So, let me get this straight: Cuccinelli is willing to forego 22 years of tax deductions in order to make some obscure point about Social Security's links to black helicopters? If true, that's impressive. I always thought wingnuts like him lived to avoid paying taxes.

Another example of the bait-and-switch approach of the modern GOP.

I live in DC so I can't say that I obsessed over the recent election. But I don't remember Cuccinelli every really hiding that he was very, very, very conservative. The only Virginians who are surprised by this are either ones who payed no attention at all or deluded themselves.

I knew when he won that it wouldn't take long for him do/say something that got him attention. Whether anyone in the state has buyers remorse is another thing entirely.

What amazes me is that Cuccinelli believes every single word of the 2000-year-old bible, including that the world was created in six days and is only 6K years old and that a man lived to be 900 and a woman turned into a pillar of salt and the entire earth flooded.

But he doesn't believe a 40-some year physical document that proves a black man was born in Hawaii.

I live in Virginia. If you can find my wife and me jobs in your state, we'll move tomorrow.

He's just the tip of the iceberg.

There are many just like him who would rather die for Virginia than let the feds have anything.

It's as if Social Security, you know, was set up as a sort of government run type of thing. (why not privatize it?!)

Oh, we all knew exactly what Ken Cuccinelli was like long before election day; he's never hidden it from us. Watching this unfold is not unexpected, and people need to know what we Democrats here are up against. But I love Virginia, and I can't tell you how much I hate having to watch this kind of stories being played out.

We were right about Cuccinelli when we campaigned against him. He's just as awful as we knew he would be. Unfortunately, that doesn't make me feel one whit better today, or the next four years.

Meh. Having a right-wing-crazy Atty General is nothing new in Virginia. I've lived here for 20 years and have seen this stuff before. Cooch never bothered to hide it; they usually don't have to. You'd be AMAZED at how crazy Virginia politics can get!

Plus, can I tell you how psyched I am that there's a blog called "Not Larry Sabato"? That is completely excellent.

Last year's VA elections were so depressing. All three D candidates for governor had serious flaws, and although I thought Deeds the least tainted, he easily ran the single worst campaign I have ever witnessed, and his campaign was not helped by the fact that he was from the least populous county in the state. No kidding.

Idiot, I am sure his kid will live a normal and happy life w/o a SSN. And I am sure as AG he will sweep up brown people without SSN and deport them ASAP, let's hope his kid doesn't over tan.

Everyone knew that Cuccinelli is a winger. He played 'moderate' for a couple of months, during the campaign season. But his real views were no secret.

Wow. Just wow.

I'm not from the right hand coast so have a different vision of what an elected Leader should be.

Wow.

Of the unholy troika of McDonnell, Cucinelli and Bolling (Gov, Attorney General and Lt Gov, respectively), the Cuckoo was (an is) the most obvious and dangerous creep. Which is saying something, since the other two aren't, precisely, moderates. And I think that most of us knew it from the start. But we had that "enthusiasm gap" about Deeds -- with Dems staying home and not voting -- while a lot of Republiple voted for the ticket, rather than for individuals. What really gets my goat is that there are folk, at least in my area (southwest), who're as happy as could be with the Kooky Cuckoo.

There's a guy comes to "my" Free Clinic (6 of his 12 home-schooled kids qualified for free dental) who is a big-time activist (in both the Repub party and the Teabag movement). His car used to be plastered with all the "appropriate" bumper stickers, from McCain/Palin, through McDonnel, Bolling and Cuccinelli. On his recent vsit, I noticed that he has torn off the McCain/Palin an the McDonnell stickers -- too liberal for him, no doubt -- but kept the idiot stalwarts intact.

Enough to give one the heaves.

Virginia elected Webb, who is no flaming liberal but a Democrat, and also Democratic governors in the recent past. Why did this wingnut get enough traction to get elected in a state that was beginning to show some interest in reality? Another pretty young face pretending to be someone he's not?

Macaca redoubled. I wish I had a couple of jobs for "chrenson" and his wife. Maybe if I win the Lottery...

Perhaps the only thing about the election of Cucinelli, McDonnell, and Bolling is that VA voters are gonna have a serious case of buyers' remorse over their 2009 votes when it comes time to vote for President in 2012.

Recalling the racism of Trent Lott: "If only we'd elected Strom Thurmond, we wouldn't be having all these problems today."

There's a guy comes to "my" Free Clinic (6 of his 12 home-schooled kids qualified for free dental) who is a big-time activist (in both the Repub party and the Teabag movement).

And damn it, he's tired of his hard-earned taxes going to fund free stuff for people who don't deserve it. Shake off the tyranny of free elections!

Maybe if I win the Lottery... -Stevio

Ah, you have the same long term plan as I do.

(sigh) In Arizona corporate-christian Republicans don't have to lie. They can just say any old conspiratorial, "let's destroy state government," or " we will take from the POOR and give to the RICH" kind of thing and get elected. How do I know? Well, they are busy destroying AZ's health care system, universities, and park system etc etc etc. L

Why did this wingnut get enough traction to get elected in a state that was beginning to show some interest in reality?

Deeds, whom I actually liked in the primaries and would have been a blandly competent Gov., sucked all the life out of every race. I'm in Tidewater VA. I don't think I ever saw a single commercial for Bolling or Cuccinelli; they just waltzed in on McDonnell's coattails.

Yes! An elected nobody is going to OVERTURN a Presidential Election - Obama won by nearly 10 million votes.

How many people live in the state of Virginia?

Yeah, what other VA folks have said. Cuccinelli has a long and colorful track record as a right wing zealot, so no one should be surprised at any of this. As for his getting elected, I think it was mostly McDonnell's coat tails, plus a Democratic base demoralized by Deeds and by the national party's incompetence. The Democratic AG candidate did himself no favors when he was asked in a debate what the AG's office did and couldn't answer.

As others have pointed out, McDonnell ran as a moderate; Cuccinelli didn't really try to hide who he was. He was openly talking about the various matters he planned to sue the federal government to block (health care reform and cap and trade were just the beginning.) The problem was that the races other than the governor get no attention at all, and our candidate for governor sucked.

Three observations:
1-He is out of the state senate where he was doing real damage- a dem took over the seat and because of it - an executive appointment will not flip the senate in VA. The AG is a relatively politically ineffectual position.
2- His opponent sucked big times-running against Obama, healthcare, etc.
3- The AG did not run as a moderate- whatever else you say about him - he is honest, charismatic and likable- though still nuts.

Massive resistance.

Loving Vs. Virginia -1967:

"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."

Ken Cuccinelli fits right in there in ol' Virginny. The Confederate flag flies in many yards, Gays, Blacks, women know their place.

It's a GOP heaven. Has been for decades. Low taxes, low wages, low state services.

In the 1980's they dismantled the mental healthcare state wide system - Can anyone say Hey Cho! Virginia tech?

Now after 2 decades of downsizing, they may be able to finally eliminate VDOT.

Wanna fall from a failing bridge anyone.

Reagan told the GOP Government was the problem, and to starve the beast -In Virginia, Where the democrats actually are part of the GOP, they've carried this philosophy towards its goal.

The rest of the nation should tremble, because they plan to export it.

You are so right, Joe M. My former delegate told me that there is a contingency in the Virginia House of Delegates that wants to defund public education. I figure they're using the economic downterm to cut school budgets permanently..

Dems in Congress have won 2 governorships and 2 US Senate races recently because all Dems were conservative Dems. Virginia is a purple, more conservative state, not a red or a blue one. So, it did not surprise me that Cuccinelli or McDonnell won.

" Why did this wingnut get enough traction to get elected in a state that was beginning to show some interest in reality?"

Because the African-American voters stayed home. Virginia is pretty simple: most of the white people outside the populous DC metro area are no different than South Carolinians. Dems can win with a coalition of white moderates from northern Virginia and blacks from the southeast. Otherwise, no. This time, the Dems decided to nominate a white, rural, conservative from the southwest of the state at the top of the ticket. See how well that worked.

Just how bat s*&t crazy is Ken Cuccinelli? Governor Bob McDonnell, of Regent Law School fame, to his credit, issued an Executive Order prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

“Discrimination based on factors such as one’s sexual orientation … violates the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution,” McDonnell said. “Therefore, discrimination against classes of persons set forth in the Virginia Human Rights Act or discrimination against any class of persons without a rational basis is prohibited … I hereby direct that the hiring, promotion, compensation, treatment, discipline and termination of state employees shall be based on an individual’s job qualifications, merit and performance.”

That doesn't mean that Governor McDonnell is in any way, shape or form, a liberal (unfortunately) but at least he seems to respect his office. Good for him. Let's hope it means he will act with similar deference to the Constitution on other matters.

How did the Taliban Ticket win in Virginia? You're all right. Purple state. Conservative Democrats. Zero black votes. Lackluster Dem candidates. And of course, fear of a black president.

But be warned. The GOP has every intention of taking this victory national. For them the key is this: keeping black voters home in 2010/2012 by preventing Democrats from accomplishing anything. For example, HCR.

Pass the damned bill.

the key is this: keeping black voters home in 2010/2012

Maybe we can place a nationwide anti-gay marriage inititive on the ballot to bring them out.

If the Constitution of the United States and the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia already make it illegal to discriminate against any class of people, why does Virginia Law or Public University policy need to address the issue? Like it or not, Cuccinelli's reading of Virginia Law is correct and would stand in court. Until you can start electing some LEGISLATORS that will affect the law, shut-up and stop shooting the messenger. Essentially, the law is as the citizens of Virginia would have it. I notice that Virginia isn't one of the states that permits same sex marriage. How did you vote? Silly libs, you are the ones that can't prevent your personal biases from affecting your interpretation of black and white law. Whatever Cuccinelli believes, he represented the law which is his job and, come to think of it, is probably why he got elected. Love how you blame the "black people" for him getting elected. How enlightened!