McDonnell v. Cuccinelli = Politics v. Leadership

Bob McDonnell continues to telegraph not-so-subtle messages to Virginia conservatives that he no longer needs them and prefers to cozy up to the homosexual community instead.

When Attorney-General Cuccinelli issued a legal opinion- that mirrored not only McDonnell's opinion as AG, but those of the last thirty years- basically saying that only the state legislature has the constitutional power to decide who does or does not get covered under Virginia's anti-discrimination laws, Equality Virginia( the state's largest GLBT advocacy group), went absolutely nuts, and demanded that Bob McDonnell rein in his AG.

McDonnell dutifully responded, issuing a non-binding Executive Directive that basically said that he will not tolerate any discrimination by state agencies or employees for any reason other than job qualification.
His Directive is non-binding - because he does not have the Constitutional authority to legislate - leaving the the objective viewer with no logical conclusion to draw other than that the governor is making a political maneuver and throwing Cuccinelli under the bus for issuing the exact same correct ruling that McDonnell himself issued as AG.

Rather than stand up like a man and tell the media that he himself issued the same ruling, that the last thirty years of AG's have held the same opinion, and that Cuccinelli is correct that under Virginia's Constitution, only the State Legislature has the power to legislate who receives legal "protection" under anti-discrimination statutes, McDonnell once again placates the homosexual community by ripping one of the conservative movement's best and brightest, even while admitting that the AG made the correct ruling.

The governor cannot have it both ways; the GLBT community may not like Virginia's constitution, but it is what it is, and is incumbent upon all elected officials to uphold their oaths to the constitution regardless the popularity or lack thereof within a special interest group.
Bob should choose sides, either for or against the constitution, but there is no legal middle ground to be had on this issue, only political positioning, which seems to be the governor's only true concern.

This action of attacking the AG for issuing a constitutionally correct ruling, even while admitting it is the correct ruling is reminiscent of a man trying to have it both ways and pretend to be a conservative without offending liberals.

It continues Bob's disturbing trend of playing footsies with GLBT community, endorsing open homosexual Republican Danny Smith for HoD, and bringing on another open HS Adam Ebbin to his gubernatorial transition team.
Equality Virginia has lavished praise on the governor many times for actions such as these, proving that he is making more friends on the left than on the right since taking office.

And of course, we all remember how Bill Bolling- who co-signed McDonnell's meaningless directive- threw his staffer under the bus in the fall of '08 for refusing to distribute guidebooks with homosexual pornographic content as gifts from the Lieutenant Governor to Virginia's delegation to the Republican National Convention.

Well, he's at it again; “While various federal and state statutes set forth certain classifications in which employment related discrimination is prohibited as a matter of law, our policy and practice will be much broader than this. All state employees should take comfort in knowing that we will not tolerate employment related discrimination in any form or for any reason, including sexual orientation.”

He forgot to mention that only the legislature can add sexual orientation as a protected class of individuals, and they have so far not chosen to do so, making Bolling's statement completely devoid of any substance.

On the flip side, Bob and Bill paid back conservatives who elected them by breaking a campaign promise to de-fund Planned Parenthood by submitting a budget to the GA with funding for PP in the bill and leaving up to 80% of Tim Kaine's democrat staff in place.

It is time for conservatives to stand up and be counted on these critical issues, even when doing so involves taking a stand against one's own party.
Ken Cuccinelli did right by the constitution of Virginia, even when he knew he would be assaulted by his own fellows, and took a tough, principled stand against unconstitutional activities being carried out all over the state by state agencies and the educational establishment.

Mike Farris, Chancellor of Patrick Henry College, has chosen to lead in his recent following statement: "I think this action [McDonnell's directive] is incredibly disappointing, to the point of being shocking........The deeper message it sends is that people who think homosexuality is a sin are wrong. They are irrational."

I could not agree more.
Why the mad rush to legitimize homosexuality and its proponents?
Is there a principled reason that McDonnell and Bolling believe they need to disenfranchise conservatives while renting themselves out to the radical left?

The bottom line is that Governor McDonnell is reacting in his fear of special interests to play politics with our Constitution, while Attorney-General Cuccinelli is taking the right stand, fulfilling his oath of office, taking barbs from gutless Republicans with principles-for-hire like McDonnell, Bolling and Co., and is providing leadership when few others have the courage to do so.

And could it be that they view Cuccinelli as the biggest impediment to a Bolling coronation in three years and see what they consider to be an opportunity to dim his star a little?

To conservatives like me, Cuccinelli is head and shoulders above the George Allens and Bill Bollings of the world who really do have no higher priority than their next step up.

Cuccinelli for Governor!

Here is another great article on this topic by a good friend of ours
vasocialconservative.blogspot.com