News flash! According to Tim Murtaugh, press secretary to Jerry Kilgore, "personal attacks should be out of bounds." Murtaugh further elaborates, "There are ample opportunities to highlight policy differences, and it should stay in that arena."Whoa, where did THAT come from? Is Kilgore's campaign still led by Scott "Black Hands" Howell or what? And hasn't Jerry Kilgore been the candidate who has been busy making cleverly coded attacks on immigrants, minorities, and even the religious convictions of his opponent, Tim Kaine? So what on earth is Murtaugh's statement all about? Did Scott Howell quit or something? Did Pastor John's "demons" get to him? Ha.
The weirdest thing about this statement is what it is responding to: a fundraising letter by Chesterfield Republican delegate candidate, Bradley Marrs, criticizing his independent opponent, Katherine Waddell, for receiving a $10,000 check from a wealthy homosexual businessman. The Kilgore campaign rushing to attack homophobia and anti-gay bias? Can we say "out of character" or what? So why did they do it? Could it be, as the Richmond Times-Dispacth suggests, an attempt by the Kilgore campaign at a "softening" of their "use of social and cultural issues themes" that they have been employing regularly in order "to sharpen distinctions between [Kilgore] and Kaine?" Could it be a response to the latest Mason-Dixon poll, which shows Kilgore's "negative" ratings the highest among the three major gubernatorial candidates - Tim Kaine (D), Russ Potts (I), and Jerry Kilgore (R)? Could it be the Kilgore campaign's attempt to move away from the hard right and towards the political center? Or could it be yet another example of Jerry Kilgore's muddled, waffling, or non-existent positions on the issues: abortion, taxes, referenda, the Warner/Kaine record, stem cells, Terry Schiavo, Confederate History and Heritage Month, and several others?
Interestingly, Katherine Waddell, the candidate attacked for receiving a contribution from - horror of horrors - a gay man, describes herself as "a traditional conservative who believes in low taxes, limited government, fiscal responsibility, individual freedom and the right to privacy." Like Russ Potts, she believes in spending "more time on education, transportation, public safety, economic growth and health care and less time on politics and social issues." In other words, Waddell is a Russ Potts "Independent Republican," not a Jerry Kilgore Republican -- let alone "Taliban Bob" McDonnell, "Sideshow Bob" Marshall, or Dave "Sodomy Obsessed" Albo Right Wing Republican. Which makes it even stranger that Kilgore is rushing to defend her and to criticize the letter from Marrs (or is it Mars?), which the Log Cabin (gay) Republicans says represents "a perfect example of what's wrong with part of the Republican Party of Virginia: This obvious obsession with people's sexual orientation and gay and lesbian issues, in general."
What next, will Kilgore fire Scott "Black Hands" Howell? Will he disavow anti-gay comments by other Republicans, including at least one on his own ticket? Will he come out in favor of equal rights for gay people? Or will flip-flop right back, at the very next opportunity, to flirting with bigotry while pretending to be above it all? Stay tuned to the Jerry vs. Jerry show; it's even more entertaining than Kilgore's favorite cartoon, "SpongeBob SquarePants!"