This is the most interesting tidbit from the Virginia governor's race in a while. Yesterday, Democrat
Tim Kaine got the endorsement of the United Mine Workers.
Here's what his opponent, Jerry Kilgore had to say in the Bristol Herald-Courier:
The former state attorney general pledged to defend coal from
"wacko environmental groups" that target the industry and its workers.
The Democratic party has been taken over by extreme environmentalists who do not like coal, according to Kilgore. Union member Donnie Farmer challenged Kilgore.
"If (a coal company) moved across the road from you, you'd be an environmentalist before long," Farmer said.
OK, obviously this is a Republican pandering to the coalminers thinking coalminers like having their environment messed up by their employers because they buy the whole myth that you have to choose between the environment and the economy.
The irony here is that Kilgore is using the environment the way he uses gay rights, abortion, and the death penalty - as a way to stereotype Democrats as liberal elitists who are out of touch with people who work for a living and go to church.
Really, the Democratic Party has demonstrated in the last couple of cycles that it has higher priorities than the environment. The environment just doesn't poll high enough as a priority for the electorate for Dems to try and run with it as a major pillar of their message.
In any case, the UMW saw through Kilgore, even though he comes from Virginia coal country. We can only hope that the rest of Virginia's voters will do the same and stop getting suckered by Republican attempts to paint themselves as worker-friendly.