MCDONNELL IMPLODES!!!!!

From the WaPo:

"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."

Comments

[SatiricalAlexandria]

The macaca moment is upon is, and right after I confronted Bob on abortion this morning!

Check out my conversation with Bob McDonnell Saturday morning in Alexandria. I tweeted about it live. I knew this was coming.

SatirclAlxndria on twitter.

McDonnell is no moderate. He is a far right wing evangelical who is lying about who and what he is so can obtain power and impose his extreme religious beliefs on everyone of us in Virginia. Don't let it happen, Virginians. McDonnell is scary. Nuttier than George Bush, meaner than Dick Cheney. I've seen it with my own eyes.

[Chrisi]

WTF? There are no words for this, seriously.

WTF?

[aznew]

It was bound to surface.

What an a**hole.

[SatiricalAlexandria]

Quote from thesis: "When man's basic inclination is towards evil [such as] homosexuality, the government must restrain, punish and deter."

My take: Bob McDonnell is a repressed homosexual who desperately wants to be restrained, punished and deterred. Come to momma...

[Hokie Guru]

Awesome!!

[Gretchen Laskas]

And if any Republicans want to insist this should be "off limits" or "doesn't matter" am I right in assuming that these same Republicans are writing to Rich Lowry at the the conservative flagship publication NATIONAL REVIEW, insisting that NR writers stop talking about Michelle (who never ran for office) Obama's UNDERGRADUATE papers at Princeton?

[DCCyclone]

Good stuff, a story like this definitely hurts McDonnell just a teeny tiny little bit.

But will there be mainstream media follow up? Will McDonnell remain on defense? How much and for how long will the Virginia political conversation really focus on McDonnell's extremism? I hope it becomes a real issue, but this WaPo story is just a start, not enough by itself or combined with whatever Creigh can do.

It would help if McDonnell were thrown off balance by some of this stuff enough to say or do something stupid to hurt himself. But he's been pretty well disciplined and tough to throw off message. That being the case, I think Creigh is going to have to grind this out and claw his way back very slowly, not making it a dead heat until the very end IF he does everything right along the way. The demographics are still there for Creigh to make it as close as 4 years ago.

[Stonewall Brigade]

McDonnell wins with 55% of the vote. BO numbers continue to drop. A small bump on the road to victory.

[Gwoman]

McDonnell on Griswold v. Connecticut: on Griswold v. CT: "State had long been empowered to regulate the legal AND SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS of marriage."

[Not Bob McDonnell Regulating the Bedroom]

What douchebag Bob is.

[Not Bentard]

Stonewall Brigade: Delusional. You make me laugh.

Ben: Bet you love Amy Gardner now, don't you?! I'll concede that TPP is probably making the rounds, telling others that he fed Gardner the story...lol.

[Chocolate Chip Cookie]

SatiricalAlexandria,

I thought that was bad bad Leroy Brown.

[JT]

This is devastating

[TruthMeter]

http://twitter.com/ppppolls/status/3624971205

"Creigh is polling a little better than a month ago so far but still down by a lot"

http://twitter.com/ppppolls/status/3609370829

"george allen is way more popular with the folks voting this fall than barack obama..."

[TruthMeter]

You guys are hilarious. Look at the internals of the PPP and Rasmussen poll.

Deeds is already winning moderates by 20 + points and still trailing by double digits by every reputable pollster (Research 2K surrendered its credibility by partnering with Kos).

Nothing in this paper hurts McDonnell among conservatives and pushing the story will not help Deeds with conservatives.

Deeds needs to cut into McDonnell's 85% support from conservatives unless you really believe that Deeds can win 70% of moderates.

[Gwoman]

There are two kinds of conservatives: rich fiscal conservatives who care about money, and poor social conservatives who care about Jesus. The rich fiscal conservatives will be scared macaca-less when they see all this. The poor social conservatives aren't enough to win, about 30% of the total voting population in the USA. NOVA conservatives are the rich kind. McDonnell just lost them. They'll either vote for Deeds now or simply stay home.

[HisRoc]

Ben,

So, tell us what the difference is between this McDonnell paper and Jim Webb's 1979 article in the Washingtonian about how women are too inferior to serve in combat?

http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/mediapolitics/2182.html

[Jj]

This is absolutely ridonkulous...........

[TruthMeter]

Gwoman,

Actually, fiscal conservatives in NOVA are very culturally conservative, if not socially conservative. They don't approve of Skip Gates, Barack and Michelle Obama, or any Chicago style politics. Skip Gates and Barack Obama are far more scary to these folks than an essay with which they have some disagreements.

I'd agree with you if Deeds presented himself as a culturally conservative Democrat (blacks and NOva liberals are not swing voters, they would have voted for him anyway) but he gave that up by making abortion an issue. Planned Parenthood is far bigger noose than any term paper.

[Not John McCain]

Gwoman

If you are implying that Jesus would approve of McD's paper, I suggest you read the Gospel again...carefully

[NoVA Scout]

I don't think I could bear to read any paper I wrote in college. If I were running for office, I think I would preemptively concede that they were all fairly shallow, and would further contend that they had nothing to do with the demands of the office I was seeking.

[Joel Rutstein]

This should help Deeds close the gap. The next step depends on McDonnell's reaction. I hope he decides to follow Marshall's implicit advice as described near the end of the article. If McDonnell chooses to do anything other than ignore the questions (and Deeds and the press are going to make it difficult to ignore the questions) he'll have to choose which set of voters to alienate, those turned off by his old views or those who want McDonnell to embrace those old views.

[William Jackson]

Again, no policy substance from the Deeds campaign. It's interesting to see the dems implode.

Wasn't it the democrats who used to call social issues "wedge" issues, and accused the GOp of being divisive when they brought them up?

I guess it's ok now, when it's all the dems have to run on.

[Not Harry F. Byrd, Sr.]

Writing a paper while in college as an 18 Y/O adolescent is one thing.

Writing a master's thesis as a 34 Y/O adult is quite different.

[Useless News and World Distort Grad School Rankings]

"CBN University" ought to be enough to seal his fate. If you could get into a real school, and instead chose one established by a TV preacher, and named after his TV network, well - that's spelled FAIL. EPIC FAIL. Judgment? Please!

[VA Blogger]

Let the Robertson-, Regent-, and Christian-bashing begin!

[Truthseeker]

Why the "October Surprise" in August?

[NotAndySere]

McDonnell is clearly doomed. This forms a natural ceiling for his showing with the voters. Based on the 2006 election, only about 57% of Virginians share his socially conservative views. What will happen to the Republican Party of Virginia if it wins with only 55% of the vote?!

[JT]

They don't approve of Skip Gates, Barack and Michelle Obama, or any Chicago style politics. Skip Gates and Barack Obama are far more scary to these folks than an essay with which they have some disagreements." -TruthMeter

--Intelligent black folk with power! OH NOES!!!

Don't heap the rest of NoVA Republicans in with your obviously racist ass.

[Brian W. Schoeneman]

Gretchen, Lowry's article is stupid - Michelle Obama didn't run for anything. No one outside of conservative radio paid any attention to it, and it had no impact on the election.

This paper is cut from the same cloth. This was 20 years ago. It was a paper for school. He was going to an exceedingly conservative school. You think maybe he was writing what he though the folks grading the thesis wanted to hear? Has anyone who has gone to college NOT done that when they thing a professor will mark down for not regurgitating what has been taught, even if they disagree?

And even if that's what he actually, thought - and we have no evidence that it is, is anyone the same person they were 20 years before? I know I'm not. McDonnell has clearly learned quite a bit over that time period. He doesn't seem to have a problem with his daughter serving in the army - as an officer no less.

As for Griswold, there were two dissenters in the case, so its not outside the realm of possibility that someone could disagree with that decision less than ten years after it was handed down. Yes, today it isn't controversial, but it was then.

I'm no social conservative, as I've made pretty clear here. This story doesn't bother me. I've seen no evidence of any kind of misogyny or otherwise from McDonnell or his campaign and I would love to see some examples besides a decades old thesis.

This race isn't going to be won with a smoking gun, a macaca moment, or any other kind of get-out-of-running-a-craptastic-campaign-free card.

I find it hilarious that after how many years of decrying the "politics of personal destruction" that Republicans were blamed for pursuing, this is the absolute best Deeds and his cronies can pull off. Is that how he plans to govern? If the General Assembly doesn't pass bill he wants, he'll dig up 30 year old term papers as blackmail?

Pathetic.

[Not Harry F. Byrd, Sr.]

Brian - McDonnell was 34 years-old when he wrote this. Not some college student trying to find himself.

How old are you?

[Joel Rutstein]

If McDonnell had simply wanted to earn a law degree in VA after his lengthy military career, he had a lot of options on where to go to school. It seems obvious that his agenda dovetailed with Pat Robertson's agenda. McDonnell's dilemma is that the "principles" underlying that agenda today are most fervently promoted by the ever-shrinking ever extreme base of the Republican party that McDonnell is running to lead in VA. It would be ironic indeed if McDonnell waffles on his commitment to these principles, thus demoralizing that base the same way George Bush Sr. demoralized that base in '88. At that time, that base was much bigger and more central to the GOP, and Pat Robertson was one of its most prominent leaders. McDonnell made a choice with eyes wide open well into his adult years. If he even hints that he was just telling his professors what they wanted to hear, the Christian rightwing activists will abandon him.

[Not Tucker Watkins]

Brian,

So your belief is that Bob McDonnell was intellectually dishonest? A 34-year old man about to run for HOD was telling arch-conservatives "what they wanted to hear" and he did not share those views? One has to defend a thesis. Therefore, according to you, he defended something he didn't believe and tricked the faculty into giving him his degrees.

Griswold was ruled on in 1965. McDonnell disagreed with the right of married couples to get contraception from doctors in 1989. 24 years! And if you think Griswold was controversial in '89 you're fooling yourself.

And as for blaming "Deeds and his cronies" for this story, didn't you read that the WaPo only looked into the thesis after McDonnell himself told them about it? Man, if Deeds and his cronies can force Bob through telekinesis to explain that homosexuality disqualifies someone from being a judge, they are far more powerful than any of us know.

[ILoveBarack]

The problem is that most people who will vote for him don't possess the intelligence or discernment to understand why this is wrong, and bad. And those that do, care more about being true to their racist beliefs than about the good of the Commonwealth.

[republitarian]

At least he didn't drive a woman off a bridge and leave her to drown...

[republitarian]

Too bad McDonnell can't say he just got that paper from the internet......

[Brian W. Schoeneman]

Not Harry, I'm 32. And I know I've written some papers that didn't reflect my personal views, but the views I knew were needed to get me an A.

Like I said before, this was 20 years ago, and people change.

[TruthMeter]

People are already playing the race card?

I believe that Skip Gates and Barack Obama are more scary to NOVA republicans than some thesis paper written in 1989. I don't see how you could disagree with that point.

All McDonnell needs to do is continue tying Deeds to people like Skip Gates and Barack Obama and he should win 85% of the conservative vote and win by double-digits.

You clowns will see just how much of a disaster Obama is for Deeds when PPP releases its poll on Monday for Virginia.

[Kevin]

So Brian you're saying lied to get a grade. If Bob McDonnell is to be believed, he's basically saying that he will sell himself out to get people to like him or respect his opinion. Great...now we have proof that he's a bullshit artist instead of just assuming it.

[Northern Alliance]

Someone should ask Taliban Bob, since he believes the state should be "empowered to regulate the legal AND SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS of marriage," which sexual acts should be legal and which should be illegal when married couples do them in the privacy of their own homes.

Maybe Bob's jobs program is to hire a bunch of cops and judges to crack down on woman-on-top. Among other forbidden pleasures.

[Geoff]

Wow, this is the least surprising revelation I could imagine.

[BlackGOPer]

Virginian's want jobs. If Bob sticks on message and addressesly quickly and decisvely, he will be fine. Go Bob Go!

STAY ON MESSAGE! DON'T GET DISTRACTED!

[Gretchen Laskas]

Brian,

I wish (again!) I could agree with you. But only a few weeks ago, one of the writers on "The Corner" of National Review Online was bringing up Michelle Obama's senior thesis as "proof" that she was nothing but an affirmative action selection. (I read a lot of Republican journalism -- always good to know what the other side is thinking!)

This is the stuff that gets into people's psyche's -- and sometimes, when a greater tipping point is reached, are what can push someone over from one side to the other.

[I.Publius]

Interesting story. It reminds me a lot of Jim Webb's writings while a professor at the Naval Academy... y'all remember those, don't you? The articles where he ridiculed the women at the USNA, referring to them as "thunder thighs" among other insults?

More laughable hypocrisy from the leftwingnuts.

[RicJohn]

Truth Meter:

What the hell does Skip Gates have to do with Creigh Deeds? Most Republicans were always anti-Obama, they are just holding back their true feelings after suppressing them for a few months after the inauguration. If you find an older Harvard-educated African-American man who walks with a cane and a congenial biracial U.S. President to be "scary" then you probably should just shut up and stay at home. You don't sound very bright.

[I'll take the straight path]

Let’s see McD writes about the sanctity of marriage and his opposition to homosexuality. Webb writes about grown men blowing little boys and the inferiority of women.

I bet McD will take the votes of those in support of his writing as opposed to those who support Webb’s writings.

You libs sure live up to your low standards of hypocrisy.

[Gnarly]

Once again, when you open the door into these areas for one candidate, then it becomes fair game for BOTH candidates. Are you very certain that anything that was written or DONE during the college years won't come back bite Deeds? Think about it.

[Mike]

We were discussing Bob McDonnell's "master plan" for implementing his well-formed, fully-adult views of public policy. The question remains, "who is the real Bob?".

Regarding Deeds' writings/words, he has a long record of public life. If you have anything juicy on Deeds, bring it.

BTW, whatever happened to those great video clips of Michelle Obama's tirades against "whitey"? How about those "death panels"? What about those plans to discriminate against registered GOPers seeking healthcare? You just can't make this stuff up. Oops, actually the Republican Party can and regularly does.

[truthnjustice]

Bob has shown his top priority is to legislate morality -- even despite SCOTUS decisions saying that there is a right of privacy meaning that Government should stay out of people's bedrooms. Combine this with his desire to reinstate the old "citizen's books" teaching eugenics, his opposition to equal pay for equal work and abortion even in cases of rape and incest and you have an extremist world view which is way out of touch with Virginians.

Time to take off that mask Mr. McDonnell, the voters are about to associate your name and face with what you are all about -- and they won't like what they see!

[LAS]

How the heck do you earn a graduate degree from an "evangelical school?" Was this place an accredited university or wasn't it?

Also curious about the church he attended during his formative years (apparently anything prior to age 35 for this late bloomer) and where he attends these days. Anybody know?

[Not John S. Mosby]

I believe the Christian Broadcasting Network University Law Madras was unaccredited when he attended. Then again, for the VA bar, you don't actually have to attend law school, just "study under a lawyer" and pass the bar exam. So even if the law "school" was unaccredited, it doesn't really matter.

[Gwoman]

For the record, I do NOT think Jesus would approve of Taliban Bob's thesis. It is a perversion of Christ's teachings, which boiled down to, essentially, love thy neighbor (no exceptions listed in the Bible) and judge not, lest ye be judged. No true Christian would agree with anything in Taliban Bob's thesis.

As for NOVA conservatives, I maintain that they care far more their wallets than they do about Jesus or anybody else, and a lot of the women work and I'm willing to bet a lot of the men enjoy oral sex, which Bob claim's he's never experienced.

[Matthew Wintergarden]

This means that Bob McDonnell, when applying for schools, saw thatr creep Pat Robertson on TV, and said "I want to go to his college!". But unlike most sane people, he didn't have a realization while filling out the application, and think to himself:

"What the hell am I doing?" PAT ROBERTSON'S COLLEGE??? AM I RETARDED??

Nope. He finished the application, submitted the fee (!!), and finished the required curriculum.

The uninclusive, theocratic curriculum.

Seriously Virginia, we deserve better than this.

[LAS]

This seems to be getting a lot of play on the progressive blogs--don't know about the right-wing ones.

From TPM: "Soon after calling the Supreme Court's decision on contraceptives "illogical," McDonnell blasts "the perverted notion of liberty that each individual should be able to live out his sexual life in any way he chooses without interference from the state" (pg. 15)."

In other words, government interference (as in health insurance for all) is bad, bad, BAD except when it comes to what you are doing in the bedroom. And then--hell, yes!--it is government's business!

Bizarre. How do these people explain themselves without getting all tied up in knots?

BTW, pro-choice people need to stop talking about abortion and start talking more about contraceptives. The American people need to know that the anti-abortion guys also want to take away contraceptives--that should be a helluva wake-up call.

[change]

LAS,
I just finished reading pg 15 of McD's thesis for the info you posted.
Not surprisingly it was not there.

Before you parrot talking points from somebody else I suggest you check them out first.

As I do not have time tonight to read the entire 93 pages of the thesis I can not comment much further. However, I would suggest you read the thesis and make your own conclusions. (as I plan to do)

Often people look really stupid when they do not investigate things for themselves. careful not to fall into that trap too often.

[Dan]

change,

If you can check your sarcasm for a moment, you will find that there is a simple misunderstanding as to page numbering.

LAS was evidently reading the PDF file of the document. Page 15 of the PDF contains precisely what LAS said it did. If you are going by the page numbers on the original you wouldn't have seen it on page 15.

It's all there though. Every single crazy as a bedbug thing is there.

McDonnell's legislative record supports the notion that these were and continued to be his beliefs. For instance, he voted against equal pay for women and against companies having the freedom to offer benefits to the domestic partners of gay employees if they wanted to in order to attract the highest quality employees available in the free market.

His current dissembling may work to maintain his "I am really a moderate" fiction. But not if voters look at his actual legislative record. That shows a guy who truly does believe this stuff.

[Stop the Cooch]

Why do the R's consider a 20-year old grad school paper as off-limits ancient history, when John Kerry's almost 40-year-old Vietnam era activities were presumed to define his patriotism? McDonnell was an adult learner, not a goofy college kid...and he implemented many aspects of his plan...that is what is telling? But, hey, could someone ask Cuccinelli what he thinks of the thesis? We know he is more than likely very supportive of McDonnell's themes....

[LAS]

Thank you, Dan. And Change, you can find that sentence word for word on page 9. Sorry for the confusion.

I did actually give it a reading the other night--albeit a rather cursory one, I admit. I'm sure you will read it very thoroughly and will come back to defend every last bit of it. Good luck with that.

[change]

Dan,
Having now read most of the thesis, I would suggest that it is an interesting analysis and positive stance for a traditional family unit.
Had LAS bothered to read the thesis before she parroted some liberal talking point, she may have found it fairly enlightening, factual and well written.
Further, it may have been noted that the sentence posted was also footnoted as a reference to Peter Riga’s writing.
But why let any facts get in the way of a good liberal ranting of lies and half truths.
These are the types of things that people are tired of with most of the radical democrats as they try to push their extreme agendas on an unwilling American citizenry.
Las, it is good to see that you now have read it although I am sure you are opposed to traditional family but that is of little consequence as it puts you in an extreme minority.

[Michael Collins]

McDonnell has plenty of time for this to circulate to every Virginia family with both spouses working. We're early on in this off year election and there's more to come.

How about finally getting some answers for this collection of McDonnell memorabilia: http://tinyurl.com/8h7lk

This guy has a long road ahead of him, especially with the Washington Post seeming to do its job.

[College Research Paper]

I appreciate the work of all people who share information with others.

[College Research Paper]

I appreciate the work of all people who share information with others.