By Peter Galuszka
After a deluge of negative national publicity in recent weeks over a number of socially conservative and highly controversial bills that he originally endorsed, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell has complained on a WTOP radio interview that he’s disappointed with the news media.
“All we ever ask from the media is to be fair, cover what’s actually going on,” McDonnell told listeners.
Oddly, the news media has been covering exactly what has been going on. Virginia has suddenly become the tip of a spear in a hard right-wing agenda. The General Assembly has been flooded with bills to force women to have a transvaginal ultrasound exams before they get an abortion, to repeal laws restricting monthly handgun sales, to deny poor women abortion money in special cases, to force police to check the citizenship of anyone they arrest, among other legislation.
McDonnell whines that the media should be looking at 100 other bills, such as adjusting the state pension system, boosting education and easing traffic congestion.
He must want the good old days a while back when he was being touted as a modern and responsible new type of Republican governor who can cut budgets while attracting jobs.
Too bad for the governor. It may not be his fault in the most recent elections that a number of socially conservative Republicans gained enough legislature seats to push laws that had been held in check for years. Just after those elections. But he backed these people. He basked in media attention that his enlightened leadership was somehow responsible for their victories.
Yet once these fledglings got into power, they went so crazy with a multi-front socially conservative offensive that the national media could not help but notice. Nor was the humor (if any) of the situation lost on scriptwriters at “The Daily Show” and “Saturday Night Live.”
McDonnell wants to be ready for prime time. His WTOP complaints show that he isn’t.
