Govenor Ultrasound McDonnell Hires Bullies to Answer the Phones

Elena
Hello, governor McDonnell's non-partisan office. How may we bully you?
Hello, Governor McDonnell’s non-partisan office. How may we bully you?

 

So I called the Govenors office, not the first I have done this mind you, and spoke with the most obnoxious young man.  He wanted to bully me into a debate.  I will add, every other time I have called the Govenor’s office, I have spoken with a perfectly lovely black woman.  She is always polite.  Well, what a difference this experience was for me.

I wish I had asked his name now.  He answered the phone and I told him I was calling about the amendment that would inhibit women buying abortion coverage with their own money in the insurance exchange.  I asked him, rhetorically of course, why republicans always seemed to rally around the premise of small government, but when it comes to a womans vagina/i.e. reproductive system, they were more than happy to use government power to justify their means.

He then proceeded to interupt me and instead of asking me for my name etc, he wanted to debate me on the subject.  I told him I had no interest in debating him, that I simply called to register my disgust.  Well, he proceeded to tell me that I had “called a non partisan office”.  Can someone please tell me how Govenor McDonnell’s office is non partisan.  Isn’t he a republican?  Am I in the some twighlight zone episode?

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Gov. Ultra-Sound has kitchen problems

MoonHowler

If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen brings on a new dimension to the Governor’s Mansion this past week.  The head chef, who was not vetted, had a criminal record for embezzlement.  According to The Richmond Times Dispatch:

Controversy is simmering in the kitchen at Virginia’s two-century-old Executive Mansion. If it boils over, Gov. Bob McDonnell could get burned.

State police confirmed a criminal investigation into unspecified improprieties in the kitchen operation. Authorities say the mansion’s celebrity chef, Todd Schneider, is the focus. Schneider has left after nearly two years, saying he wanted to concentrate on his catering business.

No charges have been filed, no arrests made. There’s a lot we don’t know. However, newspaper reports indicate McDonnell’s staff did not conduct a required criminal-background check on Schneider. Had they, they’d have learned Schneider was convicted of embezzlement, for which he received a six-month suspended sentence.

That this is a sensitive investigation is an understatement. Personal or professional indiscretions — if that’s what they are — could, in the eyes of law enforcement, qualify as law-breaking.

That’s not what McDonnell needs, not now — not atop the battering he’s taking in public-opinion polls.

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McDonnell back-pedals on the ultrasound bill

MoonHowler

Richmond Times Dispatch:

After days of unrelenting criticism, the House of Delegates today passed a weakened version of the ultrasound mandate after consultation with Gov. Bob McDonnell, amending it so that women could reject a procedure if it must be done vaginally

The bill would still require that all women having an abortion undergo an ultrasound to determine the gestational age, but women subject to a transvaginal procedure would be able to decline.

Oftentimes, the procedure must be performed that way, versus on the abdomen, early in a pregnancy.

Because the House made changes to a Senate measure — Senate Bill 484, sponsored by Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Fauquier — it must go back before the Senate with the changes.

But this afternoon, Vogel indicated she will try to strike her bill.

Apparently Del. Vogel felt the altered bill made things even worse.  This was abviously a bill that should have never been.  Make no mistake, it wasn’t about informed consent.  It was about guilting women not to have an abortion.  The hope was that if the woman seeking an aborton saw the ultrasound, she would change her mind.

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McDonnell to protect mountain top removal mining

MoonHowler

From the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Gov. Bob McDonnell said Tuesday that he is prepared to protect Virginia’s coal-mining industry against costly and burdensome federal mining regulations, including a legal challenge if a surface or mountaintop-removal mining permit is denied.

McDonnell spoke to a “coal awareness” breakfast and assured industry leaders that coal is part of his overall plan to make Virginia the East Coast energy capital.

“For the foreseeable future, we know that coal’s going to be an extremely important part of Virginia’s and America’s energy future,” McDonnell told the gathering at a downtown Richmond hotel.

He added that Obama administration regulatory efforts have “been over the top” and have failed to balance job growth with environmental concerns.

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McDonnell Ups the Pension Ante

MoonHowler

Governor McDonnell has just upped the ante with the VRS, the Virginia pension fund.  He gets off on the wrong foot by saying that the pension fund has been problematic for years and years.  That simply is not true according to reports over the years from outside sources and independent audits.  VRS has only come under fire in recent years, specifically after the crash of 2008.    McDonnell’s attempts to paint the plan as compromised and unsustainable are purely political. 

McDonnell has outlined his plan which will affect nearly 90,000 state employees, according to the Washington Post:

RICHMOND – Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) proposed Thursday that 87,000 state employees begin making annual 5 percent contributions – the first in nearly three decades – to the state’s retirement fund as a way to shore up the commonwealth’s pension system.

Virginia is one of only four states where government workers make no annual contributions to their retirement fund, the result of a 27-year-old deal in which the state agreed to pick up employee costs in lieu of a pay raise in 1983.

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Keep Shoveling, Corey

MoonHowler

Corey is just the gift that keeps on giving.  The Washington Post in its Virginia Political blog section quotes Corey:

The always-outspoken Stewart repeated his remarks today, and said he doesn’t worry that McDonnell may back Allen because voters already showed they don’t support Allen by voting him out of office in 2006.

“They’re old friends,” Stewart said. “George Allen has a lot of old friends. It’s not Bob McDonnell who chooses the next senator from Virginia. It’s the electorate. … And they have already decided Allen had a mediocre term as senator. He needs to move on.”

Does Corey not know the math of winning an election?  The winner has to get the most votes.  No one decided that George Allen was a mediocre senator.  Jim Webb got more votes.  Corey’s over-simplification is laughable. 
Now Governor McDonnell has come out and defended George Allen. 

“I think a lot of George Allen,” McDonnell said on his monthly radio show Tuesday on WTOP. “I served with him in the legislature when he was governor. He was the most dynamic governor of the modern age. I think he was an exceptional governor. He was a very good senator.”

 

McDonnell also has said he probably won’t endorse anyone.  Perhaps discretion is the better part of valor.  Maybe Corey needs to emulate the governor.  He just keeps digging himself in deeper and deeper.  If he keeps it up, about 10% of the population will support him, if he is lucky.  That’s won’t send Mr. Stewart to Washington.