We all know that
Virgil "MZM-Scandal" Goode (
VA-05) has strayed from the flock. He was elected as a Democrat, became a Republican for a seat on the Appropriations Committee with the Dukestir, and started getting a lot of money from the Military-Industrial Complex (specifically, Mitchell Wade and MZM). We already know that Virgil is "Representative A" in the Wade confession; we already know that Cunningham has just
started cooperating with the investigation into other legislators involved with MZM; and we are starting to worry that the contract Goode secured for a facility in Martinsville, VA (whose unemployment is the worst in the country after the areas ravaged by hurricane Katrina) will go sour, and leave the struggling city with the bill of a half a million dollars.
Now we learn from an influential local newspaper that Common Cause is asking the ethics committee specifically to investigate the dealings between Wade and Goode. Please, read on...
Goode has received more than $90,000 from Wade, other MZM employees and their family members, and the company's political action committee. Critics say the money influenced Goode to request federal funding that eventually went to an MZM operation in Martinsville.
After seeking a $3.6 million appropriation for the Foreign Supplier Assessment Center, which conducts background checks on out-of-the-country military vendors at the Martinsville location, Goode was involved in negotiating a state economic incentives package that offered unusual benefits to MZM.
...
Last month, The Roanoke Times made a request under the Freedom of Information Act for records of any audit, inspection or investigation of the facility conducted by the inspector general's office of the Department of Defense.
In a response this week, the Defense Department denied the request because the information sought is part of an open investigation.
Goode is up to his neck in the Culture of Corruption, and the Virginia press -- which has till now been relatively quiet about the issue -- is finally starting to pay attention. Now that Al Weed has secured his second nomination to challenge Goode, the papers are getting into election mode. Virgil was elected for his father's name and his Good ol' Boy image, but with that image tarnished, and Goode's voting record at 93% partisan Republican in a district swealtering under the heat of the current non-leadership in Washington, he willl have no image to fall back on, and nothing but his horrible record to hide behind.
Al is offering voters a bold choice this year. He was against the war in 2004, and opposes it still today. After his last run he started a thinktank to research and promote switchgrass for biofuels, which can be grown right here in the 5th CD. He defends gay marriage as a matter of religious freedom, defends abortion rights, and wants to enact a universal healthcare plan. With his great progressive credentials, and the infrastructure only building from 2004, he's building a machine for this election that will give Virgil the race of his life.
As for the voters; they're independents. Virgil got 65% of the vote as a Democrat, and 65% of the vote as a Republican. Nobody noticed the switch, but they'll notice what's going on this year. As a farmer of 33 years and a soldier of 42 years who served in Vietnam as a Green Beret, Al has the kind of character that rural voters can connect with. The problem in this district has always been the difficulty of educating voters, but with the press starting to pay attention, the people will too. Just today, on the second day of Al's kickoff tour, we got him in five local papers around the district -- not bad, eh? Once people start paying attention to the real Virgil Goode and start considering the alternative, Al has a real shot at victory in the fall.
