The problems with Ken Cuccinelli go well beyond the ideological. He is the political equivalent of a hot-dogger — the player who goes for the big, fancy shot rather then the unglamorous but effective assist to a teammate.
Our AG’s latest escapade, suing celebrity attention-getter Tareq Salahi, fits the Cuccinelli pattern almost to the point of self-parody. You can imagine Cuccy’s staff in a brainstorming session: What can we do to get our boss more media attention? Hey, I know, let’s pick a fight with someone who gets more Twitter mentions than we do!
The fact that Salahi has responded by threatening to run for governor himself (as a Republican, BTW) shows what happens when you replace actual governing with cynical theater: the whole political arena becomes one big circus.
And so our Attorney General — who has not, as far as I can tell, spent any of his time or your taxpayer money executing the duties of his office — has found one more way to distract from serious public issues and make a mockery of the government that he aims to lead. While there are other politicians who dabble in silly political games in order to make serious points, Cuccinelli never actually takes the clown nose off. Why do even Republicans still take this guy seriously?