( – promoted by lowkell)
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli apparently thinks the old adage applies to him, from the Cuccinelli lips to God’s Ears, that whatever the AG he thinks is right just because he thinks it. The latest of his uninformed opinions, legal and otherwise, was issued yesterday. He said Doug Wilder would have lost the 1989 Democratic Gubernatorial nomination if his opponents had not stood aside out of political correctness. .
Where does Mr. Cuccinelli come up with this legal and historical drivel time and time again, in between guest appearances on national talk shows? The most deadly combination in a public official is a mix of arrogance and ignorance. The Attorney General offered his latest uninformed opinion yesterday in response to inquiries about his future intentions, specifically whether he might challenge Lt. Governor Bill Bolling for the 2013 GOP gubernatorial nomination.
From the reaction of the Bolling camp, it is clear they know they can’t beat him in a fair contest, that’s why they didn’t invite him into the race or suggest what Republicans allegedly believe, in the free market system where merit and merit alone is suppose to count. Instead, the showed a white-knuckle fear of such a contest, saying they should get the nomination because Mr. Cuccinelli said during the campaign last year that he intended to finish his term, not interested in national office. Candidate Bob McDonnell also said he wasn’t interested in national office. So if the 2012 GOP presidential candidate offers Governor McDonnell the VP slot, is Lt. Governor Bolling going to cry foul? .
Is Bolling not ready for prime-time or what? One Lt. Governor Wilder would not have been if he were in Bolling’s chair is afraid of a challenge from the Attorney General. “It’s a free country” is what Wilder would have said. “Bring it on” is how Bush put it. Except he was all hat and no cowboy. Wilder would have paid Cuccinelli’s filing fee.
Fact: Contrary to what Mr. Cuccinelli said about Doug Wilder being handed the 1989 Democratic gubernatorial nomination, no one handed the future Governor anything that year or four years earlier. In 1989, then Democratic Attorney General Mary Sue Terry wanted to run for the party nomination, and she had, or her people implied she had, the wink and a nod from the top party people in the state, no need to rehash old news or name names, it is yesterday’s news.
They didn’t want Wilder to become Governor, it was the worst kept secret in party circles, if folks want to deny it a generation later, fine go ahead, like I say it doesn’t change the facts.
1989 was just a reply of 1985 in that regard: Wilder’s opponents tried to figure out a way to block his nomination, but he wouldn’t blink despite the pressure which was rather intense. So contrary to another of Mr. Cuccinelli’s fantasies, Doug Wilder won two technically uncontested nomination battles because his opponents decided the couldn’t beat him, not because he was handed something out of political correctness.
They chose not to run for a simple reason: they didn’t want to lose.
So it may be that in Mr. Cuccinelli’s mind, a decision by him not to challenge Mr. Bolling in 2013 amounts to the AG with the big ego handing the nomination to his GOP ticket mate who should be eternally grateful. In his case, this may indeed be true, since the statement by Bolling’s top staffer shows a total fear of a nomination fight with the AG.
But when Mr. Cuccinelli opines about how Doug Wilder should thank his lucky stars about being handed the gubernatorial nomination, the AG should learn, finally, to stop issuing opinions based on his own view of the facts and reality. Democratic Attorney General Mary Sue Terry was a good person, who would have made a good Governor. But after testing the political waters, she correctly decided 1989 wasn’t going to be the year she could get the party’s gubernatorial nomination.
Doug Wilder deserves to be seen as getting the nomination by merit, not because of some political correctness in the mind of Ken Cuccinelli. The Attorney General may not have the stuff to challenge Mr. Bolling, and if so, that is his problem, he shouldn’t be projecting his lack of fight to justify another fantasy view of how easy it was for Doug Wilder to make history.
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