I don’t know which is worse: Being a cold, cynical exploiter of the wedge issue du jour and throwing bloody meat to whichever bloc of voters is momentarily driven by the most mindless hate, or being genuinely driven by one’s own mindless hate. It’s a difficult question, hinted at today by Marc Fisher.
Cuccinelli — he could be here 2,000 years and he’d never change.
So says Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw (this would be Door Number 2). Saslaw then goes on to also describe the Cooch as a candidate for Door Number 1:
Saslaw sees Cuccinelli as a prime example of the kind of social conservative who is too willing to appeal to voters by tapping into popular discomfort with an outsider group in society. “It’s been pretty fashionable around here for the past four or five years to pound gays into the ground,” Saslaw says. “Now it’s immigrants. When they get done with them, it’ll be someone else. They make their living on that.”
The Cooch clarifies: While it’s true that he has introduced some of 2008’s goofy, harsh and punitive anti-immigrant bills, he wants us to know that his exploitation of that issue is secondary.
It’s not the be-all, end-all for me. It is an issue, but not the top issue.
Good to know. Could be it’s possible to be driven by both amoral utilitarianism and irrational prejudice. Speaking to the Some Families Foundation, the Cooch assured them that he is devoting his valuable time in Richmond to “‘the fight over the homosexual agenda,’ a phrase he used five times in a 10-minute talk.”
Wow. That’s just remarkable. Looking over the legislative “agenda,” I see: Allowing the free market to determine who can be the beneficiary in a health or life insurance policy; making state employment competitive with the private sector and surrounding jurisdictions by prohibiting non-job related discrimination; creating a registry in which people can designate someone to make medical decisions for them; and prohibiting housing discrimination (a provision which even the most conservative lawmakers I have spoken with assumed was already law). Could this really be the agenda he meant?
Oh, but wait: All of these tender attentions are for our own good. Telling the heartwarming tale of his effort to defeat a resolution commending the Richmond Gay Community Foundation and it’s associated Center, the Cooch explains: “When you look at the homosexual agenda, I cannot support something that I believe brings nothing but self-destruction, not only physically but of their soul.” Aww, that’s so considerate. As the Executive Director of the Center commented on an earlier post, “it is educational to learn which members of the General Assembly apparently object even to the commendation of an organization with a long history that includes audited philanthropy approaching two million dollars in direct support and community building.”
Our agenda: Securing basic fairness and equal treatment for all people. Their agenda: Being as punitive as possible to a group of people they don’t “believe” ought to exist. At any rate,
The crowd responded with warm applause, leading the senator to quip, “I can’t get this in Fairfax.”
I wouldn’t think so, no. There are not many places around these days where he can get that particular itch scratched. It’s not going to get any better for the poor guy, either. Too bad.
Poor Cooch is not feeling the love
I don’t know which is worse: Being a cold, cynical exploiter of the wedge issue du jour and throwing bloody meat to whichever bloc of voters is momentarily driven by the most mindless hate, or being genuinely driven by one’s own mindless hate. It’s a difficult question, hinted at today by Marc Fisher.
So says Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw (this would be Door Number 2). Saslaw then goes on to also describe the Cooch as a candidate for Door Number 1:
The Cooch clarifies: While it’s true that he has introduced some of 2008’s goofy, harsh and punitive anti-immigrant bills, he wants us to know that his exploitation of that issue is secondary.
Good to know. Could be it’s possible to be driven by both amoral utilitarianism and irrational prejudice. Speaking to the Some Families Foundation, the Cooch assured them that he is devoting his valuable time in Richmond to “‘the fight over the homosexual agenda,’ a phrase he used five times in a 10-minute talk.”
Wow. That’s just remarkable. Looking over the legislative “agenda,” I see: Allowing the free market to determine who can be the beneficiary in a health or life insurance policy; making state employment competitive with the private sector and surrounding jurisdictions by prohibiting non-job related discrimination; creating a registry in which people can designate someone to make medical decisions for them; and prohibiting housing discrimination (a provision which even the most conservative lawmakers I have spoken with assumed was already law). Could this really be the agenda he meant?
Oh, but wait: All of these tender attentions are for our own good. Telling the heartwarming tale of his effort to defeat a resolution commending the Richmond Gay Community Foundation and it’s associated Center, the Cooch explains: “When you look at the homosexual agenda, I cannot support something that I believe brings nothing but self-destruction, not only physically but of their soul.” Aww, that’s so considerate. As the Executive Director of the Center commented on an earlier post, “it is educational to learn which members of the General Assembly apparently object even to the commendation of an organization with a long history that includes audited philanthropy approaching two million dollars in direct support and community building.”
Our agenda: Securing basic fairness and equal treatment for all people. Their agenda: Being as punitive as possible to a group of people they don’t “believe” ought to exist. At any rate,
I wouldn’t think so, no. There are not many places around these days where he can get that particular itch scratched. It’s not going to get any better for the poor guy, either. Too bad.