With a knife

by James A. Bacon

What kind of message does it send when a general shoots one of his own troopers in the trenches?

To extend the analogy, what kind of message does it send when the governor cashiers one of his own board appointees for vague, unspecified and contested allegations of non-collegial behavior?

To be more specific, what kind of message does it send to the dozens of men and women appointed by Governor Glenn Youngkin to the governing boards of Virginia’s public universities when he fires Bert Ellis, whom he had appointed in 2022 to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors and who led the charge to enact the Governor’s agenda on free speech, spending cuts and the dismantling of DEI?

What misconduct did Ellis engage in? Did he sexually harass someone? Did he dip his hand into the till? Was he abusive to colleagues or employees? Does he have a conflict of interest? Did he sabotage the Governor’s agenda? Has he done anything remotely unethical? No, no, no, no and no!

Can the Governor even articulate what Ellis said or did that was heinous enough to justify his firing? Apparently not, because he has supplied no details.

Ellis was a loyal trooper whose gravest offenses were giving colorful quotes to the media and inspiring the opposition to dig dirt on him. The most recent “revelation” about Ellis — haranguing police officers two years ago for sitting in their car during a crime wave instead of patrolling on foot — is laughably lame.

Ellis shook off the opprobrium heaped upon him by foes of the higher-ed agenda that he and Youngkin shared. But the continued attacks, it appears, created an embarrassment, so the Governor cut him loose.

The unintended message sent and received was that Youngkin appointees should not expose themselves to enemy fire. Given the proclivity for campus leftists to cancel, protest and dox their enemies, the temptation to duck and cover has long been a powerful one. No one wants to subject himself to the torrents of abuse — you’re racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. — that come with being a high-profile conservative. No one wants to subject their law firm, employer or business to boycotts, demonstrations and online vilification.

A few of the bolder appointees have been willing to take that risk as long as they knew Youngkin had their back. But if they lose confidence… If they think the Governor might fold if the left turns them into an inconvenience or embarrassment… if, even worse, they know the Governor might side with the accusers… how can he expect anything from them other than timidity and passivity?

Board members across Virginia are fighting the same kind of battles as Ellis. Youngkin knows this full well. This year the General Assembly axed nearly a dozen of his appointees to state and university boards. I get it: he can’t stop hostile Democrats from nixing his nominations. But he doesn’t have to do their dirty work for them.

And for what? I won’t rehash the tiresome charges of racism and homophobia or the reprehensible portrayal of Ellis as a razor blade-wielding threat to students. Or the ginned-up outrage of referring to UVA officials in private correspondence as “numnuts.” Let’s just deal with the latest pseudo-controversy that occurred two years ago on the Corner, the popular retail-restaurant strip across the street from the University Grounds where Ellis co-owns and manages the White Spot restaurant.

Someone leaked the two-year-old incident to The Washington Post, which then obtained the police-cam videos through the Freedom of Information Act. Charlottesville was in the midst of a crime wave that had the community in an uproar. There had been several murders in the past half year, including one on the Corner, as well as a wave of other incidents posing a threat to the physical safety of UVA students. UVA had promised to take a more proactive stance in policing neighborhoods beyond the Grounds where students were concentrated.

Ellis saw two university police officers sitting in a car across the street from the Corner. He confronted them and asked why they weren’t posted more visibly on the Corner itself where they would be more of a deterrent. Ellis was vehement, but he did not use profanity or personally insult the officers. In turn, the officers were polite but evasive. (View the videos here.)

Excuuuuuse me, but how did this become an issue? Ellis was totally justified in being frustrated. What were the police officers doing just sitting in a car? The Post didn’t even try to articulate what he might have done wrong. The article posted one of the videos, extracted a couple of quotes, and let it hang out there as if there was something unbecoming with Ellis’ behavior without explaining what.

It was a nothing-burger, but it added to the drip… drip… drip… of other nothing-burgers that could be viewed as “a pattern.”

Interestingly, in its recitation of nothing-burgers, the Post never mentioned anything that Ellis said or did as a member of the board. I’ve been attending board meetings for about three years now, and Ellis has been unfailingly decorous and polite during the public sessions. (I can’t vouch for his demeanor during the all-too-frequent closed sessions, but it has never come to my attention that his behavior was an issue.) Only once did Ellis get strident, and as far as I’m concerned, he was totally justified. Rector Robert Hardie wanted to go into closed session to discuss the wave of antisemitism sweeping the University, and Ellis wanted to have that conversation out in the open. The two clashed, Hardie shut Ellis down, and the board went into closed session.

So, Ellis’ behavior — whatever it was — gave Youngkin justification for demanding his resignation and then, when Ellis refused, for firing him.

By contrast, was Youngkin disconcerted about someone leaking the police-cam videos to disparage one of his appointees? Apparently not. Was he perturbed by the scandal surrounding UVA Health that led to the resignation of its CEO? If so, he has made no public comment. Does the Governor care that the Ryan administration has redacted the taxpayer-funded investigation into the security lapses resulting in 2022 mass shooting into near-meaninglessness? No sign of it.

People died at UVA Health. Three young men were killed and two were hospitalized from the mass shooting. Despite manifest failures of management by someone somewhere, President Jim Ryan is still president.

Bert Ellis said some mean things and scared the snowflakes. He is no longer on the board.

If you think this makes no sense, you’re not alone.