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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:
O’MALLEY: [Independent voters who voted for Republicans in 2010] have seen their legislature take a hard right turn and that’s exactly the sort of overreach that they saw in Wisconsin which has the 49th worst job creation rate, the sort of overreach they saw in Ohio, which has the 30th worst job creation rate, and also what they’ve seen in Florida which has the 45th worst job creation rate. They say vote for us, things will get better, and then you vote for Republicans and they take a hard right turn, outlawing gay relationships, outlawing women’s rights, outlawing unions and outlawing — throwing all sorts of social issues out there when what the people really care about are jobs and the economy.
MADDOW: Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, welcome to your post-vaginal
probe world, a world that you have created.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have to ask you about this red hot story that
has gotten so much ink, so many women in particular fired up.UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Virginia drew national attention for the proposal
that was —UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did they?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My understanding they did.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was a bill, an abortion bill that would
have mandated that women what`s called a transvaginal ultrasound if they
were getting an abortion.(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: This was not always Bob McDonnell`s world. The thing
everybody was clamoring to ask him about until a couple of weeks ago was
how vice presidential he was looking.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could be looking at the next running mate here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some people say the guy sitting across from me
would be a pretty good number two on the ticket.UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you`d be open to it?
MCDONNELL: Look, if someone called and said, you could help our
country or help our ticket, I think any of us would think about it.(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: Before he became the vaginal probe guy, Bob McDonnell was the
guy who got showered with flattering questions about his political promise
practically everywhere he went.But then, the last week and a half happened, Republicans in Virginia
were all set to make a new law requiring Virginia women to undergo a
vaginal probe ultrasound before the state would allow them to get an
abortion. It passed both houses of the Virginia legislature. Governor
McDonnell had already said he would sign it.And then the national media noticed and everyone including us, freaked
out. Made its way on “Saturday Night Live” last weekend. There was a big
silent protest outside the Capitol in Richmond on Monday. There were big
unsilent protests all over the capitol grounds yesterday.Governor McDonnell and Virginia Republicans tried to back away from
the national disaster they had created for themselves by claiming that they
had no idea that they were requiring such an invasive procedure, they tried
amending the legislation they are still having the government force your
doctor to do medical procedures to you against your will.You`re still forced to have a political ultrasound mandated by the
state, but the new requirement would stop just short of that forced state-
machine dated ultrasound being forced state-mandated vaginal penetration.
It`s kind of hard to unring that bell. And all the trying in the world has
not saved Bob McDonnell from a new political reality in which he is the
vaginal ultrasound guy. He`s the vaginal probe guy now.Personally evidence since “The Washington Post” put his mid-career
thesis from Pat Robertson`s televangelist college online, I`ve always
thought of him as the homosexuals and fornicators guy. But now to the wide
world, he is the vaginal ultrasound guy. Now, the thing everybody is dying
to ask him about is this vaginal probe bill.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You flip-flopped on this, you backed the bill,
and now, you say no. Why?MCDONNELL: Gerri, I think you`ve got it wrong. I support the concept
of an ultrasound requirement as part of the formal informed consent. I
still support that. What I requested is simply an amendment that requires
an abdominal ultrasound.Now, what we realized I said I support the bill, I still support the
bill.(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: So in his first interviews, in his post-vaginal probe world,
Governor Bob McDonnell wants to make it very clear that he still supports
this measure. He still supports the government mandating a medical
procedure for political reasons, just not necessarily the one that goes
inside your vagina.Bob McDonnell is really resisting his new political identity as the
vaginal probe guy.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you were educating yourself did you originally
not realize it might mandate —MCDONNELL: Well, it wasn`t my procedure. After all, this wasn`t my
bill.Normally, a governor would review hundreds of bills when they get to
your desk. You`re so busy advocating your agenda, you don`t read
legislator bill. We can`t always help what the media decides to focus on.(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: It isn`t my bill, I just said that I would sign it. I don`t
even care about ultrasounds. I`m focused on, can we talk about something
other than this?Now, there are probably innumerable Democrats who would love to the
Democrat who gets to debate the vaginal probe guy about what`s important to
the country, right? Unfortunately today for Bob McDonnell, there was a
Democrat on hand to do just that. Mr. McDonnell was being interviewed by
Politico.com, right alongside, about three inches away from a Maryland`s
governor, Democrat Martin O`Malley.Now, we are used to sharp political rhetoric in the abstract in our
country, but this kind of scene is actually pretty rare in our politics.
They are three inches apart. Governor O`Malley delivering what turned out
to be a screed on everything wrong with Governor McDonnell`s politics while
Governor McDonnell sat right next to him three inches away visibly
squirming the whole time.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. MARTIN O`MALLEY (D), MARYLAND: I would also dare to predict that
in Virginia, where they have seen what happens when you put Republicans
totally in charge, they had seen their legislature take a hard right turn.
And that`s exactly the sort of overreach that they saw in Wisconsin, which
has a 49th worst job creation rate, the sort of overreach they saw in Ohio,
which has the 30th worst job creation rate, and also what they have seen in
Florida which has the 45th worse job creation rate.They say, you vote for us, things would get better. And then you vote
for the Republicans and they take a hard right turn, outlawing gay
relationship, outlawing women`s rights, outlawing unions, outlawing all —
throwing all sort of social wedge issues when what people care is about
jobs and economy.UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, I had a hunch we`d mix it up eventually
here. I better let you respond to do that, and then I do want to get
questions over on the wings where I haven`t gone.MCDONNELL: Well, I can say Governor O`Malley is the only one that`s
got social issues at the top of his agenda, I don`t.(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: Yes you do. Actually.
Nice try, but you were the one who said you would sign the mandated
vaginal probe bill when it was clear that is what it was. You may have
backed off now that it`s hurting you politically. But people have away of
not forgetting that you were the mandated vaginal probe guy. That kind of
thing sticks with you.Bob McDonnell`s whole career has been as a hard right, social
conservative, punish the fornicators, forced the ultrasound kind of guy.
He still is. And he may not want to be thought of that way anymore, who
would? But actions speak louder than words, Governor Probe.The real question now is whether or not Bob McDonnell, the vaginal
probe guy, is still on the vice presidential short list. In a political
party in which all the of remaining candidates for president have voiced
support for so-called personhood measures that would ban all abortion and
likely ban hormonal contraception as well, a party that is fighting against
access to birth control, who knows? Maybe this actually isn`t bad for
Governor Bob McDonnell. Maybe the vaginal probe guy is exactly who the
Republican Party in 2012 is looking for in a presidential running mate.Joining us is the Democratic Party former communications director, now
a columnist for “The Hill” and MSNBC political analyst, Karen Finney. I
should also note that Karen is a board member for NARAL Pro-Choice America.Karen, thank you very much for your time. It`s nice to see you.
KAREN FINNEY, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to be with you, Rachel.
You know, you don`t look so scary to me.MADDOW: You know, the thing about Bob McDonnell the whole ultrasound
thing happened after he told Laura Ingraham he wanted to come on the show.
But even before we started calling him governor vaginal probe, he still
wouldn`t return the calls. I think he was flat out lying.FINNEY: I think he might have been. That`s not right.
MADDOW: Anyway, I know as the Democrats communications director,
you`d never call anybody governor vaginal probe, but I wonder —FINNEY: I never would — honestly, Rachel, I never would have thought
that we would be in a position to actually call someone governor vaginal —
transvaginal probe. I mean, did you ever think you would be having this
conversation on your show?MADDOW: Never, never in my life. Not just on my show, never in my
world, like really, never. But I have been training myself to say these
things I`m still all red. But — do you think that Governor McDonnell`s
prospects for being the vice presidential nominee are totally scuttled by
this or do you think this in some weird way in this year Republican
politics, this might not that bad?FINNEY: It`s hard to tell based on the line of action that
Republicans have chosen to take. I mean, think about the level of activity
that we`ve had over the last several months and weeks. I mean,
essentially, the Republican Party aligned itself with the Vatican. And you
have 98 percent of Catholic women use contraception.So, the Vatican can`t convince its own women in America of their
policies and the Republican Party thinks that is the place to go?I mean, and I think they are also not paying attention to the fact
that women have very much been awakened over the last several months,
again, look at these Republican legislatures and these sort of anti-women
bill, having to prove you were raped in order to use Medicaid to have an
abortion, you know, redefining rape, letting women die, the level of
conversation we`ve been having, and then contraception, you know, and the
reaction that we saw when Susan G. Komen Foundation really stepped over the
line.I think McDonnell is in part — I mean, this is a culmination of all
of that activity and all of women sort of recognizing and some in the
Republican Party, transvaginal insertion is probably over the line, maybe
contraception is getting up to the line. But I think they totally
miscalculated where the American people are.MADDOW: Well, I wonder if — I think it has become part of the
national conversation. And I think you`re right that all of these things
have sort of cumulatively built to the point that is not an avoidable
discussion anymore.But I wonder from the Democratic perspective, do you think we`re at a
point where resistance to the Republican`s abortion agenda is a national
political issue for the Democrats? Obviously, this is an issue that people
want to talk about. But the Democrats want to talk about being the ones
who are going to stand up and stop them on this?FINNEY: I think we should. I think Democrats should, and we were
talking about this earlier today at our NARAL board meeting, that to me,
the way I see this is, we have an opportunity to have a conversation with
Americans that says, let`s not — it`s not about the procedure at some
point. And I think that that`s part of what has reinvigorated and
reawakened women in a lot of ways.It is — at some point, it`s about fundamental liberty and freedom,
that my government tells me I have to have some kind of probe inserted into
my vagina? I mean, if that isn`t government intervention, I don`t know
what is, right? And even in these conversations about contraception — I
mean, I wrote about this last week. In 1936, people believed contraception
should be available.So, the culture wars, and the nature of the conversation I think has
really shifted. I think you`re seeing that when it comes to gay rights and
marriage equality. And I think we`ve seen the backlash on contraception, I
think has shown that. Democrats I think have an opportunity to open a
conversation with people that again is about not necessarily the procedure,
but about this fundamental concept of, you know, liberty and freedom.And certainly as women, we need to step up and take ownership of the
fact that, if we`re going to be seen as equal human beings in this country,
no man gets to tell me when I`ve been raped.MADDOW: Former DNC communication director, columnist for “The Hill,”
MSNBC political analyst Karen Finney — fired up and ready to go tonight.
Karen, this story is equally bewildering and enraging — but thank you for
joining us and being willing to talk about it tonight. I appreciate it.FINNEY: Good to be with you.
