Barbara Comstock: Endorsed by Extremists, Silent on Marriage Equality, Attacks Daily Kos Instead

Gotta love it: a) Barbara Comstock has been endorsed by some of the rabid, hateful, bigoted, extreme individuals in the entire country -- people like Mark Levin, Sean  Hannity, the anti-Semitic "joke" guy, etc.; b) Comstock has supported extreme legislation herself, such as mandatory, state-enforced, transvaginal ultrasounds on women; c) Comstock has spent much of her career as a Republican attack dog and witch hunter, obsessed with the Clintons among others; and d) most recently, she's had no comment whatsoever on yesterday's momentous, historic events regarding marriage equality, but she has plenty of time to attack a progressive blog (and John Foust's utterly innocuous/standard Democratic responses to their survey, which you can read here). I remember back in 2006 when the George Allen folks attacked Jim Webb for raising hundreds of thousands of dollars on Daily Kos, and how that "attack" had zero impact on Allen's electoral prospects a few weeks later. Let's hope the same thing applies this year in the Comstock-Foust race.

Video: Virginia AG Mark Herring Press Conference in Arlington on Historic Day for LGBT Marriage

lowkell :: Video: Virginia AG Mark Herring Press Conference in Arlington on Historic Day for LGBT Marriage

A Sad Day for Anti-LGBT Bigots like Bob Marshall; A Great Day for Everyone Else!

Great news (except for the bigots like "Sideshow Bob" Marshall, Ken Kookinelli, etc.), mazel tov to everyone who's going to be able to get married soon! :) The Supreme Court decided not to review rulings that cleared the way for same-sex marriage in Virginia, Utah, Oklahoma, Indiana and Wisconsin on Monday, meaning marriages can take place there immediately.[...] It was a surprising move by the court. Even though no appeals court had ruled that state prohibitions were constitutional--and such disagreements between circuits usually are precursors to Supreme Court review--most thought the court would not let such a significant change happen without their input. A pleasant surprise for a change from the mostly-horrible Supreme Court. By the way, let's not forget what this is all about in the end: the fundamental American value of equal protection under the law and the constitution. How on earth that's still a difficult concept for some Americans to understand is really mind boggling, but obviously the Bob Marshalls, Dick Blacks and Ken Cuccinellis of the world are blinded by bigotry, intolerance, etc., which appallingly they place AHEAD of fundamental American values (e.g., separation of church and state, equal protection). What boggles my mind is that Cuccinelli was Attorney General and almost became governor; Dick Black is a State Senator; Bob Marshall is a State Delegate; etc.P.S. What are Barbara Comstock's and Ed Gillespie's reactions to this? Can't wait. :) UPDATE: Rep. Gerry Connolly tweets, "SCOTUS gets it right and allows pro-marriage equality rulings to stand! Great day for justice for families in Virginia and 10 other states." So true. UPDATE #2: AG Mark Herring, a true hero on this issue, tweets: "We are in contact w/ 4th circuit on exact timing, but we're expecting that marriages between same-sex couples can happen later today."

Rick Boucher, Bill Bolling Inadvertently Prove They're Utterly Unserious About Ethics Reforms

Over on his Facebook page, former Virginia Lt. Governor Bill Bolling is busy encouraging everyone to read "Bill's op/ed - Restoring Virginians' Trust In Government - in today's edition of the Washington Post. Now, of course I'm not normally in the habit of taking advice from Bolling, a conservative Republican who's wrong about, well, pretty much everything (recent example: joining in the Ebola hysteria, alarmism and fear-mongering), but I was curious what he and former Rep. Rick Boucher had to say about ethics reform, given that Gov. McAuliffe has (unfortunately) appointed the two of them to lead the newly-formed "Commission on Integrity and Public Confidence in State Government." Unfortunately, as much as Bolling and Boucher probably believe that their editorial shows how serious they are about cleaning up the ethics mess Virginia finds itself in, reading it causes me to reach the exact opposite conclusion, that they are not the least bit serious, nor do they in the least bit "get it" (or even "get" what they don't "get").First, though, let's review a bit of history about Bolling and Boucher, the heads of Gov. McAuliffe's ethics commission. As for Bolling, you might be interested to know that he worked for 21 years at the Virginia-based Reciprocal Group, an insurance company "whose executives were found guilty of Enron-like fraud." That's right, "Enron-like fraud." Bolling's excuses? Well, he implausibly/laughably claimed to have only been a mere "middle manager" at the company, even though he earned a whopping $250,000+ per year "in a company listing a mere $4 million in assets!" Nice, huh? Oh yeah, Bolling also Bolling implausibly/laughably claimed to have no memory whatsoever of any wrongdoing at the company, which went bankrupt in 2003 "with $770 million in unpaid claims," including the fact that it "financially devastated thousands of doctors and lawyers as well as many hospitals across the country that relied on it for their malpractice insurance." Yeah, memory loss can be a terrible thing, but in this case it's all too convenient for Bill Bolling, and obviously not the least bit credible (I mean, if you believe Bolling on this, I've got some nice swamp land in drought-stricken California to sell you...). Bottom line: Bill Bolling is one of the LAST people this side of Bob McDonnell we should trust to head up an ethics commission. As for Rick Boucher, he epitomizes so much of what's wrong about government these days (e.g., "revolving door" between Congress and the lobbying world; doing the bidding of corporations when he was in Congress), it's hard to know where to start. Check out "The Climate War" and Why Rick Boucher Lost His Election, plus YOU HAVE WON A NEW CAR!!! and details on how Boucher has cashed in since he lost his bid for reelection in 2010. Again, this is one of the last people we should trust to reform the many problems in Virginia government. Enough on their (sordid) background, though; let's get to the arguments Bolling and Boucher make in their op-ed to demonstrate just how clueless and unserious they really are. Here are a few highlowlights:

Video: Jim Webb on Meet the Press; A Few Thoughts

A few thoughts from Jim Webb's interview with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press this morning.1. I'm glad to see Chuck Todd disclosing that his wife, Kristian Denny Todd, worked on Jim Webb's 2006 U.S. Senate campaign (as communications director). Just get that right out of the way, not that it should be an issue or anything. 2. I strongly agree with Jim Webb that we're at a crossroads as a nation in terms of economic fairness - "if you've got capital you're feeling pretty good," but "average salaries have gone down" - namely, whether or not we continue the path we've been on since the early 1980s (the era of Ronald Reagan's "trickle down," "supply side," "voodoo economics" insanity) into a nation where the rich get richer and everyone else gets squeezed, poorer, etc. I also agree with Webb that this is a huge problem, and would argue that the situation's gotten significantly worse since Webb talked about it in 2006. 3. I agree with Webb that we haven't had a super-clear articulation of U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. On the other hand, the removal of the Soviet Union and containment of Communism as an organizing principle, combined with the rise of other nations/power centers like China, India, Brazil, etc., was almost certain to lead to that muddy result. Does Jim Webb have a unifying, organizing principle for U.S. foreign policy? If so, I'd love to hear it, but his own record is full of contradictions, so we'll see... 4. Chuck Todd does the usual faux-narrative-construction b.s. as he tries to frame what Jim Webb's saying about the U.S. not having a clear foreign policy doctrine as criticizing President Obama. In fact, Webb's saying we haven't had this for a "very long time," since the end of the Cold War, which last I checked was during the latter years of the Reagan administration and the early days of the George HW Bush administration. See the "flip" for more.

Officer Petersen would like you to move right along, nothing to see here...

by The Richmonder

Yesterday State Senator Chap Petersen posted some thoughts on Facebook about what he called "the latest scandal du jour in the VPAP clips." It was a rather nonchalant introduction to some surprising comments: I've known Paul Reagan for fifteen years, as an official for Mark Warner, Jim Webb and now Terry McAuliffe. (Back in the 90′s, he also served on the Consumer Protection Commission, where I used to appear as an attorney). I regard him as one of the most honest and reputable people I've met in Virginia. Nothing he said or suggested with Senator Puckett has changed my opinion. I'll leave it at that. Because, as we all know, people with long and distinguished careers in public service never wreck those careers and self-destruct by breaking the law. No, that never happens.The next "thought" Senator Petersen rolled out was this: The Puckett investigation is a road to nowhere and we're slowly getting there. While Phil's actions in resigning just before a key vote were wrong (in my humble opinion), that is a matter between him and his friends. It does not involve the U.S. Attorney. This is not "McDonnell Part Deux." There is nothing illegal about resigning from a public office to take a better-paid position, either with the private sector or with state government. If it was, then you could lock up a lot of people in River City right now. It's true enough that people often leave good jobs for better jobs. Indeed, that used to be the American dream, to build a career by taking a series of increasingly challenging jobs, succeeding in them, and moving on to better compensated opportunities. That's not what Phil Puckett did. Phil Puckett tried to trade control of the Virginia State Senate for not one, but two six figure jobs with the state judiciary and the state tobacco commission--the first for his daughter and the second for himself. There is a strong possibility that this attempted exchange of influence might be a violation of federal public corruption laws. It stretches credulity to suggest that Petersen--by all accounts a talented attorney--does not understand that.But Petersen did not stop there; he dug deeper:

Democratic Policies Save the Economy. Will Voters Reward Them for It on November 4?

This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly Employment Situation Summary, and it was truly superb. The headline numbers were a "non-farm payroll employment" increase of 248,000 in September, and a decline in the unemployment rate to 5.9 percent. On the White House blog, Jason Furman of the Council of Economic Advisors put these numbers in perspective: a) "private sector has added 10.3 million jobs over 55 straight months of job growth, extending the longest streak on record"; b) the unemployment rate is now "the lowest since July 2008, and is down 1.3 percentage point over the last year"; and c) "more than 700,000 jobs added" in the manufacturing sector over the course of the economic recovery, with "an increase in the average workweek to levels not seen since World War II."So, while it's not time to be breaking into the song "Happy Days are Here Again," I'd say it's most certainly time to start recognizing that something real - and really good - has been happening. And, of course, it's long past time start allotting credit (and blame) where credit (and blame) is due. The fact is, when President Obama assumed office in late January 2009, the economy he inherited from 8 years of Republican misrule was in freefall, no matter how you want to look at it. Look at that private sector payroll employment graph and you can see it starkly depicted: we've gone from job losses of more than 800,000 per month (!!!) when President Obama was sworn in, to job gains every single month for the past 4 years, 7 months. Why did that happen? Very clearly, it was the result of the various emergency actions and longer-term economic policies that the Obama Administration and the Democratic-led Congress took during 2009. That includes the much-maligned (by Republicans) economic recovery act, which despite the critics' constant carping, has worked as well or even better than intended. Meanwhile, it's now apparent that other policies - like expanding health care access to millions of Americans through the Affordable Care Act -- far from having trashed the economy, as Republicans promised they would, have if anything helped it. In fairness, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which was proposed by Bush Administration Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, certainly was important as well. The fact that Republicans were dragged kicking and screaming into doing it speaks volumes, though. Speaking of Republicans, if it weren't for them, the recovery would have happened a lot faster and stronger than it did. First off, the initial economic "stimulus" package could have, and should have, been a lot bigger, with more of the money targeted at infrastructure investments, a lot more help to the states, far more aid to the unemployed, etc. The reason it wasn't bigger/better? Mostly, because Republicans had decided that their #1 goal wasn't to help the country's economy recover, but to try to make President Obama (and along with him, of course, the country) fail. There were also a few "conservadems" to blame, of course, but overwhelmingly it was Republican recklessness, irresponsibility and belief in Herbert Hoover-style "austerity" policies (e.g., "let Detroit go bankrupt"). Crazy.

Video: Arlington Dems Call Out Republican John Vihstadt's Distortions, Inaccuracies, Negativity

At tonight's Arlington County Democratic Committee (ACDC) meeting, Clerk of the Courts Paul Ferguson and ACDC Chair Kip Malinosky strongly called out Republican John Vihstadt for his numerous inaccuracies, distortions, misrepesentations, etc. Here's Kip Malinosky noting that Vihstadt "recused himself" on affordable housing; voted AGAINST the capital improvement plan that would have put more money towards schools and road maintenance (including things like fixing potholes). As Malinosky put it, "I want somebody representing me on the County Board who is FOR something...and [Democrat] Alan Howze is that candidate," NOT Republican John Vihstadt. Next (on the "flip"), Arlington County Clerk of the Courts Paul Ferguson also takes on Vihstadt's "distorting what the facts actually are."

The three issues that [Republican John Vihstadt's] running on primarily are the street car - being against it of course, the aquatic center - being against that of course, and continuing to talk about this quote mmillion-dollar bus stop, that he is of course against. Against against against, do you hear the pattern? Let me start with the aquatic center, because this is the easiest one that just completely makes no sense. The Arlington voters approved a $50 million bond saying that we want an aquatic center here in the county. Well, it costs a little bit more than we thought...so what did the county board do, they pulled back...put this on hold...John Vihstadt...wants to use this as an issue in his campaign, so it's politics rather than policy. Then we talk about this quote million-dollar bus stop. This was through federal stimulus funding, and it was run by WMATA, not Arlington County...[the board is] making sure that future bus stops will not cost this amount. But to try to pin this on Arlington County or on Alan Howze as some sort of example of financial mismanagement is really deceptive and is incorrect. Then finally about the streetcar, good people can disagree on this issue. However...as far as the funding differential goes...this is all dedicated transit money, so it's NOT as if you can use this money by not doing the streetcar for something like schools...John Vihstadt doesn't say that, but he keeps saying here's what the priorities are, why is the county spending $500 million - I don't know where he gets that money- on a streetcar when they have all kinds of other needs out there? Well, the truth of that matter is it's dedicated transportation funding...it's certainly an incorrect [implication] to say that you could use the money for something else...Every study that's been done...have showed that it's a multipler on investment...Good people could differ on this, but I think it's unfortunate that the facts are being distorted in this race.

Video: Dem Candidates for Congress, County Board, School Board, Treasurer Speak at ACDC

First, check out the excellent speech by our next Congressman, Don Beyer, preceded by an enthusiastic (as always) intro by ACDC Chair Kip Malinosky. I'll post the remaining videos in the comments section of this post.

Right-Wing OpEd Writer Kathleen Parker Goes Off Deep End; Barbara Comstock & Supporters Follow

Kathleen Parker is a right wing op-ed writer, but usually one of the better, saner ones out there (not saying much, I know). Not today. In her screed, The silly, selective 'war on women', she manages to: a) rant about "extremists on the pro-choice left"; b) falsely claims that the entire Republican "war on women" (and no, it's not made up by Dems; sadly it's real) is about abortion, when in fact it's about equal pay for equal work, access to contraception and family planning, health care, etc. as well; c) claims that John Foust is "a man whose disrespect toward women and the single job only women can do - mothering - is at least as offensive as Limbaugh's name-calling." Wow. Just wow. That's some seriously insane s*** right there, on every level. And the Post printed this gar-bage? More "wow" and "just wow" and... Meanwhile, on her Facebook page, that poor, beleaguered Barbara Comstock, the "pit-bull staffer" -- who somehow isn't tough enough to defend her honor against whatever slings and arrows, real or imagined, come her way -- is busy quoting her hero (or should it be "heroine"?) du jour, Kathleen Parker. And the first comment on Comstock's Facebook status update, by a male (of course!) supporter? Check this out. The Democrats are the Party at War will ALL American CITIZENS, female or male, to sell their rights to buy the votes of Illegal Invaders for a soviet style one party America ruled by the Democrats. Any woman who believes the Democrat "War on Women" lie should ride in the back seat of Kennedy's car like Mary Jo & see how it feels. Also note that Comstock hasn't deleted that abominable, despicable (any other synonym for "heinous" you can come up with) comment, or denounced it. And I bet she won't, as she's never denounced other extremists who have endorsed her, people like Sean Hannity and Mark Levin, who have said more vile, bigoted, insane things in the past few months than you'd think it's humanly possible to say (or even THINK!) in a lifetime. That's Barbara Comstock and her core supporters right there. These are, in short, the LAST people who should be criticizing John Foust for what was, admittedly, a stupid gaffe, but certainly not proof (or even evidence) that he's disrespectful to women in any way. Except, perhaps, for not respecting Barbara Comstock's abysmal record in her numerous "real jobs" (e.g., waging a jihad against the Clintons, defending Scooter Libby, consulting to the Koch brothers, voting for trans-vaginal ultrasound legislation) over the years.