As expected, it was well scripted and choreographed… but McDonnell got his earful anyway:
During the question and answer portion of the call, sources said participants used words like “betrayal” and “disappointment” to describe what happened in the just concluded legislative session when lawmakers agreed to raise the state sales tax and modify the gas tax to pay for road needs.
Sources said the call began with McDonnell offering a defense of his conservative credentials, saying the policies he’s pursued during his tenure as governor reflect those principles.
When talk turned to Medicaid, the governor was insistent that legislators had not authorized expansion, despite what Democrats have claimed or how press accounts have been interpreted.
“He gave a very impassioned defense on Medicaid,” said one call participant who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “He almost seemed incredulous about assertions that it was expansion.”
Perhaps the most worrisome item of the article:
Another source on the call tells us McDonnell was asked if he “would use his powers of persuasion to talk” Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling out of running for governor as an independent.
McDonnell responded by saying “I’m not at liberty to disclose our discussions,” according to one source.
That could be interpreted any number of ways… none of them good.
