Having discovered that it’s much harder to convince somebody of something when you can’t buy them off, Terry McAuliffe is now thinking of ignoring this pesky ‘democracy’ thing entirely:
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is considering expanding health coverage for the poor without the approval of the state legislature, a move that would muscle his top priority past Republican opponents but also throw his young administration into a partisan firestorm and uncertain legal territory.
McAuliffe and his top advisers have consulted lawyers, health-care experts and legislators on how to bypass the GOP-dominated House of Delegates, according to three people familiar with the discussions. A fourth, who like the others spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal private strategy, said the office of Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) has been researching the matter.
If he does this, of course, there will be nothing else done in Virginia for the rest of Terry McAuliffe’s term of office. It will also be THE issue for every Virginia election for the next three and a half years… which most assuredly includes Mark Warner’s. And here’s the thing about Virginia: it tends to like to have a Senator on both sides of the aisle. The recent all-Democratic cast there is a bit of a weirdness, and one that is probably not going to survive in the long run, or even the medium one. I’m not saying that it means that Warner’s doomed or anything; but he’s probably taking his race more seriously than most outsiders think that he does, or has to. In light of that, I can’t imagine that he’s happy that a jumped-up Clinton moneybags is contemplating starting a state constitutional crisis…
Via Hot Air.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
PS: I’m sure that McAuliffe’s staff can find an loophole. What they can’t do is find a way to make people love Terry McAuliffe for it. Or the Democrats.
“Terry McAuliffe, would-be Obama.”
.
There, fixed it for you.