While Virginia Attorney General Ken “Cooch” Cuccinelli wastes his office’s time and money on frivolous lawsuits against the federal government, appearances at Tea Party events, appearances at gun rallies, appearances on a panel a “faith healer,” etc., etc., here’s the type of thing he should be paying attention to.

Massey’s Tiller No. 1 mine in Tazewell, Va., had the company’s highest injury rate at 9.78 [injuries per 200,000 worker hours].

Priorities, priorities, I guess, not that this has anything to do with Cooch’s (non)allocation of time and resources.

So, I’ve been asking around to our elected officials regarding what Cooch can and should be doing about Richmond-based Massey Energy, as well as about its Tazewell, Virginia mine. Here’s what they had to say.

2009 Democratic AG Nominee Steve Shannon

“There’s a lot the Attorney General can do to make sure inspectors are ensuring compliance for laws related to mine safety and that bad actors in the market are punished. In addition, Commonwealth Attorneys are charged with prosecuting violations of the coal mine safety laws of Virginia.”

Donald McEachin

“Attorney General Cuccinelli certainly has the power to look at Virginia-based companies’ safety records within Virginia. Depending on where the safety violations take place, that will determine what course of action the Attorney General takes. There’s no doubt that the AG has the power of the ‘bully pulpit’ to speak out about companies like Massey. That’s precisely what the AG should be doing.”

Del. David Englin

“[I]f an activist AG can go after the EPA and Health Care Reform, he could go after Massey.”

Del. Albert Pollard

“The short answer: if there’s the political will to go after the Federal government…it’s certainly sounder reasoning to go after Massey than the federal government on healthcare reform. The Virginia AG has a fair amount of latitude and discretion to enforce environmental laws. If there are violations in the state of Virginia, the AG could definitely act.”

Del. Mark Keam

[E]very AG can decide if he wants to be more proactive and come up with creative ways to make himself relevant (as we already saw with Ken Cuccinelli and the gays memo, EPA and healthcare lawsuits, etc). I’m sure he can point to some specific statutory authorities that allowed him to intervene in these areas or at least make a colorable assertion that he has jurisdiction to take such actions.

Likewise, I have to assume there are some provisions of existing VA law that would give him the “hook” he needs to bring some sort of enforcement action against Massey, if he’s willing to be creative enough.  Or maybe someone can find such jurisdictions for him and suggest that he bring a suit using that statutory authority against Massey.  The existing statutes don’t necessarily have to be criminal.  They can be civil with enforcement penalties.

I’d look at consumer protection or environmental/safety regulatory laws to start.  I’d also look at federal environmental or mine safety laws to see if they provide for state enforcement as dual jurisdiction in addition to federal penalties.  Or maybe there are private rights of action created under federal law, in which case a VA constituent could ask the VA AG to intervene in his private lawsuit as a party of interest.

In short, the Virginia Attorney General has the power — certainly if he has the will and the creativity to use that power — at the minimum to speak out about and/or investigate Virginia-based Massey Energy for safety violations occurring within the borders of Virginia (such as at the Tazewell mine). The question is, why isn’t Cooch doing that?  As noted above, he certainly has plenty of spare time on his hands, so that’s not an excuse. Hey, for another “$350”, maybe Cooch could have his staff spend a few hours and look into Massey, preferably before a disaster like the one that took place in West Virginia occurs here in Virginia? Just a thought…

UPDATE: Great comment by Gretchen Laskas regarding Republican attacks on those who call for action against Massey. “The only people who think anyone is ‘capitalizing’ on the deaths of miners are people who wish those fighting for mine safety would just shut up.” So true.

Sen. Donald McEachin comes on around 7 minutes into the video, but watch the entire thing, including the part about Ken Cuccinelli speaking at “The Awakening” on April 15 at Liberty University. Fascinating.

Thanks to Tom Whipple for the Tuesday “Clips.”

1. VA GUV TELLS FELONS: WRITE LETTER TO GET RIGHTS

3. OPPOSITION BUILDS TO MCDONNELL’S CHANGES TO FELON VOTING RIGHTS RESTORATION PROCESS

6. VA. GOV. RESTORES MINE SAFETY MONEY TO BUDGET

7. VIRGINIA, MCDONNELL JOIN WEST VIRGINIA, MANCHIN IN MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR DEAD COAL MINERS

9. MCDONNELL BEGINS TO SHOW BUDGET HAND WITH FUNDING RESTORATIONS–CUTS TO COME

10. CUCCINELLI ADDRESSES GUN-RIGHTS RALLY AT CAPITOL SQUARE

13. CHALLENGERS EMERGE IN LOCAL U.S. HOUSE RACES

14. PERRIELLO ANNOUNCES NEARLY $1.4 MILLION ON HAND

17. CROWDED OFF-CAMPUS PARTY DEGENERATES INTO ‘WAR ZONE’

25. VIRGINIA’S DISGRACEFUL MOVE TO DISCOURAGE RESTORATION OF EX-CONS’ VOTING RIGHTS

27. CHKD FINDS FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES

33. THE GOP’S SOUTHERN STRATEGY LIVES ON

The Washington Post rips Bob McDonnell in language you rarely see in that staid, pro-corporate, moderate-conservative newspaper’s editorial pages. Check this out.

…[McDonnell’s] initial attempts to expedite the process [of restoring voting rights to non-violent ex-felons] have come with a fat asterisk that casts doubt on any claim to fairness and decency, let alone moderation…

…Only Virginia and Kentucky insist that some sanctions last indefinitely — until the state, in its infinite wisdom, grants what the U.S. Constitution regards as the inalienable right to vote. In the Old Dominion, the result is that huge numbers of people are disenfranchised. Although the powers that be in Richmond regard former felons with such contempt that they don’t even bother counting them, voting rights advocates estimate that some 300,000 ex-cons in Virginia remain barred from voting. African Americans account for just a fifth of Virginia’s 7.8 million citizens but are thought to constitute about half of those ineligible to vote. This is Jim Crow by another name.

[…]

…Virginia’s secretary of the commonwealth, Janet Polarek, who oversees the process, makes it sound as if the ex-offenders would be applicants vying for coveted positions at a selective college. The essays, she said, would allow the petitioners “to have their full stories heard.”

We would forgive any Virginians who do not feel grateful for this patronizing offer. It should not require applications, essays or the approbation of condescending bureaucrats to restore the vote to people who have paid for their wrongdoing. It is a matter of equity and democratic fair play and should be treated accordingly.

Not that Bob McDonnell appears to care about “equity,” “democratic fair play,” or being the governor of all Virginians (as opposed to his hard-right “base”). Instead, as Tim Murphy of Mother Jones points out, commenting on McDonnell’s “nifty little quasi-literacy test,” our fine governor is far more interested in “mak[ing] the process [of restoring ex-felons voting rights] even more subjective and burdensome” than in “improv[ing] the subjective and burdensome application process for felons.” Priorities, priorities.

It’s also nice to see what Bob McDonnell is spending his precious time doing, as opposed to focusing on “Bob’s for jobs,” as he promised during the 2009 gubernatorial campaign. It’s a nice bookend, I suppose, to Crazy Cooch wasting the AG Office’s time and resources fighting for “nullification” and “states rights” – or whatever word he’s calling it these days – rather than fighting, oh let’s say, crime? Actually doing the job you were hired to do? I know, what a concept.

Marc Broklawski writes

At a April 10th Tea Party Rally in Stafford, VA, Ken Cuccinelli insisted that he had a mandate to reign in the Federal Government. He pretty much stated that we should expect more of the same from him (i.e. more frivolous lawsuits). How did this guy get elected?!

Good question, Marc. I’d also ask, “How are we going to survive 3 years, 9 months more of this true believer/extremist?”

P.S. By the way, Cooch, those of us “on the other side” do care about the Constitution, we just read it in light of 200 years of legal precedent and not in the narrow, twisted way you do.

Shorter Joe Biden speech: This is a Big. F***ing. Deal! Ha, actually it is, as was the signing of health care reform legislation. Great work by the Obama administration, even if they’re not getting nearly enough credit for their tremendous accomplishments in little over a year in office.

UPDATE: On a related note, a new CNN poll (PDF) finds that 70% of Americans want the U.S. Senate to ratify the new treaty on nuclear weapons reduction. Only 28% think the U.S. Senate should not ratify the treaty. I presume that Republicans will follow the will of the overwhelming majority on this. 🙂

This Saturday, my Blue Virginia colleague Marc Broklawski attended a Tea Party rally in front of the Stafford County, Virginia courthouse. As Marc writes, “One of their featured speakers was Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart. This is the same person that recently sent a letter to Ken Cuccinelli thanking him for his frivolous health care reform lawsuit.”  Stewart is also well known as a rabid xenophobe, the author of the notorious “rule of law” resolution in Prince William County that was the basis for the film, 9500 Liberty.

Now, Stewart has gone even further off the demagogic deep end.  I’ll let Marc Broklawski take it from here.

With all the crazy things that Stewart has said or done in the past, nothing prepared me for what I witnessed this past Saturday from him.  There were many things he said that were non-factual and completely offensive, but his comparison of the Obama administration to that of the Nazi regime was outrageous (fast forward to the 5:25 mark).

[…]

For Stewart to even suggest that this administration is anything like that of the Nazi’s is way over-the-line, irresponsible and deeply offensive.  How the chairman of the second largest county in the Commonwealth of Virginia could make this despicable statement is beyond me?!

Wow, even for Corey Stewart – notorious xenophoboe and thug – this is really bad.

h/t: Leaving My Marc. Great work by Mark Broklawski!