Cross-posted from that paragon of journalism and reporting Richmond Progressive Examiner.
An immediate Cuccinelli political comeback was dispelled on Saturday during a dinner speech at The Homestead Resort. According to one source, Ken Cuccinelli stated “I don’t mind not having an elected role in about a month or so. I’ve been in office 11 years… I look forward to a little bit of a break. … but I’ll be back with you. I’m not talking as a candidate, but just fighting for these principles because I believe in them.”
Before anyone except staunch Cuccinelli supporters get too excited, the attorney general’s words seem more like those of a man still licking his wounds from a recent election defeat rather than those of someone who’s given himself enough time to make a resolute long term decision. And if there is one thing that Virginians should know by now, it’s not to trust a good deal of what Ken Cuccinelli says.
Cuccinelli’s defense of his election defeat should also leave anyone interested more than a little suspect about Cuccinelli’s intentions to stay out of electoral politics. The ‘blame the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) for not supporting me’ defense that Cuccinelli has been playing sets this one-time tea party hero into the role of victim, a good position to put oneself in if and when Cuccinelli ever decided to re-enter politics.
By setting himself up as the victim of ‘unfaithful’ or ‘compromising’ RPV members, Cuccinelli not only shrugs the blame for the election defeat off of his shoulders, he also scores cookie points with a Republican Party base that seems disillusioned with what have been called “establishment” Republicans.
If we learn nothing else from Cuccinelli’s most recent public speech to the Republican Party faithful, however, we should be able to discern a man that is far from being a leader that Virginia wants or needs, a man who is too proud and too blinded by his own ideological beliefs to concede blame for his own political defeat. In typical Cuccinelli-fashion, everyone else is to blame, not him.
