We are now in the fifth week of former Governor Bob McDonnell’s trial. He is on the witness stand being cross examined by prosecutor Michael Dry, an assistant US state’s attorney. It has not been an easy day for the Governor. Mr. Dry has been relentless and at times the Governor has shown his frustration. Who can blame him?[read_more]
Follow live updates on McDonnell’s trial here.
Governor Bob McDonnell had no bigger supporter than me when he ran for Attorney General and Governor. He was the perfect Gubernatorial candidate, running a flawless campaign and winning easily. I knew he would do great things for all the people in the Commonwealth. Then he pushed through the biggest tax increase in the history of Virginia and celebrated! I couldn’t believe that a Republican Governor who ran as a conservative would do that to us. I have yet to see any benefit from his massive tax increase. Everyone in Northern Virginia saw a 20% increase in our sales tax, along with a slew of other new taxes and fees. For what? We still can’t get to Richmond on Friday or Saturday without sitting in traffic for hours, nor can we return from Richmond to northern Virginia on Sundays. Fees for commuters in Fairfax and Loudoun continue to rise with no decrease in traffic on any road. Where’s all the transportation tax money going? Certainly not to roads. That was the beginning of my disenchantment with our ‘conservative’ Governor. Expanding metro with tax dollars from across the state to benefit the 1% who ride metro was next. Why are taxpayers in the poorest parts of our state paying for a metro in the richest counties in the nation? So less than 1% of people in Loudoun can ride a subway to work, a subway heavily subsidized by the rest of us?
Adding insult to injury, to get the massive tax increased passed McDonnell made a deal with the democrats in the General Assembly to expand medicaid in Virginia to add an additional 400,000 people to the rolls. Without Senator Dick Black and the #BlackorBust amendment that expansion would have cost the taxpayers BILLIONS in the near future. I had to face the facts. There was nothing conservative about Bob McDonnell.
I don’t know if McDonnell’s acceptance of all of the gifts and loans (totaling $177,000) was legal or not but I know they have raised my level of disappointment in my Governor. He should have known better. We expected better. Republicans are held to a higher standard and we meet that standard.
McDonnell had so much promise. He had a beautiful family, gorgeous wife and children, a daughter in the military, twin sons at the best public school in the nation, the University of Virginia. He was a kind and thoughtful man. I was thrilled to meet him, thrilled to have my picture taken with him. I was proud of him! He ran as a conservative and won easily with just under 59% of the vote. His future was limitless. He could have become Vice President and even President. He could have added to the long list of Presidents from Virginia. He threw it all away with a series of liberal political moves to benefit his transportation tax increase coupled with poor decisions in his personal life. Blaming his wife doesn’t change those facts. I am very sad and extremely disappointed in our former Governor. He coulda been a contender. I wanted him to be a contender.
