Tag: Virginia

Tea Party Topples House Majority Leader, Former ‘Young Gun’ Eric Cantor

Jon Ponder
Brat

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, once one of the self-proclaimed GOP “Young Guns,” lost his seat today representing Virginia’s 7th District to a tea bagger professor, Dave Brat. Hard to believe, but even Fox News confirms it:

In a stunning upset, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost the GOP Virginia primary Tuesday night to Dave Brat, an economics professor and political novice.

The Associated Press called the race for Cantor about an hour after polls closed at 7 p.m. ET.

Cantor is the second-most powerful member of the U.S. House and was widely seen as the next in line to succeed House Speaker John Boehner.

Cantor’s loss to a political novice with little money marks a huge victory for the Tea Party movement, which supported Cantor just a few years ago.

Clinton Rips Republicans As Ideologues, Rather Than Pragmatists, on ACA Rollout

Jon Ponder

Everybody’s forgotten, by the way, that when President George W. Bush and the Republicans put that Medicare Part D drug program in, it was more unpopular than the health care law and they had terrible problems with the computers. Some seniors couldn’t even get medicine they had been getting, and the local pharmacists basically got together and made sure they stayed alive until the computers got fixed. But our side, we’re not so ideological. So, instead of bashing them and screaming about how incompetent they were, most of our people just tried to help people understand the law and make it work and then wait for it to get fixed.

– Pres. Bill Clinton, during remarks at a campaign rally for Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor’s race.

Campaign Rally for Virginia GOP Governor Candidate Kicks off with Anti-Semitic Joke

Jon Ponder

Transcript of remarks by John Whitbeck, the chairman of Virginia’s 10th Congressional District Republican Committee, in his introduction of Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli:

WHITBECK: You know, I’m a Catholic, and one of the things … and one of the things we celebrated recently was [garbled], and when the pope was elected, the head of the Jewish faith goes to the Vatican and brings a ceremonial piece of paper. It’s very old. It dates back hundreds of years. And he comes in the pope’s office and he ceremonially hands the piece of paper to the pope, the new pope, and the new pope ceremonially rejects it. And then the head of the Jewish faith leaves. [Garbled.] This time around, the Pope says, “I gotta find out what’s on this piece of paper.” So he actually takes it from the head of the Jewish faith, he opens it, he looks at, he closes it, he grimaces. And his Jewish counterpart says, “What what is?” And he says, “Well, that was the bill from the Last Supper.” So, on that note, we’re waiting for Ken Cuccinelli and he’s on his way.

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Religious Right Voters in N.C. and Virginia Are Uneasy about Romney’s Money and the Mormon Church

Jon Ponder

North Carolina and Virginia are both large swing states — the tenth and twelfth most populous states, respectively — where the political polarity between left and right could not be more extreme. Both states are home to millions of multiethnic white-collar liberals and moderates, most of whom live in the urban enclaves, as well as roughly the same numbers of rural, white evangelical voters who hold extreme, often fantastical right-wing views.

Thirty-five percent of voters overall, and the same proportion of lower- and middle-income white Bible Belt voters, say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who is Mormon.

Pres. Obama won both states in 2008, but in the current campaign, it has become conventional wisdom that he will likely lose North Carolina and win Virginia — although these predictions are not supported in the most recent polls. A PPP survey released on Monday found the president up by 1 point — 49 percent to 48 percent — in North Carolina, while a local poll in Virgina found that Romney was up by 4 points there, 49 percent to 45 percent.

In most states where polling is close, the race will be decided by moderate swing voters, and while that is true for the most part in North Carolina and Virginia, the Romney campaign has an additional worry: an evangelical base with a generations-deep suspicion of outsiders, especially those of different faiths, including Jews and Muslims, of course, but also Catholics and Mormons.

Reuters has been in the field in Virginia talking with white Bible Belt voters and found that many of the say they are concerned about Mitt Romney’s wealth and his religion:

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How to Talk to Republicans: Dem Gov. O’Malley Excoriates Gov. ‘Vaginal Probe’ McDonnell – in His Face

Jon Ponder

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In this segment from Friday’s “Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC, Maddow marvels at the abrupt change in fortunes of Virginia Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, a tea-party rock star who until recently was on the Beltway punditocracy’s short list for the GOP vice presidential nomination. That prospect has become unlikely in light of the central role McDonnell has played in passing legislation that would require state-enforced vaginal probes of women seeking abortions in Virginia.

You should watch the whole segment, but if you only have a few seconds, fast-forward to about minute 4:00. There you will witness a rare moment in which a Democrat — Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland — pummels an elected tea party Republican, mano a mano, about the bait and switch his faction pulled on independent voters in 2010, when they campaigned on jobs, jobs, jobs and the economy but, once elected, governed on anti-women, anti-gay, anti-middle class, pro one-percenter agendas.

The full transcript of the RMS segment follows, but here is the excerpt of O’Malley’s statement:

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Big Government Republicans in Virginia Vote to Outlaw Contraceptives, Require Vaginal Probes for Abortion-Seekers

Jon Ponder

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A new personhood law has passed in the Republican-controlled lower house of the Virginia legislature and is expected to sail through the Republican-controlled state Senate. Virginia’s right-wing extremist governor, Bob McDonnell, has signaled he will sign it.

Human egg at the moment of fertilization
Human egg at the moment of fertilization
Like similar proposals that were defeated in Mississippi last year by 16 points and in Colorado by 46 points in 2008 and by 42 points in 2010, the Virginia bill defines personhood as beginning at the moment of conception, and so would redefine both abortion and contraception as murder.

In addition, Virginia Republicans in both houses of the legislature passed a law earlier this month that requires women seeking abortions to submit to a trans-vaginal ultrasound probe before the procedure. Neither the woman nor her doctor can countermand the administration of the probe, which requires vaginal penetration and which serves no medical purpose.

Unlike the referenda that failed in Mississippi and Colorado, the bills in Virginia are going through the legislative process and, assuming the personhood law passes the state senate, both will become law upon signing by Gov. McDonnell.

McDonnell is said to be on the short list of prospective candidates for the GOP vice presidential slot, if Mitt Romney becomes the party’s nominee.

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