Governor Cuccinelli: Seriously, Virginia—you’re actually considering this?
Unlike some pundits we could name, we here at Odd Dominion HQ have never discounted the chances that Virginia’s rabidly right-wing Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli could somehow weasel his way into the governor’s mansion. After all, despite the man’s long history of extremist positions and borderline abusive political behavior (like issuing a “Civil Investigative Demand” [...]
Shad Planking marks the end of a bipartisan era
When it comes to political partisanship, Virginia is a case study in voter schizophrenia. While trending increasingly Democratic during presidential years (and having failed to elect a Republican to the U.S. Senate since 2002), it nevertheless has a solidly conservative governor, a stridently right-wing attorney general, and a Republican-dominated House of Delegates that is among [...]
Cuccinelli, McDonnell, and the Star Scientific scandal
Finally! Ever since they caught pompadoured con man “Bobby Thompson” (real name John Donald Cody), who greased many political palms while raking in over $100 million in donations to his fake Navy vets charity, we’ve been living with a terrible emptiness in our scandal-loving soul. Now, we realize that a brazen, wild-eyed sociopath like Cody [...]
Exit stage right: The inscrutable end of the McDonnell era
Boy, how time flies, eh? It seems like only yesterday that we were appraising the electoral chances of a well-coiffed up-and-comer named Bob McDonnell, who had recently resigned as Virginia’s attorney general to take a shot at the top slot. Our take then was that McDonnell was doing a great job of flying under the [...]
Virginia’s statewide elections heat up
As a rule, Virginia’s statewide elections follow a fairly predictable pattern. The first thing you need to realize is this: Almost everybody wants to be governor. Maybe not this year, but eventually. Which means that whoever is running for lieutenant governor or attorney general invariably has one eye on the big chair (while the governor, [...]
Some Assembly required: Looking back on a tumultuous session
While it’s an imperfect metaphor, we tend to think of the typical General Assembly legislative session as a poorly plotted television series. It may be filled with interesting characters and over-the-top drama, but there are way too many subplots, and it never ends up exactly where you think it should. It’s like, one moment you’re [...]
Off the reservation: Bill Bolling goes his own way
Although we’re sure he doesn’t see it this way, being rejected by his own party might be the best thing that ever happened to Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling. Think about it: A year ago, Bolling was just a boring party apparatchik whose main function was breaking ties in the evenly divided senate (always in the [...]
Virginia’s senate Republicans play hardball
It says a great deal about the current state of Virginia’s body politic that some idiot with a loaded AR-15 walks into a local Kroger and it barely rates a mention. Indeed, as much as we would like to pen an entire column dedicated to the minuscule size of this particular individual’s brain and manhood, [...]
Profiles in cowardice: Our dissembling General Assembly
In order to at least partly fulfill our New Year’s resolution to accentuate the positive, we’d like to start this column with one for the “credit where credit is due” file. While we’re not usually big fans of Governor Bob McDonnell (to put it mildly), there is one area in which he has been a [...]
House intrigue: Eric Cantor goes his own way, again
It’s been quite a while since we’ve checked in with Virginia’s highest-ranking congressional official, U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. But with all of the crazy machinations and momentous decisions roiling the House chamber recently, it’s high time we explored the ongoing adventures of Richmond’s chisel-cheeked representative. Ever since Republicans retook the House in 2010, [...]
Time to talk about gun laws
Fair warning: If you count yourself among Virginia’s (quite sizable) contingent of second amendment absolutists, you should stop reading now. As we sit here, furiously writing yet another post-gun massacre column, we’re in no mood to tiptoe around the delicate sensibilities of this country’s increasingly unhinged firearm fanatics. In the wake of the horrible slaughter [...]
Cuccinelli vs. McAuliffe for governor—can we really be that lucky?
Wow. Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that we were complaining about a dearth of electoral excitement ’round these parts? Well, in a classic case of “be careful what you wish for,” the ink on our last column was barely dry when the Commonwealth’s biggest political players went on a collective news-making spree. It [...]
Thanksgiving leftovers: Political odds and ends
Believe us, we’ve been following Virginia’s electoral ebb and flow long enough to know that late November is a political dead zone. The polls are shuttered, the voting machines have been put away for another year, and everyone wants to just take off and enjoy the holidays. Sure, a few nuggets of real news might [...]
Keys to the kingdom: Things to watch for on election day
So here we are. After what seems like the longest presidential campaign in human history, the election is just days away. And, while we are firmly on record predicting an Obama win (both nationally and in Virginia), nothing—and we mean nothing—is ever certain in politics (just ask alternative-universe President Thomas E. Dewey). With that in mind, we [...]
Ken Cuccinelli has a gubernatorial strategy that’s puzzling at best
You know, it’s been quite a while since we’ve checked in on our old pal Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s top cop, would-be governor, and all-around raging conservative id. To be honest, we got more than a little tired of his relentlessly right-wing, incessantly self-promoting prosecutorial stunts. And after the ignominious (and well-deserved) death of his anti-Obama-care [...]
Peering into Mark Warner’s political future
O.K., we’re going to go ahead and call it right now: Come November, Barack Obama is going to win Virginia, and with it the presidency, and Tim Kaine is going to ride his coattails into the U.S. Senate. How can we be so sure, you ask? Well, we could easily quote a raft of new [...]
Virginia General Assembly gears up for the new year
We don’t know about you, but here at Odd Dominion headquarters we are currently mourning the all-too-sudden end of summer, and remain deeply in denial about the rapidly shifting season. Unfortunately, unlike normal people, we live life on a political clock, which means that while most intelligent beings are out galavanting in the sunshine, we [...]
Convention check-in: Enduring the parties’ parties
Well, here we go again. With the Democratic party spending this week in North Carolina celebrating the re-nomination of President Barack Obama, and the Republicans still cleaning up from their hurricane-shortened coronation of Mitt Romney in Florida, we are once again forced to endure two weeks of tightly scripted, substance-free political theater that combines the intellectual [...]
McDonnell operating below the radar on abortion
Trying to pin down Bob McDonnell’s true agenda is, as the old saying goes, like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. Since the day he was elected, our helmet-haired governor has consistently portrayed himself as a conservative straight shooter focused on righting Virginia’s economy, with little time for social-issue warfare or backstabbing political gamesmanship. [...]
Odd Dominion: Will Cucinelli and climate skeptics ever learn?
There is, at this very moment, a highly amusing video burning up the YouTubes featuring Aaron Justus, weatherman for Richmond’s CBS affiliate WTVR, delivering an apocalyptic weather report in perfect deadpan. After calmly detailing “a volcanic eruption right near Charlottesville” which will bring local temperatures up to 400 degrees, he explains that the tidewater area [...]
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Odd Dominion: Did Ron Paul supporters torpedo Bill Bolling's political career?
You really have to pity Bill Bolling. Here’s a guy who did everything right
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The unlikely return of George Allen
Will George Allen’s ability to capitalize on anti-Obama sentiment put him back on the political map? (Washington Time-Zuma Press) Depending on when you’re reading this, Virginia’s ex-governor, ex-senator, and ongoing political punch line George Allen is either a) the presumptive Republican senatorial nominee, or b) the actual Republican senatorial nominee. The chance that he is [...]
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The Odd Dominion: Judge not, lest you be judged
Look, we understand that our beloved Virginia has long been one of America’s most schizophrenic states.
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It's election time again—let the wooing begin!
President Obama made an appearance at Virginia Commonwelath University in Richmond May 5, one of two stops on his first official campaign weekend. Virginia is poised to get plenty of attention from the candidates in the lead-up to the November presidential election. (Zhang Jun/Xinhua/Zumapress.com) Unless you’ve spent the last month spelunking in Luray Caverns, we’re [...]
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The Odd Dominion: President Virgil Goode?
As longtime readers well know, former U.S. Congress critter Virgil Goode was one of the founding inspirations for this column, and has remained our patron saint ever since.
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Look who wants to be lieutenant governor
In recent weeks, Virginia was rocked by a pair of unexpected events that had the potential to rain untold amounts of destruction and human misery upon the Commonwealth.
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