Attorney General Cuccinelli’s efforts to get more Republican presidential candidates back on the Virginia primary ballot (discussed below) are notable mainly for how perfectly they fit the Cuccinelli pattern — never missing an opportunity to help elites in need.
In this case, he is acting out of sympathy for poor Newt Gingrich, who became a millionaire by trading on his connections to get megabucks from the likes of healthcare corporations and Freddie Mac; and poor Rick Perry, whose key to success in Texas has been “pay to play” politics benefitting oil companies and others who fill his coffers in return for policies that favor them.
Yes, the civil rights of these suffering, unfortunate souls have been violated by a system that forces them to get off their well-fed arses and pull together enough volunteers to gather 10,000 legitimate signatures. Indeed, it’s hard to think of anyone in the state of Virginia quite as disadvantaged as these folks. Certainly our AG can’t think of anyone, or undoubtedly he would be doing his job as public advocate for the state to help individuals more in need — say, working class families ripped off by payday lenders, or coal miners suffering from black lung disease or poor women seeking safe and proper gynecological care.
No, it seems that Cuccinelli’s ears are tuned only to hear the cries of the 1 percent — indeed this would explain most of what he’s done in his tenure:
– Suing the Obama administration to stop the expansion of health care to the uninsured;
– Attacking a former U-VA professor and EPA on climate change to ensure that the interests of Massey Energy, Koch Industries and other wealthy members of the Fossil Fuel Lobby are not harmed;
– Fighting any use of union labor (e.g., by the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority) to ensure that multinational corporations have the upper hand over workers;
– Opening the door for police to question the status of alleged illegal immigrants;
– Preventing universities from enacting civil rights provisions, specifically on gay rights.
(More on all of these actions, with links, here).
So Cuccy’s desperation to help his fellow corporate stooges, Perry and Gingrich, is not surprising. What is remarkable is that anyone takes seriously his Tea Party rhetoric on “liberty” and “freedom”. It’s clearly only the liberty of the well-heeled and pampered that gets him going.
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