GOP Attacks Deeds on Social Issues Talk

The devil's in the details, Bob. You can't run from your past when you're a jerk to half of Virginia.

Only problem, iii, is that Deeds voted with McDonnell 98% of the time over the last 4 years. Awful tough to attack Bob's record when Deeds seems to be almost completely in lockstep with McD's priorities.

Still waiting for how this "issue" puts one person back to work, or balances our budget, or unclogs traffic....

Only problem, iii, is that Deeds voted with McDonnell 98% of the time over the last 4 years. Awful tough to attack Bob's record when Deeds seems to be almost completely in lockstep with McD's priorities.

Still waiting for how this "issue" puts one person back to work, or balances our budget, or unclogs traffic....

Posted by: SpotsySteve | September 3, 2009 4:53 PM

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Again, SpotsyStever, you're focusing on bills submitted by the attorney general (McDonnell) on behalf of the state during his four years as AG, which I assume most or even all legislators vote for. I would really like to know more about this, but am guessing these may be pro forma, technical matters. I honestly don't know how that works as I thought only legislators submitted bills and didn't know the AG did this as part of his job. I am eager to learn.

McDonnell's actual record, clearly, would be his legislative record during his many years of service in the General Assembly, which ended four years ago when he won the AG race. That's the record that you need to check to see whether Deeds voted for or against McDonnell's proposals, particularly on the culture war issues (I won't list them here as you can read them in the 15-point plan in the thesis).

The "issue" that you ask about is that one candidate, Creigh Deeds, has a solid, authentic, and long-term record of supporting education, fair treatment of women, child care and day care, transportation, and job growth. The other has a record in the General Assembly that was primarily focused on culture-war issues and was specifically against many of the programs he now praises. I would rather vote for the "real deal" than someone who has transformed himself to get votes, because I trust someone who has worked for the same approach his whole career, Deeds, rather than a chameleon who appears expedient, McDonnell.

A good specific example is the "opportunity fund" to bring jobs to Virginia. It's the centerpiece of McDonnell's job plan. And yet Deeds helped draft the legislation in the fund in the first place and has consistently voted for it and McDonnell voted against it multiple times, attempting to starve it of any money. Who do you trust when each one of them says this fund is important now and he plans to use it aggressively? I trust the guy who helped write the law and has always worked to support it.