McDonnell's '89 thesis stirs the pot, recalls Verbena Askew firing...

Republican Bob McDonnell's 1989 thesis from Regent University in Virginia Beach is the latest hot button in the race for the governor mansion between McDonnell and Democrat Creigh Deeds.

McDonnell brought up the thesis while talking with the Washington Post, and the 93-page document available on the Regent website has immediately stirred controversy because some of the staunchly conservative viewpoints don't match McDonnell current campaign image.

Just take a look at the lead from Amy Gardner:

At age 34, two years before his first election and two decades before he would run for governor of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell submitted a master's thesis to the evangelical school he was attending in Virginia Beach in which he described working women and feminists as "detrimental" to the family. He said government policy should favor married couples over "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators." He described as "illogical" a 1972 Supreme Court decision legalizing the use of contraception by unmarried couples.

Here's the full Washington Post report...

And here's a link to the full 93-page thesis...  

Deeds senior adviser Mo Elleithee just called the thesis "devastating to the McDonnell campaign."

For the past few weeks, Republicans have accused Deeds of focusing on divisive social issues, because the Bath County Democrat started highlighting McDonnell's effort in the House of Delegates to restrict and more tightly control abortion. Deeds' campaign staff said they are trying to make sure the voters have a full and clear picture of the Republican nominee.

Republicans said Deeds was simply worried about McDonnell getting to far ahead in the campaign and was cynically relying on hot button issues to go negative on McDonnell.

Now this thesis, penned while McDonnell was working to get a degree at Pat Robertson's evangelical college in Virginia Beach, gives the Democrats plenty to ammunition to show to Northern Virginia voters. 

McDonnell is referring to the thesis as an "academic exercise" and the folks over at the Republicas Party of Virginia are pointing out that Sen. Jim Webb wrote an article about how women can't fight in the military - long before he took up the Democratic mantle. And President Barack Obama also downplayed the importance of his own dated writing. 

Here's a quote from Obama.

"This is an example of what happens when you look at things backwards,'' Mr. Obama said when asked whether he had his political future in mind when he first began to write. ''Then everything looks like, 'Ah! Of course this was part of some well-calibrated consideration.' But frankly, no. It would have been very hard for me to anticipate that I'd be where I am today, where a book that I wrote almost 20 years ago now would even be read.'' (New York Times, May 12, 2008)

The story in the Washington Post also recalls the heated controversy over Newport News Circuit Court Judge Verbena Askew. Here's the full excerpt.

One controversy that drew wide attention was an effort in the General Assembly in 2003 to end the judicial career of Verbena M. Askew, a Circuit Court judge from Newport News who had been accused of sexual harassment by a woman who worked for her. As chairman of the Courts of Justice Committee, McDonnell led the effort in the House. He said he was opposed to Askew's reappointment because she didn't disclose, as required, that she was a party to a legal proceeding.

McDonnell was widely quoted at the time as saying that homosexual activity raised questions about a person's qualifications to be a judge. Spokesman Tucker Martin said McDonnell was misquoted and does not consider homosexuality a disqualifying factor for judgeships or other jobs.

Askew, who was not reappointed, denied any wrongdoing and was never found by a court to have harassed the employee.

That is not going to sit well with a lot of folks on the Peninsula who still remember the Askew controversy, which took place nearly 15 years after he wrote the thesis.

Comments

[GOP SUX]

The only hate, Mr. Breston, is from the far right and the Burka Bob McDonald types who wish to impose their religious views on the rest of us in a secular society.

My religion tell me that anyone named Dave should be denied rights of marriage, inheritance, hospital visitation to his partner and a host of other rights the states bestow on people not named Dave.

Stand up against those evil and immoral people named Dave.

[Len Bennett]

Dave - Nice views to share. Do you also agree with McDonnell that:

a woman's place is in the home;
that a single-parent raising her child is not a "family";
that the government should control what adults have access to birth control;
that government should oppose the growing availability of childcare?

(I assume that you read the "thesis").

Please. Share. We all want to know more about your and your candidate's views.

Regards,
Len

[FOR AN CHANGE]

AMERICA MUST REPRESENT ,WHAT IT HAS LET LIVE IN THIS COUNTRY. YOU PICKED ASKEW BECAUSE OF THE LAW CASES SHE HAD WON AND SHE CAN HANDLE HERSELF IN SITUATIONS BUT TO NOT PICK HER AS AN JUDGE BECAUSE SHE GAY. I HOPE FOR HER SAKE IT MEANS HAPPY BECAUSE FAMILY IS HUSBAND AND WIFE, MAN AND FEMALE PRAY FOR THERE MIND YOUR SEXUAL CONDUCT SHOULD NEVER BE MENTION UNLESS SOMEONE BUGGED YOUR HOME OR OFFICE WAS IT BUSH OR AN SORE LOSER GIVE ASKEW AN CHANCE TO PROVE SHE CAN BE AN GOOD JUDGE WE NEED MORE FEMALE'S THAT IS FOR JUSTICE NOT FOR JUST-US THE RICH.

[Dave Breston]

Well, I might not have supported McDonnell before, but will now.

No doubt the insane and vicious homosexual gestapo will now target the guy and attempt to destroy him, since they have no tolerance for any thought that is not on their approved list. To me, it is everyone's duty - if you frown upon 'thought censorship' - to throw your full support behind anyone who is being attacked in this way. Even if you DISAGREE with McDonnell's opinions, we cannot afford to let hate groups like the gay gestapo institutionalize thought control.

Regardless of if you are vote worthy, McDonnell, you now have my vote.