Cuccinelli May Not Want to Explain Jackson’s Extreme Rhetoric, but He Should Explain His Own

From the Democratic Party of Virginia: 

After his speech attempting to paper over his multiple ethics lapses at today’s Virginia Public Access Project luncheon, Ken Cuccinelli was asked about his running mate E.W. Jackson’s vast record of offensive rhetoric and whether it will affect his campaign. Cuccinelli responded saying:

“It doesn’t change our message a lick. He’s got to defend all his own statements and he’s going to go about doing that, but we run our own race.”

Cuccinelli may not want to explain his running mate’s extreme rhetoric, but he should have to explain the astonishingly similar attacks he himself has launched on women’s health care, gay Virginians and others who happen to disagree with his extreme agenda.

Cuccinelli may not want to defend Jackson’s statement that women’s health provider Planned Parenthood is worse than the KKK, but he should have to tell Virginians what on Earth he meant when he too suggested that the organization that provides low cost birth control and cancer screenings is a racist organization. 

Cuccinelli may not want to defend Jackson’s statement that homosexuals “are perverted, they're frankly very sick people psychologically, mentally and emotionally,” but he should have to explain what he meant when he said:

“When you look at the homosexual agenda, I cannot support something that I believe brings nothing but self-destruction, not only physically but of their soul.” [Washington Post, 2/05/08]

And Cuccinelli may not want to explain why his running mate “wholeheartedly support[s] the comparison of abortion with slavery,” but he probably should, since Jackson made that statement to defend these words of Cuccinelli’s:

“Start right at the beginning, slavery. Today, abortion. You know, history has shown us what the right position was.”

Ken Cuccinelli thinks E.W. Jackson should have to “defend all of his statements.” He should start by explaining his own.