Caught In Temper Tantrum, Governor Gets Well Deserved Thrashing

Both House of Delegates Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) and Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment, Jr. (R-James City), issued stinging rebukes to Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe over his comments attacking the Virginia Supreme Court’s justices this week.  McAuliffe attempted to dodge responsibility for his own incompetence, saying instead that the Justices were “too scared” to buck the General Assembly when they overturned the Governor’s executive order restoring voting rights to convicted felons en masse.

Speaker Howell didn’t mince words, stating that “[t]he governor’s remarks are an attack on the Supreme Court as an institution and all of its members, former and present.…it is wholly inappropriate to question the judicial integrity of the justices.”

But if you think that was tough, read Senator Norment’s comments, saying:

“Once again, Governor McAuliffe has demonstrated his outrageous disdain for the two co-equal branches of Virginia government of which he is not a member.  In so doing, he disregards the Constitution of Virginia and diminishes the foundations of the Commonwealth’s government.  If this governor wants to run a dictatorship, he should drive one of his GreenTech cars to South America.

“The Supreme Court of Virginia struck down Governor McAuliffe’s unconstitutional order because it was unconstitutional.  To suggest any alternate motivation is disrespectful and contemptible.

“The decision of the Court was consistent with the interpretation of the Constitution shared and practiced by all of Governor McAuliffe’s predecessors.  His attempt to blame others for having his own misguided overreach of executive authority thwarted is despicable, but not surprising.  His questioning of the justices’ motivations, however, demonstrates a contempt for all who do not capitulate to his agenda.

“Governor McAuliffe owes the judges of the Supreme Court an apology.  His comments were intemperate and disrespectful.  He should acknowledge this and inform the Court – and the people of Virginia – as soon as possible.”

Ouch!  That is some pretty harsh stuff (especially the line about GreenTech).

McAuliffe is obviously angry that his attempt to reinstate voting rights to 200,000 convicted felons has been exposed as, at best, a ham-fisted attempt to restore rights by fiat, and at worse a blatant attempt to circumvent the law. For those not tracking this, convicted felons, after release, are still denied full citizen rights in Virginia, including voting rights. This has been true for over a century. Governor McDonnell took reasonable steps to make the individual reinstatement of those rights by the Governor (on a case by case basis) easier. True to form, our injudicious Governor, Terry McAuliffe, attempted to do them all at once, violating tradition, common sense and the constitution. Responding to a lawsuit brought by Republican leadership, the Virginia Supreme Court found his action to be unconstitutional, a decision he attributed to, wait for it….political cowardice! “They [the Supreme Court] were sued by the speaker and the Senate leader, who appoint them to the bench, were scared and wrote an opinion that absolutely makes no sense” said our glorious Governor.

Putting aside the obvious political shenanigans involved in granting thousands of convicted felons, the majority of whom the Governor expects to vote Democrat, voting rights during a Presidential election year, or the fact that those votes were obviously going to help Governor McAuliffe’s personal buddy Hillary Clinton, this blanket reinstatement was bad governance. Its initial implementation was full of errors, and more were obviously going to follow. As is his tradition, McAuliffe did not do his homework. Delegate Rob Bell (R-Albemarle), running for Attorney General, put it well: “This exceeds our worst fears. He did not even comply with his own very, very modest restrictions. At least if you’re going to do it, do it right.”

McAuliffe’s order covered 206,000 convicted felons, allowing them to vote and serve on juries, among other rights. Murderers, rapists, kidnappers – all had their rights restored, and his order was so broad that even convicted pedophiles who served their sentences but were considered too dangerous to release from custody still got their rights back.  You don’t have to be John Grisham to come up with the potential legal horror stories, and quickly the Governor was embarrassed by those potential disasters, especially when it became clear he hadn’t completely thought it all through. Now he’s embroiled in the clean-up of this mess, having to now revoke the rights of approximately 13,000 felons who received notice that theirs had been restored, not to mention proving that this is all complete prior to the election. And he still hasn’t cleaned it up, despite promising to shortly after the Court reached their decision. What a mess.

All in all this was a errant partisan action, executed badly, by an unscrupulous and non-serious Chief Executive. The attempt itself was embarrassing enough, but to be smacked down by the Supreme Court, well, that’s gotta hurt.