GOP Gov McDonnell trying to barter his resignation in return of no prosecution for Virginia’s first couple

By Anomaly/Freak Out Nation

Governor ‘Transvaginal Ultrasound’ McDonnell is learning what karma is and it’s going to hurt.  MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Showobtained financial disclosure statements filed by Virginia GOP Governor Bob McDonnell for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. Mr. ‘fiscally Conservative’ has been spending taxpayer dollars on himself and receiving lavish gifts in exchange for favors.

And now Republican Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen are facing one or two felonies so McDonnell is attempting to barter his resignation in exchange for no prosecution of Virginia’s first couple, according to sources.

Our friends at The Political Carnival have been following the story closely.

A list of items that the Governor and his wife felt so compelled to buy with our tax dollars include, dog vitamins, breath freshening strips, deodorant, body wash, energy drinks, dry cleaning for the McDonnell children’s clothing and a digestive system detox cleanse. He and his wife solicited gifts in exchange for favors such as a $15,000 wedding an a Rolex watch. There is a lot more on the list here. 

Karma’s a bitch. Behold:

Multiple sources in Richmond’s legal community have confirmed to me that the investigation of Star Scientific by state and federal prosecutors turned up what they feel is sufficient evidence to charge Virginia’s Republican Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen with one or more felonies and in consequence, McDonnell is attempting to negotiate his resignation in exchange for no prosecution of Virginia’s first couple.

Governor, you’ve been probed.

Despite Ken Cuccinelli’s Claims, Records Show Deep Involvement In Bob McDonnell Ethics Controversy

By Josh Israel/Think Progress

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Gov. Bob McDonnell’s (R-VA) company and family may have received an additional $120,000 from Star Scientific CEO Jonnie R. Williams Sr. beyond the tens of thousands in gifts previously reported — payments which are already the subject of both federal and state investigations. McDonnell’sendorsed would-be successor, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) denied any involvement in the controversy on Monday, but his connections to Williams and Star Scientific run broad and deep.

Star Scientific Inc. is a controversial Virginia-basedcompany that has moved from tobacco to dietary supplement manufacturing. As Williams, the company’s CEO since 1999, gave gifts and campaign cash to McDonnell, the governor and his wife helped to promote the company’s scientifically-unproven supplements.

Though as of 2012, Star Scientific has reported annual losses for a decade, just one Virginia elected official or candidate invested upwards of $10,000 in the company: Cuccinelli. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, Star Scientific is the only significant holding he has reported since his first filing in 2003. Cuccinelli, whose position makes him the Commonwealth of Virginia’s lawyer, did not follow state disclosure law and disclose this investment in a timely manner. After the controversy became public, he sold off the stock.

Cuccinelli also initially failed to fully disclose the gifts he received from Williams — omissions he called “inadvertent.” Williams provided the attorney general with free lodging at his homes,$6,711 worth of supplements, transportation to New York City and Kentucky, and an elaborate Thanksgiving dinner. All totaled, Cuccinelli reported accepting at least $18,893 in gifts from Williams between 2009 and 2012.

Star Scientific also may have benefited from having Cuccinelli as attorney general. In 2010, Cuccinelli issued an official advisory opinion stating that the use of electronic cigarettes does not qualify as smoking and is thus permissible in public places. Cuccinelli has denied any conflict of interest, though the ruling was a boon to companies in the e-cig business — including Star Scientific. Additionally, his office has essentially ignored a court case brought by the company in July 2011 — though he claims that was “nothing unusual.” Star Scientific is challenging a $1.7 million tax bill, which remains unpaid while the case languishes. He hasreportedly refused to say whether he ever discussed the case with Williams. Though his office initially denied any conflict of interest, he later recused himself.

It is unclear why Cuccinelli would invest so heavily in a struggling company. But his decision to put so much of his money into a tobacco company, along with his record opposing Obamacare,public smoking bans, HIV/AIDS and sex education, and birth control, renders dubious hiscampaign promise to empower families “to make the best possible health care decisions.”

Michigan, Virginia pass backdoor abortion restrictions

But Nolan Finley said I was the greatest
governor ever on the planet in history.

BY IRIN CARMON/Salon

On the Friday before the long  holiday weekend, the Republican governors of Michigan and Virginia snuck in a little New Year’s surprise for the women of their states, quietly signing abortion legislation that helped make 2012 the second most restrictive year for reproductive rights.

In Michigan, Rick Snyder signed a bill passed by the lame-duck Senate — the same one whose anti-union legislating dominated headlines in recent weeks — requiring clinics that perform more than 120 abortions a year to become surgical outpatient facilities, a level of licensing intended to be onerous and put clinics out of business. He also approved a bill that purports to screen for women being coerced into abortions.

Snyder did veto another bill limiting insurance coverage in private employee plans, which would have required purchase of a separate abortion rider. He objected to that on the grounds that rape victims would have to pay out of pocket if they didn’t buy the rider, and because, “As a practical matter, I believe this type of policy is an overreach of government into the private market.” Overreach of government into other realms, of course, is another matter entirely. (According to Michigan resident Emily Magner, one legislator interrupted her to cry, “THIS ISN’T ABOUT WOMEN! THIS IS ABOUT PROTECTING FETUSES!”)

Virginia’s similar, hospital-level restrictions on clinics were somewhat overshadowed by the ultrasound requirements for women seeking abortions. Under threat of forever having the word “transvaginal” attached to his name, Gov. Bob McDonnell tried to split the difference on the ultrasound legislation, but in the final days of the year signed off on the clinic regulations. This followed months of conflict between the Board of Health and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli over whether existing clinics would be grandfathered into the legislation. The governor’s office called the regulations “common-sense”; NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia said in a statement,  “After two years of shocking backroom deals and bullying public health servants, Governor Bob McDonnell is clearly proving his disregard of Virginians’ opinions about women’s health care.”

Clinic regulations are the most insidious of abortion restrictions, because they’re harder for the layperson to understand and tend to incite less outrage as a result. And opposition to them tends to fall into antiabortion narratives about back-alley butchers resisting safety standards. But research has suggested that they also tend to be the most effective: It’s difficult to talk a woman out of having an abortion, but if you make access near impossible, you might take the choice off the table altogether.

According to Guttmacher’s year-end review, 2011 was the worst year for reproductive rights restrictions on the state level, with 2012 coming in second. Last year might have been worse, had it not been for the backlash, Guttmacher noted:  ”Against the backdrop of a contentious presidential campaign in which abortion and even contraception were front-burner issues — to a degree unprecedented in recent memory — supporters of reproductive health and rights were able to block high-profile attacks on access to abortion in states as diverse as Alabama, Idaho, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Virginia.” There’s no reason to believe this year will be much better:  According to NARAL Pro-Choice America, 21 states will have the trifecta needed for antiabortion legislation to sail through: House, Senate and governor opposed to abortion rights and access. The question is, without the urgency of a national election, will anyone be paying attention?

Virginia Governor McDonnell Wants More Guns In Schools

By Josh Israel/Think Progress

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) became the latest anti-gun control figure to embrace the notion that the best way to protect against future tragedies like Newtown, Connecticut, is to put more guns in public schools. In his monthly “Ask the Governor” segment on WTOP radio, McDonnell endorsed the idea of arming adults in schools.

Asked about allowing school officials to have guns, McDonnell said it is a “discussion that is probably timely.” He explained:

McDONNELL: I know there has been a knee-jerk reaction against that, I think there should at least be a discussion of that. If people were armed, not just a police officer, but other school officials who were trained and chose to have a weapon, certainly there would be an opportunity to stop aggressors trying to come into the school, so I think that’s a reasonable discussion that ought to be had.

Listen to the audio (h/t: ProgressVA):

While several pro-gun lawmakers have indicated that they will reconsider gun control in the wake of Friday’s tragedy, some are using the tragedy to push for even more guns. McDonnell joins Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) and Republican legislators in Oklahoma, Nevada, and South Dakotain embracing the idea of arming adults in schools.

NBC's Gregory Lets Bob McDonnell Misstate Obama's Tax Plan

CHELSEA RUDMAN/Media Matters for America

NBC host David Gregory covered up a distortion of the Obama administration's tax plan by Bob McDonnell, letting the Republican Virginia governor claim that Vice President Joe Biden said the administration plans to "raise your taxes about $2 trillion" when in fact the administration has only proposed raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

McDonnell appeared on Meet the Press today to discuss, among other things, the October 11 vice-presidential debate. Commenting on Biden's performance, McDonnell claimed that Biden's remarks affirmed that "absolutely, Obama and Biden are going to raise your taxes about $2 trillion over the next couple months -- over the next four years."

Gregory made no effort to point out that McDonnell misstated the administration's tax plan. Biden did not say the administration will raise everyone's taxes, but very clearly restated the Obama administration's stance that tax cuts should expire for the wealthiest Americans, while tax cuts for middle-class Americans should be extended.

Indeed, during the vice-presidential debate, moderator Martha Raddatz, a reporter for ABC, asked Biden, "If your ticket is elected, who will pay more in taxes? Who will pay less?" The vice president replied that the Obama administration wants to "extend permanently the middle-class [Bush] tax cut" and allow "the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy" to expire:

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: The middle class will pay less, and people making a million dollars or more will begin to contribute slightly more. Let me give you one concrete example: the continuation of the Bush tax cuts. We're arguing that the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy should be allowed to expire. Of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, 800 million -- billion dollars of that goes to people making a minimum of a million dollars. We see no justification in these economic times for those -- and they're patriotic Americans. They're -- they're not asking for this continued tax cut; they're not suggesting it; but my friends are insisting on it. A hundred and twenty thousand families, by continuing that tax cut, will get an additional $500 billion in tax relief in the next 10 years, and their income is an average of $8 million.

We want to extend permanently the middle-class tax cut for -- permanently from the Bush middle-class tax cut.

Gregory also made no mention of the fact that analysts have said it's the Romney-Ryan plan that could actually raise taxes on the middle class. Studies from the Tax Policy Center concluded that Romney's tax plan would almost certainly have to "increase the tax burdens on middle- and/or lower-income taxpayers" in order to remain revenue neutral.

Gov. McDonnell: When Perry Says ‘Ponzi Scheme’ He Means ‘Preserve This Valuable Safety Program’

By Pat Garofalo/Think Progress

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) has been taking a lot of well-deserved flak for deriding Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme.” But during Monday night’s GOP presidential primary debate, Perry doubled down on his position, saying, “this is a broken system. It has been called a Ponzi scheme by many people long before me.”

Even Perry’s supporters are clearly uncomfortable with this characterization. Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) endorsed Perry this week, but when asked repeatedly, refused to agree with Perry that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. “It doesn’t matter what you call it, what’s most important is the substantive point he was making,” Jindal claimed.

Yesterday, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) — who succeeded Perry as head of the Republican Governors’ Association and has been floated as a potential Republican vice presidential candidate — told a local reporter that, when Perry says “Ponzi scheme,” what he is “actually trying to say” is that we should “preserve this valuable safety program for our senior citizens for our future generations”:

Q: What do you think about him calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme?

MCDONNELL: I think what he was trying to say and what all the Republicans were trying to say is to be honest with the people and say if you want to preserve this valuable safety program for our senior citizens for our future generations, we’ve go to reform it.

Watch it:

Social Security is indeed a valuable program. Last year alone, it kept 14 million seniors out of poverty.

Earlier this week, Perry wrote an op-ed on Social Security without using his favorite terms for the program: “Ponzi scheme” and “monstrous lie.” And evidently, he needs to start bringing McDonnell to his campaign events in order to translate his words into something that the American public doesn’t find terrifying.

Republican Revolt: Virgina’s GOP Governor Splits With Cantor, Rejects Conditioning Disaster Aid On Budget Cuts

By Pat Garofalo/Think Progress

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), along with some of his House GOP colleagues, have been saying that disaster aid for the areas affected by Hurricane Irene must be offset by, in Cantor’s words, “savings elsewhere.” Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) said yesterday on Bloomberg News that budget cuts must be a prerequisite for disaster aid in order to reassure “the business markets.” Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) added that the days when disaster relief could be funded without offsetting budget cuts “are gone.”

However, not everyone in the GOP agrees that disaster funding should play second fiddle to the GOP’s budget-slashing agenda. Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) yesterday broke with Cantor, saying that “I don’t think it’s the time to get into that [deficit] debate“:

Virginia GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell, breaking with Cantor, on Tuesday suggested that deficit-spending concerns should not be a factor as Congress and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) respond to the hurricane.

“My concern is that we help people in need,” McDonnell said during his monthly radio show. “For the FEMA money that’s going to flow, it’s up to them on how they get it. I don’t think it’s the time to get into that [deficit] debate.”

The Hill noted that “before Irene hit, McDonnell had requested emergency help from FEMA in 10 districts, including Cantor’s. All the requests were granted.”

The offsets that Cantor has said would be acceptable to him include cuts to first responders, which prompted Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) to ask, “Does it really make sense to pay for response and reconstruction costs from past disasters by reducing our capacity to prepare for future disasters?” But Cantor hasn’t always believed that disaster aid should be contingent on budget cuts. In fact, in 2004, he requested federal aid following Tropical Storm Gaston, saying that “the magnitude of the damage suffered by the Richmond area is beyond what the Commonwealth can handle,” without a word about offsetting cuts being necessary.

Gov. Bob McDonnell Brings The NRA Into Virginia Elementary School Classrooms

By Amanda Terkel The right-wing Virginia government led by Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has steadily been pushing the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) agenda, recently passing a law allowing “concealed carry permit holders to bring loaded guns” into bars. Now, McDonnell is bringing the NRA into elementary school classrooms to tell children to be careful around this proliferation of guns.

Earlier this year, the Virginia legislature passed a bill allowing public schools to “offer gun-safety education to students in kindergarten through fifth grade.” Included in the legislation was a provision directing these gun safety programs to use materials from the National Crime Prevention Center as well as the NRA:

The curriculum guidelines shall incorporate, among other principles of firearm safety, accident prevention and the rules upon which the Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program offered by the National Rifle Association or the program of the National Crime Prevention Center is based.

There is no National Crime Prevention Center. However, there is a National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) — the group behind McGruff the Crime Dog. But when McDonnell signed the legislation, he didn’t insert the NCPC’s name. Instead he offered this change:

Strike or the program of the National Crime Prevention Center.

With this simple move, McDonnell ensured that the NRA has a monopoly on elementary school classrooms. A McDonnell spokesperson “said that rather than fixing the name, the governor deleted it because the council doesn’t have a current stand-alone gun-safety program.” Lori Hass, a board member for the Virginia Center for Public Safety, a nonprofit committed to reducing gun violence, said McDonnell was “playing a game of semantics to force a lobby and their interests into the curriculum, into what they would offer local school boards.”

The NRA’s Eddie Eagle Safety Program has been around since 1988, and gives children this advice if they come upon a gun: “STOP! Don’t Touch. Leave the Area. Tell an Adult.” However, this program has been heavily criticized for being “insufficient.” As Paul Helmke, the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, writes:

In fact, a study published in 2004 by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that children could memorize Eddie’s simple advice about avoiding guns, but that advice went unheeded when children were put in real-life scenarios and asked to role-play a response. Indeed, not a single child out of 11 in the Eddie Eagle program study “used the skills in a real-life situation.” The authors noted, “Studies have found that when children find guns, they often play with them,” and concluded: “Existing programs are insufficient for teaching gun-safety skills to children.”

Another study published in the late 1990s by the Violence Policy Center (VPC) noted that Eddie Eagle was like “Joe Camel with feathers,” pointing out that: “The primary goal of the National Rifle Association’s Eddie Eagle program is not to safeguard children, but to protect the interests of the NRA and the firearms industry by making guns more acceptable to children and youth... The hoped-for result is new customers for the industry and new members for the NRA.”

ThinkProgress recently attended the annual NRA convention, where we found that NRA members often disapproved of the extreme agenda pushed by the organization’s leadership, including the campaign to bring guns into bars and allow people on the terrorist watch list to have firearms.

Update A 2008 news report by WOAI NBC-4 in San Antonio, TX found that after a group of children went through the Eddie Eagle Gun Safety program, they nevertheless shortly thereafter picked up toy guns and played with them; one boy even "walked up to another child and pointed it at the child's face."

Gov. Bob McDonnell travels to BP-funded conference to push for more oil drilling.

By Alex Seitz-Wald As crews take action to stop the massive flow of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, “Virginia leaders are reconsidering their support for drilling off the state’s coast.” Both of Virginia’s senators, who support drilling, said they agree with President Obama’s decision to halt all new offshore drilling until a full investigation is completed about the BP disaster. Rep. James Moran (D-VA) wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, “urging him to reconsider allowing offshore drilling.” The mayor of Virginia Beach, the state’s largest city, who has also supported drilling, said the BP spill “gives me great concern.” Meanwhile, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) “continues to lobby aggressively to drill for oil and natural gas without delay”:

McDonnell (R), who has made drilling off Virginia’s coast one of his administration’s top priorities, flew to Houston on Monday to tout the benefits of offshore drilling at an industry-sponsored conference. He told reporters before he left that he does not want to postpone drilling but to learn from the accident off Louisiana’s coast.

“What we do as Americans is we find out what went wrong and how can we do things better,” McDonnell said. “I think that’s the spirit of the American people.” [...]

McDonnell said he wants to see a full investigation into the Louisiana accident, but he still thinks that drilling could begin off Virginia’s coast as soon as next year or early 2012.

McDonnell was speaking at the 2010 Offshore Technology Conference, which “was sponsored by a variety of companies and associations, including BP.” McDonnell joins a number of other Republicans and conservatives who have crassly used the Gulf spill to call for more drilling. Despite the massive devastation his state is likely to endure in coming days, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) exploited the disaster to call for new offshore drilling subsidies for Louisiana.

McDonnell: Slavery Wasn’t ‘Significant’ Enough To Be Included In My Proclamation Honoring The Confederacy

By Amanda Terkel Last week, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) issued a proclamation quietly declaring April 2010 Confederate History Month, saying it was important for Virginians to “understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War, and to recognize how our history has led to our present.”

Notably absent from McDonnell’s proclamation was any mention of slavery. Yesterday, McDonnell explained that it wasn’t “significant” enough to merit a mention:

McDonnell said Tuesday that the move was designed to promote tourism in the state, which next year will mark the 150th anniversary of the start of the war. McDonnell said he did not include a reference to slavery because “there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states. Obviously, it involved slavery. It involved other issues. But I focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia.“

Neither of Virginia’s previous two governors, Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, issued a Confederate History Month proclamation. Republican governor Jim Gilmore, who served from 1998-2002, did issue multiple proclamations honoring the Confederacy, but even they acknowledged the role of slavery in the Civil War. From his 1999 proclamation:

WHEREAS, Virginia has long recognized her Confederate history, the officers and enlisted men of the Army and Navy and those at home who made sacrifices on behalf of their families, homes, communities, Virginia and country; and that it is just and right to do so and [...]

WHEREAS, our recognition of Confederate history also recognizes that slavery was one of the causes of the war; and

WHEREAS, slavery was a practice that deprived African-Americans of their God-given inalienable rights, which degraded the human spirit, is abhorred and condemned by Virginians, and was ended by this war<

For his final proclamation in 2001, however, Gilmore, replaced Confederate History Month with “a tribute to both black and white Civil War combatants that expressly denounces slavery as the root cause of the four-year conflict. He called it “the right approach to bring all Virginians together” and won praise from former Virginia governor L. Douglas Wilder, the nation’s first elected black governor.

Gilmore’s predecessor, Republican George Allen, started the practice of Confederate History Month. He didn’t include slavery in his proclamation, and under significant pressure from civil rights leaders, eventually apologized. As the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported on April 12, 1997, Allen said, “Surely, I don’t want want to upset anyone. For those who are sincerely offended…I apologize.” He added that he wanted to “celebrate our diversity.”

Update Adam Serwer writes, "Still, McDonnell's statement is telling, if only because it reveals which Virginians he feels are 'significant.'"

Update Lawyers, Guns, & Money reminds McDonnell of the role slavery played in the Civil War.

Update McDonnell isn't getting much support from the right, according to Instaputz. The Corner's Ramesh Ponnuru said that he takes "issue" with the proclamation. Power Line has more criticism for McDonnell.

Update Yglesias looks at Virginia's history of slavery. The Washington Post slams McDonnell for "airbrushing" history.

Update David Frum doesn't think that McDonnell's proclamation is a big deal.

Update McDonnell's spokesman has issued a statement about the governor's comments:

The Governor issued the proclamation because the Civil War was the defining moment in our nation's history, and Virginia was at the center of that conflict as the Capitol of the Confederacy. The Governor's proclamation calls for appropriate thoughtful and serious reflection upon this period, and what it meant for our country and our Commonwealth. The Governor knows that slavery is a significant part of Virginia's history. Slavery was evil and it is a stain on the soul of our state and nation.

Update Greg Sargent notes that the Richmond Times-Dispatch, which supported McDonnell's bid for governor, is now criticizing him for the proclamation.

Virginia Gov. McDonnell proclaims April ‘Confederate History Month.’

By Matt Corley The Washington Post reports today that Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has issued a proclamation that “quietly declared April 2010 Confederate History Month, bringing back a designation in Virginia that his two Democratic predecessors — Mark Warner and Tim Kaine — refused to do.” According to the Lynchburg News and Advance, McDonnell’s proclamation “comes in advance of an upcoming anniversary — it was on April 17, 1861 that Virginia seceded from the union.” The proclamation makes no mention of slavery, but does call on Virginians “to understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War, and to recognize how our history has led to our present“:

WHEREAS, April is the month in which the people of Virginia joined the Confederate States of America in a four year war between the states for independence that concluded at Appomattox Courthouse; and

WHEREAS, Virginia has long recognized her Confederate history, the numerous civil war battlefields that mark every region of the state, the leaders and individuals in the Army, Navy and at home who fought for their homes and communities and Commonwealth in a time very different than ours today; and

WHEREAS, it is important for all Virginians to reflect upon our Commonwealth’s shared history, to understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War, and to recognize how our history has led to our present;

The Post notes that “Republican governors George Allen and Jim Gilmore made similar proclamations. But in 2002, Warner broke with their action, calling such proclamations a ‘lightning rod’ that does not help bridge divisions between whites and blacks in Virginia.”

M.C.L comment: This is proof positive of why those on the left should get out and vote in the 2010 elections.

Wall Street Bankers And Investors Fund New Media Platform For Gov. Bob McDonnell’s SOTU Response

By Lee Fang

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) will give the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union response tonight. For his speech, McDonnell has prepared an elaborate rally in the Virginia House of Delegates, a website, a live webcast of the event, a live twitter feed, and other social media tools. The online platform to broadcast the speech was launched this morning at “soturesponse.com.”

The website, as well as the rally, is funded by McDonnell’s political action committee, Opportunity Virginia PAC. According to disclosures provided by the Virginia Public Access Project, the vast majority of the money for the PAC has been provided by the financial industry:

When McDonnell opposes Obama’s proposed efforts break up big banks, regulate the financial sector, and impose a financial responsibility fee to financial institutions which helped cause the current recession, it should be noted that the very industry McDonnell is fighting to defend underwrote the platform on which he is speaking, both virtually and in Richmond.