Regarding yesterday’s NRA endorsement of Bob McDonnell, Creigh Deeds resembled a petulant teenage girl whose puppy-love boyfriend just dumped her for someone more attractive.
In 2005, Deeds couldn’t stop cooing over the NRA endorsement: “This was and is very, very important to me,” Deeds gushed then of the endorsement.
Fast-forward to yesterday. You can imagine a heart-broken Deeds choking back the tears, attempting to brush-off the rejection, before storming-off to the bedroom when he says that the dastardly NRA is “basically a Republican organization.”
While pathetic, Deeds has a right to be bitter. As an outdoorsman who likes to tout his “A” voting rating from the NRA, he can hardly be blamed for being upset that he lost the endorsement.
In 1993, he opoosed former Gov. Doug Wilder’s pet-bill, the one-gun-a-month law. He also has caught heat from his left-flank by voting twice (unsuccessfully) to overturn Gov. Tim Kaine’s veto of allowing concealed firearms in bars.
But Deeds did not remain consistent on second amendment issues during the primary, so he only has himself to blame for the NRA switching its position.
After the VT tragedy, Deeds wanted to “respond to [victims’ families’] greif somehow” by closing the so-called “gun show loophole.” It was a patently transparent bit of politicking, as the shooter did not purchase his weapon at a gun show. In the meantime, McDonnell went after the true failure in the system – mental health regulation.
So, this is the lesson Deeds learned yesterday, as he was bawling into his pillow: don’t check your principles at the door.
Update…check out Jim Riley’s post on Virtucon. He has a similar take on this subject.
Also, I’d like to point out that the Washington Post did not run an article in their paper today on McDonnell getting the endorsement. However, in 2005, they certainly ran one for Deeds.
