Amid tightening polls (which Ballot Box's excellent analyst Josh Goodman attributes to a delayed reaction to the McDonnell thesis), it is likely that Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell would dearly love to change the subject.
Thanks to one of the most amazing political videos you'll ever see, and the speaker's bond with McDonnell, it just became exponentially harder for the thesis story to go away.
First, the video that many of you have already seen. Witness Michael Schwartz, staffer for far-right Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, in all of his glory. Here he is outlining for the folks at the Value Voters Summit how pornography will make you gay:
Schwartz, as it turns out, has been a voice for right-wing social causes for quite some time.
How long? Long enough for a thirty-something Bob McDonnell to be deeply impressed with his scholarship.
How impressed? McDonnell cites Schwartz...not once, but twice...in his notorious thesis:
Michael Schwartz is a totally bonkers, extreme, homophobic, hate-filled bigot. But what, you ask, does that have to do with Virginia? Well, believe it or not, there's a Bob McDonnell connection and a pretty strong one at that. Yes, McDonnell's theocratic thesis is about to bite him in the butt (or maybe "impale" him?) once again. First, check out page 91, where McDonnell cites an article ("Keeping Daycare in the Family") by the very same Michael Schwartz who appears in the above video and crazy quotes. Now, go to page 40, where McDonnell quotes "Free Congress Director Michael Schwartz" talking about the "division between those whose conservatism is defined by dollar signs and those whose conservatism is rooted in the family."
After finding the connection, Blue Virginia author Lowell Feld (who, as it turns out, dropped a diary here today on this subject) came up with a series of helpful questions to ask Bob McDonnell about his kinship with Mr. Schwartz:
- Do you agree with Schwartz that "all pornography is homosexual pornography" and that reading Playboy will turn 12-year-old boys gay?
- Do you agree with Schwartz that "Feminism has wreaked havoc on marriage, women, children and men?"
- Do you agree with Schwartz that day care is "family issue" not a "workplace issue?"
- Do you agree with Schwartz that "The Supreme Court says we have the right to kill babies and the right to commit buggery?"
- Do you agree with Schwartz that it's time for a "New Masculinism?"
- Do you agree with Schwartz that judges should be "impaled?"
- Finally, do you agree with Schwartz that homosexuals used "the AIDS crisis to pursue [their] political agenda?"
McDonnell, try as he might, is having a devil of a time running from his past. This, one has to imagine, will not help.