US Politics February 2019: This is one of the great losers of all time.

I went to UVa in the mid 90s. I definitely saw some blackface frat shenanigans.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/02/02/troubling-history-behind-ralph-northams-blackface-klan-photo/?fbclid=IwAR2Z40F03o8OGhcruiO7hNhxhcEvG29THDnOfrlgZxCtUaT8uZ5RhN9h9KQ&utm_term=.863ac2643efd

like, this is not a "all other things being equal, how should this behavior be judged" because all things are not equal in the current scenario, it might be best for the people (and Democrats) of Virginia to acknowledge that they elected some people with questionable things in their past but consider how disqualifying those things are given the stakes.

oops left out a word

like, this is not a "all other things being equal, how should this behavior be judged" scenario

these guys should all just have a serious come-to-jesus moment, beg forgiveness, commit to being better stewards of the public good, and then note the highly political timing of the release of this info and stick together as a party

which might be happening, idk

what the fuck is wrong with all these people?

anyway, I didn't watch the state of the union and I've read minimal things about the State of the Union, but it is interesting at least from an anecdotal vantage that maybe for his first couple people did give him the benefit of the doubt, or did give him a chance, and this time around just did not give a fuck.

Bump this thread whenever another fraternity gets caught throwing a racist party

sad lol

The voting ballot divide: racists or rapists.

like, this is not a "all other things being equal, how should this behavior be judged" because all things are not equal in the current scenario, it might be best for the people (and Democrats) of Virginia to acknowledge that they elected some people with questionable things in their past but consider how disqualifying those things are given the stakes.

― legislative fanboy halfwit (Οὖτις), Wednesday, February 6, 2019 12:13 PM (seven minutes ago)

the blackface stuff...it seems like we have reached a point as a country, or at least a party, where this sort of stuff is just not tolerated anymore. equivocating on this would send a pretty shitty message and potentially damage the party's standing in the eyes of the public at a time where we are trying to BUILD political capital, not squander it for these nobodies

fairfax has been accused of sexual assault and apparently just called the woman a b----. he can fuck off

It’s time for Pusha T to embrace his political destiny as governor of Virginia

— Dad (@fivefifths) February 6, 2019

This is . . . pretty good? As these things go? As a white woman I can't accept it on behalf of POC, but it reads as sincere.

Please see my statement below. pic.twitter.com/FBDcgxHOq9

— Mark Herring (@MarkHerringVA) February 6, 2019

yeah that's a decent way forward IMO but as you note I'm not the audience either

Yeah, personally ok this, seems far less creepy and more genuinely contrite than Northram

agreed

How hard can it be to find #problematic shit in any member of the VA GOP’s past I mean get an intern on that

otm

also, that is how to apologize IMO

fairfax's COS is flat out denying the "fuck that bitch" comment. says it simply didn't happen.

I'm a little skeptical of that one myself

How hard can it be to find #problematic shit in any member of the VA GOP’s past I mean get an intern on that

the difference is that stuff actually *earns* GOP votes

An '80s Polaroid of the candidate in a klan hood carries roughly the same political weight as a flag pin on the lapel with yer average GOP voter. Its absence is troubling and raises questions/eyebrows.

This is not a *defense* of Herring, but the year of his Kurtis Blow party, Neil Diamond starred in a "Jazz Singer" remake that features a "funny" blackface scene. People used to be more racist/get away with more racism! https://t.co/Ce5BBIZ4Et

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) February 6, 2019

People used to be more racist/get away with more racism!

For whom is this supposed to be news?

Remaking the jazz Singer pretty much had to have some homage to Jolson didn't it?
Wonder if it is a film that has now been relegated to the past and now not something that anybody would think of remaking. In an age full of remakes, like.

lol @ Shakey's contrib upthread

“What was a slow-moving train wreck is now like a bullet train wreck,” said Chris LaCivita, a Republican strategist and a veteran of numerous Virginia political wars. “The reports of Republicans’ demise in the Commonwealth of Virginia have been greatly exaggerated.”

He said the scandals provide Republicans with an opportunity, but one they have to approach with care. “Don’t gloat, don’t overplay your hand,” he said. “At the end of the day, voters want candidates who speak to their concerns and issues. You can’t run campaigns in the modern age based solely on the fact that a party’s top messengers have problems.”

Dan Scandling, a Republican and former aide to Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), said that before the scandals Republicans were facing “ long slow walk in the wilderness. As long as President Trump was on top of the ticket, everything was going to cascade down from the White House and be a hundred pound weight on your head.”

Now, Scandling said, “the window of opportunity is back open.”

“The swing voters are going to tap the brakes now,” he said. “And the minority community is going to look at the Democrats and say, ‘Really?’ Have you been pulling the wool over our eyes all these years?”

that sounds like gloating to me

TS: candidates who were racists 35 years ago or candidates who are racists now.

The VA GOP has done something truly diabolical here that only works because all three top Dems are compromised. Dems won't turn over power, so now they'll be painted as hypocritical.

For all those wondering, the line of succession for Virginia Governor Ralph Northam is Governor Northam (Democrat)➡️ Lt. Gov. Fairfax (Democrat)➡️
AG Mark Herring (Democrat)➡️
House Speaker Kirk Cox (Republican)➡️The Republican controlled House of Delegates elects a new governor

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) February 6, 2019

there is no way all three of those Dems resign, esp not with such a calculated hit job clearly underway

Maybe I don't understand succession correctly but not everyone has to resign at the same time. You don't just automatically get a Republican. Here's just one way you could do it.

Step 1. Northam resigns. Fairfax becomes governor.

Step 2. Fairfax appoints someone less compromised, like Tom Periello, as his new Lieutenant Governor.

Step 3: Fairfax and Herring resign simultaneously.

Step 4: Periello appoints a new Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General.

that's what I was thinking

hmm yeah that could work. although that's a lot of resignations, and you just know none of these guys want to bow out this way.

Such a weird scenario

You make legislative confirmation of a Democratic LG nominee contingent on a public pledge to resign.

Enforce it with the threat of legislative impeachment for anyone who doesn't follow the plan.

Republicans control the House of Delegates and state Senate, why would they play along?

^^ my thought exactly

really not sure that the middle of a scandal is the best time to be pulling these highly contrived partisan moves tbh

As was pointed out on Twitter, the only reason that the Republican Speaker in VA is there is because there was a tie at the ballot box and the race was decided by a fershlugginer coin flip.

Kirk Cox was not elected in a statewide election. The three Democrats were.

Installing Cox as governor by "conveniently" "discovering" preexisting flaws in the D officials all at once is amusing, on a nakedly Machiavellian level. But I am not sure it will fly. I have lived in this here Commonwealth since. 1976. With all its well-documented problems there are some pockets of decency.

Kinda feeling torn between a) acknowledging that everyone does dumb shit when they're young that they hopefully learn from and then ultimately grow and become better people as a result, and that thoughtfully addressing those dumb mistakes of youth and taking responsibility for them (as opposed to being a squirrelly little shit about it, looking at you Kavanaugh et al) can go a long way, and b) feeling like anyone who's done shit this dumb + compromising maybe should consider a career in the private sector because politicians (particularly dem politicians) ideally should be held to a higher standard (and yes I know that's pretty much a la-di-da utopian af notion but still).

I'm extra torn, because there are dumb things you do when you're young and then there are things so dumb that you should know they're dumb, even when you're young. Like, it never occurred to me to ever put on black face or want to put on black face because I always understood it to be wrong. No one had to sit me down and teach that to me, let alone when I was in my college years. You can't undo the past, which is why the AG's apology might be enough but the gov first admitting it was him and then backing off, while still admitting he'd done things like it in the past, is a pretty bad look.

Yeah, that's why I'm leaning b). Like I totally buy that people who harbor horrible ideas in their early twenties are capable of turning it around and becoming decent people later in life. I'm just not particularly convinced that those people need to be elected officials.

Per the Wapo article I posted above, minstrel shows were still popular in cville into the 1970s and people have lauded their participation in minstrel shows in very, very recent obituaries. It's all sorts of fucked up.

No one had to sit me down and teach that to me

really? you just magically grasped the history of blackface as a child?

Like, you probably still have some internal work to do, my dudes, so why not do it while you're like selling real estate or something instead of representing a diverse constituency.

xposts

I mean I know I'm biased here cuz it's a Dem but I don't think Herring should be stepping down over this

Northam should definitely go though

(I say this as someone who has children that are of the age where I need to explicitly explain why certain depictions of various ethnicities are racist and not ok)

xp

I love Elie Mystal and his headline made me LOL "Virginia A.G. Admits To Wearing Blackface As We Enter The ‘I Am Spartacus’ Part Of Black History Month"

I would argue that there's a pretty distinct difference between an eight-year-old's tragic mispronunciation of Niger (ahem, guilty) and someone in their early 20s thinking it's totally cool to engage in Stepin Fetchit cosplay.

i want to know who’s funding the outlet that broke these stories