Mirror, mirror on the wall. Ken Cuccinelli spends a lot of time admiring himself. He’s long on portraying himself as a heroic figure fighting federal over-reach and short on the self-deprecating humor that evinces a certain level of humility. This habit is particularly notable when it comes to being a “straight shooter.” At the recent CPAC conference Cuccinelli gave a keynote speech. He almost threw his shoulder out of joint patting himself on the back and congratulating himself on being a “straight shooter.” But is he?
Kill Bill. There is little doubt that Cuccinelli and his henchmen short circuited the democratic process in order to make sure he was the Republican nominee for governor. Cuccinelli used a deal from the smoke-filled back rooms of the Republican Party of Virginia to avoid an open primary in favor of a convention. Cuccinelli knew that the extremists who frequent Republican conventions would put him on the ballot. Apparently, he was less sure of the rank and file Republicans who would have voted in an open primary. Not the straightest of shots there.
Channeling his inner Clinton. Cuccinelli’s web site, on the education section of the issues page, has this sentence:”I was raised in Fairfax County and attended public schools.” One is led to believe that Mr. Cuccinelli’s views on education in Virginia are well formed since he is a product of Virginia’s public school system. Not so fast. Which one of Fairfax County’s many fine public high schools counts Cuccinelli as an alumnus? None of them. He went to high school at a very private, very expensive school in Washington, D.C.: Gonzaga College High School. Interestingly, the reference to Cuccinelli graduating from Gonzaga has been removed from his official biography. I am sure that Cuccinelli attended public school at some point in his life. However, shouldn’t a self-proclaimed “straight-shooter” write, “I was raised in Fairfax County and attended a mixture of public and private schools?”
Come hell or high water. One of Cuccinelli’s rare victories against the federal government came from a case where the Environmental Protection Agency wanted to force Fairfax County and Virginia to cut back on sediment pollution caused by runoff into the Accotink Creek. Cuccinelli derisively accused the EPA of trying to regulate water as a pollutant. That statement is an outright lie. Cuccinelli personally argued the case. The judge’s opinion states, “Both parties agree that sediment is a pollutant and stormwater is not.” I guess “straight shooters” can take a little liberty with the truth when it suits their needs. H/T – Blue Virginia.
Rippert’s Read Out. Cuccinelli is as slippery as a greased eel. He uses back- room deals to stab members of his own party in the back. He ignores the teachings of the Jesuits at Gonzaga High School and lies through omission about his own educational background. He knowingly lies about the EPA in his comments regarding the Accotink case. Cuccinelli a straight shooter? Yeah, and I’m Brad Pitt’s brother.
– D.J. Rippert
Well, I suppose you can make some of these cases, but the first is sheer ideological claptrap, because the GOP is not a “democratic process.” And give me a break! The supporters of a convention (many, in all circumstances, because we have open primaries in Virginia) somehow “deal from the smoke filled back rooms of the Republican Party of Virginia,” while the strategy of Bill Bolling’s supporters (of which I was one, and remained one, even when Cuccinelli entered the race for the GOP nomination) to set the nominating process more than TWO YEARS before the election was NOT a “deal from the smoke filled back rooms of the Republican Party of Virginia” to give their preferred candidate an advantage? That’s too rich.
The fact is, as to “Kill Bill,” the strategy of Bolling’s supporters was no more or less sleazy than that of Cuccinelli’s supporters. Cuccinelli’s supporters used the “democratic process” to elect a new State Central Committee, which exercised its authority to set the nominating process falling within its term of office (a virtue not possessed by that voting for the primary).
Oh, and dismissing as “extremists” those “who frequent Republican conventions” reveals more about the “extremism” of the author than it does about those who “frequent Republican conventions.”
“The fact is, as to “Kill Bill,” the strategy of Bolling’s supporters was no more or less sleazy than that of Cuccinelli’s supporters.”.
I never said anything, pro or con, about Bolling or his supporters. Why would I? Bolling isn’t running for governor and he isn’t traveling from place to place describing himself as a “straight shooter”.
As for extremists at the RPV convention, we already have the Jeannemarie Devolites-Davis campaign accused of trying to buy votes at the convention and rumors of a slating scandal. Sounds pretty extreme to me.
The current over / under bet on how many convention attendees show up dressed as Patrick Henry is 150.
no supporter of Cuccinelli but have to agree here.. DJ did veer sharply…
but he has a point – how in the world do we end up with someone so far out of the GOP mainstream in the drivers seat for Gov or for that matter at the very time we have such a weak Dem contender?
If Kaine or Warner were running again the Cooch would be a footnote. As it is, he’s a real threat to the State – IMHO of course.
Not sure how I veered. Politicians are, by their very nature, slippery. They say one thing but do another. They make promises they know they can’t keep.
Cuccinelli is no better (or worse) than average when it comes to being slippery. However, he is running around declaring himself to be a straight shooter.
There’s an old saying – The more you tell me of your honesty, the faster I count my change.
If you claim to be a straight shooter than you need to shoot straight. Cuccinelli talks the talk but he doesn’t walk the walk.
For what it’s worth – there are some straight shooters in Virginia politics. Bob McDonnell is one. What a shame he can’t run for a second term this year. Only in Virginia. Literally, only in Virginia.
Presto – magico! I am not an extremist. Just look at my web site …
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ken-cuccinellis-airbrushed-policies/2013/03/19/c9d42666-90c9-11e2-bdea-e32ad90da239_story.html
When will Cuccinelli start wearing his “I ‘heart ‘the EPA” button?
Straight shooter? Phoney baloney!
I’m amused that DJ thinks McDonnell is a “straight shooter”! Certainly Creigh Deeds does not think so since McDonnell eviscerated him for supporting an increase in the gas tax.
and certainly not the right wing of the GOP who considers McDonnell a traitor now that he’s supported “the larges tax increase in the history of the Commonwealth”.
and this on the heels of the trans-vaginal probe kerfuffle?
geeze!
You mean straight shooter Bob McDonnell…the same one who engineered a Convention for his nomination because he thought “the extremists who frequent Republican conventions would put him on the ballot” over Bill Bolling (before Bolling cut a deal)? The original “Kill Bill.” But nevermind that…why let the facts get in the way of the desired narrative? Straight shooting indeed.
Conventions are chosen precisely because it is MORE democratic, and gives rank and file Republicans more viable options. Primaries benefit the “next in line” guy with the name ID and bankroll. Case in point: George Allen’s engineering of a primary for the 2012 Senate race precisely because he knew that it would deflate any serious opposition. That was Bolling’s gambit for 2013 as well. They didn’t make that choice because it was less expensive (it’s orders of magnitude costlier), or with the good of the Commonwealth in mind (George Allen’s primary cost taxpayers about $4 million…in some localities the cost per vote exceeded $90). It’s only used as an anticompetitive barrier to entry.
Perhaps you should make your case for conventions to the national Republican Party because they aren’t buying your arguments.
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/RNCreport03182013.pdf
“We also recommend broadening the base of the Party and inviting as many voters as possible into the Republican Party by discouraging conventions and caucuses for the purpose of allocating delegates to the national convention. Our party needs to grow its membership, and primaries seem to be a more effective way to do so. The greater the number of people who vote in a Republican primary, the more likely they will turn out and vote again for the Republican candidate in the fall election.” .
As for your contention that primaries benefit the big money candidate – absurd. Was Creigh Deeds the big money candidate in 2009 or were Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran the big money guys? Who won?
Of course, it may just be that the DPVA can operate in a democracy while the RPV cannot.
Really, Don, you call Cuccinelli “slippery as a greased eel” and that’s the best you’ve got? Check out a new profile, published by NewsMax, on Cuccinelli. There’s a lot of material in there I hadn’t seen before, including this story:
“One night in 1989, he was up late cramming for a calculus exam when he heard a bloodcurdling scream. As told by the Washington Post’s David Montgomery, a terrified co-ed in an adjacent bedroom had awakened to find a strange man clambering onto her bed. She screamed, rolled off the bed, and ran for her life. Cuccinelli and others came to her aid, as the intruder escaped out a window.
After Cuccinelli’s brush with the college pandemic of sexual assault, he felt a moral responsibility. He teamed up with Alexia Pittas, a women’s studies major, to demand that UVA do more to ensure co-eds’ safety.
Pittas says she and Cuccinelli were complete political opposites. “At first we were a little suspicious about why this Catholic conservative was involved in a women’s issue,” she says.
But involved he was, so much so that he helped organize an April 1991 demonstration on the steps of Thomas Jefferson’s vaunted rotunda. There, along with dozens of other students, they held a 134-hour candlelight vigil — one for each alleged campus assault the year before. They demanded the university fund a full-time education coordinator and counselor dedicated to combating campus sexual assaults.
In response, UVA’s administration informed Pittas and Cuccinelli that they were subject to arrest for protesting without a permit. Given that both Pittas and Cuccinelli had applied to law school, an arrest would be consequential. Feeling she had no choice, Pittas decided to stay on the steps of the rotunda until the police dragged her away. But she had no reason to believe Cuccinelli would follow suit.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked him when he insisted on staying.
“This isn’t your issue.” Cuccinelli’s reply: “This is everyone’s issue.”
The future attorney general was betting the administration would avoid the PR nightmare an arrest would entail, and he was right. The university backed down and hired the education coordinator — who still serves the university community 20 years later.
Today Pittas, now a successful attorney in Savannah, Ga., raves about the character of the man whose politics she doesn’t like at all. “The one thing about Ken,” she tells Newsmax, “is that he is a man who lives by his convictions. If he believes something is right, or just, he will pursue it to its logical end.
“He will not be dissuaded for political reasons, political gain, or harm. He can be persuaded by reason. But he is not going to change his mind for just political expedience.”
I have a totally different take on Cuccinelli. As I’ve said many times, his views on hot-button, culture-war issues are too strong for my taste. But he is a man of principle.
1989? Twenty – four years ago Ken Cuccinelli and others came to the aid of a woman screaming. Then, he stood on the steps of the Rotunda with a candle.
And you ask, ” … that’s the best you’ve got?”.
Back to today….
Cuccinelli claims to be a straight shooter but then he stabs Bolling in the back, attempts to deceive voters about his educational background and tells outright lies about the EPA.
He didn’t pull these stunts 24 years ago, he pulled them over the last 24 weeks.
Now, he is completely changing his website to alter his positions as the election looms.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ken-cuccinellis-airbrushed-policies/2013/03/19/c9d42666-90c9-11e2-bdea-e32ad90da239_story.html
“As recently as November, Mr. Cuccinelli’s campaign Web site boasted of his uncompromising positions on illegal immigration, including opposing tuition subsidies for undocumented students (even if they grew up in Virginia), firing state contractors who employ illegal immigrants and stepping up deportations and employment verification.”.
“As a lawmaker in 2008, Mr. Cuccinelli was chief sponsor of a bill urging a Constitution rewrite to strip the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants of their right to citizenship. He authored legislation that would have denied jobless benefits to certain employees for not speaking English. He pushed through a bill that allowed localities to investigate and punish crowded boardinghouses, which he called “one of the most common side effects of illegal immigration.”.
“As attorney general, he has embraced Arizona-style policies that authorize police to check the immigration status of anyone they stop or arrest. He has also opposed comprehensive immigration reform, or what he calls amnesty for undocumented immigrants, whose presence in the labor market, he believes, has diminished the nation’s standard of living.”.
Jim, this isn’t some 20 year old thesis (a la Bob McDonnell). No 24 year old candle light vigil excuses this. Cuccinelli was one of the foremost Prince William County anti-immigrant guys. Then came the 2012 presidential election and a change of heart among some Republicans. Where is Cuccinelli on this this? Is today’s Cuccinelli the anti-immigrant firebrand of just a few years ago? Or, has he changed his tune? We don’t know because Cuccinelli has simply deleted the references to immigration that were on full display five months ago.
This issue has disappeared and Cooch isn’t interested in talking about it.
He’s hiding from his recent past.
That’s not acceptable to me and shouldn’t be acceptable to you.
ideologues who are “principles” are a menace…
politics is the art of governing.. it takes compromise … inflexible, hard-core “principles” are the mortal enemy of effective governance.
how do you like them apples, Bacon?