It amazes me how people attached to Bill Clinton are automatically assumed to be as politically talented as he is. His wife has repeatedly proven this notion to be untrue, and this week, his close friend and fundraiser – Governor Terry McAuliffe – has shown he’s not very good at this game either.
This really shouldn’t surprise us. T-Mac’s first venture out of money-raising and into actual politics was his stint as DNC Chair (2001-2005). Among the “highlights”: the New York City Mayor’s office transitioned from one Republican to another for the first time in history (2001), George W. Bush became the first president to see his party seize control of a house of Congress from the opposition since 1834 (2002), and Bush later became the first president who lost the popular vote to be re-elected, and with a majority no less (2004). In 2009, T-Mac was trounced by Creigh Deeds in the Democrats’ primary for Governor. Four years later – with the Democrats united behind him, a polarizing opponent who turned off his base by supporting a tax hike and was left for dead by the national party, a Republican incumbent under an ethical cloud, and the boon of a Washington shutdown that was at most partially blunted by the Obamacare rollout fiasco – McAuliffe took less than 48% of the vote, and became the first Governor elected by a minority of voters since 1965.
Yet when he took office last January, it was simply assumed he would roll over General Assembly Republicans – assumptions driven by arrogance from the Democrats and cynical dismissal of the Richmond Republicans by many in their own party (fueled by three tax increases in ten years). Instead, he merely fulfilled a Rule from one of my favorite columnists – Canada’s Paul Wells: “If everyone in (the capital) knows something, it’s not true.”
To wit, less than six months in, T-Mac became the first Governor to see his party lose control of a General Assembly house since 1883 – you read that right: 1883 – and via a resignation and by-election, no less. His political incompetence set so many in the party scurrying around to fix the damage that it nearly ensnared Mark Warner in an ethics investigation, which may or may not have had a role in his re-election going from coronation to nail-biter.
This summer, in his attempt to restart the “war on women” theme with the Jane Roush appointment, he stumbled into his own War on Wilder, which isn’t going so well.
Ah, but of course, it was all about redistricting, I hear. What matters is that T-Mac and the Democrats have likely managed to get what they want: a judicial-led redistricting that moves Richmond Republicans out of the picture and opens the door wide to more Democrats sent to Washington. Hesto presto, T-Mac has outmaneuvered his opposition!
It’s a compelling narrative, but for one problem: all three judges who issued the ruling (and would now appear to be forced to draw a map) are Republican appointees. So the number of Democrats involved in redistricting went from a powerful one (the Governor himself) to an absolute zero.
Oops.
I humbly submit a reassessment of our Governor’s political abilities are in order. Yes, he can still do many things with which I disagree, as can his allies in the General Assembly. However, I will no longer assume he is some political Svengali who can surf the Zietgeist with aplomb.
Truth be told, no one should have assumed that in the first place.
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