WTF, Virginia Democrats?
"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” Michael Corleone, Godfather III.
Yep, that’s me today. On Tuesday I vowed to find something to rant about other than self-destructing Virginia Democrats.
Then Mark Herring happened.
I’m back in.
Remember, on Saturday our sanctimonious attorney general declared that Ralph Northam was unfit for office after the governor admitted - then denied - that it was him in the yearbook photo of the blackface medical student and the Klansman.
“It is no longer possible for Governor Northam to lead our commonwealth, and it is time for him to step down,” Herring huffed.
Just when it looked like Herring might be the last Democrat standing in Richmond - what with Northam hiding in the Governor’s Mansion and Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax accused of sexual assault - we learn that, Herring too, cavorted about in blackface.
What is it with these politicians and shoe polish? Better question: Just how far down the Democratic food chain do we have to go to find a decent person?
Shhh. I can hear the howls of “unfair” already.
Tell me Democrats wouldn’t be saying the same thing if it were a Republican governor and his administration unmasked as hopeless hypocrites.
The problem these Democrats have is how quick they’ve been to slap anyone with a conservative slant as a “racist." What Ralph Northam did to Ed Gillespie by calling him a white supremacist during the 2017 gubernatorial campaign - remind me, has he apologized yet? - set the table for this.
Northam was willing to ruin an opponent to win. Now he says he doesn’t want to resign because he’ll forever be remembered as a racist.
We’re in a spot of bother right now in Virginia. Still wouldn’t want to live in New York.
Karma, governor.
Northam, whose roots are on the Eastern Shore, has never been a charter member of the Virginia Democratic club. In fact, they seemed rather eager to toss him overboard a few days ago when they assumed Fairfax would step up, finish out Northam’s term and run for another 4-year stint.
A win-win.
By sacrificing Northam, they could retake the moral high ground while installing someone they like better in the mansion.
Cue Dr. Vanessa Tyson and that sex assault allegation. (Last night we learned Rep. Bobby Scott knew about that serious charge a year ago and did nothing. Inexplicable. )
On Wednesday, NBC reported that two sources told them that in a meeting with friends the night before, Fairfax had called Tyson, “That fucking bitch."
Naturally, Fairfax denied it.
Even so, that left Herring as the default darling of the Dems. For about an hour. Until he, too, admitted that he’d dabbled in blackface. Or as The New York Times quaintly explained, he “darkened his face.” As if he had used a bronzer.
“Pickled Herring,” quipped my former Pilot colleague, artist Sam Hundley on Twitter.
“Making West Virginia look good,” someone else Tweeted.
“Virginia Is For Losers,” screamed the New York Post.
Virginia Democrats are in dizzying disarray. Those of us who are weary of their abortion enthusiasm and race-baiting are watching this Richmond melodrama unfold with a wide-eyed sense of, well, bemusement.
As Vito Corleone once said, “How did things ever get so far?”
