Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli has a dream that women will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by whether they paid for their Mirena out of pocket:
Whenever I talk about religious liberty, you know they turn it around. All they talk about — they don’t talk about denying religious liberty. They talk about contraception. And I’m not talking about contraception. Government doesn’t have a role in contraception. Government does have a role in protecting your civil rights especially today on MLK Day. The man who really came up with the American non-violent protest theory of civil disobedience. It’s pretty egregious that they can’t get any higher than contraception when we’re talking about protecting people’s religious liberty.
This is the guy who wants to run to replace trans-vaginal ultrasound Governor Bob McDonnell. Cuccinelli also went down the climate change skepticism rabbit hole by suing UVa since Michael E. Mann was there for a few years He’s also down on the browns and the gays.
That all said, his main competition at the moment is Terry McAuliffe. It’s hard to imagine the force of nature that would be necessary for me to place a mark next to Terry’s name on a ballot, though perhaps I’m an outlier. Maybe any Virginians reading can explain how we’re going to avoid four years of this guy.
piratedan
sorry to be OT, but if my facebook update is to be believed, Gov. Jindal of Lousiana just axed hospice coverage for Medicaid patients in his state.
LGRooney
I, and plenty of my fellow Arlingtonians, will happily hold my nose and vote for the corporatist over the religious nut. If I wanted the one person who would fit every ideal of mine, I would run myself and, even then, I’m not guaranteed to get 100% of what I want 100% of the time because, you know, it depends on the day.
JPL
So Congress can vote to have insurance coverage for their blue
p.i.l.l.s but not vote for pre-natal health care or family planning for females. ugh..
Mark S.
Why won’t you people discuss this issue with the Frank Luntz-approved talking points?
mistermix
@LGRooney: I think I’m pretty ready to vote for the lesser of two evils, and I’ve voted for plenty of blue dogs in my time, but McAuliffe is such a sleazeball that I don’t know if I could do it.
Gin & Tonic
I’m glad I don’t live in Virginia. This is shaping up to be nearly equivalent, in moral terms, to the Edwin Edwards-David Duke race.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
They hate women. And Jindal seems to hate everyone.
Gorilla Meek
It appears to this former constituent of Cucci the Clown (whose political career would have been over had the Democrats not nominated a terrible state senate candidate, who managed to lose by 91 votes in what was becoming then and is now a very Democratic district!)that more serious challengers than McAuliffe don’t want to run, because being Governor is a one-term path to nowhere and the bigger political offices (Senate, Congress) are not really in play.
I’ve been trying to get Sharon Bulova to jump in for months.
Still, as long as Cucci keeps talking, Democrats have a good chance of finishing him off anyway!
Chris
@LGRooney:
Word up.
As my other country said in 2002, “vote for a crook, not a fascist.”
RaflW
The Daily Show segment Monday night What MLK would have wanted should be required viewing for all these a-holes.
JMG
FWIW, I have a relative who’s a neighbor of McAuliffe’s, and he says he is a delightful guy, albeit a lunatic.
jibeaux
Sheesh, what’s Thoreau got to do to get a shout out?
drj
Strangely enough, the quote in isolation sounds quite reasonable.
Initially, I even thought Cuccinelli was arguing that access to contraception is a civil right (as it should be). Funny how that works.
Patricia Kayden
What’s so awful about Terry? He’s got to be better than Cuccinelli.
acallidryas
What LGRooney said. I’m not happy about my choices, but Cuccinelli is so ridiculously right-wing, that I will vote for Terry McAuliffe over him with no reservations and encourage others to do the same.
In fact, I have trouble thinking of who I wouldn’t vote for to keep Cuccinelli out. I’d probably vote for Bob McDonnell if that were a choice over Cuccinelli.
Betty Cracker
Hell yes I’d vote for that monumental ass McAuliffe over Kook-n-nellie if I were in Virginia. I know many Dems who stayed home here in Florida rather than drag their asses to the polls and vote for Bank of America exec Alex Sink in 2010. Let me tell you how that worked out…
Svensker
@piratedan:
Yes, he axed hospice care for the poor – had to make sure the rich folks got a tax cut, you know.
It is unbelievable. I mean, really, it is.
Eric S
Virginia is going for a hat trick. This, the redistricting, and eliminating their gas tax and replacing it with fees on hybrid and electric cars.
LGRooney
@mistermix: He seems like a sleazeball to me too but that’s because I am an irascible loner except in relations with my family. He has skills that I don’t have, that I will never have, and that I have loathed for as long as I can remember. Those salesman’s skills, however, are what make politics work and what gets new ideas and products out in the open. He seems slimy to me, too, but I am more willing to admit now than when I was much younger that there is a hint of jealousy in that feeling – I wish had some glad-handing skills because they open the door to opportunities you might otherwise not know about.
Yutsano
@Svensker: Oh and he wants to eliminate the state income tax and all corporate taxes as well. Basically he wants to have the entire state apparatus run on the backs of poor people. But, y’know, Jerb Creators and all that. It’ll be hilarious when he creates this great business environment in Louisiana and no business moves there because it’s such a shithole to live in. Not to mention their fucked up education system. These things matter Piyush.
ericblair
@mistermix:
Suck it up and vote for McAuliffe. Your choice is him or the jeebonator. That’s it. We’re not exactly thrilled about the prospects, either, but our preferences don’t seem to keep the assholes in Richmond awake at night.
Ash Can
@mistermix:
Could you explain to us exactly how McAuliffe would do as much damage to the people of Virginia as Cuccinelli would? I’m not being sarcastic, I’m dead serious. Because this looks like a no-brainer to me, and I have no idea what you’re seeing here that I’m not (or vice versa).
Mike in NC
That Cuccinelli is a bigger maggot than the incumbent governor is quite an accomplishment.
MattF
FWIW, two polls I’ve seen give McAuliffe either a small or a moderate edge over Cooch. Cooch has big negatives, even compared to McAuliffe.
James Hare
I wish we had a decent Democratic candidate for governor but all our good Democrats are in the Senate. Gotta replenish the bench — get some new blood in the legislature.
jibeaux
I’m depressed about filibuster reform, which was apparently about as serious a threat as sharia law.
Forum Transmitted Disease
What’s your alternative?
Don’t go the route that led to 8 years of Bush. I really thought we’d purged that brand of stupid from American politics by now.
HRA
If I had to hold my nose to vote for Hochul, then you can vote for Terry McAuliffe. BTW, I thought you lived in NYS.
amy c
I will vote for anyone up against Cuccinelli. That man is a power-mad wingnut of terrifying proportions.
But ugh. I’m worried about the Commonwealth, if this is the best we can do.
Mr Stagger Lee
@Svensker: He wants to beat Mississippi in the race for title of Ultimate Koch Brothers Dystopian Hell, you know FREEEEEEDUUUUMMMB! Huey and Earl Long are weeping!
amy c
@Gorilla Meek: Keep trying :) I’d be glad to vote for Bulova!
feebog
Jesus Christ on a pogo stick! You should be banned for a week from the front page for such a stupid statement. Let me spell it out for you. Not voting for McAuliffe means for more years of pulling a state that is trending blue back into the red. It could very well mean the state changes the way it allocates votes in Presidential elections to deny a Democrat the White House in 2016. It certainly will mean continued efforts to completely eliminate Planned Parenthood from the state alltogether. It will mean more evil tricks by the Republicans to permanently Gerrymander both legislative bodies.
So, gird your loins, hold your nose, and vote for McAuliffe. And you better get your friends and neighbors to do the same.
Angelia
@Eric S: I know it is like they are competing with Miss and Ky for the lower level state.
negative 1
A little bit of hope for any Virginians is that this stuff doesn’t always play well on the main stage. Suing an organization who is just going to have to raise fees for the educated (read: upper income) constituents of your dream office just doesn’t play well when held up to the light. A lot of times they start tap-dancing when everything they do is scrutinized. He’s already trying to distance himself from the contraceptive war he lost, it seems. If he’s really running for governor, watch to see if he does something to try and appease the moderates around the DC-Richmond corridor (like repainting himself as tough on crime and try to stop suing the government for existing).
Closeted epistemic (formerly Lojasmo)
@Ash Can:
Well, Jerome (MyDD) supported him last time, so that’s a pretty big negative there.
ETA. Kidding…sorta. I would vote for Terry if i lived in VA.
Cheryl from Maryland
@feebog:
This. Get out the vote and keep these fucking loons from office. Help Virginia go blue. Help Virginia get the Congressional districts that properly match its population. This is bigger than McCauliffe.
VBKim
James Hare is right, we just don’t have a deep bench here in VA and I’m with amy c in a despair pit that Cuccinelli and McAuliffe appear to be our choices. Terry McAuliffe-yuck, but I’ll definitely vote for him and probably end up volunteering for his campaign because Cuccinelli is a crazy true-believer and he will stop at nothing to eviscerate anything progressive and enact his far right agenda. He will stop at nothing.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
No, actually most of us talk about your religious liberty ending at my religious liberty.
kindness
In all honesty after Monday’s Republican revolt in the Virginia Senate (voting for a change in the electoral map when one Democratic Senator was attending the inauguration/MLK day) I got the notion that some of these folk are asking for an actual shooting revolution. Lord knows they deserve it.
Mnemosyne
I do find it fascinating how religious liberty now depends on denying things to other people rather than taking or not taking an action yourself.
Bokonon
@Yutsano: The oil and gas companies will get the tax breaks that they want. That’s the only calculation that probably matters to Jindal … that, plus ensuring their loyal campaign donations when Jindal runs for President in a few years. The tax mess will be someone else’s problem to clean up.
gene108
McAuliffe will be a mainline Democrat. If the Democrats center is ‘x’, McAuliffe will be at ‘x’ or maybe a step to the right.
If we can move the Democratic center to the left, McAuliffe will move left.
There’s nothing wrong with these sorts of guys. They are a better alternative than any Republican.
Villago Delenda Est
This vile piece of shit defines “religious liberty” pretty much the same way it was defined in the Massachusetts Bay colony: the liberty of those in power to ram their religion down your throat with the full force of law.
FlipYrWhig
I didn’t think anyone thought that McAuliffe was objectionable ideologically. He’s not a “Blue Dog” in the Heath Shuler mode or a Joe Manchin in the making. He’s just kind of slick and fluffy and glad-handing. Big fucking deal. Grab the lever and pull. Also do that in the voting booth.
Woodrowfan
By holding your nose and voting for McAuliffe. Better the used-car salesman than the Fascist Xtian. And I am not using ‘fascist” as a generic slur for the right wing. Cooch really is an authoritarian and is a dangerous man. He dreams of being President and is the type who will happily shove people in the ovens and sleep well at night knowing he was doing “God’s work.”
MattF
I’m under the impression that McAuliffe’s unfixable problem is that he’s extremely not-from-Virginia. I’d guess that this is not so much of a problem in NoVa, but could be a deal-killer in the rest of the state.
Bobby Thomson
@feebog:
This. FFSMS, no one hates McAuliffe and what he did to the DNC more than I, and I would gladly vote for him over Cuccinelli.
I mean, seriously, that’s beyond PUMA stupid.
marge
@acallidryas: I will absolutely vote for terry. Cooch is crazy!!!
Supernumerary Charioteer
@Eric S: Son of a bitch. Seriously? Our big thoroughfares are torn up here as it is. I think every move the state legislature’s made over the last four years has had at least one ‘fuck everything north of Manassas and east of Leesburg’ component to it.
eemom
Completing the trifecta which began with that sicko and unapologized “epidural deadened vagina” freakshow over the weekend and yesterday’s, um, commemoration of the Roe v. Wade anniversary with a discussion of fucking Andrew Sullivan.
Seriously, mix, are you feeling all right?
In any event, stay the fuck out of Virginia — we’ve got enough psychos here already.
El Caganer
@jibeaux: And the suffragettes. Of course, they wuz wimmen, so that doesn’t count.
Biff Longbotham
Mistermix, you usually have thoughtful, quality posts. Then there is this one…
Really now. I’m old enough to have worked out all of my inner conflict over the relative virtues of voting for someone I want to win vs. voting for the least offensive candidate. Have you? As a Virginia voter, I’ll vote for D-Whatshisname over that moron Cooch any day.
Mandalay
@eemom:
I am wondering the same thing lately. The guy used to be on the ball, but he really seems to be having a meltdown in recent posts.
shortstop
I’ve never been able to completely erase this picture from my memory.
Villago Delenda Est
@shortstop:
ZOMG, that is one hell of a shirt.
shortstop
@Villago Delenda Est: And so relevant to Puerto Rico. The waved bottle of rum is vintage McAuliffe.
waratah
If i lived in Virginia and had this choice I would not have to
think twice to vot for for the D. But then I am a woman.
waratah
I should know better to post when I am busy, that should be vote.
mainmati
@Gorilla Meek: “…because being Governor is a one-term path to nowhere…” Tell that to Sen. Mark Warner, Governor of VA from 2002-2006.
Tonal Crow
Fixed. Every good scientist is a skeptic: she treats every hypothesis (ya, even well-substantiated hypotheses like the Standard Theory of quantum mechanics) as provisional, upon the balance of how well it explains the relevant data. Denialists, on the other hand, refuse to accept data that support their target hypothesis, no matter how voluminous and convincing they are, and no matter the lack of good alternative hypotheses.
The Overton Window, it is real. Do your part to move it left.
mainmati
@Supernumerary Charioteer: Living in nearby MD, I dread going into N. VA. What a transportation monster, like a gigantic shrine to the FSM.
sapient
I like McAuliffe fine. No one has come up with any substantive criticism. So stuff it, mistermix, and vote for him.
honus
Virginia has like forever elected a governor of the opposite party from the winner of the previous year’s presidential election. This was true when the Commonwealth was a blue dog and republican paradise and elected three straight democrats during the reagan-Bush years. Held true during the permanent republican majority years of C+ Augustus who won huge margins, after which the state proceeded to elect Mark Warner and Tim Kaine over fairly respectable (read not as insane as Cuccinelli) republican opposition.
That said, Obama was the first democrat to carry Virginia since LBJ, and he has done it twice. Cuccinelli, with his high profile track record over the past four years is going to have a lot more trouble appearing moderate that McDonnell did. (McDonnell did not look overtly nuts, instead appearing like a normal suburban dad, and he didn’t do things like suing UVA, which Virginians respect as an institution, and don’t like tarnished. IMHO that backfired badly. Cooch was listening to his echo-chamber think-tank buddies who thought the populace would regard UVA as elitist. They do, but as Faulkner said “Virginians are snobs. I like snobs.”)
This might be the year that worm turns.
Paul in KY
If you can’t vote for Terry McAuliffe over Ken Coochiesmelly, then you need to find yourself another website.
Linda
What interests me about this story is the little cha-cha that the VA AG did with Martin Luther King and his “religious liberty” fight. When a Virginia blogger called him on his shit, Cooch’s defenders said, “Oh, he made no such comparison. You horrible liberals are ACCUSING him of this, but if you read it carefully, he didn’t.” So he’s manipulatively sticking his toe into the pool of martyrdom, and yanking it out to a gale of giggles and ridicule.
Woodrowfan
@mainmati: that’s funny, I feel the same way about going into Maryland! Maybe it’s what you’re used to..
Peej
I make the MD to NoVA drive every workday. Neither state has anything to cheer about.
mlk
The more Cooch talks out his ass, the more willing I get to vote for McAuliffe. McAuliffe is really going to have to work to close an enthusiasm gap though. I’m sure the wingers will whip up the masses downstate.
honus
@sapient: I like Terry fine too. Four years ago I thought he was a little presumptuous coming in and running for governor, but he has hung around and done some work for other candidates, and I think he will run a good campaign. Also, the “Clinton effect” is different now than it was in 2009. Back then he was still vilified by republicans, instead of the the compromising centrist master of bipartisan cooperation that he has now become. In 2009 Clinton would have been seen as an outsider who would have alienated Virginians, but I think the Clenis would be a big asset to Terry this time around. that and the fact that Cuccinelli is the kind of guy that “even his friends don’t like him” (c.f. Bill Bolling) might make the difference.
Tom
I live in Virginia; Cooch was once my state senator (without my vote); I dislike McAullife; I will enthusiastically work and vote for McAullife!
Tom
I live in Virginia; Cooch was once my state senator (without my vote); I dislike McAullife; I will enthusiastically work and vote for McAullife!
Nate
Put me down as a Virginian in the “No McAuliffe” camp.
I’ll grudgingly do it, but I certainly won’t be campaigning for him.
He’s got no resume to run for Governor and is a professional hack.
eemom
@honus:
Bolling hates Cooch’s guts, seeing as how he — Bolling — was McDonnell’s anointed successor to the governorship and Cooch stole that from him without blinking an eye.
AFAIK Bolling is still thinking of an independent run, and that will sure as shit fuck Cooch’s shit up, praise Jesus.
Soylent Green is FReepers
I wish to God that the guy who just lost to Cantor would run for Gov (powellforva.com/) He has a resume that reads like a dream and is a very personable fella to boot. He did well enough in this very very very safe Republican district that Cantor actually agreed to a debate (first time he’s ever done that). And why not run someone else at the convention? McAuliffe isn’t crowned yet…
Xjmueller
@ericblair:
The jeebinator? That’s a new one for me…
They could run a gerbil against the cooch and I’d vote rodent. Shoot, I voted for the eminent non-entity that was Creigh Deeds last time. The alternative is always frightening around here.
dcBill
We’re gonna bite our tongue and vote for Terry. You would too.
Indy
How about former congressman Tom Pierrello? I like what i’ve heard about him. Lost his seat in 2010.