Kilgore just won’t speak.

In today’s Charlottesville Daily Progress, Bob Gibson writes on debates, and Jerry Kilgore’s unwillingness to speak before the public:

Democrat Kaine is saying yes to a number of invitations – nine more at last count – and independent (and almost banished Republican) Potts is not shy about accepting whatever invitations come his way.

Kilgore is another story. The Republican front-runner is more carefully guarded by his campaign staff, which likes to present him in environments with supportive Republicans and is very cautious about allowing the former attorney general to share a stage with any opponent.

[…]

Potts said Friday he knows why Kilgore is not yet accepting more Virginia debate appearances. “He’s afraid to,” the veteran Republican state senator from Winchester asserted.

Everybody agrees that Kilgore’s Southwest Virginia accent is a positive attribute. Kilgore and his supporters insist that Kilgore has oodles of ideas and Kaine has none. They likewise insist that Sen. Russ Potts only hurts Kaine, not Kilgore.

So…what’s the problem?

And while Kilgore does speak publicly while campaigning, he does so only for paying audiences. Voters can’t question him. This is looking more and more like President Bush’s terror of public appearances, in which the only questions are those that are carefully-scripted, and the only attendees are those who have been carefully vetted, removing anybody who might ever have had any qualms with any aspect of the Bush administration.

Call me partisan, but I can’t favor ostrich-styled leadership. It’s hard to follow an ass.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

3 replies on “Kilgore just won’t speak.”

  1. Kilgore’s just starting to sound like a big chicken. Forget the Duck website (ducking the debates),
    once we get closer to the election, if Kilgore keeps this up, Kaine ought to just start baiting him
    and calling him a coward.

    Cowardice is no way to prove leadership.

    “Orthodoxy is Unconsciousness” – Aldus Huxley

  2. at another site, i read a comment of yours regarding George Allen’s victory in the ’93 governor’s race. if i remember correctly, shortly before the election a psychiatrist named William Gray came forward and claimed that Mary Sue Terry was a lesbian and he had “secret files” to prove it. who was Gray? at the time he was under investigation for taking sexual advantage of young male patients. he had, in fact, lost his medical license in California previously for this very thing. Mary Sue Terry, attorney general at the time, was livid that there was no interstate communication between medical boards and that Gray was allowed to set up shop in Virginia. hence, Gray had a *revenge* motive. in any case, Allen – of course – was victorious and Gray moved to the Philippines soonafter. do you think it worthwhile information that Allen’s political star was tied to the testimony of a vengeful pederast? i think it could be.

  3. From the November 1, 1993 Washingtonian:

    While the Richmond Times-Dispatch was running a controversial story on Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Sue Terry on October 8, the Post was preparing its lead editorial endorsing her candidacy.

    Post Virginia editor Richard Paxson says the Metro section wrangled over whether to run the story. It came from Virginia psychiatrist William Gray, who had been accused of molesting young male patients. He told a stunned Virginia medical board–and TV crews–that he had treated a woman who said she was Terry’s lesbian lover, and he claimed that the woman killed herself in 1990. TV stations across Virginia ran the story, along with Terry’s vehement denial. The next day, the Times-Dispatch and other state papers printed it.

    The Post wouldn’t touch it. “We didn’t have enough information on the accuracy of the allegations or on the relevancy of the allegations to this campaign,” says Metro editor Milton Coleman.

    The Post did run a story on a poll and spent five paragraphs explaining how Terry’s marital status–she’s single–was affecting voters. “I think we were trying to say there’s more to this angle out there in the rest of the press, without telling what it was,” says a Metro reporter.

    And from the July 20, 1994 Roanoke Times:

    Dr. William Gray, who lost his medical license following allegations that he had sexually exploited teen-age patients at his Smith Mountain Lake home, wants to regain the right to practice psychiatry in Virginia and has been trying to earn medical privileges in the Pacific Islands.

    Gray, who still holds a medical license in California, has tried to set up practice on at least two islands in the Pacific, most recently in the Republic of Palau in the western Pacific. His current whereabouts are unknown. Even his lawyers must call his wife when they want to contact him.

    Emily Gray, who still lives at the couple’s Hunting Hills home, could not be reached for comment. The house, along with Gray’s Old Southwest office building, has been put up for sale. But neighbors and Gray’s attorney say she continues to live there and has an unlisted number.

    Neighbors last saw Gray knocking on the front door of his home last month.

    Wherever he is, Gray continues to maintain legal, business and personal ties to Virginia.

    According to documents filed in Albemarle County Circuit Court, Gray has appealed the Virginia Board of Medicine’s decision to revoke his license. The board took his license in November, following an 18-month investigation into charges that he had traded drugs, housing, food and money for sex with five boys – four of them his patients.

    Two have since filed malpractice suits against Gray in Roanoke; the lawsuits are scheduled to be tried in January. Some of the other boys recanted their stories last year. Gray has insisted that the accusations are part of a conspiracy hatched by a group of boys from dysfunctional families. During last year’s gubernatorial campaign, he expanded the conspiracy theory to include former Attorney General Mary Sue Terry, who lost her bid for governor.

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