Jody Wagner Dope Slaps Bolling & McDonnell

Virginia's very own LG candidate, Jody Wagner, got some national digital press coverage with an article on her slow-to-get-it opponents, the dynamic duo of Bill "The Drill" Bolling and his partner the Un-Masked Crusader, Bob McDonnell.

What a pair of Neanderthals ... like shooting fish-in-a-barrel.

The Huffington Post carries the story... I Am a Woman for Deeds

When the Washington Post discovered Bob McDonnell's blueprint for governing, they didn't just find an academic paper. They found "a vision that he started to put into action soon after he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates."

Bob McDonnell legislated on these ideas for 14 years in the General Assembly. He opposed efforts to improve our childcare centers in 2001 and 2003, and even voted against eliminating gender-based wage discrimination. That's right -- he even voted against a woman's right to equal pay.

He sponsored not one, not two, but 35 bills restricting a woman's right to choose even in the cases of rape and incest.

On many of these issues, he worked hand-in-hand with his running mate, current Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling.

Creigh(Deeds) and I are both running because we believe in a Commonwealth that offers equal opportunity and support for women and families.

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A Washington Post editorial called McDonnell's thesis an "ode to a bygone 1950s America."

But this is not 1950. We have made so much progress in recent years and we can't afford to go backwards with McDonnell's extreme social agenda.

Alexandria for Deeds

In June, Alexandria went heavily for Brian Moran in the Democratic gubernatorial primary and while there seemed to a bit of tension between the Moran and McAuliffe supporters (a replay of Obama and Clinton in a minor key), Creigh Deeds came in a strong second. Last night, in Alexandria, the local DEEDS FOR VIRGINIA campaign office officially opened with Sen. Creigh Deeds' arrival and with supporters, including several local pols, and staff in attendance.

The space isn’t large (if you are familiar with Old Town Alexandria, you know what the old townhouses are like), but it is the same space used for the Obama campaign, so we’re all hoping for the same outcome. It was great to have Sen. Deeds make the effort to visit a small office and build local NoVA support.

Alexandria Campaign Office 1307 King Street, Alexandria, VA

Hot topic: He made a strong case for McDonnell’s actions being consistent with the infamous 1989 thesis. It was clear McDonnell can say he’s changed, but his policy history and actions speak pretty loudly to the contrary.

I have to say I was impressed by how straightforward Deeds was. He was polished and practiced, but not slick. (I’m in sales…I can spot slick. See McAuliffe above.) Before tonight, I think I’d have voted for Deeds at minimum as a vote against McDonnell. And now, after just a short speech, I can safely say I’m an active Deeds supporter.

So all of you with friends and family NoVA, make sure they understand just how bad it will be if Deeds isn’t our next governor. We need to get people up here energized to vote. Tell them they don’t want it to be like it was with Bush when so many people said, “I wish I had done something sooner.”

As Deeds says, "If you're not all in, you're not in it at all."

Photo and video credits: Hoax Watcher

Bob McDonnell's Agenda (est. 1989)

Editor's note: A new voice, Hoax Watcher, is joining the dialogue here at BRD. This blogger will provide inside the Beltway observations on State and National issues, deeper Economics expertise and a much needed, woman's voice to this adventure in citizen's journalism. Enjoy!

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As Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly rightly points out, McDonnell was 34-- THIRTY-FOUR---years old at the time he wrote the thesis. Not exactly the ravings of youth. It was also written in 1989…there were lots of women in the workplace by 1989---not exactly the birth of the feminist movement.

And, yes, Sen.Webb had his own failings with his position on women in the military. Here’s what he wrote in a 1979 article in The Washingtonian:

Lest I be understood too quickly, I should say that I believe most of what has happened over the past decade in the name of sexual equality has been good. It is good to see women doctors and lawyers and executives. I can visualize a woman President. If I were British, I would have supported Margaret Thatcher. But no benefit to anyone can come from women serving in combat.

I may not agree with him on the one issue of women in combat, but Webb’s comments are very different from Bob’s:

Further expenditures [on child-care programs] would be used to subsidize a dynamic new trend of working women and feminists that is ultimately detrimental to the family…

So what made McDonnell change his mind? What caused his conversion to a more liberal attitude? Maybe his new Bible is The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir and Bob Saw the Light. Maybe he was trying to find a wife so he could create a perfect little family and she (OMG!) wanted to work. Maybe he had daughters and he wanted them to have equal opportunities (Could it be true?). Maybe he wanted to go into politics and felt he needed to play a diversity game by hiring women. Maybe he knew there wasn’t a big enough radical conservative base to keep electing him so he simply went undercover.

I think the Washington Post sums it up best:

Nonetheless, in his 14 years in the state's General Assembly, Mr. McDonnell did aggressively pursue a socially conservative agenda largely in line with his thesis. As governor he could do the same, although he would be constrained by a legislature at least partly controlled by Democrats. He could not ban abortion and contraception, but he could help restrict access. The Bob McDonnell who wrote that thesis would make a divisive, disruptive and partisan governor -- a sharp departure from the tradition of generally pragmatic executives who have helped make Virginia one of the better-managed states in the union. Virginians deserve specific answers about where the thinking of his early middle age has shifted, and where it remains consistent.