While I approve of the death penalty myself, this Virginia voter and lifelong Republican (until a few years ago) personally finds Mr. Kilgore's new ads completely disgraceful. They are simply NOT "the Virginia Way," displaying no merit or moral compass whatsoever. In fact, the Hitler ad tells me a lot more about Jerry Kilgore's character than about Mr. Kaine's. And what I see is not pretty in the least. The sad fact is that Jerry Kilgore's drive to the bottom reveals a resounding contempt for us, the voters, with its assumption of unreasoning blood lust overriding the checks and balances of our justice system (even an obviously guilty criminal has his day in court, and is entitled to legal representation, for example).
I found the Stanley Rosenbluth "Hitler" ad to be morally repugnant because it prostituted private grief for political purposes. Shame on Mr. Rosenbluth for allowing it! As a parent, I empathize with his agony, but I also realize he lost his crack addict son in what appears to have been a drug deal gone bad. Sad, but not inexplicable. And our time-honored court system dealt with the murderer in our time-honored way, giving the accused all the protections to which he was entitled (and which Mr. Rosenbluth himself would expect to receive if he ever were hauled into court and accused of something), before duly convicting and executing him.
You know, I thought we had reached bottom with all these sordid soap operas. But now, Jerry Kilgore has taken things to yet a new low (as only he can do), introducing Adolph Hitler to Virginia politics. Adolph Hitler?!? What next, Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse Tung? Pol Pot? Slobodan Milosevic? I'm almost afraid to ask.
Sadly, Jerry Kilgore's descent into the gutter is not surprising in the least bit, considering the source of these ads is a non-Virginian slime-master named Scott Howell. As I recall, Howell was Mr. Bush's hit man and the guru behind the reprehensible (and false) Swift Boat ads. Howell also has been the mastermind of several other such grievous attempts (Max Cleland, "Black Hands") to reduce voters to mindless blobs of unthinking emotion. For that, Howell has been the recipient of more than $1.1 million from Jerry Kilgore's campaign coffers. You want to know Jerry Kilgore's values? Follow the money!
Can you imagine what Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, George Washington and Robert E. Lee, all great Virginians, would have had to say about Jerry Kilgore's Hitler ad? My guess is that they would be busy right about now breaking out the tar and feathers for ol' Jerry Boy. Perhaps a day in the public stockade, where the people of Virginia could stand and jeer at Kilgore for his depravity, would be in order? Or, perhaps Thomas Jefferson et al. would have dreamed of sending Kilgore back to ancient Rome at the time of the debauched Emperor Caligula, where Kilgore's character would have fit in perfectly! Whatever Jerry Kilgore is, he certainly isn't a Virginian. To the contrary, Jerry Kilgore is an embarrassment to all Virginians -- past and present.