Richmond Times Dispatch: Bob McDonnell is No Moderate

The thrust of an op-ed column in today's Richmond Times Dispatch - perhaps one of the most conservative newspapers in Virginia - that looks at Bob McDonnell's disingenuous effort to portray himself as a moderate in preparation for the up coming campaign for Governor of Virginia. If McDonnell is a moderate, then by that standard so is Pat Robertson, the late Jerry Falwell and Attila the Hun. We need more and more articles such as this which shine a spot light on the real Bob McDonnell and his disguised theocratic agenda for Virginia. I've known Bob McDonnell for going on 15 years and his inability to separate his personal religious beliefs from the civil laws make him utterly unqualified to to be Governor. Here are some column highlights:

*

For Bob McDonnell, Republican candidate for governor, this is a Sunday of sacrilege. His alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, today is awarding an honorary degree to President Barack Obama. That a great Catholic university would do so, given Obama's support of abortion rights, is an affront to the faith's social teachings, McDonnell says. And McDonnell wants voters to see him as a centrist? Problem is, every time he moves to the middle, he runs into himself on the right.

*

McDonnell barely beat Deeds -- it was the closest statewide race in Virginia history. With a 360-vote margin, McDonnell had to expand his base. But appearances are deceiving.

*

In one, McDonnell declared that Gov. Tim Kaine overstepped his constitutional authority in issuing an executive order banning bias against gay people in state hiring, employment and promotion.

*
Another opinion said Kaine was powerless to run Virginia in the absence of a General Assembly-passed budget. In other words, in a state with a long history of orderly governance, chaos is an option.

*

In another perceived sop to conservatives, McDonnell intervened on behalf of Episcopal parishes in Northern Virginia that broke with the diocese to protest the ordination of a gay bishop in New Hampshire. McDonnell has to answer for more: his opposition to controls on smoking in public, the non-solution for roads, industry friendly re-regulation of utilities, and federal court rulings spotlighting his hostility to abortion.

*

Has McDonnell taken positions that allow him to reach the middle, where elections are decided? To paraphrase his answer to a stickier question -- one best avoided in a family-oriented publication: not that he can recall.

*

The last portion of the quoted article references Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell's response to a reporter when questioned in 2003 whether or not he had ever violated Virginia's sodomy law (subsequently struck down by the ruling in Lawrence v. Teaxas) which made any sex other than male/female sex in the missionary position a felony even between husbands and wives. Bob McDonnell is a religious extremist and darling of the Christian Right. It is crucial that voters realize that he is the antithesis of a moderate.