The Party of State-Mandated Vaginal Probing Goes Limp

For the second day in a row, once some of the Republican members of the Virginia General Assembly got a good look at the women massing on the Capitol grounds in opposition to 10 inches of government snooping shoved up their vaginas, the sponsors of Virginia's proposed new anti-abortion bill were said to be in deep contemplation of "compromises" that might save their mortal souls from the hell about to be unleashed on them.

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R), who up until day-before-yesterday said he was just itching to see all those women spread their legs to state-mandated probing, is now signaling that maybe it was some governor-impersonator who said he would sign any vaginal-poking-around law that the General Assembly cared to put on his desk.

Gov. McDonnell's ringing endorsement has changed to something resembling under-cooked pabulum:

"Our position is: If the General Assembly passes this bill the governor will review it, in its final form, at that time,” McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin said in a statement.

Seems like the Republican war on women, when faced with actual resistance, gets a whole lot less "manly."

Famous for Racial Gaffs? Come on Down to NC!

Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) crashes and burns after calling a South Asian "macaca" on-camera and is immediately invited by powerful North Carolina Republican interests to make a speech in Lenoir (with none other than Virginia Foxx fawning from the wings, in between trips to the buffet table).

Then current Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell asks the white citizens of his state officially to celebrate Confederate History Month and thoughtfully omits any mention of the fact of slavery, lest anyone be unfortunately confronted by actual history. McDonnell is now the featured headline speaker at a NC GOP fundraiser tomorrow night in Raleigh.

Racial politics in the Old North State. And proof of what Michael Steele was saying earlier this week.

Words o' Wisdom

Tom Jensen over at Public Policy Polling:

All three of these folks [current top GOP contenders Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee] reinforce the negative perceptions that much of the country holds about the Republican Party. The GOP needs a fresh face that challenges people's assumptions about who Republicans are and is visibly not just going to be George W. Bush under another name. I don't know who that person is, but he/she needs to emerge if the party is going to win back the White House in 2012.

Some conservative talking head the other day -- maybe it was Pat Buchanan -- uttered the name Bob McDonnell in reference to the above perception that something is dreadfully outta focus (rather than mavericky) about the current Republican field of presidential contenders. Which we think kinda proves Jensen's point, if you're turning to the man who just won a Southern governorship but hasn't even been sworn in yet.

McDonnell = a fresh face, yes. But "challenges people's assumptions"? Not so much.

Will That Moose Hunt?

Less than 48 hours before the election for governor in Virginia, at least some of the state's voters began getting robo-calls from Sarah Palin.

Apparently, she can see Virginia from her house.

The Republican candidate for governor up there, Robert McDonnell, a right-winger of the Pat Robertson school, had politely requested that Palin not stick her cute little button nose into his election campaign, fearing that the state's independents might not cotton to the under-informed former Alaska governor (who couldn't even get through a single term in office).

Curiously (or perhaps, understandably, given the above paragraph), Palin does not mention McDonnell by name: "Virginia, hello, this is Sarah Palin calling to urge you to go to the polls Tuesday and vote to share our principles. The eyes of America will be on Virginia and make no mistake about it, every vote counts. So don't take anything for granted, vote your values on Tuesday, and urge your friends and family to vote, too."

"Your values" = gay-bashing anti-abortion get 'em women back in the kitchen, all of which fit McDonnell to a tee.

The calls are being paid for by the Virginia Faith and Freedom Coalition, the state branch of a national conservative group founded by former Christian Coalition director (and Jack Abramoff palsy-wowsy) Ralph Reed.

McDonnell is heavily favored to win over Democrat Creigh Deeds, but perhaps Palin intends to brag that she turned the (already very red) tide in McDonnell's favor. She ain't nothing if she ain't an opportunist.

The Mullah Who Would Be Governor of Virginia

You're given a pass if you're not following the election contest for governor of Virginia this year, but you might want to check out the Republican who is leading in most polls, one Robert F. McDonnell, who was fostered by Pat Robertson's university and who clearly wanted to keep women roughly in the same place that the Taliban reserved for them. He's now disavowing those views he put into his student thesis, but his history in the Virginia state legislature suggests otherwise. From the WashPost:

At age 34, two years before his first election and two decades before he would run for governor of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell submitted a master's thesis to the evangelical school he was attending in Virginia Beach in which he described working women and feminists as "detrimental" to the family. He said government policy should favor married couples over "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators." He described as "illogical" a 1972 Supreme Court decision legalizing the use of contraception by unmarried couples.

The 93-page document, which is publicly available at the Regent University library, culminates with a 15-point action plan that McDonnell said the Republican Party should follow to protect American families -- a vision that he started to put into action soon after he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.

During his 14 years in the General Assembly, McDonnell pursued at least 10 of the policy goals he laid out in that research paper, including abortion restrictions, covenant marriage, school vouchers and tax policies to favor his view of the traditional family. In 2001, he voted against a resolution in support of ending wage discrimination between men and women.

In his run for governor, McDonnell, 55, makes little mention of his conservative beliefs and has said throughout his campaign that he should be judged by what he has done in office, including efforts to lower taxes, stiffen criminal penalties and reform mental health laws. He reiterated that position Saturday in a statement responding to questions about his thesis.

Conservatives Lose Struggle for Virginia GOP

The Virginia Republican Party Central Committee ousted its conservative chair on Saturday, signaling that it intends to follow the more moderate path being advocated by its probable candidate for state governor this year.

That gubernatorial candidate, Robert F. McDonnell, along with other top Republican elected officials in the state, says he wants to play down the conservative "focus on ideology and such hot-button issues as gun rights, immigration and abortion."

No, really.

The state party chair did not go easily and vowed vengeance after he was voted out. His conservative supporters screamed "mob lynching."

The ousted party chair -- his name is unimportant; he could be any one of a dozen state GOP party chairs across the nation -- had distinguished himself last year by refusing to coordinate with the less-than-pure John McCain campaign and had compared Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden. He's that kind of conservative.

But apparently, Virginia is not that kind of red state any more.