On Tuesday, it took me several meaty paragraphs just to explain the basics of the parody-level rolling disaster known as Virginia Democratic politics. Since then, it's somehow gotten worse. The Democratic Governor flip-flopped about his blackface yearbook photo, admitted to another instance in which he wore blackface, and refused to resign -- a mess that came to light following his ghoulish defense of infanticide, which reportedly moved disgusted former medical school classmates to blow the whistle on the racist photograph. Meanwhile, the Democratic Lieutenant Governor is denying a specific and serious sexual assault charge from a fellow liberal Democrat. We addressed that element of this shinola storm in a previous post, and will return to in a moment.
Then we had the revelation that, with whispers swirling around Richmond, the third-ranking Democrat in the State also wore blackface (or "dark makeup," as the New York Times euphemistically described it, at first) in the 1980's. On the plus side for Attorney General Mark Herring, we haven't seen a picture documenting this racist incident. In the negative column, he just recently called for the governor's resignation...over blackface:
Take a name off this list: AG Mark Herring is now calling for Gov. Northam’s resignation.
— Dan Merica (@merica) February 2, 2019
“It is no longer possible for Governor Northam to lead our Commonwealth and it is time for him to step down, he said. (via @ryanobles) https://t.co/4Kv7ZuaCtQ
Reminder: VA AG Mark Herring released a statement Saturday calling on Gov Northam to resign. Now here we are four days later and Herring is admitting that he too has worn blackface. Hard to believe.
— Josh Rosenthal (@JoshRosenthalTV) February 6, 2019
I don't know what this means for the status of Gov. Northam or AG Herring. Both are white dudes who've admitted to wearing blackface. One reportedly personally selected the racist photo for his own yearbook page (while in his mid-20's), apologized for it, then reversed himself the next day. The other cited the racial stigma of blackface as reason enough to demand the ouster of his recent ticket-mate from office, days before admitting his own blackface incident. Neither man seems inclined to resign at this stage, and there appears to be no mechanism for removing either from office. And with all of that happening, the number two Democrat in the state is angrily denying an accusation of forced oral sex during an encounter at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. She says it was clearly non-consensual; he says the opposite. And according to reports, he's attacking his accuser in harsh and profane terms:
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NBC News has learned that Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax used profane language in a private meeting Monday night, while referring to his accuser, Dr. Vanessa Tyson.
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) February 6, 2019
Two sources tells us Fairfax said of Tyson: “Fuck that bitch.”
— @GeoffRBennett & @jonallendc
This is a good and fair point about comportment and the treatment of accused political figures:
Absolutely. If Kavanaugh had said this about Ford, that alone would have been cited as evidence that he’s unfit for office https://t.co/vTx5okLrN1
— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) February 6, 2019
For what it's worth, Justin Fairfax's team confirms he dropped the F-bomb during his rant, but denies he called the woman a gendered slur. Overall, her allegation is more recent and more detailed than the lone serious (and totally uncorroborated) charge against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. I can understand Fairfax's anger if he's been wrongly accused, and it's important to follow the evidence. For example, is there any proof backing up this claim from the accuser (hmm), or this claim from the accused? Jumping to conclusions would be unfair and unwise. Either way, let's say for the sake of argument that all three men were held to the standards the Left has demanded for Republicans -- and they all resign. Who would become governor under that admittedly far-fetched scenario? This is wild:
Fourth in the line of succession for Virginia governor is statehouse speaker Kirk Cox.
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) February 6, 2019
Cox is the speaker due to a one-seat GOP majority.
It has that majority because Rep. David Yancey won his seat in a coin toss.
It went to a coin toss because that race ended in a tie.
Vote!
Yes, literally a coin toss. And because handing over power to the Republicans is seen as the ultimate evil by many partisans, you can bet the party will adopt some form of this 'cold' calculation:
If you want to be extremely cold about it, the choice for Democrats is: Handing over power to Republicans, in a redistricting cycle, because of scandals dating from 1984, 2004, and 1980.
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) February 6, 2019
They'll eat a few more bad news cycles before they do that. https://t.co/7ALzZ7nBcU
Place your bets now: Will any member of this triumvirate resign? The current standoff suggests that they may all try to ride it out. But with off-year elections in Virginia looming his fall, the party may try hard to force someone out, if only to present voters with some simulacrum of house-cleaning "accountability." Parting thought -- this is funny, but think of it more seriously for just a moment:
Governor Northam should call on Senator Warren to resign.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) February 6, 2019
Is there a case to be made that baselessly claiming racial minority status for years -- and benefitting professionally from a 'diversity' push, through explicit racial misappropriation -- is worse than a single racist episode? She's apologized for her DNA stunt, which angered real Native Americans, and now she's apologizing for wrongly self-identifying as a person of color. I'll leave you with this observation from an NBC News personality, to which there's no real rebuttal:
This is the definition of cultural appropriation, and Senator Warren disputes none of the repeated examples of it cited in this piece. https://t.co/CBMMxMiDPe
— Willie Geist (@WillieGeist) February 6, 2019
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