The Republican Party of Virginia may have a new, 21st century website, but their ideas are stuck in the Dark Ages of heretics and stake burnings. In this case, what we're talking about is the state GOP's continued attempts to banish Independent Republican candidate Russ Potts from the GOP, despite his lifetime in the party. Today, believe it or not, the Republican Party "Central Committee" (I thought those were Communist or something!) of Virginia actually issued a formal resolution (filled with lots of "whereas"'es and "be it resolved's" to make it sound all legal and official-like), essentially: a) excommuninicating Potts from the Church, er, Republican Party; b) expressing the Committtee's "extreme disappointment at the betrayal of the Republican Party;" c) urging Potts to "resign immediately from his State Senate seat;" and d) "call[ing] upon the Republican Caucus of the State Senate to expel Senator Potts from Senate Republican Caucus."
We here at RaisingKaine, of course, can't help but laugh at all this. What this fatwa essentially accomplishes is nothing but more free publicity for the cash-strapped Russ Potts. Boy, is Russ Potts happy today - thank you Republican Central Committee (for his part, Potts has said he was born a Republican and will die a Republican)!
As Barnie Day wrote last week in the Hampton Daily Press:
the flat-earthers [have done] exactly the dumbest thing they could do if their intentions were to stop [Potts]. Rather than ignore him, they went after him tooth and high-decibel claw - they held news conferences and issued press releases and generally threw temper tantrums in public - and in the process gave him the kind of free media coverage that money can't buy.In other words, the Republicans have managed, in one fell swoop, to do something arrogant, nasty, and self-defeating. That's fine with us, of course, given that we are no friends of either "flat earthers" in general or of Jerry Kilgore specifically. But, frankly, there are times that we actually start to worry about these people. Today was one of those times.