Virginia’s Governor’s Mixed Messaging

jamin | February 19, 2013 | 0 Comments

This man has higher ambitions than being a lowly Virginia Governor.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell gave a phone interview today on WTOP in DC. This article speaks to that but neglects what he actually said on the call. The gist of this is that Bob McDonnell doesn’t want sequestration because it will hurt Virginia and how they make their money.

The interviewer noted that some people, even in the GOP, stated that sequestration might not be as bad as everyone is thinking. I don’t know if this is a simple belief or political mind-gaming trying to get it to fail so that Obama is blamed (along with Democrats) and they can try to infuse Congress with more GOP members again in 2014.

McDonnell stated that Obama promised in his third debate that sequestration wouldn’t happen, and it’s high time that he deliver on his promise. He blamed Democrats in the Senate for not getting a budget passed by now. He blamed Obama for failure to lead on this. He blamed nothing on Republicans digging in their heels in the mud to stop any progress on this. He stated that cuts should come from everywhere (which they actually do) and not just military. Face it – we have a bloated military budget that most GOP doesn’t want to cut. Somehow we’ve stopped being the Department of Defense and became the Department of Offense with preemptive strikes and the need to stick our noses in everyone’s business with M-16s, fighter jets, and tanks. What does this budget get us these days? Broke. It gets contractors rich, that’s what happens. If you knew the overhead that is charged for contracts along with the final price tag on a project that exceeds what was proposed by hundreds of millions of dollars…it’s obscene.

McDonnell came on the air to voice concern about the cuts and never mentioned how they would harm Virginia. He came on to blast Obama, our debt, Democrats, and anyone else who isn’t a Republican for this seeming failure. He failed in his mission today if it was to raise awareness of the cuts’ effects on Virginia. I never heard that. He didn’t do a good job of speaking up for his state. The interviewer even noted that both parties share blame for this fiscal mess, and asked what McDonnell wanted the President to know. McDonnell stated that he wanted Obama to keep his word from the debates, but because Obama is allowing this to continue, he’s showing a failure of leadership, which was a popular GOP mantra from 2009-2012 that didn’t work to stop Obama getting reelected.

Why is Bob McDonnell doing more of the same? Is he gearing up for a GOP Presidential Primary and trying to get noticed? I think that is what’s happening more than any concern for Virginia’s economic climate. (It’s funny. McDonnell believes in smaller government but is all about the military keeping their budget intact so that his state continues profiting from big government.)

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