This is the precise quote (Politico has the video):
It’s not really up to the Supreme Court to second-guess the legitimate decision made by the elected representatives of the people, and if people want to change that law, they can do so by changing the legislators.
Three – no, four – observations on that, with the most pragmatic observations first: Continue reading Gerry Connolly (D, VA-11) hates judicial review.
Shocking. I mean that literally: the control chip must have shorted out, or something. Representative Connolly finally admitted something that we all already knew: forget about what the 2008 map looked like. This is going to be a 2004 election, or maybe a 2000 election:
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said if the 2012 presidential election was held today, President Barack Obama wouldn’t win Virginia, a state he carried in 2008.
Speaking on local Washington radio station WTOP Friday, Connolly said, “In my opinion, no, today he would not win the state.”
But, with more than a year before Election Day, Connolly said Obama still has time to regain the momentum he had in the last election.
Indeed, he has time. Whether he will have the opportunity or the ability to regain that momentum is another, much more entertaining, question.
Continue reading Gerry Connolly (D, VA) concedes VA in 2012.
(H/T: Hot Air Headlines) Given the way that the Democratic party’s leadership has been viciously attacking supporters of the Arizona immigration law, this is a fair question to ask. It turns out that a county which is partially represented by Rep. Connolly (Prince William County, Virginia) has been checking the immigration status of suspects since 2007:
For the last three years, a county in Virginia has remained under the radar in the immigration debate even though it has a law almost identical to Arizona’s immigration law.
[snip]
In 2008, the University of Virginia conducted a survey to see what effects, if any, the Prince William County law had. It concluded initial fears about racial profiling did not happen.
And let us not pretend that Connolly does not know about this bill; when he was Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Connolly called the measure demagogic and raised the (false) specter of racial profiling (when he wasn’t helping turn Fairfax County into a sanctuary county). Of course, that was then: now he brags about denying illegal immigrants health care coverage and pounds the table about the need to secure the borders first and how broken the federal immigration system is. Oddly, though, I see no sign of when this apparent epiphany took place, which suggests that it was not an epiphany at all: merely expedience. So I ask this as a supporter of immigration reform: where do you stand, Gerry Connolly? Do you – like me – stand with the people of Prince William County, who stand with the people of Arizona, who stand with the people of the United States of America?
Or do you stand with the fringe?
Moe Lane
PS: Virginia hasn’t done its primary yet, but check out this VA-11 GOP site.
Crossposted to RedState.
This unpopular:
RICHMOND, Va. — With five Democrats defecting, the Virginia Senate today passed a Republican measure that says Virginians don’t have to buy health insurance.
Voting 23-17, the Democratic-controlled Senate kicked to the House a bill by Sen. Frederick Quayle, R-Suffolk, that supporters say will send a message to Washington about its efforts to overhaul the health-care system.
(Via AoSHQ Headlines) The bill should pass the GOP-controlled House of Delegates with no trouble, and likewise be signed into law by the Republican Governor, and will probably be used as ammo for a lawsuit by the Commonwealth’s Republican Attorney General, should he need it…
– Hey, remember when Virginia was inevitably going to be going Blue for unto the next six generations?
…so it’s interesting that five vulnerable state Senators broke ranks on this bill to vote with the Republicans. It’s also interesting to consider the implications that this bill – whether substanstive or cosmetic – has for, say, Democrats in the US Congress. Like Gerald Connolly! Hi, Jerry! Quick: what do you think of this legislation?
More importantly, what does your district think of this legislation?
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
Oddly, the link Jim Geraghty gave no longer shows the quote (also referenced here) by Connolly (VA-11 is a mere D+2 district, by the way), so I’ll repeat it. The context is in regard to the stimulus:
“I want to be there with all four paws and snout in the trough.”
Again, hard to tell what’s the goofiest bit: that Gerry Connolly thinks it’s a good idea to spend your money irresponsibly; that he apparently has defenders that think that profligacy in the pursuit of in-district patronage is no vice; or that Connolly has apparently never seen an actual pig.
Moe Lane
PS: Keith Fimian would like a rematch, by the way. You can contribute here.
Crossposted to RedState.
