Good work by Anita Kumar, nailing Bob McDonnell for lying about Sarah Palin. Lie #1: "McDonnell denied that he distanced himself from Palin during his gubernatorial campaign..."
Except, as Anita Kumar points out, "that's exactly what Palin's spokeswoman told us he did."
Lie #2: "McDonnell said today that Palin did not come to Virginia because she was in such high demand...'She didn't leave Alaska very much.'" Also, "He said the one time she was scheduled to attend an event for him -- a Republican Governors Association fundraising dinner on his behalf -- Palin canceled because of severe flooding in Alaska."
Except, as Anita Kumar points out, "McDonnell and his campaign never mentioned Sarah Palin's cancellation or Todd Palin's participation in all the months reporters have been asking them about Palin."
Lie #3: "McDonnell said he didn't purposely exclude Palin from the long list of national GOP figures who helped him."
Except, as Anita Kumar pointed out earlier, that's exactly what happened, with the Palin camp even going so far as to say that Palin would "move mountains if the [McDonnell] campaign wishes." Apparently, the McDonnell campaign didn't move any mountains or make any wishes for Sarah Palin.
Lie #4: McDonnell now says, "Once we got in the home stretch of the campaign we pretty much had kind of the idea of who we needed and had people who were willing to come and help us and it was primarily the current Republican governors -- Haley Barbour, Tim Pawlenty and Bobby Jindal and others."
Except, as Anita Kumar points out, "Perhaps McDonnell has forgotten he campaigned with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney during the last week of the campaign." Emphasis on the word "former."
The real question isn't whether McDonnell is lying here, but why he is lying. My guess is that McDonnell sees Sarah Palin appearing before large crowds on her book tour, and worries that he might piss off Palin's supporters by appearing to "dis" her. Unfortunately for McDonnell, that's exactly what he did in the gubernatorial campaign, specifically excluding Palin from campaigning for him, even though every other Republican and their uncle put in an appearance in the Old Dominion. Obviously, Team McDonnell saw Palin as a liability pre-election, but now sees dissing her as a bigger potential liability post-election. Thus, McDonnell's lies, and thus, his comment that "he shares her conservative philosophy of governing." Interesting, I wonder if McDonnell agrees with these examples of "conservative philosophy" (per the Wall Street Journal):
...[Palin] drew the ire of the religious right by shelving calls for new abortion limits, when she worried it would distract from her bipartisan deal to push through a new gas pipeline. She forced through property-tax cuts, but also raised taxes on oil companies. She has close relations with organized labor, backing union contracts on a state pipeline.So, Bob McDonnell plans to "at times" push for "more taxes and more spending?" Hmmm. He plans to have "close relations with organized labor?" I wonder.
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...Gov. Palin has also at times pushed more taxes and more spending. As governor, she essentially raised taxes on oil companies as part of a deal to help update Alaska's formula for extracting royalties off of crude production.
I also wonder if McDonnell agrees with Palin on earmarks, including the infamous "bridge to nowhere," to which "she never said 'no thanks.'" Finally, I wonder if McDonnell agrees with Palin's heavy focus on social issues, after he ran as a "moderate" focused on the economy and not "guns, god and gays." Perhaps, now that he's elected, Bob McDonnell is finding his "inner Pat Robertson," or maybe it's his "inner Sarah Palin." We'll find out soon enough, especially when McDonnell realizes there's essentially nothing he can do on transportation or on any of the other economic priorities he laid out in the campaign. Why not? Because, among other reasons, Virginia's budgetary cupboard is almost completely bare, and because Bob McDonnell refuses to raise revenues in order to help replenish that cupboard. Checkmate? As Sarah Palin would say, "you betcha!"
