Make no mistake, that's how they see it.
And I don't just mean the Republican Party of Virginia.
I mean also for the national Republican Party.
This race is probably the most critical of all they face this November, and I, for one, believe wholeheartedly they will stop at nothing to win it.
I've been a little disheartened of late that this race isn't getting the attention it merits on Daily Kos. We have an emergency situation down there, and people don't seem to be getting it.
I hit the ground in Virginia in 2005, just in time to se Tim Kaine defeat Jerry Kilgore in the Governor's race by 52% to 46%.
In 2005, there was actually buzz in Republican circles about running George Allen for President in 2008. We all recall how that worked out. Hard work and sunlight won the day in that election, "macaca" gave it the boot it needed, and we all saw the face of George Felix Allen: racist as hell, and, to quote a 70+ year old, Republican former coworker, "dumb as a post."
George Allen crashed and burned, spectacularly.
The '08 cycle came along.
At the Marriott Hotel in Glen Allen, Virginia, a despondent crowd watched Fox News call Pennsylvania and then Ohio for Senator Barack Obama. But it wasn't until Fox called Virginia for Obama at around 10:45 p.m.-- with 91 percent of precincts reporting and just 50,000 votes separating the candidates -- that the remaining two dozen or so people at the state Republican Party's "victory" celebration expressed the full extent of their disappointment. "I'm devastated," said Carl Woo, a 54-year-old CPA from Richmond. Woo's friend, a furniture store owner named Ed Barden, tried to reassure him. "It's not over yet," Barden said. "But the patient's on life support," a dejected Woo replied.
And that was not the extent of the bloodletting. In VA-05, progressive Tom Perriello defeated racist xenophobe Virgil Goode in a squeaker. In VA-02, anti-woman, anti-choice, anti-military families/anti-verteran wingnut windbag Thelma Drake fell to Democrat Glenn Nye.
Senior US Senator John Warner retired, and was replaced by former Governor Mark Warner, who crushed another former Governor, Republican Jim Gilmore.
Another self-parodying lunatic, Jeff Frederick, so embarrassed the Virginia Republican Party that they removed this tweeting twit as their chair.
It isn't rocket science to see that the Republican Party of Virginia is in severe and significant disarray.
Dying from a thousand cuts.
This is not so much a result of a sea change in the collective mindset of the Commonwealth as much as it is the result of self-inflicted wounds on the part of the Republicans.
And they need healin'.
Redistricting is on the spike for 2012. If they can maintain their lead in the Hose of Delegates, pick up even two seats in the senate, and lock down the Governor's mansion, most if not all of the gains Democrats have made there since 2005 will be negated.
Now comes the 2009 primary season, and with it, the perfect medicine for a wounded and crippled GOP, in the form of one primary candidate:
Terence Richard "Terry" McAuliffe.
Think about it.
We dodged a bullet in the last Presidential election with the ascension of Barack Obama to the Democratic nomination. We deprived the Republicans of that which they had been gearing up for for YEARS.
If they get to run against Terry McAuliffe, they get to run against Hillary - and Bill - Clinton, by proxy.
In by-God Virginia.
As I write this, I get this eerie feeling that Mike Henry, TMac's campaign manager, is reading my mind.
A press release from the McAuliffe campaign just hit my inbox. It's title is, "Just what the doctor ordered."
Yeah, if the doctor you mean is Dr. Kevorkian......
But Republicans are desperate to stop (Obama), and they're pinning their hopes to Virginia. RNC Chair Michael Steele even posted a video on Bob McDonnell's website this week arguing, "A national Republican resurgence can start in Richmond this November."
Yeah, no shit. That's exactly what I'm afraid of.
Word of honor: I conceived of this piece in a fit of anger Thursday morning at Republican enablers in the VA blue blogosphere.
THIS IS NOT A REACTION TO THAT PRESS RELEASE.
I decided to wait a couple days and cool off before I wrote this.
I didn't cool off much.
I began this about 45 minutes before I saw that press release.
Mike Henry continues:
Terry's the only candidate in the race who has created thousands of jobs...Terry's executive experience, turning struggling institutions into successful ones, is exactly what the doctor ordered.
Oh. My. GOD.
What the fuck kind of bullshit is THAT?
And every time this subject comes up, TMac weasels around it.
But I digress.
I tend to do that. It happens when I get pissed off.
And I do get pissed off. Oh, yes, I do.
kestrel9000 said...
There are no words.
You lost any standing to back any candidate on the basis of "progressivism" when you decided to back Terry McAuliffe.
You are supporting every Republican's dream: a chance to reunite a fractured RPV and change the national narrative of a dying GOP by running against Bill Clinton by proxy.There is nothing "progressive" about a candidate who is basically a carpetbagger who chose Virginia as his residence solely as a convenient bedroom community for the hop to DC.
He could as easily have chosen to live in Maryland.
If Terry McAuliffe cares so much about the Commonwealth, why, then, did he never involve himself in any sense in state politics...until now?
Progressive, my ass.
How "progressive" were his and Mark Penn's tactics as HRCs campaign manager?
Your hypocrisy is showing, Lowell.
Disappointing.
Lowell said...
Kestrel: Please be aware that personal attacks are not allowed on this blog. Any further incidences will be deleted immediately. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
Uh-huh.
That's what I thought.
Delete THIS, Lowell.
I said it, I meant it, and I stand by it.
If you support Terry McAuliffe in this race, you are aiding and abetting the Republicans.
I have no use for that.
A candidate with such indelible ties to the Clinton taint cannot - CANNOT - defeat a Republican who makes even the slightest pretense of "running from the center" or tacking toward it, such as Bob McDonnell is doing.
Here are some of the things that trouble me. I have questions, and I have the right to ask them.
Like, why did you REALLY shut down RK, the backbone of the blue VA netroots?
If you didn't want to run it anymore, there were any number of people you could have handed it off too...like teacherken, who you take to task in the post I linked?
Why didn't he?
Is it because he didn't want the power of that brand outside his control going into this primary?
Why abandon the netroots in support of Terry McAuliffe?
I find it baffling at best, and repulsive at worst.
The core of the VA netroots, a double barreled shotgun that helped immeasurably in many if not most or all of the gains enumerated in the foregoing, tossed into the dumper.
Well, fine. This, too, will pass.
But Lowell, where do you think you will find yourself if TMac wins this primary, and then McDonnell drinks his milkshake, costing us not only the governor's mansion, but God knows how many downticket races as well?
I'll leave that as a rhetorical question.
As mike Henry correctly implies in his press release, this race has national implications. It provides Republicans the opportunity to turn the narrative of a failing and increasingly irrelevant GOP on its head.
It saddens me to consider that certain people are willing to abet this in furtherance of ambition.
Then, there's this:
Sure, Kathy... (0.00 / 0)
...just read a few of the recent negative exchanges here on this blog and over at Lowell's Blue Virginia to see some current examples of such behavior. However, to identify any specific candidates, individuals, etc. could place me into the same category, and I refuse to do that.
In 2006, I pleaded in vain with many of the bloggers on Raising Kaine not to do this to our candidates and/or to one another during the final days leading up to the Miller/Webb primary, and many of us can readily recall those destructive, trying times.
But, fear not; this year, we still have 31 days to go before June 9, and things may (probably will) just get much worse by then...
Our invitation should read: "Here ya go, Republicans; please use these items against us between June 9 and November 3!"
Thanks for asking...
Steve
by: cycle12 @ Thu May 07, 2009 at 16:03:02 PM CDT
[ Parent | ]
Yep/ (0.00 / 0)
It's a damn shame that that tactic...the Republicans using all the shit thrown by Terry McAuliffe and Mark Penn Hillary Clinton slung at Obama kept him from becoming President, isn't it?
Ask President McCain how sound that argument is.
Pfffft.
by: kestrel9000 @ Sun May 10, 2009 at 05:00:46 AM CDT
[ Parent | ]
This race, in my view, will either be won without Terry McAuliffe, or lost with him.
Again...it isn't rocket science.
</rant>