Imagine, if you will, that I have a time machine. Not any old time machine, mind you, but a very special time machine targeted to a specific moment in time with a specific mission in mind. What if you and I could use my time machine to go back in time and stop George W. Bush before he ever got started.
No, I'm not talking about going back to the year 2000; I'm talking about going all the way back to 1994 and stopping George W. Bush from ever becoming Governor of Texas. If I could give you a chance to go back in time and stop George W. Bush from becoming a governor, to shut down his political career before it really got started, would you come with me on the trip?
Sad to say, I don't have any way of getting you back to Texas in 1994 to prevent George W. Bush from becoming governor, and then later president. No, I can't get you to Texas in 1994, but maybe with a little luck I can get you to Virginia in 2009.
In 2009 in Virginia we have the chance to end the political career of Republican Bob McDonnell, but we are going to need your help. Bob McDonnell is the worst kind of Republican. Dishonest, ruthless, willing to smear his opponent with laundered money funneled to him by his buddy Pat Robertson. He's a proud graduate of Robertson's Regent University Law School: the same institution that produced Monica Goodling and dozens of other Bush administration "lawyers" who have done so much to damage the administration of America law and justice. Bush actually campaigned for Bob McDonnell in 2005 when he ran for and won the Attorney General's seat.
Bob McDonnell won that election by taking $2,000,000 in cash from Robertson. This was cash that Robertson had taken from a number of donors. In effect, Robertson managed to launder this money so that Virginians never got a chance to find out the kinds of wing nut extremists that were funding McDonnell. McDonnell took this laundered money and used it to mount a massive smear campaign against his opponent Creigh Deeds at a moment in the election when it was too late for Deeds to respond.
If anything, Bob McDonnell may be worse than George W. Bush--and if he wins this year in Virginia, he will become the Republicans' poster child for an early resurgence of their party. McDonnell may even find himself on the short list for Vice President in 2012. This is the year to stop him and end his career in politics.
Here's what I want you to do: mark your calendars. In early June 2009, the Virginia Democratic Party will have its primary election to see who gets the Democratic Nomination to run for the Governor's Mansion. Once the Democratic Party of Virginia selects its candidate, we need to get behind them and push hard. Money, fundraising, blogging, and putting tens of thousands of boots on the ground from neighboring states, the same way we won Virginia for Obama in last year's primary and general elections.
Let's put an end to Bob McDonnell before he ever has the chance to become another George W. Bush.
I'll be checking back and reminding you as the weeks go by, and I hope that others will join me in building support for this effort. Knowing what you know now, wouldn't you have done almost anything to stop George W. Bush in 1994?