By Peter Galuszka
It never ceases to amaze just how the thinking goes in the capital of Ole Virginny.
No matter how much they talk about the “Knowledge Economy” or “RVA” or whatever the buzzword du jour is, Richmond’s elite just can’t get away from the bow tie and seersucker milieu in which they are ladies and gentlemen and their absolute gentility and propriety trickles down to the unwashed masses. We don’t have corruption.” No Suh. It’s just not the way we do things Down Heah!”
You have the worst political corruption scandal in years, probably the worst since Chuck Robb was suspected of tooting and rooting down Virginia Beach, and yet the elite just can’t feature it. Virginia has the easiest, laxest laws on disclosure and political gift-giving in the nation, but I will bet you a Confederate dollar that NOTHING will be done to tighten things up no matter how many Rolexes, loans, plane rides or lakefront vacations Bob McDonnell, or even Ken Cuccinelli, takes.
It will be business as usual. We will still believe the myth that Virginia politicians and the lobbyists who control them are all gentlemen far above the human greed that afflicts other, lesser human beings, essentially non-Virginians.
There is no better place to find this kind of Establishment thinking than the editorial pages of the Richmond Times Dispatch. Mind you this was the very place that used smooth intellectual arguments to argue in favor of Massive Resistance in a very polite way years ago. It was still backing outright racism, but it was considered poor taste to call it that.
This morning the TD editors wrote about Giftgate: “It is important to note that at this stage the news does not describe the corruption associated with Teapot Dome, Watergate or Tammany Hall. Yet although scandalous, the situation still suggests corruption of the soul. The reasons do not need to be explained. Indeed, ethics of the highest order do not require explanations. Discretion speaks for itself in a voice still and small.”
Gentle readers, I am not making this mealy-mouthed bullshit up. It is right there, in black and white, on today’s page A10 for all to see.
If you want to see something else, turn to the front page where Atty. Gen. Ken Cuccinelli is “distancing” himself from McDonnell because Giftgate is bad for his gubernatorial run. The story waits until way down on the jump page before noting that Cuccinelli took plenty of gifts from the same guy that McDonnell did. Oh, never mind!
This would be laughable if it weren’t so sad. I mean, even JIM BACON is admitting that he (maybe, perhaps, just might) have been a little too lenient on McDonnell when The Washington Post started reporting all the gifts back in March.
Gentle readers, if Virginia is to step into the 21st century, it really needs to grow out of this kind of thinking. Let’s put down our bourbon and branch waters or lemonades and try to step down from the veranda, look out over our vast plantation fields and try to imagine the world as it really is.
