In the first major GOP primary fight after the 2012 race, it seems the right wing of the Republican Party has prevailed once again.
As their party wrestles nationally with how to appeal to a broader electorate, Virginia Republicans are all-but-guaranteed to see one of the most divisive conservatives in the nation as their gubernatorial nominee in 2013.
Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling — who had the backing of Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) — dropped out of the governor’s race Wednesday, clearing the way for Republican State Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
That Cuccinelli:
For nearly a year, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, Virginia’s crusading Republican attorney general, has waged a one-man war on the theory of man-made global warming.
Invoking his subpoena powers, he has sought to force the University of Virginia to turn over the files of a prominent climatology professor, asserting that his research may be marred by fraud. The university is battling the move in the courts.
There was a lot of noise about Republicans stopping teahadists from dominating Republican primaries. Doesn’t seem to be happening. The so-called moderates aren’t even trying to stand up for themselves, if this primary is any indication.
ranchandsyrup
The Cooch doesn’t have too good of a track record of results. Great record of crazy ideas, though.
Xecky Gilchrist
I’m thinking that promoting the Teatardiest possible candidates for Republican House races is probably the best way for the Democrats to win the House until the gerrymandering can get undone.
What’s the downside? The Republican caucus’ votes will be unchanged if the Teatards win, and they’ll make fools of themselves; and maybe they’ll lose.
Gin & Tonic
So the choice will be McAuliffe or Cuccinelli.
Glad I don’t live in Virginia.
James Hare
And the Democratic party of Virginia is running Terry McAwful against the Cooch. No matter what Virginia is guaranteed a pretty terrible governor. I wouldn’t discount Cuccinelli’s chances. He won reelection in a district in Fairfax County and will energize the wingnuts in the southern parts of the state. I don’t see how McAuliffe has any impact like that — as a prominent backer of Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primaries he’s already established some ill will with the Democratic voters of the state. He was unable to win the Democratic primary the last time around and will only be the candidate this time because of the lack of any serious opposition.
This isn’t a can’t-lose election by any standard. I’d consider it a lean Republican at this point and a pretty hard hill to climb overall. I hate to say it but I think the Republicans will control the Virginia governor’s mansion after McDonnell is forced to leave by Virginia’s screwy term limits. That’s a terrible loss for Virginia — even though I don’t agree with McDonnell much on policy he is a far better governor than Cuccinelli can possibly be.
acallidryas
Ken Cuccinelli is The Worst. In addition to his climate change witch hunt, he’s also said that by his interpretation of VA law, Virginia colleges couldn’t not-discriminate against LGBT employees (because they’re not specifically protected by state law), and said that VA park rangers can check for immigration status, leading to lots of exactly that. And then, of course, there’s this:
I used to work at a social service office and I do not exaggerate when I say that if we had someone come in explaining to us that they couldn’t get a job because they didn’t have a social security card because it was used to track you, we would have called the local Treatment on Wheels place to get them much-needed help.
Culture of Truth
I predict he will win in landslide if they don’t the votes of women, young people, black people, brown people, old people and the miscellaneous maccacas.
kindness
C’mon, let’s be honest. There aren’t any Republican moderates. Oh sure, some Republicans will call themselves moderates to the MSM but when you grill them about their policy preferences they are just TeaHaddists who are more media savay.
Schlemizel
@acallidryas:
Sounds like we should encourage the nutbags to not get SS numbers for their kids!
1) they won’t be able to claim them as tax exemptions.
2) they kids will never be able to get a job therefore never able to leave home.
This as WIN! written all over it!
Brachiator
Cuccinelli is also one of the instigators of the war against women:
The GOP clearly learned nothing from the national election. They are who we think they are.
The only thing that remains is to defeat them as often as possible and help them continue to self-destruct.
Culture of Truth
That’s right Governor. “They’re” tracking you. All-powerful black people.
BGinCHI
I’m kind of rooting for these guys to stay on top, keep their momentum, and wreck the GOP.
Why doesn’t some rich fucker bankroll the Green Party as a solid alternative to the GOP? The youngsters would love that shit.
Villago Delenda Est
The so-called moderates have decided to just lie back and think of Ronald Reagan as the teahadists take their party down the road traveled by the Whigs.
Judge Crater
Every solution proposed by the wing-nuttery has proved to be wrong or disastrous. But their simple-minded world demands that they just do it harder. The GOP really has become more of a cult than a political party. The absolutists – Norquist, the neocons, the Randians, the religious right – demand ideological purity. I’m not sure if there is an analogue in American history for what we see happening.
Culture of Truth
sweet jesus. Dick Morris, Terry McAulliffe, Erskie Bowles… it never ends…
Villago Delenda Est
@Culture of Truth:
Oooh. Channeling Dick Morris today, are we?
Don’t do that too much. Surgeon General says it could result in a foot fetish.
Schlemizel
@kindness:
No, there are some moderates – the moderates are the ones that want to starve granny slowly rather than all at once. They are the ones that only want DoD spending to increase at 10% over the rate of inflation not 50%. These moderates are the ones that just want the coloreds to go back to separate but equal not back to where they came from. Moderates only want women to get their husbands approval for birth control not outlaw it all together.
You know, centrist positions
Villago Delenda Est
@Judge Crater:
There’s an analog in Russian history.
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Ash Can
Awesome. I know that McAuliffe has his issues, but this is a matter of the deficient versus the catastrophic, and that means it’s a no-brainer. I can’t wait to see Cuccinelli fall all over his own feet in the campaign.
danimal
I’d like to advise all Coo-coo-a-nelli global warming deniers to avoid low-lying coastal Virginia. We liberals are very concerned about your safety and want you to avoid areas that will be underwater sometime in the near future.
(That should do it. Their contrary instincts should lead them to bid up all low-lying coastal areas, which will then convince them there is money to be made investing in low-lying areas, and soon they’ll all concentrate in coastal enclaves. Then God can take care of them.)
The same goes for North Carolina, which is ahead of the curve on this one.
The Moar You Know
“Transvaginal Ultrasound Rape Wand” Cuccinelli? That guy?
Well, VA might have a Dem governor by the time this is all said and done. I doubt it, but you never know.
Schlemizel
@Judge Crater:
yes, there is an amazing similarity in American history, from the 1840’s to 1860 (so far).
The good and bad of that previous bit was that the crazy was highly limited to one region in the country. While that region is homebase for this modern parallel there are pockets as bad scattered throughout the nation today. We would need to invade and subdue treason in MN-CD6 for instance if this modern example were to play out similarly.
Someguy
Comparing Republicans to swine is really sort of an insult to pigs. Most Republicans don’t posess that level of humanity or worth. After all, bacon is tasty, and there are some things even a pig won’t do.
Brachiator
@Schlemizel:
Perhaps they believe that exemptions are only for lazy takers. Real American He Man White Peoples(tm) are too busy making stuff to need personal exemptions.
Villago Delenda Est
@danimal:
SCENE: Delmarva peninsula, 2025
Coo-coo-a-nelli is holding on to a plank from the shattered deck of his vacation home, in the fairly calm waters left in the wake of the fourth major hurricane of the year.
Coo-coo: Somebody throw me a rope!
Bemused dirty fucking hippie on nearby rescue boat: We thought you’d never ask, asshole!
Noose is tossed into water for Coo-coo to save himself with.
SatanicPanic
@BGinCHI: Hell yeah. Elect him to VA gov and he’ll have a spot in the Republican primary debates of 2015, imagine the fun we’ll have with that
Villago Delenda Est
Oh, and DougJ: Nice Beatles reference in the thread title!
Coo-coo-ka-choo!
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Villago Delenda Est: Isn’t that what they’ve been preaching to women: Just lie back and think of something nice while I’m on top.
Bulworth
Yeah I seem to recall Cuchu was one of the first AG’s to go full bore teabagger over the ACA. Never knew about his SSN paranoia however. But it’s not surprising.
Dave S.
As a VA resident this will definitely be a hold-your-nose vote. Better than Warner leaving the Senate,I suppose, even though he’d be the prohibitive favorite to win.
Zapruder F. Mashtots, D.D.S.
@Gin & Tonic:
Yes, I’m less than thrilled about it myself. I have no clue why McAuliffe wants this job. It’s a one-term-and-out job, so it’ll only be for four years, and I don’t see any likely path to any other office for him after he leaves in 2018. Both Senate seats are Democratic, so there’s no road open for him there. There’s no way for him to make any kind of creditable run for the presidency or vice-presidency after this, so I don’t understand what the draw is for him. I guess he’d be better than Cuccinelli–as who wouldn’t be?–but that isn’t saying a whole lot.
Southern Beale
Cuccinelli is like a Teanut on steroids. Here he is claiming Obama only won on Nov. 6 because of voter fraud. He’s also the one who made building standards for abortion clinics so unnecessarily stringent, no clinic could possibly meet the standards.
But … he’s super dreamy looking!!!!
/sarcasm
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Brachiator: Oh, no. They take every exemption they can. They earned those exemptions.
Nicole
I’m crying.
Punchy
Can Cookoo Canolli pick Chris Count Chocola for LootGov to produce a Kenny Cooks/Count Chocola Alliteration ObamaNation Abomination ticket?
scav
OT There are days I love this universe. /OT Recently, more and more of them involve different planets. //OT Still, to have been in the lab the first minute they saw these images . .
Maude
@Someguy:
People get you confused with that other guy. If you get a nasty reply, that’s why.
DFH no.6
@kindness:
Yeah, “moderate” fascism (which is what modern movement conservatism/Republican actually is) always sounded fairly Orwellian to me.
Even my nice, friendly Scottsdale neighbors who don’t necessarily hate gays or the coloreds are, I am sad to say, ultimately fascist in their political worldview.
If any Republicans would be “moderate” it’s these folk, but in fact, no, they are not. And even if they were, they’re totally overridden and overruled by the many firebreathers and mouthbreathers in that nasty little Party of theirs.
Also, too, what Schlemizel responded to you in comment 16.
Zapruder F. Mashtots, D.D.S.
@Villago Delenda Est:
That’s something I worry about a lot. My mother lives in Accomack County, the northern of the two counties that make up the Va of DelMarVa, and her house is about 10 feet above sea level, and it’s the highest spot on the Virginia part of the Shore. My family has been there for 350 or 400 years, so it’s kind of a personal thing for me.
These assholes don’t give two shits, but there are a lot of people who’ll be wiped out if the sea rises even two or three feet. I know that a lot of them are worthless poor black people, especially on the Shore, but there are some withe people who live in low-lying places, too, and some of them are rich. I bet a few are even Republicans. I wonder sometimes what these assholes are going to think when their beach houses are floating out to sea…
1badbaba3
@Culture of Truth: I’m sensing a pattern here…
MattF
@kindness: Just to note: McDonnell is no moderate, just not-crazy. And, being not-crazy, he’s rather popular.
Shawn in ShowMe
All those rich, well-connected Democrats walking around Loudoun and Fairfax Counties and not one interested in running for Governor? The mind boggles.
Southern Beale
Ha ha ha ha ha ………….!
Better start collecting some of Erick’s greatest hits before they scrub the memory hole!
yam
Hmmm, Bruce Bartlett has something to say about Teahadists. Interesting article, but his take on race is way off.
A conservative wrong on race. Funny, that…
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@BGinCHI:
They can’t and don’t wreck the GOP, the voters do. The problem with that is that if a favorable mix of voters (i.e. the 2008 and 2012 electorate, not the off-year midterm mix) don’t show up at the polls, no wrecking takes place. This is why hearing all this Nach Teanutt Uns talk leaves me feeling a bit twitchy. Can we perhaps not root for the very worst of the GOP to run for office every damn time until we are a little more sure of winning?
Zapruder F. Mashtots, D.D.S.
@Southern Beale:
Yes, gather them, but hold them back through the primary and save them for the general election.
Shawn in ShowMe
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
It’s a political calculation: Do Democrats stand a better chance of winning elections by running against unabashedly horrible people or by running against somewhat likable people? History says it’s the former.
Jewish Steel
@Villago Delenda Est: Could be a Simon & Garfunkel ref.
Andy Hall
Except the Virginia GOP, working with Cuccineli, changed the rules. There is no primary. The GOP candidate will be chosen by a state party convention, which right now is filled with teatards.
Jewish Steel
@Jewish Steel: But in light of post title, duh.
Hey, I just woke up here. Cut a guy some slack.
Joey Maloney
@James Hare:
What’s the Cooch going to do, make women have two vaginal ultrasounds?
PeakVT
@yam: Krugman over-praised that article a bit yesterday. It is commendable that Bartlett can and has admitted his errors on a couple of issues, but he’s still a conservative, and thus is quite likely still wrong on dozens more.
Woodrowfan
Cooch did win in a Fairfax County district, but it was in the western Republican suburbs and he won against a very weak opponent last time. He won’t carry Farifax in a state-wide election.
Woodrowfan
@Joey Maloney: No, he’ll find a way to ban abortion entirely.
Svensker
@PeakVT:
You can have a conversation with a person who is wrong on issues. You can’t have a conversation with a crazy person.
Frankensteinbeck
The so-called party elites are helpless in the grip of the crazy primary voters. The last four years demonstrated that clearly. The question is whether those crazies will calm down now that they’ve lost their only chance to slap down the uppity black man who dared to become president. I think they will, but despair will set in only after a last burst of anger. We’re talking Five Stages Of Grief here. It’ll be a few months.
Tone in DC
@Someguy:
LULz.
It’s not kind of an insult to swine. It’s a BIG insult to the porcine.
Supernumerary Charioteer
If the choice is between a Third Way moderate and an insane man, I’ll take the moderate. If nothing else, he’ll be a bit more of a bulwark against our tea-soaked legislature than McDonnell is.
Maxwel
There’s no hope for them. 2016 is their last rodeo.
BGinCHI
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: But I already pushed my chips into the middle of the table.
PeakVT
@Svensker: Correct. But I think a little too much praise was lavished for someone doing what every should do: adapt one’s thinking to reflect new information. As far as I can tell Bartlett has not had a Cole-like epiphany in which he realized that he was wrong about everything. And judging by the resumé he outlines in the first few paragraphs, Bartlett was deeply wrong on just about every issue between the late 1960s and the early 2000s.
spatula
DougJ and his stupid song title crap is annoying me even more than “I have exams to study for” mistermix serious mature blogger who I’m guessing is an immature 20something wannabe blogger.
If you have to use those annoying song lyrics/titles how about finding a way to use “Your own personal Jesus”. Love that one.
Cassidy
@spatula: 1) We missed you too. 2) Pretty sure it was done….long before you started showing up to piss on doormats.
Tonal Crow
@Schlemizel: So some Republicans are moderate Taliban, instead of full-bore rocket-launcher-toting Teahadists?
Schlemizel
@Tonal Crow:
Most excellent comparison. Yes, quite correct!
They are OK with girls going to school up till the 7th grade (by which time they should be ready for breeding anyway)
They are not against your religious beliefs as long as you agree the government should have theirs
Their OK with immigrants as long as they work off the books for cash and take what they are given
reasonable guys, like that
lou
I don’t care if the Dem candidate is McAuliffe. I will cross the river and actively campaign against Cuccinelli and urge my sister, a Virginia resident, to do the same. That’s the kind of cyst and blight he’s been for the last three years.
acallidryas
@lou: I will knock on doors in sleet or freezing rain to keep Cuccinelli out of the Governor’s mansion, but it doesn’t mean I have to be happy about McAuliffe. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for Periello.
Matt McIrvin
My mom hates this guy so much. She hated him when he was a local idiot in Fairfax County. I told her it really takes some work for a state Attorney General to become an embarrassment to his entire country on a global level.
grandpa john
@Schlemizel: You must be talking about”moderates” like back-stabbing, 2 faced bitches like Susan Collins.
marge
I live in Virginia and the repugs are not having a primary to select their candidate. It will be done at a convention. That is why Bolling dropped out. The convention will be dominated by the right wing of the right wing and he would have no chance. Had there been a primary, Bolling would have a good chance of winning the nomination.
On the Dem side, there is a movement to recruit Tom Perriello to go up against McAuliffe. I live in the district Tom represented and he was a very effective congressman. I hope he does run and wins the nomination so he can beat the devil out of Cooch.