I do not know what is going on between the married national political director of the National Right to Life Committee and the GOP's candidate in West Virginia's 3rd District. I don't really care.
But if you're going to rail about the decline of morality and family values, supporters of the so-called Right to Life movement might want to ask some questions about what their national political director -- she's also West Virginia for Life's chapter president -- and Spike Maynard were doing together at Charleston's Vandalia Lounge on Saturday Oct. 9 around midnight.
This afterall is a woman who believes women should have to have children whether they want to or not. Where Cross has failed to make abortion illegal, she's pushed at the state and federal levels to make it as difficult as possible for women to get the procedures through unnecessary ultrasounds and other intrusions between a doctor and a patient in order to punish the women for what she sees as their immorality for getting pregnant... all as she appears from the photos below to carry on her personal life in a way that many would consider immoral.
Some back story. We were emailed some photos of the former disgraced West Virginia Supreme Court judge Spike Maynard who is running against longtime incumbent Democratic Rep. Nick Rahall. Spike has tried to make much of Rahall being Lebanese American because in 1996 Rahall accepted a donation from a man who also gave to George W. Bush, so under Spike's reasoning that makes them associates of terrorists.
The pictures were taken at Charleston's Vandalia Lounge on Saturday Oct. 9 around midnight and posted on one of those sites that kids use these days.
We thought the mystery woman looked familiar and after we posted the first photo we got it confirmed by someone who knows her well.
Here is another shot:
and another
Here's a photo of Spike Maynard with Karen Cross, president of the anti-reproductive rights group West Virginia for Life, taken very recently.
Here's another of Spike Maynard with Karen Cross also taken this summer
These photos are passing around the Internet and should raise many questions to two different groups:
Questions Spike Maynard's supporters should be asking
*Three weeks before an election and down by 19 points, why is Spike Maynard hanging out in a Charleston bar popular with Democrats?
*There's always been some issue whether Spike is really a WV-03 resident. Is he a resident of the district?
*An apple martini? Really? While wearing Don Johnson's old wardrobe from Miami Vice? I guess hanging out with Don Blankenship on the French Rivera will change a man.
Questions West Virginia for Life supporters should be asking
*Your organization supported a disgraced former West Virginia Supreme Court judge over a long-time popular incumbent who you've endorsed in the past and continues to hold his anti-choice views. The candidate you endorsed, Spike Maynard, is down by either 25 points or 19 points depending on the poll. Are you certain politics were the only reason you endorsed Spike Maynard?
...
My own thoughts when I saw the photos were it did not look like appropriate or professional behavior on the part of either of them. What they do in private is their business. This, however, was a public setting.
As West Virginia Blue commenter MadAnne explained well in the version that was originally posted at Blue:
Spike has presented himself as a good ol boy in all his ads. Just contrast the difference in this picture to the ones of him in his hard hat. WV should pass a law no one can wear a hard hat in a political ad. And Karen Cross, jeez, the legislature wastes so much time with her group. WVFL won't support any education efforts, any type of birth control, or any program for a child once it is born.