McDonnell Back-Pedalling like Crazy
A 93 page master’s thesis written in 1989 on file at Regent University has gubernatorial candidate hopeful back-pedalling like crazy and asking Virginians to look at his record. Well, that isn’t so good either. We see …well…a mirror image in some cases.
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What is the blogosphere all a’twitter over? McDonnell’s master’s thesis, in which, according to the Washington Post, he has some rather conservative ideas that just won’t fly in the 21st century:
[H]e described working women and feminists as “detrimental” to the family. He said government policy should favor married couples over “cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators.” He described as “illogical” a 1972 Supreme Court decision legalizing the use of contraception by unmarried couples.
The paper also lays out a 15 point action plan that the Republican Party needed to adopt in order to protect the family. During his 14 years in the General Assembly, McDonnell attempted to pass legislation on at least 10 of his suggested goals that he has laid out in his research paper: abortion restrictions, school vouchers, “convenant marriage,” tax laws that favored married couples to name a few. As late as 2001 he voted against a law that would end wage discrimination between men and women.
Candidate McDonnell attempted to distance himself from this extremist drivel:
McDonnell added: “Like everybody, my views on many issues have changed as I have gotten older.” He said that his views on family policy were best represented by his 1995 welfare reform legislation and that he “worked to include child day care in the bill so women would have greater freedom to work.” What he wrote in the thesis on women in the workplace, he said, “was simply an academic exercise and clearly does not reflect my views.”
McDonnell also said that government should not discriminate based on sexual orientation or ban contraceptives and that “I am not advocating vouchers as there are legal questions regarding their constitutionality in Virginia
That fact that anyone in America would think most of these ideas are the business of government or acceptable in modern society is preposterous. The title of the thesis speaks to the problem: “The Republican Party’s Vision for the Family: The Compelling Issue of The Decade.” I don’t want the Republican Party’s Vision for my family!
Subscribing to these ideas that promote discrimination and UN-equal rights for women, gays, single people and who knows who else, at any time in his adult life, makes McDonnell unacceptable as a candidate for governor. Leopards don’t change their spots and a make over won’t cut it.
Good Posting! He’ll make an excellent governor! “Back-pedaling like crazy”, huh? Maybe just a hair exaggerated? Maybe. Next to some of the things written about and advocated by members of the Obama administration, this is absolutely nothing!
Free love, gay sex, face it if more families were like Ozzie and Harriet wouldn’t society be better off? Now society prefers families to be more like Ozzy Osbourne’s!
McDonnell should be ashamed of himself for advocating discrimination against women and minorities. This man is clearly unfit to be governor of Virginia or any other elected office. He should be selling insurance.
Second Alamo, I beg to differ. I believe modern society prefers Government that stays out of its citizen’s personal lives and doesn’t legislate religious views into policy and law. I really don’t want to see Virginia turn into a Christian version of the Taliban (have you actually read his Thesis? The Taliban would LOVE this guy!) McDonnell told us what he plans to do… his legislative record indicates he is trying to do it… why would anyone but the “ultra-right” Christian Conservatives what this guy in the Governor’s mansion.
I actually logged on to Deeds website and send him some money right after reading the post article. I was buying McDonnell’s “Northern Virginia” story (and considered him the lesser of two poor choices); however, not it’s Deeds all the way! We need to stop McDonnell’s “vision” from becoming our “reality”.
I’m with Opinion. The big problem here for McDonnell is that more than half of Virginia’s voters are women. I made a donation also when I read this article. I did not like McDonnell’s voting record while in the Assembly, but his claim that he was now a moderate seemed to mitigate this. But now we see that his voting record stems directly from his Sexism Manifesto. He wrote the Manifesto when he was 34, not as a babe out of high school. His archaic views lasted through his career as a legislator, why would they not persist as a gubernatorial candidate?
I’m afraid that McDonnell’s becoming a moderate is just another case of a politician saying what he has to say to get elected. Remember when Corey Stewart was “anti-growth?”
A scorpion was wandering along the bank of the river, wondering how to get to the other side. Suddenly he saw a fox. He asked the fox to take him on his back across the river. The fox said, “No. If I do that, you’ll sting me and I’ll drown.” The scorpion assured him, “If I did that, we’d both drown.” So the fox thought about it and finally agreed. So the scorpion climbed up on his back and the fox began to swim. But halfway across the river, the scorpion stung him. As the poison filled his veins, the fox turned to the scorpion and said, “Why did you do that? Now you’ll drown too.”
“I couldn’t help it,” said the scorpion. “It’s my nature.” We now understand McDonnell’s true nature. Let’s not get stung.
@Opinion
Very funny!
I also, enjoyed the “Christian version of the Taliban”. What’s wrong with a working woman in the house in some people’s minds? I bet McDonnell has a working mom or two on his staff. I guess that’s ok.
I thought it was a frog not a fox. But Opinion is right. It’s not that I think McDonnell would try to roll back women’s rights or freedom of religion. But when it comes to making government policy decisions, I don’t trust politicians who come about their world view from a standpoint of judging other people’s families, choices, religions etc. Too often they try to use their position of power to enforce their views on the rest of us. Even if this is in more subtle ways than the Taliban, I don’t like to feel judged or monitored by the government.
Free Love? Why SA, you are dating yourself!
I don’t want the govt in my bedroom.
I agree, this guy was no star-struck kid when he wrote his thesis. Someone who would beieve for a minute that these issues belonged under govt. control scares me. It sounds like Bob Marshall or Ollie North’s followers to me.
Foxes, frogs, you drown on either. Excellent point, Opinion.
Then there is the one about dogs and fire hydrants. That’s just what they do.
We have been warned. Now we know. The make over is being washed away as page by page of the REAL McDonnell is read.
Slow, he seems to want to put a lot of distance between his 34 year old self and the upcoming election. I would call that back-pedalling and so would you if Mr. McDonnell was a Democrat.
I don’t like anything this guy said back then, but I do believe people can change their opinions as they get older. It’s what he espouses now that counts. I’d like to see more of that.
Damn it. Isn’t there supposed to be a mechanism for vetting candidates, even if they are familiar ones?!
Anyway, our current Governor is also pro-life.
Pinko, I agree that people can change over time. I just don’t think this guy has. I think it is a change of convenience with an election coming up in Nov. Remember Mitt Romney’s make over in the opposite direction to appease the right?
2001 isn’t that long ago either. Talk is cheap. Much of his voting record supports his 15 points. At least 10 of the points can be verified. I sure saw no great announcements saying he had a change of heart on these issues back when. The only renouncing seems to be because the thesis was uprooted and disclosed.
It’s a conundrum…. (IMHO) either he is true to the values he espoused in his thesis… or he is not and lied to graduate. Either way, I really don’t want to see him in ANY public office.
Suddenly, I think of him as nothing more than another “slick politician” saying whatever it takes to get elected so he may impose his will on the rest of us (ala Romney). Slick… Deed’s not (and that is suddenly a good thing).
This demonstrates the value of a free press.
Opinion, no, deeds is not slick. And it has definitely become a good thing.
LBH, while Tim Kaine is personally right to life, he spoke to this issue long before he was elected. He said he would uphold the law and make no effort to change it. Good enough for me. I am not opposed to people being right to life. I am opposed to them imposing this value on others. Kaine did the same thing with the death penalty, fyi. Personnally opposed but upholds the law.
I agree, M-H, about Kaine. He was upfront and did not try to pose as something he was not just to get elected.
I actually have a lot of respect for elected officials who are pro-life but don’t try to impose their view on others through government.
It shows that they understand that elected office is not just having the power to control people (or try to), it is also about serving the public, and finding the best approach that will best for society as a whole. My feeling is that, even if one is personally opposed to abortion, there is no practical way to try to police people’s reproductive organs. Many Republicans are pro-choice for the simple reason that it is impractical and, I would argue, impossible, to legislate otherwise in a free society. It shows one’s philosophy toward governing. Do you seek power to impose your religious or social values on others? Or do you seek power to make the world a better place? I prefer politicians who want to make the world a better place.
If you have backward views on the place of women in the society, then try and impose that on the women in your family, NOT THE WOMEN IN YOUR STATE!
McDonnell is indeed backpedaling because he is far beyond the pale here. He’s way beyond mainstream.
McDonnell’s base will remain with him, get all loud and proud, and will somehow, in their zealotry to clone their religious beliefs. Hopefully independents will become repulsed by this knowledge.
@Moon-howler
I guess that’s why I want to see where he stand on these issues now. In fact, I would like to see how he would handle each issue he names in that famous paper. Then I would look at his record for keeping his word.
League of Women Voters: http://www.lwv-va.org/ Don’t miss the debate between gubernatorial candidates R. Creigh Deeds and Robert McDonnell.
More hypocrisy from you guys. It’s ok to judge this guy from something he wrote 20 years ago but not ok to judge Obama for cavorting with home-grown terrorists?
I’m not saying whether or not I agree with McDonnell, but how can anyone take you serious is beyond me.
Have we been analyzing Obama’s involvement with homegrown terrorists? Who did those posts? Who are the home grown terrorists?
I don’t recall commenting on this subject.
Geez, Mando, if I am going to be hung a hypocrite, at least let it be over something I have done.
How do McDonnell’s political visions on his master’s thesis have any thing to do with Obama? It seems to me that a better comparison might be to Creigh Deeds. Isn’t the real question how much government interference we want in our lives?
Right wing radicals seem to want government all over people and their private lives. This seems so contradictory to me.
And just to add, his thesis seems spot on. We live in a cesspool of sex, violence, greed, self-interest, and instant gratification. Family values have become a joke and all one has to do is look at what’s on prime-time tv to realize it.
Not that I think we can nor should legislate our way out of it but I damn sure don’t think we should be celebrating it.
Pinko, you will remind us of the debate as it gets closer to October 12? You do know i will forget by then.
Bill Ayers?
I don’t know much about him other than what Fox News reports. I have been politially active during various stretches of my life. I found myself having to hob-knob with all sorts of people I wouldn’t allow on my front porch. I probably have more of a problem with Obama’s connection to Rev. Wright than I do anything else. However…I haven’t tried to justify Bill Ayers. I don’t really recall commenting on it.
Obama is president. If he has been friends with Hitler, Stalin,
Mussolini and Satan, too late to do anything about that now. That issue would have to wait until next election.
However, Deeds and McDonnell are both under the microscope. I do not think we can dismiss radical right thinking. To me, that is just as offensive and radical left. I would prefer neither.
Is it just me or has Moon hijacked this site pushing only views from the left? I though that the creator and owner of this site was a Republican yet just about every story for the past few months has been from Moon jumping on the bash-town-hall bandwagon to pushing anything and everything from a leftist point of view. The ‘middle-of-the-road’ claims of this site and Moon are not only disingenuous but it’s a joke.
Why no thread on the ‘left wing extremist’ who bashed up a Democratic headquarters?
The Taliban came to my mind also when I read this.
On the other hand, the policies we happily maintain in America and in Virginia HAVE lead to the detriment of the family unit. I especially do believe that our welfare system has provided incentive for single-parent homes and has lead to the breakdown of the institution of marriage in the black community in particular (statistically – i.e. in proportion to the white community). It’s obvious and there is empirical evidence in this regard, but no one wants to talk about this or examine this systematically. “Just keep Affirmative Action going endlessly and everything will be allright”.
So there are no heros here to me. Neither party even remotely represents my interests or represents an objective stance about making America better or stronger.
Mud-slinging is detestable only went the other side is doing it. Hypocrisy.
Hello, right now I am running the blog for the most part. The three of us owe no one any explanations. You are free to find another blog if the management here doesn’t suit you.
I actually find the remarks ‘pushing the views of the left’ rather comical. It speaks more to your politics than it does to mine. That’s the problem with us moderates. We don’t really fit in one place.
Rick, I think you have made a valid points. However, the things you mention seem to take a back seat to the criticisms of personal liberties that are really matters of privacy.
I also don’t think you can attibute single parenthood to welfare or affirmative action. It has many causes and is more reflective of an overall change in social values than anything else. I am very close to several people who are single parents and they have not even gotten close to the welfare system.
Tipper Gore was a real forerunner in standing up to some of the vile, disgusting music our kids listen to. She was vilified as a censor.
Funny how none of you right wingers, other than Rick, really want to address some of the highlights of McDonnell’s thesis. Instead I see a deflection…lets attack MH as a hypocrite and hi-jacker, rather than manning up and discussing the topic.
What do Hello and Mando think about banning this damn fornication? How about cohabitation? Contraception for both married and unmarried couples? Should the government be promoting some of the things most of us consider private.
“I actually find the remarks ‘pushing the views of the left’ rather comical. It speaks more to your politics than it does to mine. That’s the problem with us moderates. We don’t really fit in one place.”
A stranger visiting this blog would assume it was very left-leaning.
Have I missed you picking apart any democrats running for office?
Actually I don’t think I have done much with election coverage at all. I don’t think I have mentioned any of them or sang their praises, have I?
I have missed your opinion on this thesis though. I do understand your silence. There isn’t a lot to defend there.
“What do Hello and Mando think about banning this damn fornication? How about cohabitation? Contraception for both married and unmarried couples? Should the government be promoting some of the things most of us consider private.”
I said you can’t legislate morality or family values.
Do you actually believe for one second McDonnell is going to actually try to outlaw condoms for the unmarried? Ban fornication? Ban cohabitation?
This is NO DIFFERENT then the BS about the death panels. NO DIFFERENT. You lambaste Rush for his BS yet you’re so guilty of the same crap in THIS VERY THREAD.
Where did Rush come from? I try not to even think about him.
Of course McDonnell isn’t going to do those things because he can’t. (I believe the contraception issue was over the pill or diaphragm.)
It is a state of mind that I find frightening. Don’t you find it frightening that some man wants to control what women do in their private lives? No, I guess not.
“I have missed your opinion on this thesis though. I do understand your silence. There isn’t a lot to defend there.”
Haven’t read it. Glanced at it. But using your highlights:
abortion restrictions – On late term abortions. I agree.
school vouchers – Work great and are well received by minorities. See DC.
convenant marriage – don’t see that happening. Non-issue.
tax laws that favored married couples – incentive to stay married? Why not? Better then welfare incentives. Broken families are the norm nowadays. I’m a single parent BTW.
“It is a state of mind that I find frightening. Don’t you find it frightening that some man wants to control what women do in their private lives? No, I guess not.”
Just as frightening as death panels. Catch my drift??
Not sure I am buying into the death panel scare tactic. I do not believe any of us have reacted to any proposed legislation, just the behavior at the meetings.
I think we need health care reform. It is too expensive and too many people don’t have anything. The insurance industry needs regulations because too many people get bumped, not let in, excluded, or lose their insurance when they lose their job.
.
@Moon-howler
Gotta side with you on this one! It’s your blog (the three or so of you, you know what I mean), and you can publish whatever your little heart desires!, same over on BVBL. You’re not a journalist, and you owe no debt of impartiality (and the ones who do don’t either).
and… I might add (to Slowpoke Rodriguez’ comment) you’re doing a damn fine job of running this blog!
Thank you both very much. Thanks for being here.
For those of you who find McDonnell’s somewhat “old fashioned” ideas about family offensively fuddy-duddy, here are some more-your-speed Christma…..Oh, I’m sorry, “Winter Festival” gifts for those special ultra-liberated daughters!!!
http://gizmodo.com/5348675/pole-dancer-doll-doesnt-really-set-the-perfect-role-model
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-nipple-tassel-t-shirt-for-toddlers.html
Halloween is just around the corner for your little one!
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40152
Prom Dresses, Anyone??
http://www.cbslimited.com/xcite-prom-dress-376.htm
How dare McDonnell think that we’ve somehow lost our sense of values and family! What an unbelievable skunk!
Moderation Again. Something I said??
Oh, I bet I know…..I used the “n” word!!
No, it was the number of links. I think 3 sets off major alarms, Slow. In the future, put them in one post at a time. That should avoid jail time.
How did this become a discussion about President Obama. But let’t clarify, Obama served on a committee with Bill Ayers and although he sat in the pew while Reverend Wright gave sermons that Obama had not part in writing. This thesis is ALL penned, first hand, by McDonnell. Age is no excuse for this prehistoric way of thinking regarding the role of women in the work force and the freedom that birth control brought to women so that THEY could make choices with their lives and shape their own DESTINY.
Furthermore, this pretend “harriet and ozzy” life happened to exist when black people were denied the same basic equal humane rights as white people. Ozzy and Harriet were only great if you happened to be white and Christian. The “good ole days” didnt actually apply to everyone.
Moon-howler, you have been doin’ a rockin’ job on this blog. Without you, anti would barely exist during the summer months!
Thank you XXXXOOOO
Whatever your politics, this is big news. Think about it.
Here we are on the last day of August, and we now understand that one of our two choices for Virginia’s next Governor wrote this fundamentalist religious manifesto at the age of 34, then fashioned his legislative career after the rather backward and gender biased maxims he prescribes therein. Look at his legislative record. It’s practically a one to one match. So, backpedal as he might, Bob McDonnell cannot make the claim that his manifesto has nothing to do with his public life.
That is very, very, very weird.
I am a church goer, but I have never been very comfortable with those aspects of religion that pretend to know the details of God’s preoccupation with our reproductive organs, especially when they attempt to enforce their earthly sexual hang-ups and gender biases on everyone else under the cloak of religion.
Now, it would be none of my business if Bob McDonnell was a preacher who founded his own church and taught gender bias to his congregation. In that setting, people would be free to seek out another congregation. But this is our government we are talking about. We don’t get a choice except for at the polls on election day.
That is why this is big news.
Here you have a man who wrote his own holy book, and then entered PUBLIC OFFICE in order to try to enforce his gender bias and personal sexual morays on the people of Virginia. The fact that he was stopped is small comfort: it just means his views are so extreme that no one would listen to him. Now he has a 50/50 chance of being our Governor. Truly frightening.
Elena, what do you mean? His age is no excuse? Of course not! He wrote his manifesto at the age of 34.
Slow, I expect Creigh Deeds would have the same opinion on those outfits and toys and Bob McDonnell. I don’t know what the secret it to making parents have good taste. No, it isn’t taste…it is an acceptable value system. I guess I am a fuddy duddy too when it comes to those toys.
Elena, you are welcome. Hello, not that we owe an explanation, but Elena and Alanna both have kids who are off during the summer. My kids are grown. Now lets do the math…who has more time to spend on this blog? We make every attempt to get new topics up daily. We have a few people behind the scenes who email us topics also and I thank them.
Further analysis of the McDonnell thesis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajsjF5yTBfQ&feature=player_embedded
Moon-howler does a great job.
For the record, I’m no right-winger!
Rick, I know you aren’t and I hope I didn’t include you in the sweep. You have way too many anti-right wing attributes. I wouldn’t even try to classify you.
You hope all over the political spectrum, even more than I do. I have a couple right wing traits, a couple left wing traits, but mostly I am moderate.
The Virginia Democrat blog has an interesting post entitled
McDonnell’s Stunning Lack of Honesty. It asserts that McDonnell has spoken out about discrimination, yet he has a long track record of anti-GAY discrimination. It is worth a read.
http://virginiademocrat.blogspot.com/2009/08/mcdonnells-stunning-lack-of-honesty.html
“Republican First” ditto heads are worried about McDonnell so they attack M-H and of course attack the journalist who discovered this disgraceful sexist screed.
M-H don’t let the two most extreme people on this blog affect your independent, shoot-from-the-hip attitude. We love your attitude. Don’t take no shi*t.
Bob McDonnell is dead wrong. Independent women and working women are NOT “detrimental to family” or to society. Independent women are the women who make our country great. If you’re intimidated by a woman who knows her own mind, you’re not much of a man. Notice how it’s always the short guys who can’t deal with strong women? Ever seen McDonnell up close? Well there you go.
I wish we had the same opportunity to read President Obama’s college papers prior to his election. They have been kept under wraps for good reason.
You can post whatever you like. It is your blog. That isn’t my issue. My issue was that you are not a moderate. But you can claim what you want.
You are socially liberal. Which is fine. Most moderates are. But you are also fiscally liberal which most moderates are not. In my book, that makes you a liberal. So why parade around as a moderate?
Moi? A fiscal liberal? I had always seen myself as a fiscal moderate. I think maybe the middle moves around a lot on that one these days. I know a few self described liberals who would have ‘the big one’ thinking I was in their ranks.
I can’t wait to tell my brother. I can hear his starting up the chain saw now…to saw through his own wrists.
Now where to you put the wars, guns, death penalty, environment and all of those types of issues? I mean, is there a label?
Supporting the recent bailouts/public option health = supporting big govt. = fiscal liberal. You can’t support these and consider yourself fiscally conservative.
“Now where to you put the wars, guns, death penalty, environment and all of those types of issues? I mean, is there a label?”
Social issues.
Whether you want to admit it or not, your thread choices and titles are biased left. You chastise BVBL as an echo chamber but anti is no different. Dissenters are quickly labeled “right wingers” (which I am not) with resentment. Indicative of a liberal forum.
If you like Pat Robertson, you will love Taliban Bob.
Despite the new package and ad campaign, once moderates
open the sack, they won’t find a happy meal at this McDonnell’s.
LOL Excellent Poor Richard.
Mando, I would have pegged you as right wing. How would you classify yourself?
Actually, I haven’t spoken out in favor of health care with with public option. I have simply put this issues out there and asked questions. I have not commented on any of the plans. I can’t. I don’t understand any of them well enough. The only thing I have said is different countries have some successful plans that the people of those countries really like (France, Germany) and that we should look at what works and what people like in those countries. I have also said that health care reform is needed.
I did support bail out 1 under Bush and the first bail out under Obama. The others…up for grabs. I don’t believe I have spoken on those. I probably do choose more liberal topics. ANTI-bvbl.
An article like Texas seceding? Not sure where that fits. Obviously that isn’t something that is going to happen. McDonnell papers? Social issues…ding ding ding. Oh on social issues, I am only liberal on reproductive health. You know, the sex issues. I also supported Tipper Gore’s efforts to clean up labeling in the music industry which made me an old fogey. I voted against the marrriage amendment. Others marrying or not marrying doesn’t hurt me one bit. I don’t care if people cohabitate.
What I do care about is that the government now taxes health care benefits provided to domestic partners of either gender when provided by a company. That is taking a stand that I do not approve of. If one is fortunate enough to work for a company with liberal health care benefits, take them without penalty.
Emma, how come you know all about Obama’s secret papers and no one else does? What papers might those be and how did he manage to have them frozen up without being president? Details please.
First off, my philosophical views apparently mirror McDonnell’s. But forcing anyone to subjugate themselves to those views would go against my Christian beliefs. I guess you could call me a Christian Libertarian.
I was not going to vote for Taliban Bob McDonnell anyway. This just shows that he wasn’t just pandering to what he thought was a right wing extremists base. He really IS a right wing extremist. The base has shifted so he is pulling a Romney. But let’s face it, the man is and always was a fundamentalist extremist.
McDonnell is the most anti-choice candidate for Governor we’ve had since I’ve been voting age. He is anti-choice with a vengeance. This was already known before this bizarre religious fanaticism was exposed as the root of his political crusade in Virginia government.
But truth be told, I was already voting for Deeds because McDonnell is anti-choice. I had thought he was a normal anti-choice person. There are plenty of those. But now we find out he really is Taliban Bob McDonnell.
Ick.
I am going to have to think about what a Christian Libertarian is. I am not even sure what Libertarian is. I used to think I knew. Not I am not so sure.
Sorting out the Christian part is easier. There are Christians and then there are Christians. I am not a fundamentalist Christian. I have seen all sorts of labels. Most are from fundamentalists Christians and are not flattering. I would just say Christian as a label but that not longer flies. I have a strong belief in seperation of Church and state. I believe in prayer but that it should be done at the breakfast table not the school room. The 10 Commandments in the public square doesn’t offend me in the least, but I understand why they offend others.
I believe McDonnell was attempting the wolf in sheeps clothing approach to politics. While I might agree with some of his content personally, I do not feel it should be public policy.
“I have some vague idea that Libertarians are big on personal
freedom and keeping government out of their pants. My philosophy
is more nuanced. I believe most people favor what they think
is in their best interest and then rationalize it with absurb
arguements. Or worse, they join a team/party and just agree with
whatever the leader tells them. I call it – Ignorantselfishertarism”.
Scott Adams