There are cynical politicians, there are craven, shameless political animals, and then there’s Terry McAuliffe. The Democratic fund-raiser, who now thinks his ability to squeeze hundreds of millions of campaign dollars from suspicious political donors makes him qualified to be governor of Virginia, has tried to paint his GOP opponent, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, as “anti-gay” for seeking to use the commonwealth’s sodomy laws in prosecuting a 47-year-old man who coaxed a 17-year-old girl into committing a sexual act.
In Virginia, crimes involving sex with minors over the age of 15 generally end up being a misdemeanor. Cuccinelli believed that the facts in this case were so egregious that the state’s anti-sodomy laws should be used (after all, sodomy defines practices not just confined to gay behavior) so that the 47-year-old sexual predator could face a felony charge and jail time. A three judge panel threw out the case because they found the law was not constitutional. They cited the Supreme Court’s Lawrence v. Texas ruling, which was a major gay-rights decision.
Cuccinelli is now challenging that ruling so that, as Virginia’s chief law enforcement official, he can use the law to punish sexual predator, 47-year-old William Scott MacDonald, who was convicted of soliciting a minor to commit the felony.
Enter the craven, cynical, shameless McAuliffe campaign. The story of a 47-year-old felon coaxing a minor to perform a sexual act was clearly seen by the former Clinton fundraiser as a political opportunity. His spokesman decided to use the issue to try to paint Cuccinelli as an anti-gay bigot (even though this case has nothing to do with gay rights, gay people or even gay sexual acts.)
“This is just another example of Ken Cuccinelli ignoring the economy and instead focusing on his divisive ideological agenda,” McAuliffe spokesman Josh Schwerin said in a statement.
The local Washington DC NBC affiliate picked up on the story and, as usual, did the Democrat’s heavy lifting. Their article, Top Va. Republican Urges Court to Keep Anti-Sodomy Law, spends three long paragraphs until finally revealing to their readers that the case does not involve gay rights and is instead about a nearly 50-year-old, convicted sexual predator. The article, which attempts to paint the Attorney General as “anti-gay,” is basically a re-print of another publication’s report. The publication? “The Washington Blade,” a gay-rights publication. NBC Washington draws on The Blade as the primary reference for their article but never discloses to their readers the biased agenda influencing the source material.
Since McAuliffe has never held elective office, never had to make judgements about the law, never had to serve a constituency, never had to deal with criminals, never had to do the work of a public servant… in short, he’s never really had to do anything beyond renting out the Lincoln Bedroom so Bill Clinton could live in the White House and mingle with interns, he doesn’t understand the tough decisions that need to be made sometimes.
If this cynical, offensive move by the McAuliffe campaign is a sign of where the Virginia governor’s race is going, get ready for more sleaze and more shamelessness from the fundraiser who wants to be Governor. If Politico is right, and the McAuliffe for Governor campaign is really a proxy for the 2016 Hillary for President campaign, does this mean that Hillary Clinton agrees with Terry McAuliffe? Does she also want to bow to pressure from extreme gay activists at the expense of prosecuting a sexual predator to the fullest extent of the law? Why don’t Terry McAuliffe and Hillary Clinton want to protect young girls from middle-aged men? Oh, maybe the question answers itself.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.