Terry McAuliffe called this week for a complete ban on gifts and trips from lobbyists for all legislators and members of the executive branch.
The Moran camp and the Republican Governor’s Association each used the proposal as an opportunity to brand McAuliffe a hypocrite.
Pointing to a fundraiser that McAuliffe had attended sponsored in part by a well known lobbyist, Moran’s spokesperson Jesse Ferguson said “this would be like doing a fundraiser for Rush Limbaugh and 48 hours later calling for a ban on right wing talk radio. ”
Referring to a campaign event this week when McAuliffe told a lobbyist that “if you want to write a check now, I’d be glad to take it,” Mike Schrimpf, the Communications Director for the Republican Governors’ Association, remarked that “Terry McAuliffe is the ultimate two-faced politician…Just like a chameleon, McAuliffe changes his appearance depending on his circumstances.”
The bipartisan tag team that emerged in response to McAuliffe’s proposal tells us something important about the campaign.
On one hand, the attack reveals where McAuliffe’s opponents- in both parties - think that he is most vulnerable. They want to argue that McAuliffe is not a person with a set of strong principles, but a man of expedience, tailoring messages to the audience of the moment and taking dollars from whomever will write the check.
And while the McAuliffe campaign may believe that becoming a crusader for open government positions him as a Reformer and not an Insider, I still can’t see how the chief fundraiser for the Clintons and the former head of the Democratic National Committtee can try to become The Ethics Guy without inviting the assaults that were launched against him this week.
At the same time, the fact that the Republican Governors Association tag-teamed with Moran indicates that the national party sees McAuliffe, at least today, as either the most likely and/or the strongest opponent against McDonnell.
This is a view that is increasingly expressed.
I was on the Jimmy Barrett radio show in Richmond this week and he asked me why does McAuliffe seem to be the only Democrat that’s very visible.
It’s possible, of course, that the visibility that McAuliffe is buying on the television won’t have much of an impact on a primary electorate, especially if it is the low-turnout friends and neighbors affair that Moran and Deeds hope it will be.
I’m still not sure what will be the decisive factor driving turnout in the June primary.
But I would be surprised if the GOP doesn’t continue its tag team effort, jumping into to the Democratic ring and throwing a chair at McAuliffe whenever the referee isn’t looking.
I have been saying it for a good while now and frankly I think the practice is despicable. If Brian Moran continues his mudslinging he will assure a Republican victory in November, no matter who the candidate is. It will be very difficult for the campaign staffs to merge after the primary if they can’t stand the sight of each other. I guess all the Moran staffers are going to join McDonnell, on June 10th. They will feel right at home.
Why is everyone’s memories so short when it comes to campaigns? The Presidential primary, the 06 VA Senate race, all had tons of mud slung around, by many who decry it now.
This aired the dirt out in the open and made the candidates stronger come the general election. It’s not like the Republicans are going to keep it a “gentleman’s contest” and totally positive come the General.
If Terry can’t handle the heat now and defend himself against the attacks, what makes us thinks that he can in the general.
Primaries make our candidates stronger.
More crocodile tears from McAuliffe supporters….
The only way McAuliffe is competitive is if the entire Commonwealth of Virginia suffers from amnesia.
He is desperately hoping that no one remembers his “business experience” includes selling the Lincoln Bedroom, bankrupting Global Crossing, buying Teamster elections, and fighting Barack Obama tooth and nail until well after his candidate had any chance of winning.
The GOP thinks McAuliffe is the most likely winner because he’s the most like them. The Democratic Party has moved past transactional politics and DLC DINOs- that’s why we will nominate Brian Moran in June.
Calling a politician out for hypocrisy is not “mudslinging”. Jesse Ferguson hit the nail on the head with his analogy. The Angry Potato also does well in clarifying what Terry McAuliffe is in regard to his hypocrisy.
The whole ban on accepting lobbyist gifts is nothing more than damage control from the outrage that flared after it was exposed that McAuliffe was all too happy to rub elbows with someone who has been, and will continue, to fight against progressive policy and candidates. Terry thinks he can get away with this by being loud about his proposed ban…which isn’t a bad strategy…Terry’s very loud.
But keep in mind … while Brian Moran was focusing on an ally of Terry McAuliffe’s who said the most hateful, despicable things about President Obama, Bob McDonnell’s folks aren’t clearly not defending Barack Obama.
McAuliffe introduced the Democratic Party to the corrupting influence of big easy corporate lobbyist money, which got us screwed on NAFTA, GATT and Health care reform. He created a fund raising wall with himself as the gate keeper. To line up a run for Hillary in 2008, he blocked Al Gore from running in 2004 and doomed us all to 4 more years of Bush and the current disaster we are now in. When Howard Dean showed us how to crash McAuliffe’s gate with millions of small donors, a ton of attack ads showed up in Iowa to sabotage Dean’s campaign.
Now that Barack Obama has finally crashed McAuliffe’s gate of lobbyist money, T-Mac is calling for a ban on gifts, which is the height of hypocrisy. The fact that it is being pointed out from multiple sources is only confirmation of how blatant and shameless McAuliffe is.
From his disastrous and losing tenure as head of DNC, to the more than 8 companies he started that failed, to bankrupting Hillary’s campaign, McAuliffe is a walking disaster, however through all of that he managed to make himself very wealthy by trading his access for angel investments that paid out millions. Now he’s trying to cash in that wealth to buy the Democratic nomination. There’s no risk of him buying the governor’s mansion because he has no standing in Virginia and far too much baggage to win a general election.
So what we are left with is a spoiler who threatens to hand over the progress we’ve made to a backward reactionary. Lucky for all of us, it’s not working and most people are seeing through McAuliffe’s chicken poop.