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My mother recently visited from parts out west.  It’s always a joy to have her visit for a week.  She loves visiting the sites in DC, then heading home and saying that she’s been to a particular location when it shows up on television or in conversations.  Honestly, I do the same thing when I travel.  There are inherent bragging rights about DC, but, I digress.

During a shuttle ride we were talking about the sheer number of PAC’s and how they muddled the message of the Republican party, and I did what I do best.  I just started talking a mile a minute and in the middle of my mini-dissertation on communications and messaging in campaigns it hit me like a lightning bolt.  Citizens United  was the worst decision to roll down the pipe for the Republican party in, I’d say, the last few decades.

During the last Presidential cycle PACs were resplendent in their causes and number.  In my personal experience working with one PAC there were at least 20 other children organizations working under a parent group, and that was just in Virginia.  We drowned the electorate in calls, with my phone bankers getting complaints that voters had been called dozens of times.  Different organizations, but the same script.  A Hispanic outreach organization was using the same script that was being shared by a tax policy revision group and an organization that touted itself as the “conservative counterpoint to the AARP” (without the insurance, benefits, etc).

This saturation killed the messaging.  It became an irritation.  A reminder to the voters that the candidates, and by proxy, the parties were not running the show, but some separate entity; not voted in, not voted for, and not replaceable by elections or political machinations.  No, these entities, churning out messages tailored for specific candidates, walked the thin line between social activities and political activities, most of the time saying ‘to hell’ with the line and marching right over it.

There was the rub though.  The presidential candidate didn’t have a Koch Brothers logo next to his name.  Halliburton emblems were not resplendent on his bespoken suit jackets.  No, next to his name was an (R) like every other candidate that runs for the Republican ticket.  They’re using the family name, but they’re not using the family prayerbook, as it were.

This is were Citizens United comes in.  It opened the doors and wrested control of the message of the candidates away from the candidate and the political party they are representing and put it in the hands of, literally, anyone who can afford to file the paperwork for a 401.3(c); which, by the way, is not all that much.

The sudden wide scale access to the ability to put out a message in support of a candidate, or, if you want to be safe, a ‘social agenda’ was jumped on by any entity that had an iron in the fire or wanted one there.   The result, the splash damage effect.  Romney’s people weren’t making calls for Romney, Political Action Committees were, but because PACs and the political campaign cannot communicate (and I believe with all my heart that they didn’t do so…/sarcasm) the messages became disparate.  Phone bankers who were not part of the official campaign were answering questions for voters in an official capacity regardless of access, propriety, or authorization.

PACs, in effect, diluted the message of the core agent, the candidate, and wrest control of the process from the party for whom the primary candidates were fighting for.  Newt Gingrich should have been toast after the failures in Iowa and New Hampshire, but even while his campaign was failing, a PAC stepped in and played the part of a campaign for him, allowing the train wreck candidate who speaks of Christian virtues but is on his third marriage with his second mistress.  Go down the list and the weak candidates clung to the primary process not by their own moxie and skill, but by the hand of entities that they supposedly had no connection to.  When your campaign isn’t having to raise money to pay for commercials it tends to make your fundraising numbers look better, and when that happens to be one of the barometers that campaigns are measured on, it gives a false impression of how strong a candidate is.

That obfuscation of ‘real’ political value allowed the Republican primaries to drag on for months longer than it should have, handing truckloads of political ammunition to the loyal opposition who watched on and tittered in utter glee at the monumental fluster cluck that was our Primary.

Our Primary.  The Republican primary, and the crux of the problem.  The party has been neutered by Citizens United.  Originally hailed, by very few, as a way for individuals who had a vested interest in the process to provide more financial support to candidates they liked soon discovered that the rigid structure and quality control that was instituted by state level Republican parties and the Republican National Convention were no longer applicable.  After all, is the RNC going to tell a multimillionaire to stop supporting a candidate?  Don’t spend your millions on adverts for our candidate in swing states?  Take your cash and spend it elsewhere rather than buy us a new auto-dialer system.  Nope, the party took the bait, bit the hook, and was reeled in like a whopper that it is.  In a few years the Republican party organization acquiesced control of the message, control of the candidates, and the discipline of a time tested political organization to the free wheeling of individual agents.

Now candidates are not being selected on their political credentials, but their savvy and speech crafting.  Policy knowledge and party relationships are being replaced with noxious war cries of ‘anti-establishment’, which I’m fairly certain even those who bark it out can barely define what makes someone establishment outside of the fact that they just happen to have been in the political game longer than those making the accusation.

I would suggest to the Republican party to reign itself in.  For five years we have had individuals run under our banner who spit on our establishment, abuse our history, and ignore the hideous damage that ill-thought comments do to themselves and fellow republicans.  It’s time to to start holding back that (R) for those who play the game and meet the criteria set forth.  Something that has bothered me for the last five years is that the “Tea Party” candidates don’t have their own party.  There were no (TP) candidates on the Presidential ballot in 2012, no were there any at the Federal or state level positions.  In 2012 the same thing occurred.  I saw no (TP) candidates.  I saw members who claimed Tea Party association, but demanded that they be given the Republican mantel after talking about how corrupt we’ve become, how vile we are, and how the RINOs, and the establishment needed to go.  You’ve been handing the coveted (R) to those who turn around and, politically speaking, piss on your shoes.

You’re the party.  That position as the arbiter of who represents the party falls on your shoulders.  It is not found in the checkbook of a wealthy businessman or in the ridiculously home crafted hat with teabags dangling from each fold of a tricorne.  You are, as far as it can be estimated, political professionals.  Maritime Lawyers do not allow Ambulance Chasers to march into their courts and dictate how the rules should be.  I’ll put it another way; you want the best of what you can get.  Need Surgery, you’ll want the best doctor.  Need a lawyer, I know a guy in Hampton who can hook you up.  The short version is that you are professionals, and you’ve let the quality of your product slip right off the side of a damn cliff.

Joe the Plumber can run for congress, but he’s not going to win.  If Joe reads up on the issues affecting not only his district but the nation as a whole, puts deep thought into policy positions, communicates these ideas with professionals in the respective fields and gets some feedback, develops plans of action, and learns to communicate those plans in an articulate and meaningful manner to the masses.  Well, then he has a shot.  By the way, that process above, it’s going to take some time; a few years of dedicated time at least.  Candidates don’t come out of the woodwork.  They earn their chops by working in the system you want them to manage.  Again, Joe Schmoe doesn’t walk off the street and take over a legal firm or a Fortune 500 company (unless you want a repeat of 2008, then be my guest).  This notion that the big tent philosophy allows for those not vested in the moral obligation of long-term policy for the betterment of as many as possible rather than those who can pay for a television ad in the major districts and tolerating political mistakes bordering on negligence is, frankly, bullshit.

Seriously guys, where’s your speech writers?  How about your office managers?  Wives?  Do you consult with anyone before you belt this nonsense out?

The Congressman that said pregnancies aren’t that common from rape as a justification for not providing protection rape, incest, and life of the mother in their latest neanderthal-esque attempt at controlling reproductive rights decided to raise money from his base by saying he won’t back down.

Then we have this gem rolling out today:

Texas Republican Congressman says…*sigh* that fetuses might be masturbating at 15 weeks, and therefore should be protected from abortion

I really, really wish I was making this stuff up.  I’m working on a piece that I feel strongly about, and these…*things* that slither into suits and call themselves representatives of the vox populi keep feeding me ammo.

Originally written 04/11/2013, it’s been sitting on the back burner, and something I wanted to get off my chest.

Rand Paul recently visited the hallowed grounds of the largely black Howard University and delivered a speech that some would call foolish.  Others would call it ballsy, or ‘bold’ if you’re in polite company, and I tend to agree with them.

Since the monumental loss of the 2012 Presidential elections the Republican Party has been in, not quite a tailspin, but one of the four engines is out and numbers two and three aren’t looking too hot.  We have an internal war going on that should be internal, but is getting played out on every medium imaginable (be you blog, newspaper, website, television, or radio).  It’s not cloaks and daggers, but ad campaigns and public statements about how Tea Party X doesn’t agree with Congress member/ Senator/ Attorney General Y.  These sorts of condemnations use to be behind closed doors, where negotiations could be done, and grandstanding was reserved for both parties to bask in the credit of compromise and a job well done.

Those days are damn near dead.

While the efforts to re-brand the Grand Old Party go on, Rand Paul is marching to a tune of his own.  Speaking at Howard University he talked about issues that were both relevant to the audience but elucidated on the principles of the Republican mindset while doling out a bit of history.  The snagging point: That Democrats were responsible for the Jim Crow laws of the day, and, ultimately, responsible for the monumental disgraces of racism and segregation in America.

History, as it turns out, is not a monolithic collection of information, painstakingly gathered by individuals who have devoted decades to the logging of the actions by those who have come before us.  No, rather it is a whimsical land of talking points gathered and quantified by not what is right, but what is convenient.  Welcome to Politics 201.

The “Republicans are Racists bastards” dialogue comes from a key point in the party’s history.  A bleak and hideous time known as the Presidential election of 1964.  Ignoring the internal power struggle that was going on years before and the first real rise of the ‘Conservative’ movement in the United States (yes, the modern conservative movement is a little older than the tea party to the tune of a few decades), this campaign cycle saw the rise of Senator Barry Goldwater to the stage of Republican candidate for President.  Quick, go google “presidential election 1964” and look at the electoral college map, I’ll wait.  Once you’ve seen the monumental failure that 1964 was for the Republican party come on back, and we’ll continue.

Pretty rough ‘eh.

I’ll go into Goldwater down the road, but there are some specifics to the election of 1964 that need to be pointed out to flesh out the Democratic talking points.  Goldwater made a deal with the devil, lovingly referred to as the “Southern Strategy” where he would sally up next to the segregationists of the southern states, like George Wallace, in an attempt to free up some votes from those states, and, by their logic, win.  The result, as you saw above, was that Goldwater did two things: 1) he effectively turned off an entire nation to the Republican party, which suffered massive losses in both the Senate and House of Representatives  and 2) gave the loyal opposition a talking point that has lasted nearly five decades.

How does this all fit in to Senator Paul’s statement?  Republicans, going back to post-Civil War reconstruction through the mid 1960’s, were largely in favor of equal rights amendments.  Prior to 1964 the Republican party enjoyed roughly 30% of the black vote in America.  This would all change in 1964 when it dropped to a mere 2%, peeking under Bush in 2004 at 11%.

Republicans were identified as the party of Lincoln, fighters for strong moral values, and the American way of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, etc.  In that vein they have faltered, focusing more on screaming about regulation rather than small-business tax credits.  They haven’t addressed how General Electric and other mega-corporations can drop their cash in off-shore tax havens, but haven’t given a thought to creating business incentive zones in major metropolitan areas to encourage growth a new businesses in blighted areas.  The party, rather than standing on the principled idea of a representative republic, swings for big dollar corporations (least we forget the god awful Citizens United decision and subsequent abuse) and align themselves with a rogues gallery of religious leaders, social engineers, and, frankly, hideous people who appear to have agendas that appeared nowhere on the ticket of common sense, but have a seat at the table regardless.  The ‘Big Tent’ as it were, is big enough to fit in the beast we’ve become and we have to excuse some folks from the table and clean up a bit (okay, a lot) before we can begin to change the perception of an organization.

Senator Paul was right in stating that our history is different from what is said about us as a party, but there is validity to the talking points of today.  There were stronger representatives back then, with a greater sense of purpose not only to the constituents that voted them in, but to those who voted against them as well.  The talking points exist because our history, that noxious cloud from 1964, still looms over us, and until we exorcise our demons, and apply some good housekeeping, then we will suffer the slings and arrows of not an outrageous fortune but, rather, one all too well deserved.

Today the President rolled out another executive order to circumvent existing laws and moved to grant amnesty to roughly 800,000 illegal immigrants.  During one of his ‘hit-and-run’ speeches the president was interrupted by an overeager reporter.  The president responded succinctly, as he should have considering the crass failure of the offending action, and the press conference (which to be frank is more of an announcement that could be done via text message or twitter for all the validity it held) and the slavering dogs that compose the larger swath of the fourth pillar were loosed like the hounds of war and the word ‘question’ became ‘heckle’, the afternoon topic became, yet again, whether the fictitious boogeyman of ‘inherent racism’ that has so far plagued this President every day of his career had now infiltrated the pure core of the press.

This wasn’t some malicious act.  It was an overeager reporter trying to get the question in before everyone else does.  If you watch the video, the assumption that the speech was over is an obvious one.  And, those of us who have heard the delightful little ditty that “to assume makes an ass of you and me”.  In this case, the President was right in chiding the reporter for speaking before the speech was over, but the press should be analyzing why the President does these little hit-and-run speeches, why there are no questions allowed on topics of national interest.  Why these actions are more dictum from our leader rather than policies to be touted out before the American people

No, we get the sad reflexive gagging media, stunned into stupor that anyone would interrupt, let alone dare ask a question of, and they insist on adding this to the mix, the first black President.  I’d call him a fall guy if I were paranoid. Posit the argument that He interrupted at that specific moment, and made a scene for everyone to jump on so we, and by we I mean the people that need to fill a 24 hour news cycle, could focus on that rather than the announcement that just rolled out of the White House.  Again, not paranoid, but look at Drudge, MSNBC, CNN, etc.  It’s not the announcement they’re talking about, but whether the President is struggling, not because of wildly irrational and short-sighted policies, but because of all those nasty ‘racists’ out there.  The dealer keeps doling out the same card every time, and wonders why we are getting tired of seeing it.

I know I said Santorum would be gone after Florida, and at this juncture I wish it had happened.  I was hoping Gingrich would have seen the light of reason and walked away months ago, but he persists, largely, on the donations of a single individual empowered by the, to date, worst politically loaded decision made by the Supreme Court in the last several decades.  I stand here now (after conversations with friends who ask me, “how on earth is this happening?”) and shake my head in disbelief, just as confused and, in some senses, hurt by what I’ve seen.  I go to bat for the Republican party.  I argue that there is a difference between the party philosophy and what is seen on the streets.  I attempt to enlighten, and encourage others to see the party for, not what it is, but what it was intended to be and, most importantly, what it can be.  Then we have state legislatures in South Dakota, Arizona, Virgina, etc. proposing legislation like requiring an additional $200-400 ultrasound that was deemed invasive (later bumped down to a standard ultrasound that, at the early stages of the pregnancy are practically useless).

We rode in on the pony of job creation and economic reform, and we see sweeping efforts on both sides to control the reproductive rights of Americans.  I didn’t vote for the republican candidate because he was pro-life.  I voted for him because he said he would do his damnedest to create new jobs, and work on getting the economy together so that all Americans can see a turn around in the national fiscal policy as well as getting either a few more dollars in my pocket or the opportunity for a new job.  This hideous two-faced nonsense is, unfortunately a long-time running issue with our party, and has spilled over into the public arena in a, some would say spectacular, fashion during our Primaries.

I have argued before that the primary system is broken, giving disproportionate power to the early states and running a process that could be completed in a fiscal quarter into a labored process taking up the better part of a year.

I have stood by and watched as the best chance the Republican Party has to beat President Obama is torn to shreds over and over again because the Primary constituents are either uncomfortable with any human being from the North East of the United States, bigoted fools who won’t look past a minor religious difference, or disgustingly concerned over the notion that Romney does not seem “angry enough” to warrant their support.  The would prefer a Mad Max style candidate, screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs and firing off lovely sound bites like Rush Limbaugh so recently demonstrated.  In short, the majority of primary voters are looking for the solution that will lead our party out of the morass and back into political power, the other voters, and I will agree wholeheartedly that it is their right, choosing the other candidates are all barking mad.

This is what we have to look forward to.  A party paralyzed by itself, and tearing at its own.  We’re measuring our credentials not on who is right, or who has the best plan, but who can go farther to the extreme.  It is some Mountain Dew soaked nightmare that corrupted politics and turned it into an extreme sport where the goal is not success but an attempt to entertain and isolate your support the least number of people and still remain viable.

I would, one day, like to sit down with one of these candidates, most likely after a few drinks, and ask them, on record, what they really think.  I cannot fathom that they believe half the nonsense that comes out of their mouths.  If they do, I will respect their right to believe it, but I will, nonetheless, remain horrified that this is the best we could offer.  This is our time to shine, to win, to take back 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., the House, and the Senate and day by day we are bleeding out that opportunity like vampires.  We are losing ground not just at the national level, but locally, and most importantly, on the human level.

We’re burning bridges before they’re even built.  We’ve salted the earth for thousands, if not millions, of young adults who are fed a constant stream of digital information.  They know more than you presume, and they are horrified by what they have seen.  They read the bills if their posted and wonder why an Arizona Legislature found it necessary to created a bill that would require you to submit a doctor’s note to your insurance company indicating that you have an ailment in which birth control could be a boon in treating.  We, as a political party, scream bloody murder at the imposition of a bureaucrat between us and the doctor, but what about our other relationships.  What about our capacity to deal with our employers?  We suddenly need their input there.  We suddenly need an extra hurdle to clear, but dare not call it bureaucracy because the Republicans are doing it.

We’re proving to an entire generation, and possibly more, that we are vicious, closed-minded, angry humans who sole drive is to free the markets but control the people.  That we are willing to go for the hot button issues because they are not intellectually rigorous, but emotionally loaded.  We’d rather read a propaganda piece on Planned Parenthood than call a session to speak to world recognized economists (see not business or industry leaders) to hammer out a solution for long-term, sustainable economic growth rather than a quickie bandage for the economic equivalent of a sucking chest wound.

They are watching, they are listening.  We have been weighed and measured,  and we have been found wanting.  Without them, those future voters of America, there will be no party.  Without them, the other side wins.  After that thought sinks in then, and maybe then, we will pick up the report on the economic development of urban areas and put down the latest propaganda pamphlet.

I chose not to watch the Primary in South Carolina yesterday.  Instead it was a beautifully calm day, a bit grey and overcast, but enjoyable.  Later I called my family to with my father and brother a Happy Birthday, then my mother hit me with the bad news.  Newt Gingrich had won the Primary in SC.  Not just won it, crushed the opposition with a 12.6% margin.

A keystone to this crossing-the-Rubicon moment for Gingrich was the one-two knockout soundbite from the Debates on Thursday where he so throughly trounced John King for opening a presidential primary debate with a question about a quick-break attention piece involving one of Newt’s ex-wives.  The response to the question, and the subsequent verbal beat down of not just King but of the mainstream media in general, played into the eager hands of a staunchly partisan audience and it was the applause heard ’round the nation.  the next morning radio stations were rolling the audio as if it were the first shot fired at Fort Sumter, an image the Drudge Report would later play out  at the top of its well-known site.

So, now we have a two-man race again (Santorum can bark all he want, but he will not last past Florida and I bear no ill will to Paul but he is not getting the traction he needs to sustain), and one has to ask if this is what we want.  I have problems with the Primary system in place, and I have stated as much in previous posts.  From the nonsense about the ballots being too tough to get on in Virginia to how ridiculously easy it is to get anyone’s voting card in New Hampshire; the system is rife with either incompetence or inconsistencies, either of which are becoming glaringly detrimental to the good order of trying to figure out who on earth the Republican Party is going to throw into the ring against the current political version of Ivan Drago, President Barack Obama (allusion aside, he is geared with the money, the people and the technology to be the best in the field).

Rocky parallels aside, the Primaries are the issue.  They are no longer bellwethers, they are Fairweather at best.  Gingrich’s rises to stardom came and went a month and change ago on the premise of his debate skills, and he crashed back to earth in an almost Icarian fashion.  Now, the voters of South Carolina have seen fit to give him another pair of wax wings and let him have another go at that flying-too-close-to-the-sun plan that went so damnably well last time.  All the while Other candidates bleed out on the sidelines, their ideas and policies being overrun by a wretchedly, and mind numbingly irritating, need to focus on the tawdry details related to the bedroom rather than the boardroom or the war room.  So, the question becomes, how does one play it.

I mentioned to friends last night that either the event preceding the debate are either an amazing use of metagaming by Gingrich or an even more brilliant application by political operatives of the other side of the house.

here is the Hypothesis: A single candidate is developing to be the standard-bearer for the opposition party with four years of campaigning under his belt, money to spare, and a national organization that might very well match your own; however there is a mercurial, loud, and ultimately vitriolic candidate that had his 15 minutes and is still holding on but does not have the organization, structure, or funds to match your candidate blow for blow.  Choose who you want to run against, I’ll wait…

Now, the mercurial one is known to play the audience in debates.  The opposition has chosen to run the concept of debates into the grounds but any observer with half a brain cell has noted that the body politic of the opposition party is in a state of spastic upheaval on a weekly basis.  In Five months there have been four frontrunners, some changing hands literally within a week.

They are fractured, leery, and hiding the contempt they have for the thin field of candidates as “weighing their options”.  So, how does one get this group do what you want them to do?  Play to their sensibilities.  Media, to the opposition is a vile thing.  Intrusive (it is), invasive (it is), and lacking basic moral compunction and sound grounding in reality (ehhh…).  All of these are detestable, easy to point out, and the denouncing of the almost criminally invasive nature of the fourth pillar make for great air time on any given channel.

So, We have our mark, we have our patsy, and we need a catalyst to get this ball rolling.  Enter the angry ex-wife that can highlight some socially unacceptable behavior of the mercurial candidate in question.  Air an interview that is much ballyhooed shortly before the Debate, and then fire the opening shot of the debate, not about something all four candidates can talk about, but about what was said a few hours ago.  No time to vet, no time to plan a solid ground game response, just the smooth operator in front of a sympathetic audience with a bit of trepidation and a (let’s be totally honest Jon King got set up to take a hit on that one) slick-haired liberal elite media personality, and boom.  It was a softball lob to Barry Bonds with a corked bat.  It is out of the park.  It is a standing ovation for the man who has had his private life of a decade ago put on display (let us not forget who he hunted in his time), and several rounds of booing for the big bad journalist.

The next morning, the airwaves are filled with the audio of the verbal smack down, the televisions hum with the warm glow of a presidential primary candidate striking one home, and all the while the question is left unanswered, the dogma forgotten in the moment of vicious rebuttal, and now our Mercurial candidate has knocked out the stalwart leader.  Anger, again, has taken the front of the stage and the calm discipline of others is forgotten, if not frowned upon.  The challenger you were most concerned with is now falling behind in the polls (granted he did himself no favors when muddling about releasing his tax records), and the mercurial one is shooting upwards again.  Money will pour into his dusty coffers, a little more organization will be made,  a little more headway will be gained.  All in all, it is the walk to the convention, and you want that convention.  A split floor with only half the opposition choosing the person to be their standard-bearer against the incumbant; oh yes, you want that.

It sounds Vaudevillian.  To be frank, it sounds downright ridiculous, but stop for one moment, look back, and tell me you can’t see it going down that way.  Why lose a rook when you can convince the other sides knight to take out a bishop?

So, coming off a monumental failure to comply to even the most basic of campaign requirements the Perry campaign filed a lawsuit to stop Virginia from printing a ballot without his name on it.  One would find this an abyssal low for a candidate who has kicked his “State’s rights” credo up and down the street more times than there were hideous debate performances, but there are some in this entire show who are even more disgusting.

On Friday it was indicated that four other Candidates: New Gingrich, Michelle Bachman, Rick Santorum, and John Huntsman, have tossed their hats in with the Perry lawsuit in an attempt to get their names on the ballot.  Gingrich, as it has become known, submitted signatures, however a lone individual was apparently responsible for 1500 bad signatures.  While I doubt the veracity of this lone corrupt signature gatherer, issues like this arise when there is a mad dash for signatures in the final hour and financial incentives are offered for signatures.   The other three….well, they didn’t even bother to submit petitions in Virginia.

Three ‘candidates’ who were ‘serious’ about running for President of the United States did not even attempt to file to be on the primary ballot in Virginia.  this isn’t sad, this isn’t an oversight, this is pathetic and possibly the most miserable excuse of riding the coattails of someone else I have ever seen.  Three sniveling wretches who didn’t even have the time or decency to come to Virginia and petition the voters who are supposed to chose them as the candidate to beat the President want to jump on the bandwagon with Rick Perry and be hoisted up as a candidate that spent the time and effort in Virginia to meet the requirements.  They are a picture perfect example of what the Republican Party is trying to remove in this country, a notion that because they participated, because they happen to be competing for the same thing that they should be entitled to the same benefits that those who put in the time and effort to gather the needed signatures.

Forget laws that have been in place for over a decade, forget that dozens of other candidates who have run for statewide elections have fulfilled this requirement, and go ahead and ignore the fact that Perry only turned in around 6,000 instead of something closer to the required 10,000 signatures.  No, forget the requirements and rule of law.  Now the campaigns of those who were found wanting are filling a lawsuit because they had to follow the rules.

There are several dozen insults I could fling at them but to be frank, they’re not worth the time.  If the campaigns of Bachman, Huntsman, and Santorum cannot even bother an attempt at coming to Virginia and seeking out the support of the republican base then they have no legal basis to be added to the lawsuit.  No harm has fallen to them since there was no effort expended.  For the Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to stand up for these political failures is a disturbing note.

The AG is responsible for ensuring that the laws of Virginia are enforced.  Kowtowing to candidates, some who didn’t even bother to file in his state, by submitting emergency legislation to the general assembly is not only a poor decision, it is indicative of the AG, who will be running for Governor in the upcoming election, is already playing politics for the individuals at the national level who he believes can do more for him than the constituents of hist state.  He’s selling out his state’s sovereignty and failing in his duties so that he can put himself in some imperceptibly better position to fail Virginia further.

the laws of the state are just that, the law.  If the Republican party is going to claim they are the party of laws and personal responsibility then we need to elect individuals who are willing to stand up and recognize those laws.  Trying to circumvent those laws, which dozens of other individuals running for office have been able to meet to move on to public office, is indicative of an individual who is not willing to live to the standard needed, and indicative of an individual who, under no circumstances whatsoever, should be given the unwarranted opportunity to be on the ballot in Virginia’s Primary.