A remarkably uninformed article by an apparently uninquisitive author appeared on The Weekly Standard blog yesterday, echoing Democrats’ smears of Dick Black from when he last ran for re-election as Virginia State Senator. Entitled, “Spousal Rape Defending Republican Considering Running for House,” the blog post by Michael Warren recycles a video put out by Shawn Mitchell, Black’s failed opponent in 2011.
Here’s the video:
Warren unquestioningly accepts as true the premise that Black does not favor protecting women from spousal rape. The problem is that, of course, that is a complete and total lie. Sen. Black does indeed oppose spousal rape (what sort of monster doesn’t?!), and wants strong protections in place for women in abusive relationships. In fact, Sen. Black is “the only person in the General Assembly who’s successfully prosecuted a case of spousal rape,” which came during Black’s career as an active-duty JAG attorney, according to Black legislative aide Christopher Lore.
But that doesn’t stop the Democrats (and apparently now the ostensibly conservative-friendly Weekly Standard) from working hard to find video of a Senate speech given by Black that they could take completely out of context and twist into service of their false “War on Women” narrative. The speech in question was Sen. Black actually talking about concerns he had with draft legislation that could have lowered the standard of proof to such a degree that it could result in numerous false convictions. Watching the smear video or reading The Weekly Standard one might not catch the most salient fact: Sen. Black eventually voted for the bill.
Shawn Mitchell should be ashamed for having told such a willful lie about his opponent. Warren and The Weekly Standard editors should be ashamed of themselves for falling for it, and then continuing to give it credibility.
