It’s really appalling how few of the questions that Jerry Kilgore answered in last Saturday’s debates. He generally talked about the topic at hand, but he ended up asking himself another question (occasionally talking about himself in the third person, Bob Dole style) and answering that.
Take this very specific question on abortion: If Roe v. Wade were overturned, and the General Assembly passed a bill further restricting abortion, would you sign it into law? Kilgore totally doesn’t answer it. He talks for a while, but completely ignores the question. Kaine, no dope, calls him on it.
What’s totally appalling — and I didn’t know this — is that Kilgore thinks that abortion should be illegal, even in cases of rape and incest, unless the rape is reported within a week. That, of course, is long before the victim would know that she’s been impregnated by her rapist. (I don’t know what makes seven days so special.) Not a lot of 12-year-old girls go to the police after they’ve been raped by a parent of guardian. Kilgore would force this little girl to be pregnant, presumably ending her life as she knows it. You know, in case the rape itself wasn’t sufficiently traumatic.
I can see why he dodged the question.
After the event, his spokesman described the question as being about a hypothetical ruling from a hypothetical court case from a hypothetical Supreme Court. With the nomination of John Roberts, of course, it’s not so hypothetical. If Jerry Kilgore is elected to governor, Virginia may well be the state that bans abortion altogether.
This is part of a series of debate excerpts. Transcript and complete MP3 available.
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