Jerry Kilgore: Godwin's Law in Virginia

For a recently ex-Attorney General, Jerry Kilgore sure is willfully dumb about the public defender system. True to year-long predictions, his campaign last week "went to the mattresses"--the stained, stinky, pox-ridden flophouse-quality ones:

Kaineblog

Virginia’s newspapers have delivered their verdict on Jerry Kilgore’s “Hitler” ads: they are “vile”, “exceed the bounds of decency”, “reprehensible”, “loathsome”, “unscrupulous and desperate”.

[...]

“The ad exceeds the bounds of decency and good taste that ought to be ingrained in a future governor…” [Virginian Pilot editorial, 10-13-2005]

“…an offensive and vile attempt to manipulate an emotional issue for base political gain.” [Roanoke Times editorial, 10-13-2005]

“Kilgore has managed to take the issue and run right into the gutter with it. … some thoroughly venomous and dishonest ads have been unleashed to close the deal.” [Daily Press editorial, 10-14-05]

“Virginia needs a governor who is focused on solving the state’s legitimate problems rather than smearing his opponent … Kilgore showed a stunning lack of judgment …” [Bristol Herald Courier editorial, 10-14-2005]

[...]

But the outrageousness of the Kilgore campaign’s attempt to tie Tim Kaine to Adolf Hitler is, perhaps, the secondary issue here. What these ads reveal (not that Virginians don’t already know) is that Jerry Kilgore simply can’t be trusted to tell the truth.

Tim Kaine explicitly said he would sign a death warrant for Hitler. Tim Kaine told NewsChannel 8 last night that “I’d sign a death warrant for Adolf Hitler. I’m going to sign a death warrant for anybody on death row in Virginia unless they demonstrate that they’re innocent, because that’s what the law requires.” [NewsChannel 8 at 6 PM, 10/13/05]

The Kilgore ad’s assertion that Tim Kaine “voluntarily represented” Mark Sheppard is deliberately misleading. Today’s Free Lance-Star quotes Tim: “I never met Mark Sheppard. I didn’t know Mark Sheppard. I never visited him, I never spoke with him,” Kaine said. “I spent 48 minutes advising [Finberg] during the course of two years he spent on this case. It is completely wrong to suggest that it was Tim Kaine that was voluntarily representing Mark Sheppard.” [Free Lance-Star, 10-14-2005]

Those hippies out in the counter-culture hotbed Shenadoah Valley have a fairly representative sample of what this Red state's newspapers think of the tactic, the logic, and of Kilgore himself:

Roanoke Times

Death penalty demagoguery

Kilgore's offensive attacks on Kaine's principled death penalty stance drag the governor's race to a new low.

If his television ads are to be trusted, Jerry Kilgore believes that serving as a court-appointed attorney to a death row inmate disqualifies someone from serving as governor of Virginia.

That demonstrates either astounding ignorance of the American judicial system and the vital role played by defense attorneys in capital cases, or it constitutes an offensive and vile attempt to manipulate an emotional issue for base political gain.

Either way, Kilgore drags the governor's race to an insulting new low with his attack on Tim Kaine's principled stance on the death penalty.

Kaine has repeatedly said that, while religious convictions lead him personally to oppose the death penalty, as governor he would follow the law and would exercise his clemency powers sparingly.

In an interview with The Roanoke Times Editorial Board this week, Kaine explained that he is a pragmatist. He knows he cannot change the death penalty culture in Virginia, but believes he can make a radical difference on other issues of vital importance.

Kilgore, if elected, would also be faced with following state laws he finds personally objectionable, such as those dealing with abortion. As Kaine has said, governors don't have the luxury of picking and choosing which laws they will follow.

Most voters trust Kaine to keep his word. A recent Washington Posts poll found that 63 percent of Virginians said they trusted Kaine to uphold the law on the death penalty.

Kilgore would like to erode that trust. He launched a series of ads that, among other things, falsely accuse Kaine of saying he believed that not even Adolph Hitler deserved the death penalty.

Kilgore based that accusation on an opinion essay in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. But the Kaine campaign refuted that by releasing a transcript of the interview that prompted the column. Kaine was asked if even people like Hitler or Josef Stalin, who were responsible for the deaths of millions of human beings, deserved to be executed.

Kaine said, "They may deserve it. Of course they may, for doing something heinous. They don't deserve to live in civilized society. They deserve the death penalty."

One of the Kilgore ads features Stanley Rosenbluth, whose son and daughter-in-law were murdered during a drug deal. Kaine represented their murderer as a court-appointed attorney during a death-row appeal.

"Tim Kaine voluntarily represented the person who murdered my son," Rosenbluth says in the ad. "He stood with murderers in trying to get them off death row."

In a teleconference with reporters, Kilgore tried to step around the ad's implication that death row inmates should not receive counsel.

"Everyone is entitled to representation, but not every activist defense attorney is entitled to be governor of Virginia," he said.

So, a lawyer who takes three court assignments to represent death row inmates suddenly becomes an "activist defense attorney" who can't be trusted to uphold the law of Virginia.

Such demagoguery is reprehensible, and it betrays a callous disregard by Kilgore for the rule of law that as state attorney general he once took an oath to protect and defend.

Ouch. Murdered in a drug deal, eh? Gee, how strange the ad didn't mention that part and actually made the couple seem like Soccer Mom and Nascar Dad minding their Ps and Qs, "...lives tragically cut short." Still, completely beside the point. As for other issues, in Navy-centric and multi-modal shipping hotbed Hampton Roads' Daily Press pines for the fjords of a second Warner administration, but they seem to feel a Kaine version would be close enough:

For continuity, for progress, for Tim Kaine

October 16, 2005

The Daily Press endorses Tim Kaine for governor of Virginia.

There are three men in the race. One will not win. One does not deserve to win. One has pledged to carry forward the balanced social and economic policies of Gov. Mark Warner. It's an easy choice.

It would be an even easier choice if Warner himself were on the ballot, but Virginia bars the electorate from choosing continuity. Warner, the best man for the job, is the only one who can't have it.

The gentleman who will not win is state Sen. Russ Potts of Winchester, an admirably fearless public servant. Because he is a Republican who chose to run an independent, circumstances were stacked against Potts from the start, and it has only gotten harder. His campaign receives separate commentary below.

The candidate who does not deserve to win is former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore. Two-time presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson once said that it is difficult to campaign for office without proving that you are unworthy of winning. That is Kilgore's singular achievement of this election.

It's a harsh verdict, but justified by the incoherence of his campaign and the logical contradictions between what Kilgore says he is and what he proposes to do.

Kilgore, the Republican candidate, insists he's the conservative in the race, and if vigorous populist posturing fits the bill, then he's a conservative. Against traditional measures of conservatism - a commitment to fiscal integrity, suspicion of overweening state power and resistance to popular but self-defeating remedies - Kilgore is no conservative at all.

Four years ago, after the policies of Gov. Jim Gilmore left the state financially compromised, Mark Warner came into office with a mandate to straighten out the books and restore administrative competence. He did so in commendable fashion.

Now, Kilgore proposes to reject administrative professionalism, reject governmental cohesion and reject the small-r republican values espoused by the state's founding lights - preferring in their place government by popular opinion. Kilgore would literally farm out the General Assembly's fiduciary responsibilities to referendums.

Examples of deviations from the solid traditions of Virginia governance abound. How about an "accountability commission" of unknown membership and unspecified qualifications to impose itself between the General Assembly and the people? A balkanized highway system with funding dependent on referendums? And how about referendums? Kilgore imposes no limits. He says he trusts "the people." Put it all on the ballot - and let the elected officials avoid the accountability that, in the true conservative tradition, they would be expected to bear.

As for spending, Kilgore says you can have it all. Don't worry about choosing between the variety of tax cuts he proposes and support for public education. Don't worry about another round of soaring college tuition costs. Don't worry about the intimidating demographics of elderly care and attendant rising costs. Don't worry about another downward cycle in the national economy. Spend like there's no tomorrow and get money back, too.

Virginia should reject this. Simple-minded populism, whether trumpeted by Kilgore or anyone else, is a dead end.

At this point, you may be wondering if Kilgore makes the case for Kaine. Yes. Without question, that's part of the calculus in this election. Still, the argument for Kaine's election is a strong one.

Has Tim Kaine run a particularly inspired campaign? No. The Democrat thinks out loud too much and has allowed his campaign handlers to mute his natural exuberance. To meet Kaine, however, is to confront a personality gifted with intellectual sharpness, gentle good humor and solid ethical underpinnings. Kaine has all the potential for being a superb and successful chief executive.

The circumstances and conditions that will shape Virginia's direction over the next four years can only be surmised, not known. But here's what we know about Kaine:

We know that he will embrace the Warner approach, which has been characterized by constant pursuit of economic vitality in all regions of the commonwealth, imaginative administrative reform, solid appointments to important boards and commissions (comparatively nonpartisan, too), and even-handed working relationships with members of the Republican-led General Assembly.

That last item is no small thing, given the tendency of politics these days and the certainty that Republicans will retain control of the legislature. Kilgore as governor would exacerbate the state's ideological and partisan division; Kaine, like Warner, will bring balance to the equation.

We also know that Kaine strongly favors state support for early childhood education. He hasn't been especially forthcoming in how he will pay for it, but Kaine's commitment to solid, responsible public finances is vital to keeping Virginia an ally to prosperity. A strong economy will help produce the revenue necessary to underwrite this important effort.

We also know that Kaine will draw land-use and transportation decision-making closer to each other. That's a big item to take on, but with the public disinclined to cover the costs of road-building (neither Kaine nor Kilgore favors putting new money immediately into the highway system), more sensible policies on the impact of commercial and residential growth on roads may be an important route to improvement.

Kaine is a solid citizen, in our book. He has the smarts and the integrity to do Virginia proud, and in the coming days we'll focus more specifically on some of his ideas. But the starting point is that he will carry on the bipartisan progress of recent years under the Warner administration. Jerry Kilgore will undo that progress.

Again, it's an easy choice. The Daily Press strongly urges the election of Tim Kaine on Nov. 8.

Okee-dokee.