Back in March, the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) decided to form a separate political action committee called Common Sense Virginia, with the intent of assisting whomever would emerge as the Democratic nominee for Governor from Virginia.
At the time, the Republican Governors Association assailed the DGA, accusing the Democrats of creating a "shadow organization" and stated the the RGA would be totally transparent about their involvement in the race.
SIGH...do you even NEED the punchline anymore?
The RGA has registered a new PAC in VA to support the association's work for GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell. The name of the new group, however, sounds awfully familiar. It's called VA Common Sense PAC. And it reminds, not by accident, of Common Sense VA, the group the DGA used during the party's primary contest to spend some $3M on ads framing McDonnell as out of touch with Virginians.
So...let's just work our way through this. Not only does the RGA copy the DGA's idea to create a Virginia-specific PAC, they all-but-swiped the NAME, too?
This gave the DGA a good laugh:
"So the first thing Haley Barbour does as chair of the RGA is copy our playbook?" said Emily DeRose, DGA comm. dir., in an email to On Call. "We're flattered, but at some point the RGA and Bob McDonnell will have to get some ideas of their own."
Later, Jennifer Skalka at Hotline On Call followed up with the RGA, who issued a curt statement saying that the account has been dormant since its creation a month ago, and remains dormant.
Of course, that doesn't mean it will be dormant in August, September, October, and November. Indeed, if they filed the paperwork for the PAC, with no intention of ever using it, then someone at the RGA apparently just likes to fill out and submit paperwork.
Possible, but it is a lot more plausible that the RGA is waiting to use this PAC to hit Deeds between the eyes come the Fall. Which, in itself, is no big deal. Hell, the DGA's Common Sense Virginia PAC has already spent a couple of million dollars softening up Bob McDonnell.
The only problem is (for the 5683rd time for those keeping track) that once again the Republican Party screams at the top of their lungs advocating for one thing, while quietly doing the opposite when they are convinced that no one is watching.
Par for the course, to use a golf analogy on this British Open weekend...