Sadly, there have probably been hundreds of stupid, dishonest political ads in Virginia over the years. So why do I ask if this monstrosity by Karl Rove is the stupidest and most dishonest ad ever in Virginia? I’ll let Josh Israel of Think Progress explain:
It is true, as the ad claims, that Kaine, as governor, proposed spending $1 billion of the Virginia surplus, much of it to address the state’s transportation woes. But if operatives at Crossroads had bothered to read the same stories they cite, they would know it was hardly “reckless spending.” In fact, Kaine’s proposal was blasted in the referenced story by Republican Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates William Howell for not spending enough on transportation…
Every budget enacted in Kaine’s four-year tenure as Virginia’s governor needed approval from the solidly Republican House, led by Howell, a national boardmember and former national chairman of the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. So it seems strange that the ad blames Kaine for the $3.7 billion shortfall the state government faced in early 2009.
And it seems even stranger that an organization connected with Rove, nicknamed “Bush’s Brain,” would forget that Virginia and other states faced revenue shortfalls in late 2008 and early 2009 due to the worst economic crisis in 60 years following the financial meltdown of late 2008. Blaming Kaine for “red ink” is like blaming fish in the Gulf of Mexico for being covered in BP’s spilled oil.
Of course, Karl Rove was one of the most powerful figures in perhaps the most incompetent, ruinous administration in American history, so what else would we expect from this clown?
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