VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS Kick Shit Out Of State's GOP Theocratic Dreams!

[I'mGonnaSuckYouGitter!]

INTELLIGENCE and EDUCATION are finally dismembering Virginia's 19th
century GOP.

Gov. Bible Bob McDonnell said to be almost in tears, as dreams of
'PERSONHOODED' unviable tissue masses go the way of lynchings in th'
Ol' Damnminion.

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"Va. GOP’s toughest opposition in assembly came from within"


By Laura Vozzella and Anita Kumar
March 2, 2012


RICHMOND — After early success, Virginia conservatives have seen some
of their highest priorities thwarted in the General Assembly.

Several marquee bills related to home-schooling and welfare, abortion
and illegal immigration were killed or gutted in the past two weeks at
the hands of four moderate Senate Republicans, including Majority
Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (James City). Gov. Robert F. McDonnell
(R) himself played a role.

The stunning defeats came in a year when Republicans took full control
of Richmond, buoying conservatives whose agenda had died in a
Democratic-led Senate. They pushed an ambitious legislative plan but
ran into unexpected opposition from moderate members of their own
party.

That has frustrated and even angered some conservative lawmakers and
activists, the core of the Virginia Republican Party.

“The base out there is looking at this, and they were told for years
that it’s the Democrats holding things up,” said Del. Robert G.
Marshall (R-Prince William). “We hold an election, we take charge and
guess what? It’s the Republicans holding things up. This is not good
news for the conservatives around Virginia at all.”

Four longtime moderate Republicans — Norment and Sens. Harry B.
Blevins of Chesapeake, Frank W. Wagner of Virginia Beach and John C.
Watkins of Powhatan — were behind many of the defeats.

At the start of the session, McDonnell, a potential vice presidential
pick who has cultivated an image of genial aisle-crosser, had urged
members of his party not to overreach. “That’s the Virginia way,” he
told them.

More than Southern civility was at stake. If conservatives pushed too
hard too quickly, they could turn off swing voters in this year’s
presidential and U.S. Senate races, political observers have said. Nor
would it do much for McDonnell’s national political ambitions, because
signing a host of divisive bills might make him a liability with
moderate voters.

But with Republicans controlling every lever of power for the second
time since the Civil War, some conservatives saw no reason to wait.
The Virginia Conservative Caucus rolled out an 80-bill agenda, twice
the number of bills it sponsored last year.

They had some wins, even though some of the hot-button bills had not
been the priorities of the governor or House and Senate leaders. They
overturned a 19-year-old law limiting handgun purchases to one per
month; passed a bill allowing faith-based adoption agencies to turn
away, for religious reasons, gay applicants; and approved a $10
million-a-year tax credit for a private school vouchers for poor and
middle-class students.

And then the conservative revolution seemed to hit a wall, as if
Republicans belatedly decided to heed the governor’s call.

Moderate Republicans helped kill measures that would have allowed home-
schooled children to play public school sports; subjected welfare
recipients to drug testing; defined a fertilized egg as a person;
denied state-funded abortions to poor women with grossly deformed
fetuses; and freed schoolgirls from a mandate to get immunized against
a sexually transmitted virus linked to cervical cancer.

Republicans greatly softened a bill requiring ultrasounds before
abortions. They gutted a measure meant to crack down on illegal
immigrants.

In some cases, the legislation had cleared major hurdles and seemed
destined for the governor’s desk when it zigged and zagged.
Antiabortion measures in particular have lurched forward and back.

The tide seemed to turn about the midway point in the session, as
comedians and commentators on national television fanned an uproar
over a bill requiring that women have an ultrasound involving a
vaginal probe before getting an abortion.

On Feb. 22, at McDonnell’s urging, the bill was watered down. The next
day, the personhood bill cleared a Senate committee. But in a highly
unusual move later that day, the Senate voted to send it back to the
committee, effectively killing it. Two antiabortion Democrats
abstained, and Norment, Watkins, Wagner and Blevins voted with the
Democrats. Norment seconded the motion to send it back.

Over the next eight days, a string of other conservative bills died
unexpectedly, mostly in the Senate and it committees. Among them was
the legislation that would have repealed a mandate that sixth-grade
girls be immunized against the virus linked to cervical cancer.

It’s normal for bills to go by the wayside, McDonnell said this week.
“You know, Democrats try to tax about everything that moved this year.
Those were rejected. They tried to put marijuana in [liquor] stores.
That was rejected. House members, Republicans, put in other bills.
Some of those were rejected.”

But some conservative activists see the defeats as nothing short of a
betrayal. Some said they saw this coming, having vowed at the start of
the session to keep an eye on suspected moderates. But others’
expectations for the session have been dashed.

“You had a lot of people that had their hopes up,” said Mark Kevin
Lloyd, chairman of the Virginia Federation of Tea Party Patriots.
“They thought by putting more conservatives in office, it would give
the rest of them a spine. It hasn’t happened yet — to the satisfaction
of many.”

Del. Ben L. Cline (R-Rockbridge), co-chairman of the conservative
caucus, said the setbacks were balanced by progress on taxes, Second
Amendment rights and education reform.

“Like any session, you get some victories and some defeats,” he said.
“You work hard to make sure those defeats are turned into victories
next time around.”

Norment said that some conservative senators have asked about his
votes, but not in “an ugly way.” Some special-interest groups have
approached him as well, he said.

“There are pieces of legislation that become a matter of conscience
with you that you can’t embrace,” Norment said. “You hope that your
colleagues understand that.”

Blevins, a retired school principal and coach who voted against the
home-school sports bill and was the swing vote on abortion measures,
said he listens to both sides on a bill rather than simply following
his party’s position.

“I don’t see how we get anything done up here unless we have some
people who are willing to say, ‘You know, I didn’t think I’d like
that. Now that I’ve heard more about it, I’m inclined to think maybe
that’s not a bad thing after all,’ ” he said. “I’ve thought a lot
about being called a moderate. I’ve probably been called things a lot
worse than that.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/va-gops-opposition-came-from-within/2012/03/01/gIQAKVsvnR_story.html#weighIn

[GovRobertBibleBobMcDonnell]

I will reintroduce our PERSONHOOD bill again and again, until it's
passed by our forward-looking legislature.

Even my daughters believe that, should they get knocked up
accidentally -- which they won't because as good Christians they don't
believe in premarital hook-ups -- they should never, ever even think
about abortion!

And they know me well enough to know I control their every thought and
action!

[Ken "El Swartho" Cuccinelli]

To be completely, honest, I never did think the governor has what it
takes to be Mitt's or Rick's or Newt's veep running mate.

I believe I'm the man for the job!

And just because as Virginia Attorney General I ran up and wasted a
half-billion-dollar legal tab to try to force a UVa professor to turn
over his global warming papers, I'm a better steward of public funds
than my colleague Bob "The Sonogram Kid" McDonnell.

And don't forget it!