As the previous post indicated, Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli is an extremist by any measure. All too often the Virginia Pilot - whose publisher has Christofascist ties and endorsed extremist like hate group endorsed Scott Rigell - would avoid immediately slamming a darling of The Family Foundation like Kookinelli. But not today. In its main editorial, the Pilot basically tells the Virginia GOP think twice and pick someone else over Kookinelli. Here are excerpts:
During his tenure as attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli has distinguished himself as that rare politician whose missteps and bullying style have inflicted more damage to the commonwealth than to his own career. And so he trudges on, ascending the political ladder.
Cuccinelli's sights are set on becoming Virginia's next governor, and his prospects improved markedly this week, when fellow Republican Bill Bolling bailed out of the race rather than fight him for the party's nomination at a convention.
Bolling's latest decision effectively serves notice that the Republican Party of Virginia is poised to surrender to its more extreme, and temperamental, wing. The result is bad for the party and worse for Virginia.
Cuccinelli has repeatedly conducted himself in a manner that reflects poorly on the Old Dominion. His recent comments on a Washington radio show about voting laws that don't require photo IDs helping President Barack Obama win re-election represent the type of partisan nonsense he so often reflexively contributes to the public domain.
His attraction to hot-button social issues is of the same piece that alienated so many moderate and swing voters Nov. 6, contributing to Republican losses in contests that never should've been close.
Early in his term, Cuccinelli insisted on reversing a long-standing policy preventing discrimination against gay state employees, a mean-spirited move that McDonnell overrode.
More recently, Cuccinelli strong-armed the state's independent Board of Health when it appeared ready to defy him over new and expensive requirements for abortion clinics.
Republicans will gather this weekend in Virginia Beach for their annual advance, in which they'll likely plan for the upcoming legislative session and refine strategies leading to the 2013 elections and beyond.
They would do well to consider whether Cuccinelli is the right choice to represent Virginia Republicans, and whether he represents the best opponent to former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe, the only Democrat to announce his candidacy so far and one that many Virginia voters view with skepticism.
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