Links for July 7th

PolitiFact: George Allen changes stance again on ethanol subsidiesAllen was against ethanol subsidies. Then he was for them. Now he's against them. It's got to be dizzying, change positions every time the political wind shifts. PolitiFact: Virginia GOP says Phil Puckett voted against sending EPA a messagePolitiFact finds the RPV's criticism of Sen. Puckett to …

Claudia Tucker, Wilkins’ eavesdropper, is running for senate.

Claudia Tucker is running for state senate. Does that name ring a bell? RPV executive director Ed Matricardi fingered Tucker in the Republican eavesdropping scandal, back in 2003, rolling over on her and four other Republican leaders as having orchestrated and participated in the illegal monitoring of DPVA phone calls. (After serving prison time, Matricardi …

The RPV, caught in a lie, won’t even admit it.

This is just pathetic: Virginia Republicans launched a pair of attack ads Wednesday questioning whether Reps. Tom Perriello, D-5th District, and Rick Boucher, D-9th District, joined with other congressional Democrats who applauded Mexican President Felipe Calderon last week for urging an assault weapons ban. The problem, the Los Angeles Times pointed out Thursday, was neither …

The RPV’s revisionist time-machine.

There’s this weird meme among Republicans that I haven’t been able to figure out the origin of. It’s become an item of faith that the bailout of the banking and auto industries was a) a hostile takeover of private industry and b) the work of President Obama. Obviously, neither of these things are true. Both …

The RPV is distancing themselves from Crabill.

It’s been many weeks since it became clear that 9th HoD candidate Catherine Crabill is a dangerous right-wing kook. You’ll recall that she believes that the government is responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing (Tim McVeigh was set up, apparently), and threatened to overthrow the government by force if she and her fellow Republicans fail …

Why I donated $100 to the RPV.

A couple of weeks ago I donated $100 to a presumably puzzled Republican Party of Virginia. Why? Last November I offered to make a $100 bet that Jeff Frederick would seek reelection to the House of Delegates after Frederick promised that he wouldn’t do so if he became the chair of the RPV. Shaun Kenney …

Norm Leahy is looking into the Faith and Family Alliance.

Norm Leahy is doing some good work on the Faith and Family Alliance story. He’s got an overview, comments from Sen. Steve Martin, and a response from Larry Sabato. Naturally, all parties involved are pleading ignorance here, but Norm is getting answers and asking the right questions. The RPV needs two dozen Norms and two …

The new RPV chair smeared Eric Cantor in the 2000 primary.

Well, this is going to be awkward. Follow me. In 2000, Bob McDonnell set up the Faith and Family Alliance, a non-profit that was run by McDonnell’s one-time campaign manager, Robin Vanderwall. (Vanderwall is currently serving a seven-year sentence for attempted child molestation.) The Faith and Family Alliance was used to launder money for political …

Jeff Frederick isn’t running for RPV chair, but maybe HoD.

Jeff Frederick’s decision not to re-run for the chairmanship of the RPV is a damned shame. That guy was Democrats’ ace in the hole. Granted, the party’s record of a new chair every year is encouraging—I’ve got every confidence that they’ll find a way to screw things up with the next chair—but we’ve got such …