McDonnell Guilty: Verdicts rolling in; former Va. Gov. and wife convicted

They are literally reporting the counts as the verdicts are read; former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, have been found guilty on conspiracy and other charges. While certain charges have returned a not guilty verdict, Bob and Maureen McDonnell have been found guilty of conspiracy.

This story is breaking; further details including count-by-count results to come.

 

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Excellent!: when will they be prosecuting the rest of the governors? Sort of a "one down, ninety-nine to go" scenario.

 

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Awesome... what do you want to bet he doesn't spend so much as a night in prison for it...

 

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We can hope he rots in prison. He is certainly worthy of such punishment. Ultimately, he will likely wind up as a Fox News host or chairman of the RNC.

 

The GOP would be a formidable party this election cycle if they didn't keep shooting themselves in the foot like this.

Up next - Rand Paul kicks puppy in elevator during visit to ASPCA.

 

The real problem here is that the Republican Party cannot change who they are. They keep thinking they can repackage shit and people won't notice it is shit. The problem for the Republican Party isn't the packaging, it is the shit they are selling. This year in solid Red State Kansas, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate this year has a substantial lead in the polls - a double digit lead. And, my God, an independent is leading in the Senate race, an Independent who sounds a lot like a Democrat.

 

It's an American Thing You Wouldn't Understand

Ironically, I happened to pop a "fifty-seven state" joke in a blog post earlier today, so I'll skip the pedantry you're already aware of on the grounds that (A) it's useless, and (B) it wouldn't have occurred to me save for the irony.

And from there, the answer is that we'll get around to them when they start leaving tracks of having done something illegal. And plenty of them have. Gov. Perry of Texas is already indicted, and Gov. Walker of Wisconsin is reeling in a developing scandal. The everyday sort of excrement we're accustomed to witnessing—to wit, we're having a bizarre debate in our state legislature right now about whether or not the state intends to fulfill its own constitutional duties on the grounds that the legislature, which must be the body to do so, is a separate branch of government from the courts, which found that deliberately underfunding an undefined standard did not fulfill the constitutional obligation to fund basic education in the state—will continue, but politicians breaking the law? Well, for now it seems they have greater exposure than bankers, so that's a good thing.

On the upside, Bob and Maureen are white, so they were allowed to live through their arrest procedure and actually see a trial.

 

They could get up to 30 years. We will have to see how much, if any, they actually serve. Ironically, McDonald got his law degree from Pat Robinson's Christian university - Christian values in action?

 

The Value of Values

As I recently noted elsewhere:

When conservatives remind you of “Middle America” and “family values”, these are the “values” they are invoking.​

I was referring, on that occasion, to Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant doing everything he can to undermine the PPACA and then complaining about the success of his efforts.

Still, though, I think the point reasonably applies in a general context; this is a question I keep running up against in "values" politicking.

"Values", to conservatives, would seem nothing more than "words".

Although I do think there's a good chance of them serving significant time; Rick Perry should take notes. After all, when you mock the court with a pretentious, unbelievable, entirely useless defense in hopes of customizing to meet the only potential out one has, the court will not be as inclined to show mercy at sentencing. While Mr. Perry hasn't seen his time in court, yet, he has certainly enjoyed using the interim to mock the courts.

But I'm not certain just how a federal court will respond to that clownish defense. As Ms. Maddow suggested on her show last night—I haven't watched tonight's episode, as the Seahawks just smacked the Packers down, so I'll get to it later—the McDonnell's degree of corruption caught federal attention before state. And it is always unclear how a federal court will respond to the argument that, "Sure, it's illegal under federal law, but my client has reasonable cause to believe it's legal under state law."

Especially when, even as such, it might seem the behavior only passed state muster according to political will.

But that brings us back to Mr. Perry, which is a whole 'nother subject.

 

Given that they were once the party that freed the slaves, I would tend to disagree. However, they have done a very poor job trying to make changes lately.

 

That was some 150 years ago. The political problems Republicans face is not the packaging of their ideology, but with the ideology they are pandering. The Koch brother owned Governor of Kansas with his Republican controlled legislature implemented a solid right wing fiscal agenda. The result has been 3 credit downgrades and unprecedented state deficits with no relief in sight.

No amount of repackaging is going to cover-up the failed policies which are core to Republican ideology. The Republican Party of Lincoln is not the Republican Party of today.

 

Well, 50 years ago. The Republicans rammed through the bill that became the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That momentous law, though, also began the breakup of the "party of Lincoln" into the anti-civil-rights party we know today as the GOP. Within a few years after that bill was passed, Barry Goldwater was nominated as a Presidential candidate, and Strom Thurmond changed his party affiliation - and the segregationist republican party of the 70's was born.

That suggests that perhaps political parties need strong impetus - new legislation, changing values, big losses - before they are willing to change. And we're certainly seeing some of them today. Will it take them 50 years to change again? Maybe. But the breakup of the party happened quickly in the late 1960's, and that may happen again.

 

Characterizing History

Where I would take issue with that statement of history is that it really does misrepresent the GOP prior to the rise of the Southern Strategy. President Johnson needed a Republican to ram the CRA through other Republicans. Democratic opposition came from the South, and also from Sen. Byrd of West Virginia. President Johnson once described Rep. William M. McCulloch (R-OH04), was instrumental: "Without him, the bill can't be done."

McCulloch's support for the bill insured the essential Republican leadership votes in the House. His approval of each of the Senate amendments to the bill was obtained as part of the commitment to the strong legislation he wanted to achieve. When the bill returned to the House for the final vote before being sent to President Lyndon Johnson, McCulloch received a rare standing ovation and a round of floor speeches in recognition of his leadership. President Lyndon Johnson publicly recognized McCulloch as "the most important and powerful force" in the enactment of the bill.

(Ohio History Central)​

The civil rights debate cannot properly focus on ideas of partisan heroes; your capsule summary sounds a lot more like Freeper propaganda.
____________________

Notes:

"William M. McCulloch". Ohio History Central. n.d. OhioHistoryCentral.org. September 5, 2014. http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/William_M._McCulloch

See Also:

Kenworthy, E. W. "Civil Rights Bill Passed, 73-27; Johnson Urges All To Comply; Dirksen Berates Goldwater". The New York Times. June 19, 1964. NYTimes.com. September 5, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0619.html

 

The Republican Party became what it is today by pitching itself to the former Confederates ( the Birchers, the Klan, etc) and wooing them from the Democratic Party in national elections, stitching them unto the the corporate financial base that has always been its head. Nixon did that, using racial bigotry. It was called the "Southern Strategy", rather than the "Confederacy Gambit" or the "Klan-Banker Alliance" or the "White Trash Con", as a political euphemism.

Divesting the Party of these folks - the Klan, the Birchers, the Confederates - is not really possible. The Red State Fundies own the base, are the base. It's much harder to take monsters apart after they've come to life, than to build them in the first place. This thing is going to live and breathe and eat our young until it is destroyed, if it ever is.

 

Sure it is; the democrats did it during the 1900's. Before that (during Grover Cleveland's presidency for example) they were the party of segregation, they supported big banks and railroads (one of the economic powerhouses of the time) were in favor of laissez-faire capitalism and fought to keep the gold standard.

It wasn't until FDR came along that they started to support government regulation/control of industry, and it wasn't until the 1960's that they became the party of minority rights. It took a while, but again can be done.

 

And yet we find them still in the Democratic Party - the Solid South - clear into the 1960s.

They didn't leave the Dem Party until Kennedy and Johnson actualiy set out to do something about the Jim Crow and segregation - and even then it wasn't the Dems kicking them out, but Nixon's campaign operation drawing them in.

Besides, the Dems weren't built and based on them - the Dems had a large and loyal base of voters in the unions and among the growing educated class and all over, the neo-Confederates were just a faction, not running the show. The Republican Party has been taken over by them.

 

Agreed. The whole process is indicative of how mutable political parties are, and with enough time, can completely invert their political positions.

 

It will be interesting to see if he is sentenced to a country club prison camp or if he gets a real federal prison like Leavenworth.

 

An' they call 'im Mickey-D on the country club tip ....

Oh, come one, even I know he qualifies for the country club set.

But one of the weird things about the injustice of our justice system might be showing through: He's a rich white guy convicted of multiple felonies, a couple of which carry thirty-year maxes, and yet in the analysis swirling around the press rush, I'm hearing estimates of an eight to ten year sentence. Compare that to what we remember from the drug war where a young black man could start with a possession charge, and if he lives through his arrest would find himself facing all sorts of "gang" related charges that would turn a small amount of pot or cocaine into a twenty to life mandatory minimum.

So, yeah. That's one of the clues: McDonnell is a white Christian with a decent job and a law degree. There's a reason he lived through his arrest.

And though it is felonious conduct with large monetary sums and legitimate public interest involved, well, okay, maybe it's because of the public interest. With everyone watching, it's a lot harder to shoot a suspect to death and get away with lies made up on the spot; even more so when it's a white Christian falling from grace.

But, yeah. Get elected to a governorship, you qualify for the country club tip. Especially in the Old Dominion.

And while there is a legitimate argument for getting rid of the obvious disparity between prison facilities and expectations, in the meantime, yeah, it's pretty clear that the McDonnells should reasonably expect the country club draw.

Bingo!

 

which is why they won't get dealt with. the racists are the republican party now. to get rid of them would be the same thing as dismantling the republican party.