(Actually, as I noted in the comments, the biggest rat of all is corrupt slimeball AND right-wing nutjob Ken Cuccinelli, who also was eating Jonnie Williams’ cheese (turkey, actually), while throwing Bob McDonnell down the rat hole. Plus it was Cuccinelli who stole Bolling’s cheese (aka, the GOP nomination that was promised to him), and that’s got to count for something in your rat ranking system, no? 🙂 – promoted by lowkell)
by Paul Goldman
“You dirty rat!” declared famed bad guy actor James Cagney in the movie Blonde Crazy, at least according to filmdom legend. Actually, it is a shortened version of what the famed “tough guy” actually said. But a rat – dirty, double-crossing, double-dealing, whatever – is still a rat by any name.
Which brings us to the 200-proof rat question of the day: Who is the bigger political rat, Republican LG Bill Bolling or political donor Jonnie Williams? As is proven below, they are merely different sides to the same rodent-headed coin. Mr. Bolling is strutting in a uniform he never wore in battle – that of a moderate – to justify ratting out his own party in this year in the race for Governor. Jonnie Williams is campaigning in a uniform he never wore – “you can trust whatever I say” businessman — to sink Governor McDonnell. Bolling claims his conversion is sincere, as does Williams.
However, it has been scientifically proven that a rat brain has no conscience. They tell the same basic story of saying one thing before seeing the light: and suddenly finding that the truth lay in the opposite direction. Bolling admits to agreeing with Cuccinelli on just about every issue — until he lost the GOP GUV nomination. He admits to being prepared to back Cuccinelli as the best qualified to be Governor in 2017 — provided Cuccinelli backed Billy Boy for the gig in 2013.
But after losing the GOP GUV nomination this year – like a rat, he quit the race – Bolling suddenly realized his entire political career had been premised on a fraud, that he had been conned into claiming he was a real, true-blue GOP conservative by his chief advisor, Boyd Marcus. St. Paul had his conversion on the road to Damascus (a dangerous route even today, as we know). Boyd and Billy Boy had their conversion on the road to the nearest ATM machine to make a withdrawal of a recent money drop.
Williams admits to being a friend of the Governor and his family, until he realized that he might do better as a rat than a friend. Suddenly, Williams began squealing to anyone who would listen that he had never been the McDonnells’ friend at all — it had all been cash and carry from jump street on his part. At least, this is the inference from news reports. Friend? Not so much, after apparently having his memory jogged by a criminal attorney, among other legal eagles. Suddenly, he was singing better than Andy Williams. Apparently the road to Damascus leads to Virginia these days; we might want to be on the look out for a retaliatory cruise missile strike any time now.
Bolling claims his newly-minted moderate conscience compels him to speak the truth, even though he was pals with Cuccinelli as part of the GOP conservative caucus in the Senatek, and indeed was looking forward to supporting Cuccinelli for Governor in 2017. But as Richard Nixon’s PR guy famously said: “Those statements are no longer operative.” Bolling says there has been basically a 30-year gap in his political transcript. But perhaps in spirit with the march on Washington, Mr. Bolling is now shouting “free at last, free at last!” to speak the “truth.” AMEN, I say. You tell ’em, brother!
Of course, if Cuccinelli had gone along with the Bolling deal, the truth as told to us by Mr. Bolling would never have been revealed. Praise the Lord and pass the political ammunition! Naturally, any God-fearing person feels for Mr. Bolling having been possessed by Satan all these years, forced to be conservative, unable to come out of the political closet as it were. The “mainstream media” in Virginia can’t get enough of their new iconic politician. They quote his every word. Of course, nobody can point to a single thing Bolling did on his own that made Virginia a better place. Truth is, he has been Bolling Alone more than we knew. If he emerged to tell us he was a cross-dresser like J. Edgar Hoover, not just a political cross dresser, could anyone truly be surprised at this point?
In that regard, Bolling the Rat has a lot better story than Jonnie the Rat. Williams is your basic story of guy meets pol, guy figures he has the money to buy influence, and guy uses his money to see if he can get the pol to do something to benefit him/his company, etc.
BUT: There is no smoking gun in that regard, because the only money Williams ever got from the state directly came from the Warner Administration. Williams never gave a dime to candidate or Governor Warner, nor would Warner ever deal with such a sleazy business guy on government matters. Williams’ company got the money straight up, and they had to return it when they failed to live up to their promises.
That stuff happens: it was by the book, unfortunately Williams was all talk and now walk in terms of his company. In terms of what Williams gave GOP candidates Kilgore and McDonnell during their respective Governors’ campaigns, again this is a straight-up thing, not criminal in the least; read the McCormack case from the US Supreme Court.
AT SOME POINT, Mr. Williams says he was no longer an honest businessman but rather a sleazy guy trying to buy illegal help from a Virginia Governor, and that allegedly Bob McDonnell agreed to be part of his scheme. Is this true? If it is true, then it would seem Mr. Williams, being like Bolling overcome with the guilt of his former lies and now determined to make things right, would plead to at least one felony in such regards to prove he isn’t lying.
Why? Because it takes a quid pro quo to make the thing criminal, although the quo does not have to be an explicit promise of any kind; the law is murkier than that. BUT: It does require that Jonnie Williams wanted the Governor to do something that a Governor would not do but for the money given to him by Williams.
However: Williams claims to have started the relationship with the Warner Administration, the GOP candidates for GUV in 2005 and 2009 as a straight-shooting guy only looking for good government. Thus, the question: At what point did he go from being the good Mr. Williams to the sleazy, influence seeking, pay-to-play alleged business guy in league with what in effect would be a criminal enterprise with the Governor and First Lady?
We don’t know: but based on the time line, he would have had to adopt his criminal mens rea at some point in order to be able to provide crucial information to indict the Governor and his wife. Which raises the question: Which Jonnie Williams should you believe if you are the federal prosecutor, since the laws involved are not the state statutes on disclosure but rather the Hobbs Act presumably?
Bolling suddenly is the “iconic Republican” praised for being honest, not a rat. Williams suddenly is the conscience-stricken business guy, praised for being honest not a ratting out what he previously called a friend? Admittedly: You can’t disprove a negative, so I can’t disprove that what they say isn’t true. But I do know this: when you are dealing with rats claiming to have had a conversion of conscience, it is best to be skeptical.
So who is the bigger rat, Billy or Jonnie? It would appear that Jonnie the Rat is a product of trying to save his own skin, aka “cooperating” with the federal authorities. This is fairly normal if you believe the TV series Law and Order, indeed everything ever written about criminal stuff. It is consistent with human nature too.
As for Bolling the Rat, this is surely a product of revenge and an ego way out of proportion to his good works on Earth. Bolling could have stayed quiet, the way GOP LG John Hager did after losing a bitter battle for the GOP GUV nomination in 2001, for example. Bolling is no crusader. He didn’t lose on a matter of issues, since at the time, he was the same right-wing Bolling he had always been, the same one his new friends in the press had rejected.
But as famed Boss Tweed bagman George Washington Plunkett said, “I saw my opportunities and I tooks them.” Bolling therefore didn’t rat out Cuccinelli on a matter of principle. Rather it was, as they say, a matter of principal and interest, recently confirmed by Bolling’s chief campaign guy.
Bottom line: Williams ratted out Governor McDonnell presumably, based on the evidence, to save his skin, possibly the jobs of those working for his company. Williams is still a “dirty rat,” but at least we can understand the motivation – avoiding the rat trap while keeping some of the cheese, perhaps.
But as for Bolling: His motivation is not just revenge, not just lying about his past to have people heap silly praise, but also it appears to have a monetary motivation directly or indirectly. Meaning: There isn’t a real man, or woman for that matter, who can possibly conclude anything but that of the two, Bolling is the bigger rat. By far.
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