Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:04 pm
In Virginia, Republican Ken Cuccinelli was already struggling in the gubernatorial race due to the results of his extremism. Long time Republicans have publicly jumped ship to his opponent Democrat Terry McCauliffe, whom they call the a good choice for conservatives, which makes Cuccinelli look pretty out there.
And he is. Cuccinelli’s the guy who wants to ban oral sex. As Attorney General, he led the charge in 2010 against ObamaCare. His actual policy views make Ted Cruz (R-TX) look moderate. Yet, on Thursday, he distanced himself from D.C. Republicans:
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Cuccinelli told reporters after a Thursday-morning event that shuttering the government is not the right way for opponents of the 2010 Affordable Care Act to gain leverage to defeat the law he wants to see repealed.
“Strangling government to do this is not an appropriate course to go,” said Cuccinelli, the state’s attorney general.
The point here isn’t that Ken Cuccinelli is more reasonable than the Republicans in Congress; Ken Cuccinelli makes most of the Tea Partiers in Congress look moderate in policy positions. The point is that Ken Cuccinelli is a candidate for Governor in a state where they prefer moderate politics, and he can’t afford to be branded any more Tea Crazy than he already has been.
Here’s a guy who wants to ban oral sex, and was turned into a national joke on The View. He’s been ditched by business leaders in his own party and female Republicans ran away from his extremism (he thinks Planned Parenthood is racist, etc.).
This kooky Ken guy is trying to distance himself from the Tea Party in D.C., even though he’s as Tea Party mad as they come.
How long will it be until Republicans like Eric Cantor, this is his state after all, begin to twitch from the stench of tea. Oh, sure, he’s all smug smarm right now. Republicans who should know better are still tempted to believe the epistemic closure lies of “Romney momentum”. But even the Fox News poll shows they are being blamed for the shutdown. Or, as Rand Paul calls it, “we’re gonna win this I think.”
So how long can Republicans like Eric Cantor risk everything, and if they do, do Democrats have enough decent candidates lined up? This is the opportunity of the decade for Democrats, provided the media doesn’t false equivalency the country into WMD, as they are wont to do.
Meanwhile, even a Rand Paul Republican is embracing ObamaCare, “As a Republican, I think [the GOP’s repeal effort] is childish and I think this is the wrong way to lead… it’s babyish and I think as a party it just reflects negatively upon us,” he explains to Think Progress. Of course, he said this after he got sick and finally understood the need to have affordable health insurance. He went to sign up for ObamaCare and learned that it is not a “handout”.
Clearly, ObamaCare is “gonna win this” and there isn’t any “thinking” about it. It’s obvious that people’s basic needs will trump ideology. See Maslow.
So, even Rand Paul Republicans think Republicans are being babies, and even Ken Cuccinelli can’t abide this level of crazy so close to an election. Good times.
Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
