Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling has an op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch this morning about the state of the Republican Party and ‘getting it back on track’ as the Republican Party of Virginia heads to the Advance in Homestead this weekend.
Bolling makes 5 points:
1) 2013 was damaging to the Party.
2) Virginia’s electorate is changing.
3) We need better communication on the issues.
4) No conventions ever again.
5) We shouldn’t have a GOP civil war.
Reminds me of a proverb:
He who lives in a glass house shouldn’t throw stones.
Bolling left out a key point, one that he of all people should recognize:
Republicans should support Republicans.
Bolling’s petulant child act in 2012 and 2013 did considerable damage to the party. It’s downright laughable that Bolling has the gall to warn on an internal civil war when he himself helped stoke resentment within the party. Even if you believe that Bolling not endorsing/supporting/assisting/in any way giving any help to Cuccinelli in 2013 was inside baseball, consider that Republicans voters were puzzled by the lack of support coming from statewide officials in Richmond for Cuccinelli. What’s it say to voters when Republican elected officials aren’t supporting Republicans?
There was no principled reason for Bolling to take his ball and go home in 2012, yet he did. He skipped the Advance last year, sulking that Cuccinelli refused to ‘wait his turn’. Had that been the end of it, that’d have been fine. Bolling decided to take it to the next level in 2013, openly flirting with Terry McAuliffe’s campaign, allowing his consultant to sell out and take a fat payday, glad-handing McAuliffe at every joint appearance while dismissing Cuccinelli and the Republican ticket as radical, ideological, etc.
Keep in mind, many of stances and positions that Cuccinelli/Jackson/Obenshain took or were attacked on were the same positions that Bolling himself had. Bolling as a State Senator was considered (slightly) more conservative than Cuccinelli (it’s true, look it up). You’ll also note that for all of Bolling’s back-handed advice in 2013, he never once identified a specific issue or policy position that he felt was too ideological. It’s as if he bought into the Democratic talking points, rather than looking at actual records. Seeing as he served at least one term with Cuccinelli and Obenshain in the State Senate, then two terms presiding over them in the Senate, he’d have at least one specific area where he disagreed. Instead, we were given generic ‘they’re too conservative’.
Norm stoked the fire the other day by floating the notion of a statewide run for Bolling against Mark Warner, something I don’t think is realistic but sure, could be possible. Of course, that would involve Bolling winning a convention, and since he’s persona-non grata to many, many, many activists and party supporters for his petulant child act in 2013, the chances of that happening are slim to none.
Bolling’s political career is likely coming to end, with a whimper rather than a bang. Yet after taking his ball and going home, Bolling would now like to run back to the playground and lecture everyone on why he went home in the first place.
Even if he’s right on 1 point or all 5 (and he’s not), no one asked.
