LOL, gotta love it.

In the midst of a covert trip to Afghanistan to visit American troops, Gov. Bob McDonnell says he will discuss undisclosed gifts from donor and benefactor Jonnie Williams later.

The governor is part of an official Department of Defense delegation visiting U.S. service members stationed in Kuwait and Afghanistan, including members of the Virginia National Guard.

Meanwhile, Jeff Schapiro points out that “[j]ust because McDonnell is apologizing doesn’t mean the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, a federal grand jury in Richmond and the city’s prosecutor will drop their investigations.” Schapiro adds:

A master of reinvention, McDonnell is attempting to transform himself again. This time, he is shape-shifting from pariah to object of pity. He sounds like a man trying to get in front of bad news before it happens.

Could the bad news be a federal indictment?

Seems like a serious possibility, given how bad this scandal is. Meanwhile, what’s Ken Cuccinelli doing? As the DPVA pointed out earlier this afternoon, “Ken Cuccinelli hasn’t said a word about whether he will follow Governor McDonnell’s lead and apologize for embarrassing Virginia with his involvement and conflict of interest in the gifts scandal with Star Scientific and its CEO Jonnie Williams.” Cuccinelli “has also remained silent on whether he will pay back the more than $18,000 in gifts he took from Star and Williams, who was simultaneously battling Virginia in an effort to avoid paying taxes.” Why? “If Ken Cuccinelli recognizes that it was wrong to allow his penchant for accepting free gifts from Williams to sink his office into a headline-making scandal, then he will apologize and return the gifts.” And “[i]f he can’t recognize and own up to the damage his scandals have caused, then he is unfit to lead this Commonwealth.”

Maybe Cuccinelli should run for governor of Helmand province, and McDonnell for governor of neighboring Kandahar? They’d fit right in there, it seems to me, given that corruption is endemic there – lots of “Jonnie Williamses” in Afghanistan! Heh. On second thought, given how much McDonnell and Cuccinelli hate each other, perhaps they ought to be on opposite ends of Afghanistan? Finally, perhaps while McDonnell’s in Afghanistan, he might consider hocking his Rolex in one of the many fine, upstanding businessmen in Kabul? I hear you can get a pretty good price for a Rolex there… 😉

The following press release is from Progress Virginia. Also, to watch the public comments from the last two meetings (July 9, July 23) of the Fairfax City Council on this subject, see here. One thing I noticed last night is that the people speaking AGAINST the Fairfax City zoning ordinance were almost all women, and those speaking FOR the Fairfax City ordinance were almost all men (strongly anti-abortion ones). Fascinating, huh? Finally, check out my post here, with more detail about this situation than you probably ever wanted to know (in all seriousness, this is actually a very important topic, and has been far too much under the radar screen).  

Fairfax City, VA – Last night, the Fairfax City Council refused to reconsider a July 9th decision to reclassify women's health centers for zoning purposes in a way that will make it much more difficult for the centers to operate in the city. The councilmembers' decision has generated vocal concerns and criticism from constituents and women's health advocates over the past two weeks, who argue that the ordinance will single out women’s health centers for unfair and medically-unnecessary regulation.  

Eleven women’s health organizations sent a letter to Mayor Silverthorne and the Council last week outlining multiple objections to the ordinance as well as outstanding questions which city staff did not address during the drafting process. Although the Mayor did respond with an attempt to clarify numerous outstanding questions, advocates remain unsatisfied with the vague and ultimately undefined nature of the zoning ordinance. Topping the list of concerns is the medically inappropriate grouping of women's health centers with hospitals rather than doctors' offices, the lack of substantive definition of a “medical care facility”, and the arbitrary zoning process which relies on an undefined formula and allows for potential political intervention in zoning decisions. 

“While we appreciate Mayor Silverthorne’s attempt to clarify this zoning ordinance, we remain concerned that the loosely-defined nature of the law will disproportionately impact women’s health centers and threaten their ability to provide critical care within city boundaries,” said Noah Mamber of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington DC.  “We are extremely disappointed that the Council chose to ignore public outcry and keep this ill-conceived ordinance on the books.”

“Politicians have no business interfering in private decisions that should be between a woman, her doctor, her family, and her faith,” continued Alena Yarmosky of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia. “We may have lost last night, but we are committed to continue working with the Mayor, councilmembers and the citizens of Fairfax City to ensure that women’s health centers are treated fairly and justly under the law.” 

If anyone deserves an award for fighting to protect the environment, it's State Senator Adam Ebbin. Congratulations!

Richmond, VA — For the first time, the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club voted to recognize members of the General Assembly with awards lauding their work in the Legislature. The Chapter’s Legislative Committee voted unanimously to honor Senator Adam Ebbin with the 2013 Water Champion Award to recognize his work on litter reduction.

“I am honored to receive the recognition of the Sierra Club,” Senator Ebbin said on receiving his award. “Together, we will reduce bag pollution and improve the health of our streams, rivers, wildlife, and communities”.

The Senator from Alexandria introduced legislation for the third time to limit the use of disposable bags by placing a five-cent fee on their usage in grocery stores. Though the bulk of the fee would have been used to target environmental cleanup, reclamation and restoration of impaired waterways, Ebbin remarked that “ultimately this bill is not about raising money, it's about encouraging better environmental stewardship.” Unfortunately the bill did not pass, but Senator Ebbin shows continued courage in doing the right thing for our streams and rivers.

“Because plastic essentially never biodegrades, once littered, plastic becomes a permanent environmental problem. With a single bill, Senator Ebbin proposed an incentive for consumers to make the switch to re-usable grocery bags and established new revenues to support clean-up of our affected streams and rivers. That’s an elegant solution.” said Susan Stillman, the Legislative Chair of the Virginia Chapter Sierra Club.

Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, July 24.

*Maddow Skewers Weiner ‘Redemption Tour’: He Lied, Apologized, Then Kept Lying! And He Used The Media! (Seriously, anyone who votes for this lying freakazoid needs to have their head examined.)

*National Review Tells Young Whites To Avoid Blacks, Again

*Ethics group asks IRS to explore Star gifts to McDonnell, Cuccinelli

*Va. governor repays $124K in loans, expresses regret for gifts scandal

*Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell finally apologizes (“But the governor, perhaps on the advice of counsel, offered no explanation and made no explicit acknowledgement of wrongdoing, improper conduct or even bad judgment. Nor did he repay Williams for ‘gifts’ – a Rolex, a shopping spree at Bergdorf Goodman, catering for his daughter’s wedding – that were every bit as ethically egregious as the loans and should be every bit as embarrassing to Mr. McDonnell.”)

*The Man Who Made Gov. Bob McDonnell ‘Deeply Sorry’ (Total slimeball. Shows piss-poor judgment by McDonnell and Cuccinelli that they were this guy’s BFF and accepted loans and gifts from him.)

*Jackson urges toned down sexuality to stem violence (What on earth?!?)

*GOP governors group airs anti-McAuliffe TV ad (Wait, so doing business with China’s bad? Like this or this, perhaps? Hmmm.)

*Starting now, voters can register online (“Online applicants must answer a few basic questions, then provide identity-verifying information: a birth date, Social Security number and their Virginia DMV customer number found on state driver’s licenses.”)

*GOP group makes big new donations to Cuccinelli

*Ken Cuccinelli Once Backed Anti-Adultery Laws (And probably still does.)

*Democratic senator questions Cuccinelli’s role in election investigations (“Is it a conflict when an official running for elected office has the authority to investigate and prosecute alleged violations of election law in the election in which he is running?”)

*VEA criticizes Jackson’s call for amendment on homeschoolers

*Bob McDonnell tries to save what’s left of his career

*McDonnell finally apologizes (Right wingnut Jennifer Rubin: “For a guy with a squeaky-clean image and a record of significant accomplishment as governor…it is a sorry way to end a political career.”

*More Questions Than Answers: McDonnell Repays Over $120K in Illicit Loans

*Cuccinelli: ‘War on Coal is War on the Poor’ (This guy has absolutely no understanding of energy markets or of economics. Plus, since when does Cuccinelli care for the POOR?!? Yeah right!)

*Cuccinelli hits McAuliffe over immigrant investor program (“McAuliffe spokesman Josh Schwerin said, ‘The investigation does not involve Terry and we hope that it is completed in a timely matter. Cuccinelli’s attacks are an attempt to distract from his ties to the Star Scientific scandal.'”)

*Democrats select Kincaid as candidate for Fairfax County Sheriff (As usual, pitiful turnout – 950 in a county of 1.1 MILLION – to choose a nominee for an important office, in this case sheriff. I guess people have more important things to do, like…what, watching “Sharknado?” Ugh.)

*Humidity will finally take a hike

*Nats fall to Pirates in fifth straight loss (“Taylor Jordan pitches seven solid innings but is undone by a crucial error and an offense that is MIA.” Barring a miraculous turnaround, this season is probably over…sigh.)

( – promoted by lowkell)

by Paul Goldman

In a planned one-two punch, Republican Governor Bob McDonnell and the GOP House of Delegates leadership realized they were given an opening at the Governor’s debate on Saturday. The Democrats have been muted in their direct criticism of McDonnell, preferring to use the Governor’s troubles as a carom shot against Cuccinelli. This gave McDonnell today’s opening to try and seize some of the initiative with his new Plan B.  He paid back the $120K in loans from Mr. Williams, and made a general apology for whatever he and his family have done to embarrass the state of Virginia.

As Plan B’s go, it is what I would call a “limited hangout”: His Excellency didn’t personally address the state’s residents either on TV or at a press conference, he didn’t pay back the gifts, some of which he surely can’t possibly keep if not all of them. Why didn’t he pay them all back? I don’t know. Indeed, he could have paid what he did today and issued a promise to pay the rest back by X date. This would get all these matters behind him.

Why didn’t he and his new legal/PR team do what seems self-evident? The answer: Logic suggests there are MORE unreported gifts yet to be revealed. Thus, he had to leave the gift issue to Plan C.

Take my word for it: There will be a Plan C. Then a Plan D. This is just the beginning. Plan B is better than Plan A. But then: Anything was better than Plan A, the McDonnell Stonewall Strategy.  

Sooner or later – and for the state and her Governor it should be sooner – Mr. McDonnell will have to personally address the people, not issue statements or Twitters or whatever.

 

My advice to the Governor: “Man up bro.” Bill Clinton had to do it: and it worked. It is the Fram Oil Filter: Pay me now or Pay me later. Americans love to give you a second chance. But you have to earn it.  

I believe the debate on Saturday led Republicans to believe Democrats had made Eisenhower’s mistake in WW 2 when he failed to complete an encirclement of the German Army in France. They escaped, his critics claiming it prolonged the war. Ike didn’t make a similar type mistake in the Battle of the Bulge.

The point being: Plan B, if followed with a full apology and full return of all gifts with Plan C and D, could allow Governor McDonnell to stabilize his image and avoid being a fatal albatross in the Fall elections. The operative word is “could.”  

The odds are still heavily against it. But McDonnell has been the King of Denial living with the Queen of Denial as the hit song said. His legal/PR team, along with Speaker Howell, have been working on bringing the Governor into the real world of VA politics. Plan B shows they have at least got the First Family to take the first steps.

I don’t wish him any bad luck. But the fact is: This is only a limited and late hangout. If Republicans feel this fundamentally shifts the issue, they are mistaken. As ACDC sang: It is a long way to the top when you want to rock and roll.