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Off the rails: The Trump train goes over a cliff

Donald Trump now faces members of his own party, like Virginia’s U.S. Representative Barbara Comstock, calling for him to step aside. Photo by: Amanda Maglione

Wow. Just wow. We have been following politics for a very long time (too long, perhaps), and we honestly have never seen anything quite like the insane gyrations currently rocking the presidential race. We always knew that the triumph of Donald J. Trump over a field of hapless Republican losers in the primaries was going to be the gift that kept on giving, but never in our wildest dreams did we expect things to get as truly unhinged as they are right now.

With so many choice events to choose from, it’s hard for us to pick our favorite recent political development, but there’s definitely one thing that perfectly encapsulated the volatile, unprecedented position the elephants find themselves in. It happened outside the Republican National Committee headquarters, where Trump’s Virginia campaign chair Corey Stewart recently staged a protest against the RNC for purportedly failing to support The Donald. The Trump campaign responded by immediately firing Corey Stewart.

Think about that. Trump’s state chairman actually organized a protest against his own party’s national committee, even though RNC chairman Reince Priebus is one of the few GOP talking heads still offering unqualified support for the unstable, foul-mouthed, misogynistic rage machine who sits hunched atop the Republican ticket like a coked-up King Kong, unwilling (or unable) to admit that he’s mortally wounded. And Trump rewarded Stewart’s initiative by throwing him off the campaign’s swiftly sinking ship.

Although we have never wavered in our conviction that Hillary Clinton will be our next president, we would be lying if we didn’t admit to a few moments of nervousness leading up to the first presidential debate. The negative narrative that the press has long loved to spin around Clinton seemed to be hardening, and Trump’s relentless hammering of her was dragging her down to his subterranean level.

But then came Clinton’s masterful debate performance. And Trump’s meandering meltdown. And his unhinged attacks on a former Miss Universe. And his 3am tweets telling the world to check out a fictional sex tape. And the leaked “Access Hollywood” audio of Trump bragging that he likes to sexually assault women. And the second presidential debate, which Trump kicked off by appearing with women who had accused former president Bill Clinton of sex crimes, and capped off by threatening to abuse the power of the presidency by sending his political opponent to prison.

The result? A stampede of Republican rodents fleeing the S.S. Trumptanic as fast as their little feet could carry them. It began as a trickle, with Virginia’s very own U.S. Representative Barbara Comstock, who is locked in a tight race to retain her congressional seat, taking to Facebook to urge Trump to quit the race in the wake of his hideous “locker-room talk” scandal. It swiftly ballooned, however, until even Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, in a conference call with colleagues, declared that he would no longer defend his party’s pumpkin-hued, presidency-seeking pustule, and informed members fighting for political survival that they were free to run as far and fast as possible from Trump’s dumpster fire of a campaign.

This, of course, sparked a huge backlash from Republican base voters who still love Trump, and think Clinton is the devil incarnate. And thus does one of America’s most successful and durable political parties find itself coming apart at the seams, with a monster dragging it steadily into darkness, and a horrified host of now-regretful enablers struggling fruitlessly toward the light.

But for Donald Trump’s Republican Party, that light is fading fast.

Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, twice-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.

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Fighting the tide: Can Virginia’s Republicans overcome a Clinton victory?

And here in the 5th District, which many thought to be a lock for the elephants, there are increasingly strong signs that Jane Dittmar has a real shot at reclaiming the seat for the donkeys. Photo by Eze Amos

Here’s one case study showing just how difficult it’s becoming for Virginia Republicans running local races: A recent internal poll conducted for the campaign of Democrat LuAnn Bennett, who is running to unseat Republican Barbara Comstock in Virginia’s 10th congressional district, showed Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump in the race for president by a dizzying 14 percent.

Yes, this is an internal poll, and as such is inherently biased toward Bennett, but with Clinton’s substantial lead in Virginia (the two most recent polls, by CBS News and Christopher Newport University, have her up 8 and 10 points statewide, respectively), this sort of margin is not outside the realm of possibility. So, even though Comstock still has a narrow lead in the polls, she will almost certainly have to outperform Trump in the district by double digits in order to win.

And while Trump was surely hoping to make up ground with a knockout performance in the first presidential debate, the gale force winds created by his wild swings and missed punches only made things worse. While his pugilistic browbeating of Clinton on trade was effective (if migraine-inducing) early on, by night’s end it was Clinton who stood smiling, not a hair out of place, as Trump dug himself deeper and deeper on a raft of issues, including his unreleased taxes, his shady business practice, his promise that Iranian sailors who taunt U.S. warships “will be shot out of the water” and the blatant racism of his years-long claim that President Obama was not born in the U.S.

Of course, gerrymandering at the state level means that certain Republicans have absolutely nothing to worry about, no matter how ridiculous and extreme they may be. Take the case of Dave Brat, the bespectacled first-term congressman who unexpectedly knocked off House Minority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014. Although he boasts zero accomplishments as a U.S Representative, and has made a cottage industry of issuing crackpot statements (just last week, for instance, he told conservative talk radio host John Fredericks that the Black Lives Matter protesters in Charlotte were “radical groups that are funded out of George Soros’ pot of money,” while also insisting that the real “institutional racism” is perpetuated by Democrats who refuse to “get the Bible back in the classroom and religion back in the classroom”), Brat will almost certainly win his reelection race handily.

Still, there’s no telling what havoc the lead weight of Trump’s campaign might wreak across the commonwealth. Which is why endangered incumbents like Comstock (who supported Marco Rubio in the Republican primary) are running as far from him as they can. When asked by the Washington Post if she was planning on endorsing Trump, she replied, “If I change my mind, I’ll let you know,” and when pressed on whether she would even vote for him, she answered, cryptically, “I’m watching.”

And here in the 5th District, which many thought to be a lock for the elephants, there are increasingly strong signs that Jane Dittmar has a real shot at reclaiming the seat for the donkeys. Her fundraising has been unexpectedly robust (at last count, she had raised more than triple the amount of her opponent Tom Garrett), the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee designated her race “Red-to-Blue” September 23 and, while UVA professor Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball website still rates the race “Likely Republican,” one of the site’s editors recently conceded to the Daily Progress that “problems at the top of the ticket could hurt down-ballot Republicans such as Tom Garrett.”

Ah, Donald Trump—you truly are the gift that keeps on giving.

Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, twice-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.

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The home stretch: Galloping toward the electoral finish line

Donald Trump now faces members of his own party, like Virginia’s U.S. Representative Barbara Comstock, calling for him to step aside. Photo by: Amanda Maglione

Believe it or not, election day 2016 is now less than eight weeks away, which means that finally—after a seeming eternity of arguments, attack ads, innuendo and outrageous antics—Virginians will get a chance to vote and, in so doing, put this interminable election season out of its misery. And so, as we gear up for the campaigns’ crucial final push, it seems a good time to pause and take a look at the current lay of the land.

1) The race is tightening… After gaining and maintaining a large post-convention polling bump, Hillary Clinton’s lead over Donald Trump in national polls has shrunk considerably. While she was once up by as much as eight percentage points, her national polling average now shows a lead of around 3 percent. There are myriad reasons for this, but the largest factor is the disparate treatment the candidates are getting for their various misdeeds. Clinton’s minor transgressions (such as using a personal e-mail server while secretary of state or not disclosing she’d been diagnosed with pneumonia) have been receiving saturation coverage, while Trump’s far more numerous and severe ethical lapses (more on these later) are mentioned sporadically, and have yet to become part of the larger press narrative, which is basically, “Trump is crazy, Clinton is untrustworthy and voters hate them both.”

2) …but not enough for Trump to win Virginia. Based on current trends, it looks like the Old Dominion’s reputation as a right-leaning swing state is now fully defunct, at least in national elections. Clinton is leading Trump by more than 5 percent on average and, more tellingly, both her campaign and affiliated super-PAC have largely ceased advertising in the state. Yes, Trump recently announced a $2 million Virginia ad buy, and sat for a national security talk in front of a friendly audience in Hampton Roads, but at this juncture it seems that Virginia is far out of Republican reach.

3) The shadow campaign for Tim Kaine’s senate seat heats up. Once Tim Kaine assumes the vice presidency, Governor Terry McAuliffe will get the rare chance to appoint one of only 100 U.S. senators—but the story won’t end there. Due to quirks in both the Virginia and U.S. constitutions, whomever McAuliffe appoints will have to defend the seat in a special election next November, and then win yet another election in 2018, when Kaine’s seat is up in the constitutionally mandated, biannually rotating sexennial senate electoral cycle (say that three times fast). Although U.S. Representative Bobby Scott is considered the odds-on favorite, a recent Washington Post article revealed that McAuliffe has heard from around 20 people “indicating an interest in the seat,” while also pointing out that Scott, who has never run a statewide campaign, would be under intense pressure to hold the seat through two high-stakes elections. But if you ask us, Scott’s basically a lock for the appointment, electoral concerns notwithstanding.

4) Bob McDonnell is not going to jail, which is good news for Donald Trump. Finally, we would be remiss not to mention the news that our favorite helmet-haired grifter, ex-governor Bob McDonnell, is not going to be re-prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice (his initial conviction on corruption charges was overturned by the Supreme Court earlier this year). This, oddly enough, has yuuuuge implications for Donald Trump, who could conceivably face similar “pay-to-play” charges for donating $25,000 to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi just days before she declined to pursue a criminal case against the now-defunct fraud factory known as Trump University. But given the feds’ decision not to retry McDonnell, the chances of them prosecuting The Donald for his overt, obvious and odious bribery seem slim indeed. Sad!

Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, twice-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.

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Voting wars: The fight for the franchise heats up

Ultra-conservative Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program is just one example of voter-suppression tactics used in Virginia. Courtesy photo

There’s a basic truism in modern American politics: The more people vote, the more Democrats win. This trend began in 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. This, in turn, prompted Richard Nixon’s electoral “southern strategy,” which explicitly courted the racist Dixiecrat wing of the Democratic party, and eventually turned the party of Lincoln into the party of white resentment.

Now, the politics of racial disharmony have worked for the elephants for a very long time. But as it becomes increasingly obvious that demographic trends pose an existential threat to the current incarnation of the Republican Party, GOP leaders have done everything they can to stem the tide.

The most potent current instrument of voter disenfranchisement is racial gerrymandering, which packs a majority of black and brown voters into the fewest possible districts. But voter suppression comes in all shapes and sizes, and—while the Jim Crow era of poll taxes and rigged literacy tests is thankfully gone—there are still a multitude of legal schemes that serve the same discriminatory end.

Until very recently, Virginia was covered by the “preclearance” section of the Voting Rights Act, which required certain states and districts with a history of voter discrimination to clear any changes to the electoral process with the Justice Department. But in 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, dispensed with this requirement, paving the way for a flood of new vote-limiting measures, including voter ID laws, restrictions on early voting and limiting or eliminating polling places in Democratic strongholds.

Virginia’s current requirement that voters produce a valid photo ID at the polls—which was passed in 2013, and upheld by a federal judge earlier this year—is just the most visible of the commonwealth’s vote-suppression tactics. A lesser-known, but far more insidious, disenfranchisement tool is the blandly named Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program. As recently detailed by Rolling Stone’s Greg Palast, Crosscheck was created by ultra-conservative Kansas Secretary of State (and Donald Trump adviser) Kris Kobach, who has long insisted that in-person voter fraud is rampant and ongoing across the United States.

Despite the fact that no evidence of widespread voter fraud has ever been uncovered, Kobach has convinced 28 states, including Virginia, to use Crosscheck, which purports to uncover individuals who are registered to vote in more than one state by comparing voter rolls. Problem is, the program basically matches first and last names and little else, providing completely useless data that skews heavily toward minority voters.

How bad is it? When Palast obtained a copy of Virginia’s Crosscheck report, he discovered that, “in all, 342,556 names were listed as apparently registered to vote in both Virginia and another state as of January 2014.” Of those names, 41,637 “inactive” voters were immediately removed from the rolls, while the rest were sent a nondescript postcard asking them to verify their address. (In a delicious irony, it was recently revealed that Trump’s new campaign chief, Steve Bannon, is registered to vote in Florida, a state in which he has never lived.)

It’s schemes like this that represent a true threat to our participatory democracy, not the false specter of voter fraud. And while there are legitimate measures that can be taken to try to level the playing field—like Governor Terry McAuliffe’s ongoing campaign to restore the voting rights of felons who have already paid their debt to society—the real solution will only come with a Hillary Clinton-appointed Supreme Court justice (or two, or three). With the right-wing lock on the nation’s highest court finally broken, we have no doubt that most, if not all, of these blatantly biased voting laws will be deservedly swept aside.

Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, twice-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.

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Trump is toast: Will the House and Senate follow?

And here in the 5th District, which many thought to be a lock for the elephants, there are increasingly strong signs that Jane Dittmar has a real shot at reclaiming the seat for the donkeys. Photo by Eze Amos

If there’s one thing we love about penning this column, it’s making ridiculously premature predictions. And though we’ve whiffed a few (like that time we opined that Bernie Sanders would “be out of the [primary] race by May at the very latest”), all in all our batting average is enviably high. And so, as we look down the final stretch of this year’s presidential and congressional elections, we have an overwhelming urge to predict exactly what will happen.

First, the easy stuff. Donald J. Trump, that pompous, orange-hued huckster, will be defeated in a landslide, and Hillary Clinton will become the 45th president of the United States. This, of course, means that Virginia Senator Tim Kaine will become vice president, and his vacant Senate seat will be filled by Governor Terry McAuliffe, who will almost certainly elevate U.S. Representative Bobby Scott to the chamber (Scott’s district, the 3rd, is the most reliably Democratic in the commonwealth, and so McAuliffe will be able to reward Scott for his years of public service while ensuring that his House seat doesn’t end up in Republican hands).

The donkeys will also flip the U.S. Senate, most likely by unseating one or all of the following elephants: Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, Rob Portman in Ohio and Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania.

And that, of course, brings us to the House of Representatives, which is still a very tough nut to crack for team blue. As of now, we just don’t see the GOP losing control, as the Dems would need to flip a nearly impossible 30 seats to retake control of the chamber. Still, with a racist demagogue at the top of the Republican ticket, anything can (and probably will) happen.

As it has been for many years, Virginia will be an excellent bellwether for how the Democrats do nationally. Both because the radical House-district gerrymander imposed following the 2010 census has been replaced by a court-ordered, less GOP-friendly map, and because a number of retirements has lessened the Republicans’ incumbent advantage.

There are basically four districts to watch on election night: If the Dems grab one it’s business as usual, two and it’s a decent night, three and it’s a high-fiving donkey celebration, all four and the Republicans may well have lost the House.

The first district to watch is the 4th, home of ex-U.S. Representative Randy Forbes (after his district’s Democratic makeup was increased during the latest redistricting, he ran and lost in the 2nd District Republican primary). Democrat Donald McEachin is expected to win this seat easily.

The second district to keep an eye on is the 10th, where Tea Party darling Barbara Comstock is up against LuAnn Bennett, a well-financed Dem. The 10th went for Mitt Romney in 2012 by a single point, and also voted for Marco Rubio over Trump in the recent Republican primary. Definitely a prime pickup opportunity.

The third key district is Charlottesville’s own, the 5th, where the unexpected retirement of Representative Robert Hurt created an open seat. It’s still favored to go to Republican Tom Garrett, but his far-right-of-center views, coupled with a strong win for the Clinton/Kaine ticket in the commonwealth, could put Democrat Jane Dittmar over the top.

Finally there’s the 2nd District, another open seat created by the retirement of a Republican—Scott Rigell. Nominally a “purple” district (Tim Kaine carried it with 52 percent of the vote in 2012), it will likely go to Republican Scott Taylor who is heavily favored to win over the underfunded Democratic nominee, economist (and Bernie Sanders delegate) Shaun Brown. But if Brown does pull this one off, she could very well be joining the House as a member of the majority.

Exciting times, people!

Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, twice-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.

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Counterpunch: The Democrats convene, and Trump plays mean

The 2016 election is not Tim Kaine's first rodeo. He campaigns for the U.S. Senate with Mark Warner and wife Ann Holton in 2012. Photo John Robinson

We simply must begin this edition by saluting Charlottesville’s latest (and most lovable) political luminaries: Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the Gold Star parents whose son, Army Captain Humayun Khan (a UVA graduate), lost his life in Iraq after striding out to confront a suicide bomber in order to save his fellow soldiers.

Khizr’s speech at last week’s Democratic National Convention—in which he, with Ghazala by his side, paid tribute to his fallen son and excoriated Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for threatening to ban all Muslims from entering the United States—was an extraordinary emotional highlight of the event. Its import has only grown since, fueled by the outrageous attacks of Trump himself, who both implied that the speech was written by the Clinton campaign (it wasn’t) and that Ghazala’s onstage silence was mandated by her faith (it wasn’t). This latter claim was later demolished by Ghazala, who spoke forcefully during an interview with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, and also penned a Washington Post editorial declaring: “Donald Trump said I had nothing to say. I do. My son Humayun Khan, an Army captain, died 12 years ago in Iraq. He loved America.”

The amazing thing is that the Khans’ affecting presentation was just one of 257 given during the DNC, which was so jam-packed with talent that Politico writer Dan Diamond made a running joke out of tweeting comparisons between the Democratic and Republican conventions. (Our favorite: “Right now at DNC: The 42nd president of the United States. This time last week: The general manager of Trump Winery.”)

But let us not forget the other big stories involving Virginians at the convention. The first, of course, was Senator Tim Kaine’s coming-out speech as Hillary Clinton’s running mate. Now we may be biased, as we’ve always enjoyed Kaine’s goofy demeanor and plainspoken style, but we think he nailed it. His speech was lacerating without being mean, and was delivered in a tone so conversational and unaffected that even those who disagreed with the content couldn’t help but like the messenger. There’s a good reason that the most popular word used to describe Kaine during and after his speech was “dad”—and it’s also a solid indicator that Clinton’s vice presidential choice was the right one.

Finally, we can’t wrap up our convention coverage without acknowledging one of the event’s biggest gaffes: the suggestion by our own esteemed Governor Terry McAuliffe that, if elected, Clinton will once again support the (much-hated) Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal (which she currently opposes). This admission, nonchalantly offered to a reporter from Politico following McAuliffe’s convention speech, was a political bombshell, foolishly reinforcing the caricature of Clinton as an unreliable opportunist who will say or do anything to get elected.

The Clinton campaign immediately came down on the Macker like a ton of bricks, with campaign chairman John Podesta quickly tweeting “Love Gov. McAuliffe, but he got this one flat wrong. Hillary opposes TPP BEFORE and AFTER the election. Period. Full stop.”

Still, even with a completely unforced error (and an ongoing series of disruptions by disaffected supporters of Bernie Sanders), this was a convention that masterfully showcased a powerful, optimistic and patriotic view of America—a view that was sorely missing at the Republican’s dour festival of fear a few weeks back.

And, while one well-produced show won’t suddenly return Clinton to the levels of popularity she enjoyed as secretary of state, it is yet another important step toward the Democrats’ ultimate (and absolutely vital) goal: to cast Donald Trump into the dustbin of history.

Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, twice-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.

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Doom and gloom: Trump bets big on fear at the Republican Convention

Donald Trump has his moment in the sun in Cleveland last week. Wikimedia commons user MontanaIsForMe

First off, before we dive into the current parade of political lunacy, we would like to pause for one moment and express our gratitude to Donald J. Trump, who has made this the single most entertaining political season that most pundits can remember. Of course, we should also make it clear that we fully believe this pumpkin-haired clown will never assume the presidency of the United States, and that the alarming wave of extremism, racism and disturbing nationalism he has unleashed will fade (along with his egomaniacal buffoonery) in the months following the November election.

Is there a chance we are wrong? Of course. But if that’s the case, then we are living in a nation we no longer recognize, and so are determined to remain in a state of absolute denial until the words “President Trump” improbably shift from a ludicrous punchline to a horrifying reality.

In the meantime, we shall continue to treat The Donald’s presidential bid as a pathetic (if dangerous) joke, even as we acknowledge that the economic insecurity and societal discord that have fueled his rise are very real and important problems that will need to be addressed during the coming Clinton administration.

Luckily for us, Trump continues to flail about like a deranged prep-school monster who forgot to take his Ritalin, lashing out in all directions while simultaneously mismanaging every single facet of his campaign. And there is no better illustration of this than the recently concluded, Trump-branded Republican National Convention, which was without a doubt the most gaffe-ridden, hate-filled political event we’ve ever seen. (Then again, we’ve never attended an Ayn Rand Objectivist symposium or a Klan rally, so our experience in these things is limited.)

Veering between boring speeches by rich friends and employees of Trump (billionaire PayPal founder Peter Thiel, Trump Winery General Manager Kerry Woolard) and frothing-at-the-mouth indictments of Hillary Clinton (former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump lackey and current New Jersey Governor Chris Christie), the convention was notable mostly for how poorly it was managed, which is in and of itself a scathing indictment of Trump’s supposed competence.

The tone was set the very first night when, following a head-scratching warm-up performance by Scott Baio, Trump’s wife, Melania, delivered a poised and practiced speech that contained several sections blatantly lifted from Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic National Convention speech. But the pinnacle of this cavalcade of incompetence came on the convention’s third night, when Trump’s primary opponent Ted Cruz, who had been given a coveted prime-time speaking slot, refused to mention Trump’s name during his speech, and told the assembled throng to “vote their conscience” in the upcoming election. Parts of the crowd became so enraged by this apostasy that Cruz’s wife Heidi, who was seated near the Virginia delegation, had to be quickly hustled out of the hall by Ken Cuccinelli (a high-profile Cruz supporter who had previously maneuvered to get as many Cruz delegates seated as possible).

By the time Trump’s angry, despair-inducing address finally arrived, it was far too late to win over anyone but the true believers. And true to form, Trump didn’t even try, painting a picture of America so relentlessly bleak that we’re surprised convention-goers didn’t simply file out of the venue and immediately apply for asylum in the far-more-appealing republic of Syria.

And thus the stage was set for this week’s Democratic National Convention, where Hillary Clinton and her newly chosen running mate Tim Kaine (maybe you’ve heard of him?)—along with current cheerleader-in-chief Barack Obama—will undoubtedly conjure a much sunnier and more optimistic vision of this great country of ours.

So stay tuned, folks — this roller coaster ride is really just beginning.

Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, twice-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.

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Stewart’s folly: Virginia’s top Trump plumper steps in it again

Donald Trump’s campaign steps away from his state co-chair Corey Stewart’s comments that Hillary Clinton and Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam were responsible for the Dallas police shootings. Photo Gage Skidmore/flic.kr/

They say you can tell a great deal about a man by the company he keeps. As with almost everything else about Donald Trump, this rule of thumb does not cast him in a very favorable light. From his long-acknowledged business dealings with mafia bosses like Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno (“These guys were excellent contractors,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal in 2015. “They were phenomenal. They could do three floors a week in concrete. Nobody else in the world could do three floors a week.”) to his ex-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who allegedly manhandled a female reporter, Trump’s universe seems to be filled with a misanthropic menagerie of criminals and cretins.

Which brings us, of course, to the other Corey in Trump’s orbit, Virginia’s very own Corey Stewart, who is the campaign’s state co-chair (as well as chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and a long-shot candidate for governor). When Trump first picked Stewart to chair his Virginia campaign, the pairing made perfect sense. Although the two had reportedly never met, their worldviews seem remarkably similar, especially when it comes to the issue of immigration.

Despite being married to a Swedish native, Stewart has a long history of fighting against “illegal immigration,” and has made the issue central to his political persona. In 2007, for example, he was instrumental in pushing through a sweeping anti-immigrant policy in Prince William County that required county police officers to check the immigration status of every single arrestee. This record obviously dovetails nicely with Trump’s pledge to build a giant wall along America’s southern border and deport every undocumented immigrant in the nation. And thus a beautiful friendship was born.

But the one thing the Trump campaign didn’t count on is that Stewart, much like Trump himself, has little to no filter between his brain and his mouth, and a disastrous penchant for posting idiotic things online. This particular bad habit was on full display following the tragic killing of five police officers by an unhinged sniper in Dallas. Faced with this horrific event, a normal politician would simply decry the senseless tragedy, voice condolences and support for the fallen officers and their loved ones and then maintain a respectful silence. But Stewart isn’t a normal politician (or a particularly normal human being, apparently). And so instead he took to Facebook and posted a number of incendiary messages, including his opinion that “liberal politicians who label police as racists—specifically Hillary Clinton and Virginia Lt. Governor Ralph Northam—are to blame for essentially encouraging the murder of these police officers tonight.”

This was so egregious and wrongheaded that even the Trump campaign—not exactly known for subtlety when it comes to social media—felt the need to disavow him, immediately enlisting Stewart’s co-chair, conservative radio host Jeff Fredericks, to emphatically explain that “Corey Stewart’s comments are his own. They have nothing to do with the Trump campaign.”

Good going, brainiac. You are officially so ill-tempered and extreme that even Donald Trump, the most openly racist presidential contender since Strom Thurmond, wants nothing to do with you. Better start handing out those “Trump campaign co-chair” business cards to every stranger you meet, because something tells us they’re not going to be good for much longer.

Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, twice-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.

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Uncorrupted: Bob McDonnell gets a free pass

Former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell's corruption charges were overturned. Photo by Scott Elmquist

Believe it or not, we were not wholly unsurprised by the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling invalidating the multiple counts of corruption against former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell. The main reason we were expecting the supremes to issue a “get out of jail free” card for McDonnell is simple: During his tenure as governor, the state laws regulating gift-giving to public officials were so porous that nothing that transpired during his term—no matter how unseemly—actually ran afoul of the law.

But still, the fact that the highest court in the land handed down a unanimous verdict in favor of McDonnell caught us by surprise. This is, after all, a court starkly divided, with the conservative and liberal justices rarely seeing eye-to-eye on anything. And yet, in this tawdry case, they all saw the same thing: a pitiful first couple of Virginia who solicited funds and gifts from a mercenary businessman at every available opportunity, and gave him precious little in return.

And it was this basic lack of reciprocation (the constitutionally condemned “official acts” in return for favors) that saved McDonnell’s hide. Yes, he introduced his generous benefactor Jonnie Williams to numerous state officials, and even hosted a dinner-cum-product-launch for Williams’ tobacco-based “dietary supplement” Anatabloc at the governor’s mansion, but he never actually delivered anything of value.

If this strikes you as a piss-poor standard for judging elected officials, we heartily agree. And yet, at the same time, we completely support this court ruling, as it does exactly what a Supreme Court ruling should do: sets a federal minimum standard for lawful conduct, and leaves it up to each individual state to define how to ensure that its elected officials exceed that standard.

Virginia, it must be said, has done a particularly poor job of regulating institutional corruption. Bob and Maureen McDonnell may be the most high-profile examples of the commonwealth’s special breed of political grifters, but they are far from the only (or worst) offenders.

Indeed, Virginia’s notoriously lax ethics laws have encouraged even the most ambitious and (seemingly) morally upright of politicians to stray into gray territory. Take the case of former governor, current U.S. senator and perpetual Democratic vice presidential contender Tim Kaine. As recently reported by Politico (based on information compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project), Kaine received more than $160,000 in gifts between 2001 and 2009, including an $18,000 Caribbean vacation, $5,500 worth of clothing and an all-expenses-paid trip to an NCAA Final Four game.

Is there evidence that anyone received a quid-pro-quo for these gifts? Absolutely not. And yet, at the same time, the fact that Virginia’s elected officials are routinely showered with baubles and free trips from moneyed interests with business before the legislature is distasteful and wrong.

Yes, ethics laws have been tightened since the McDonnell imbroglio made Virginia a national laughingstock, but not nearly far enough. Now that the supremes have allowed our free-riding former governor to avoid incarceration, we can only hope that the commonwealth’s collective sense of shame will help enact laws that ensure we never see his like again.

Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, twice-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.

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Just desserts: The ongoing loss of Virginia’s congressional clout

With so much going on in the executive branch, it's easy to neglect what's happening in the General Assemblyl as the session hits its . midpoint. File photo.

You know, there was a time—way back in those halcyon days that we political junkies like to call “the era of basically functional government”—when Virginia had one of the most effective and envied congressional delegations in the nation. Long a magnet for federal defense funds, the Old Dominion also boasted a raft of U.S. senators and representatives who, due to a combination of outsized personalities and hard-earned seniority, sat high up in the congressional food chain, commanding prime committee positions and, in the case of ex-congress critter Eric Cantor, even standing in line for the senior leadership role in the House of Representatives.

Well, we all know how that turned out (Cantor was unceremoniously ousted by primary opponent Dave Brat in 2014), but here’s an additional sobering fact: Since Cantor left congress, an additional five of Virginia’s 11 U.S. House seats have been refilled due to either retirement or primary defeat. Yes, this list contains both elephants and donkeys, but the Republican ranks have taken a much bigger hit, with the recent primary loss of Representative Randy Forbes to Virginia delegate (and ex-Navy Seal) Scott Taylor just the latest blow to their congressional clout. Believe it or not, the loss of Forbes’ position as chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee actually matters.

But here’s the thing: The felling of these old bulls is not happening in a vacuum. In truth, the GOP’s relentless pursuit of power by any and all means necessary (including extreme gerrymandering, widespread voter suppression at the state level and contemptible catering to the most intolerant and bigoted segments of the voting populace) have ended up backfiring on the party’s elder statesmen. Cantor’s maneuvering to make his right-leaning district even more conservative via redistricting arguably engendered his defeat, while Forbes decided to abandon his old district (the 4th) after Virginia’s Republican-drafted congressional map was found unconstitutional and redrawn by a panel of federal judges. Competing in an unfamiliar new district (the 2nd), Forbes was easily tagged as a carpetbagger and sent packing.

And all of this, it should be noted, has transpired before the completely unhinged candidacy of Republican standard-bearer Donald Trump has even reached full flower. The perfect encapsulation (and probable terminal point) of the modern GOP’s anger-driven politics, Trump has provided the ideal vehicle for all of the closet racists and unrepentant nationalists (whom the party of Lincoln has long courted) to rise up and take over.

So what comes next? Well that, of course, is the 10 billion dollar question. (Note: actual worth of question unable to be verified due to missing tax returns.) There is very little doubt that Trump, if he isn’t unceremoniously dumped by panicked Republican Convention delegates due to gross incompetence (a highly unlikely scenario), will lose handily to Hillary Clinton. But his wider impact on Republican officeholders sharing the ballot is harder to predict. Our own best guess falls between “catastrophe” and “complete annihilation”—but then again, there’s a long time between now and November.

One thing, however, remains certain: Whichever electoral tragedy befalls the commonwealth’s beleaguered pachyderms, they have only themselves to blame.

Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, twice-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.