If it wasn’t obvious already, it should be clear now that the Democratic script for this election cycle is to marginalize and eventually demonize Ken Cuccinelli.
It’s not a new story. Democrat Steve Shannon did everything in his power to paint Cuccinelli as an agent of doom in the 2009 AG race. It failed, spectacularly. But unlike 2009, Cuccinelli now finds himself in the unique position of having to offer the governor a legal opinion on a transportation bill that would raise a boat load of taxes — the equivalent of Democratic nirvana. And because Cuccinelli has a reputation of gumming up the works on such things, the quickly forming narrative is that Cuccinelli’s ideology disqualifies him from carrying out his constitutional responsibilities, so shut up, Ken.
The Washington Post editorial page, bless its heart, sketched the outline for this attack over a week ago. The DPVA picked up the cue and hit its marks like a good understudy should (and in the process showed how utterly ignorant it was of how Virginia’s government works).
Despite this (or perhaps because of it), Terry McAuliffe joined the parade of ignorance and said that on the transportation bill:
“I urge the Attorney General to state unequivocally that he will not use his office to derail the mainstream compromise reached by the legislature and Gov. McDonnell. Addressing Virginia’s transportation challenges is too important for one candidate’s ideological agenda to imperil this bipartisan compromise.”
In other words, McAuliffe wants the AG’s office not to do its job.
It could be construed as a “Schoolhouse Rock” moment. But this entire line of attack isn’t funny at all. It’s what my friend (and former DPVA chairman) Paul Goldman calls “Nixonian.” In a recent email, Paul explains it like this:
Let me cut to the chase: I reject Nixonian politics. I thought Democrats did too. His “when did you start beating your wife” politics, the clever use of forcing an opponent to try and refute a negate [it can’t be done, try to disprove a negative in politics, brilliant ploy], is not acceptable: it jumps the shark, it has no place in the discussion. It is the very kind of stuff aimed at Clinton, Obama. Wilder suffered from it.
Cuccinelli is not immune for using this tactic at times in my opinion. But two wrongs don’t make a thing right.
It is wrong, it is offensive. I wrote an article for the Washington Post attacking them for using a Nixonian type thing in discussing Donald McEachin’s campaign for AG back in 2001. No one else defended from what they were doing. I had seen it done to Wilder.
Democrats don’t ape Nixon. EVER. Yes, his politics proved successful in winning office. But it was destructive in the end. Watergate was the culmination, not the start.
Fact: Democratic attacks, warning Cuccinelli not to play politics with his legal opinion on the transportation tax deal, are totally Nixonian. They claim he may rule the tax deal unconstitutional for purely political reasons.
That is such a phony Nixonian straw man.
Why? Two reasons. First, the major parts of the tax deal are constitutional, and everyone knows it. The sales tax increase, the “follow the pea” new tax scheme on gas taxes, the new distribution formulas for sales tax revenue, the registration fees are ALL CONSTITUTIONAL. This doesn’t make them good policy. But that is a separate political question.
The only issue in terms of legality are the 4 regional taxes.
THESE ARE UNPRECEDENTED IN VA LEGAL HISTORY.
This is why the Washington Post has cited my co-authored article on the issue, even giving it a rare push in a recent editorial. Norm and I were the first to examine the purely legal questions here.
The Truth: There is no need for Cuccinelli to play politics on these issues. Why? Because all he would need to do is follow 200 years of legal understanding, of precedent, of what voters long believed the constitution they voted for meant, to find these 4 regional taxes unconstitutional!
Goldman goes on to say that the real casualties of this Democratic line of attack are the career attorneys in the AG’s office. The Washington Post, the DPVA, Terry McAuliffe — all of them are attacking the professional integrity of the attorneys who will do the research and present their findings to Cuccinelli.
But all that collateral damage is beside the point. Career attorneys won’t publicly complain so who really cares if they are ground into the mud. The real target is Cuccinelli, which makes every smear of innocent bystanders necessary and acceptable.
If the ghost of Richard Nixon really is writing the Democratic playbook, we can only wonder what other enemies are on the list and what tactics will be used to take them down.
But I’m sure we will find out in the months ahead — first on the editorial page of the Washington Post, and later out of the email accounts and mouths of Virginia’s Democrats.
Buckle-up.
