaine overstepped his constitutional authority in issuing an executive order banning bias against gay people in state hiring, employment and promotion." That doesn't count either, apparently, in McDonnell's bogus "98%" phony number.
7. Finally, it is important to note that, as Bob McDonnell wrote in his infamous theocratic/dominionist thesis (that he then attempted to implement at a Virginia state delegate), he is aware that voters aren't ready for his radical social agenda and that, therefore, policymakers like himself should work quietly, behind the scenes to implement it anyway (the exact quote is, that "the voting American mainstream is not willing to accept a true pro-family ideologue").
That says it all right there: Bob McDonnell is being fundamentally dishonest with the people of Virginia, pretending to be someone he's not, hiding who he really is, and using funny math to pretend that Creigh Deeds supported him 98% of the time when he was AG. Lies, distortions, obfuscations and Pat Robertson extremism. Is that the type of person we want as governor? Nope, didn't think so.
