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Virginia's Republican gubernatorial hopeful, Ken Cuccinelli, has a new book out, and no one seems happier about that than Democrats.
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II's new book hit stores Tuesday with the public readings and promotion you'd expect to accompany a missive from a big-name political author.
The surprise was that the dramatic readings and calls to buy the book came from Democrats, who hope the Republican's book will help sink his gubernatorial campaign.
This week, in a Capitol Square office building in Virginia, some Democratic legislators went ahead and literally did a public reading of Cuccinelli's book, "The Last Line of Defense: The New Fight for American Liberty."
I'm not a publicist or an expert in p.r. but I think it's probably a bad sign when your rivals think it's hilarious to read your book out loud in public.
And in this case, who can blame them? As we learned last month when the Cuccinelli text leaked, the right-wing state Attorney General endorses the "47 percent" thesis, and condemns social insurance programs like Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, food stamps, and subsidized housing.
But that's not at all it says.
Dave Weigel, who argues that Cuccinelli is underrated as a candidate, reports on what else he learned from the Republican's book.
In his telling, Cuccinelli only loses in courts -- federal court, the court of public opinion -- if no one pays attention to the Constitution. Why would they pay attention? They're lulled into obedience. They don't understand that "every single thing government does to increase its own power increases the size of its slice of the liberty pie," and "since there are only two slices, every time the government's slice of liberty pie grows, the citizens' slice is reduced."
The people responsible are either liars or dupes. In shorter chapters about his quest to get -- then, one assumes, debunk -- climate change data, Cuccinelli suggests that "climate researchers may have given up the purity of science to forward a global warming agenda ... simply for the research money." After all, "when researchers in the field of climatology predicted a global warming doomsday, governments were willing to shovel lots of money in their direction to try to find ways to stop it." They fudge data; they fail to understand that CO2 is "the gas we all exhale from our bodies every second of every day."
Oh my.
Looking ahead, keep in mind that Cuccinelli isn't the least bit embarrassed by any of this. On the contrary, he put all of this in written form precisely because he's a true believer -- why hide a right-wing ideology when it should be shouted from rooftops?
The Republican state A.G. doesn't think a book-long diatribe against public institutions and science will undermine his ambitions; he's no doubt convinced it will help him acquire more power. Indeed, Cuccinelli apparently believes he will have a mandate to turn back the clock in Virginia precisely because he told everyone what an extremist he is many months before the election.
So, Democrats will keep reading "The Last Line of Defense" -- sometimes, out loud to voters who'll listen -- and the Republican will keep smiling, confident that most of Virginia will see the world his way.
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Pretty much describes the Republican Party.
When I hear about stuff like Cuccinelli's book I just get a little more certain that before to long there is going to be real trouble...
When the ideology of the tea party combined with their angry thirst for whats "Theirs" run into the wall of the reality that their ideas are not only unpopular but are also alienating them from the mainstream of American politics they just might decide to try and take their neo-confederate Randian golbeldygook on the road and secede from the union and at that point...well
At that point we finish them off like we should have 150 years ago.
LOL, at that point we cut them off & wish them a fond farewell, since the red states have more "takers" than "makers," even though they're also the ones who consistently vote against their own economic self-interests. Then we get to stop dealing with fact- and science-deniers and their arsenals of weapons and their hate speech and their gerrymandering/voter-suppression games.
Either that, or we progressives really need to show up overwhelmingly for the midterms this time.
FORWARD! 2014/16! :-)
pretty sure amazon reviews are going to be exploding with anger, confrontation and snark
I find it fun to post reviews to Rush's, Gingrich's, and Palin's books saying "Yes, I agree with the author that it is ridiculous to be building a wall between two capitalistic, democratic, christian countries".
Since their older titles don't get reviewed any more the newest review (mine) will stay foremost.
What I understand is that every time some GOTP'r opens his mouth nothing but ignorance flows out! This group neither understand the Constitution or that Bible they're so busy waving around for all to see. Their myopic, fear filled small minded view of government & the world around them have led to disastrous policy positions that have done nothing to forward this nation.
My questions to them are:
1) Since they hate "the government" so much why do they fight like hell to get into those "government" jobs?
2) As I'm sure he doesn't realize the irony of his statement re:"...every time the government's slice of liberty pie grows, the citizens' slice is reduced." - he forgot that he supported those invasive "ultrasounds" that Virginia legislators mandated that women seeking abortions must go thru, let me remind him how much that travesty of a decision invaded the liberty of females in Virginia.
Don't you just want to reach out and flick him on the nose?
The angle here is greed. Kootchi is so greedy for wingnut book millions that he wrote down his own obit as far as being the Gov of a swing state.
You may overestimate the intelligence of the voters of Virginia.
Where do these Republicans get the idea that big government takes away the rights of the average citizen in this country? So the government restricts or even bans fracking. They will of course say that natural gas prices will go up, but there are other, clean technologies that can produce natural gas probably even cheaper. Coal can be turned into natural gas.
If they ban fracking, I do not have to worry about a fracking well across the street or even on my own property since I do not own my mineral rights. So I do not have to deal with the noise, the pollution, the traffic all of which restrict my freedom.
In what way is SS, Medicare, food stamps a restriction of my freedom? Because I have SS and Medicare, I am free to retire and live a decent life. I do not get food stamps, but our local farmers' market where I sell my vegetables in the summer takes food stamps. If I get $5.00 worth of food stamps a summer, I am surprised and I could probably get along with out them, but if my customers do not have food stamps, I feel obliged to give them some of my produce.
The only way that the Federal government intrudes on my life in any way is to protect me and my freedom from the big corporations that are not interested in me or my freedom, only in their profits.
Because, going back to the Founding, that's been their concern over the strong government that the Constitution created: they were worried that it might interfere with their right to own other people and in general run roughshod over them.
After all, that's why the Second Amendment exists: to guarantee the slave States that their militias would never be disarmed in the face of a slave uprising and would always be armed for hunting down runaways.
I'm sure he's put in print something new, something fresh, a different perspective that hasn't come straight from Talk Radio or his club's golf course... that he's not simply climbing onto the book-selling gravy train to reinforce the conservative bubble.
/snark/
And that's precisely as it should be. After all, the whole premise of democracy is that the people understand the choices that they're making. As the inimitable H. L. Mencken put it,
Maybe, just maybe this book that Cuccinelli wrote will be the "rope that hangs him"!
im surprised that "shooter" hasn't weighed in to this topic yet...he's probably running to the book store to purchase this book as i write!!!!!!
I'll wait for the movie. Sounds like another get rich scheme to me.
and the Republican will keep smiling, confident that most of Virginia will see the world his way.
Sadly, there's every chance those inbred hillbillies will do exactly that.
What can't be forgotten (and 2010 showed this) is that people do believe this stuff. They honestly don't see themselves as "part of the problem"-they get SS and Medicare because they paid into it and never use the word "entitled". We, more logical people, need to always be aware that some percentage of people will follow politicians like Cuccinelli and keep working to combat their influence. This divide will not end or go away. The election and aftermath of 2012 showed us that.
The book will alienate the Virginia areas near DC, but solidify Cuccinelli's support in the rural areas. But it will limit Cuccinelli's national ambitions.
There are urban areas in Virginia other than the DC suburbs. The rural areas alone aren't enough to win a statewide election. Appealing to your base is a sensible strategy, alienating everyone else but your base isn't.
Edgar Cayce was right?
He claimed we'd be getting a bunch of Atlanteans who didn't understand/believe in Democracy re-incarnated about now and that these aliens should be considered a threat to America.
And now here's Cuccinelli.
Edgar Cayce said that just about anyone could do what he did. Would be cool if that were true.
Is the forward written by Peter Pan?
Probably.
Ladies and Gentlemen you are forgetting one single little fact. There are a whole lot of people out there who because of greed, ignorance or both agree with what he is saying, and any facts that can disprove his argument must be false and a liberal lie.
I do wish, though, that we had someone other that McAuliffe running against the Cuckoo. McAuliffe's carpetbagging "baggage" and his smirk-of-superiority isn't going to win him any friends outside of NoVa. Maybe if Bolling can be convinced to run as an "Independent" (aka semi-sane Republican), Mc Auliffe's path will be easier, with the Republican vote split two ways.
Mike Paganucci, @#13. Nobody in rural VA will even know about the Cukoo's book, unless it's read on Fox. As for his national ambitions... Maybe he and Santorum can form their own country somewhere; they're birds of a feather, that's for sure.
The Cooch seems to be saying that government shouldn't do anything, even it it's something private enterprise isn't doing, because one day private enterprise may want to do it, and won't be able to compete with public options. You know. Like Fedex & UPS.
Once again, said in your best Eric Idle voice - "He's a loony!" Or is it Graham Chapman? -Kevo
Why is anti-environmentalism a conservative position? What does it have to do with conservative principles? Do we need more blatant proof that conservatives have no principles and are just shilling for big business?