As I read the Washington ComPost this morning, my coffee flies out of my mouth. They agree that the Virginia Attorney General is correct in saying that the Commonwealth can medically regulate abortion clinics:

THE QUESTION borders on the inane: Can Virginia regulate “facilities in which first-trimester abortion services are provided” and “medical personnel who perform first-trimester abortions”? The answer is obvious: Of course it can. Every state regulates medical personnel and facilities, from those that dispense acne medication to those that perform open-heart surgery.

But there’s a catch:

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VA Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is at it again, this time issuing a legal clarification saying that Abortion mills can be regulated like health care facilities, potentially forcing them to be compliant with more stringent standards. Abortion proponents are already saying that executing such a standard could shut 17 of the Commonwealth’s 21 abortion mills. Stay tuned.

The great and worthy Commonwealth of Virginia would like to announce that it has produced a budget surplus of around $400 million dollars this year. It has done so through a variety of measures: accelerating business sales tax payments, cutting spending, asking government agencies to forbear unnecessary spending, delaying payments to retirement funds and rescheduling our expenditures. Some call it “cheap tricks” to produce a budget surplus. The fact is, however, that spin it as you like, the state found a way in a recession to raise necessary revenue and cut unnecessary spending until it had the money to fund the myriad of worthwhile (and not so worthwhile things) that states should do. All that for a state that is not experiencing the impact of the recession quite like the others. Perhaps more states should be a Commonwealth!

Another day, another controversy in Virginia. Governor Bob McDonnell has restored April as the month to remember the Confederacy. The left is aghast. And clearly for only one reason: slavery—McDonnell didn’t mention it at all in his proclamation. Confederate history month had been celebrated for a long time up until the last two governors, both Democrats. Slavery aside, I’m not sure why this is such a big deal. If any state gets to claim pride from its Confederate heritage, it should be Virginia. We had the Capital. We produced the big name players. We hosted some of the most memorable battles. It’s hard to imagine simply wiping out a key part of the Commonwealth’s history simply because of slavery. Why can’t Confederate History month be the perfect example of the human condition? Noble aspirations and high principles do often mix with ignoble actions. Defending the South’s right to independence yes, was connected to slavery. But it was also connected to a lot more than that. Perhaps the motivation to suppress Confederate history comes from a misplaced feeling of guilt: losers should never be celebrated and remembered. Or deeper still, it might be about a post-modern sense that we can shape our past to reflect our future as we want it. No need to remember that which is painful or ugly. Regardless, I can’t see a compelling reason why Virginia shouldn’t celebrate its Confederate past.

Yesterday I had the good fortune to attend the inauguration of Virginia’s 71st governor, Bob McDonnell.  All the guests were full of energy and enthusiasm as we watched him take the oath of office, along with his Lieutenant-Governor Bob Bolling and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.  It really felt like being at a concert of my favorite rockstar – the excitement goes beyond description. I couldn’t do it justice if I tried. There was a little something for everyone, from the flyover after the oath to the Redskins cheerleaders to the history in which Richmond is steeped.  The next four years should be good for Virginia and I pray for the Governor and his family.

Below is the full text of his Inaugural Address, courtesy of #bobmcdonnell: (more…)

One of the great joys of living in suburban DC is that I am privy to the ads not just for the local Maryland races, but also for all of the always thrilling Virginia ones as well.  It’s hard to top the lovely Webb-Allen Senate campaign from 2006 in which, by the end, I wanted both men taken out back and shot.  That same year was the Steele-Cardin race here in Maryland, one in which I don’t believe I ever actually saw Ben Cardin’s face, but I sure did see a lot of Michael Steele – in both his own ads and in Cardin’s.  I’m surprised I didn’t see Steele portrayed in devil horns at any point, but I was busy moving that month (I always seem to be moving in October).

This year is of course the gubernatorial election pitting Republican Bob McDonnell against Democrat Creigh Deeds.  McDonnell’s campaign has been okay.  He has run a lot of fluff ads featuring his family and suggesting that he will magically cure the local transportation problems by selling state-run liquor stores.  As for his opponent, he has run a very focused campaign that has centered on one crucial issue.  It’s an issue that keeps Virginians up every night, no doubt, and which might be the most pressing concern for all involved.  That’s right, Bob McDonnell wrote a master’s thesis 20 years ago that suggested such shocking things like: it isn’t ideal for the family when the mother works, Griswold v. Connecticut was wrongly decided, and that the removal of religion from public schools was a bad thing for the country.

Horrors I know.

Naturally this has been played up by the not-at-all uber partisan Washington Post.  Honestly, Deeds would have been an idiot not to have made some political hay out of this, especially in liberal northern Virginia.  Unfortunately, his entire campaign has essentially centered on this one aspect of McDonnell’s public life.  I have not seen one single substantive ad from Deeds outlining anything remotely like a positive vision of what he is going to do for Virginia.

Not only has this been the dumbest campaign I have ever witnessed in my life, it doesn’t even make logical sense.  Even if McDonnell were the king of all social conservatives, does anyone rationally believe that he’d be able to outlaw contraception and abortion as the governor of Virginia?  Somehow I don’t think the Chief Executive of a state that doesn’t even allow it’s governors to run for re-election is quite that powerful.

Finally the Virginia Republican party (ah to have a local state party that has enough money in its coffers to even pay to have a commercial made let alone broadcast it) has decided to have some fun with Deeds’ completely inept campaign, running an to the tune of “Dirty Deeds” by AC/DC.

It might seem like whining to complain about Deeds’ negative campaign, but even Jim Moran thinks it’s getting ridiculous.  For the love of humanity, when Jim Moran thinks you’ve gone too negative, it’s time to dial it back a little.

Creeds is probably toast, though it’s a little closer than it should be.  Creeds has simply offered the voters nothing.  As Jim Geraghty puts it:

Look, if Deeds had prompted the opposition to play “Highway to Hell,” that’s the closest he would have come to generating an actual transportation plan.