Terry McAuliffe’s GreenTech involved in pay-for-play visa shenanigans?

Jim Geraghty over at NRO has an absolutely must-read story about a really problematic – for Terry McAuliffe, current* Democratic nominee for governor in Virginia – story about GreenTech Automotive.  For those who don’t remember, GreenTech is the electric glorified golf cart car company that McAuliffe loudly trumpeted as being part of his job-creation record… and quietly divested from, without telling anybody thad he had.  This was a bit interesting, given that McAuliffe’s candidacy is based around his business experience; so there was an expectation that another shoe was due to drop.

And it has.  Let me introduce all y’all to a phrase with connotations: “visa for sale.”  Although I personally would call it “pay-for-play visas.”  Rolls off of the tongue better. Continue reading Terry McAuliffe’s GreenTech involved in pay-for-play visa shenanigans?

GreenTech Automotive: demonstrating Terry McAuliffe’s LACK of business acumen?

Point:

In October 2010, Terry McAuliffe touted his business credentials as a predictor that his latest venture, GreenTech Automotive, would be a success.  “We’re in to make money, no question about it. In all the businesses— I’m happy to say I’ve started 25— they’ve all made money.”

Counter-point (when asked why GreenTech Automotive wasn’t making any money):

“…Listen, I have been involved in business my whole life and have made a lot of decisions in business and have started a lot of businesses. I’ve invested. Some businesses work, some don’t…”

Continue reading GreenTech Automotive: demonstrating Terry McAuliffe’s LACK of business acumen?

Is Terry McAuliffe’s GreenTech just another Democratic sinecure?

Interesting: is Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe playing fast and loose with the rules?  Also, is the sky blue?

To kick-start GreenTech Automotive in Mississippi, the Virginia Democrat has sought funding through federal EB-5 immigration visas. In exchange for investments of $500,000, foreign nationals can gain U.S. citizenship for themselves and their families.

But the EB-5 system has been heavily criticized for its lack of transparency and lackadaisical enforcement. McAuliffe’s venture is seen as a particularly bad fit for the alien-investor program that’s supposed to create U.S. jobs.

[snip]

“EB-5 is good for funding certain kinds of projects, but it’s not appropriate for this type of large-scale, long-term funding,” said Michael Gibson, managing partner of U.S. Advisors, a Florida-based research and investment firm knowledgeable about the program.

Continue reading Is Terry McAuliffe’s GreenTech just another Democratic sinecure?

…Terry McAuliffe no doubt MEANS well.

This is going to be fun:

In his second run for Virginia’s highest office, [Democrat Terry] McAuliffe finds himself in the unusual position of aspiring to a post without having come up through the legislature or another wing of state government.

That makes him something of an anomaly. Going back 30 years, every governor save one – Mark Warner, now a U.S. senator – either served in the General Assembly or in the statewide elected offices of attorney general or lieutenant governor.

McAuliffe lacks that experience.

Continue reading …Terry McAuliffe no doubt MEANS well.

Ken Cuccinelli corybookers in Virginia.

If that verb takes off, I want 10% of the gross.

Anyway, Virginia AG (who happens to be also running for Governor) Ken Cuccinelli was driving along yesterday when

Cuccinelli was on his way back to Richmond on Friday after a meeting of his Human Trafficking Task Force in Staunton when he and his driver Cory Chenard noticed a semi-truck with a flatbed trailer carrying a heavy load in front of them an awful smelling smoke coming from it’s rear.

[snip]

“I skipped by the cab back to the back of the truck and sure enough it was still on fire,” he said.

Cuccinelli helped the driver out of the cab of the truck and then went in search of a fire extinguisher. After finding one he instructed Chenard to call for help and he ran to the back of the truck to help the driver put out the flames.

Continue reading Ken Cuccinelli corybookers in Virginia.

TAKE THAT GUN AWAY from Joe Morrissey (D, Virginia House of Delegates).

Before the idjit hurts himself with it.

Background: the aforementioned idjit decided to wave around an “AK-47-style rifle” on the floor of the Virginia House of Delegates as part of a fairly bizarre gun-grabbing stunt.  Now, Morrissey claimed that the gun was unloaded, but then

“Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock, interrupted Morrissey’s speech to ask him to take his finger out of the trigger guard…”

…Joe Morrissey is apparently not exactly qualified to be an expert on gun safety. Continue reading TAKE THAT GUN AWAY from Joe Morrissey (D, Virginia House of Delegates).

Breaking: Senator Jay Rockefeller (D, West Virginia) cuts and runs.

Via the AP:

U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who came to West Virginia as a young man from one of the world’s richest families to work on antipoverty programs and remained in the state to build a political legacy, announced Friday he will not seek a sixth term.

Jay Rockefeller was not on my list of particularly vulnerable Senators for 2014 – I figured that incumbency + money + ability to stay to the right of his national party on various issues = low risk – so this is a nice potential pickup.  The timing on this is interesting for the Democrats, too: their most obvious choice for a replacement (Earl Ray Tomblin) just won re-election for West Virginia Governor in 2012 after winning a special election in 2011*, so trying to jump from there to the Senate in the 2014 election is going to be itself the most obvious campaign issue.  Which might not stop Tomblin, and it might not stop Tomblin from winning, but it’s a complication.

So, all in all, net gain for us.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*Which took place because Senator Robery Byrd died and was replaced by… Governor Joe Manchin, who resigned his position in order to run for the seat.  If Tomblin’s going to do that, too, it does make one wonder if the Democrats really like having one of their own be governor of West Virginia…

Why Jim Moran’s son Patrick will get away with domestic abuse.

Spoiler warning: it’s because the Democrats use the concept of “acceptable losses.”

Consider the story of Jim and Patrick Moran… and let us not make this a Democratic/Republican thing. Instead, let us go foreign: imagine that a report had come out that the son of an Australian* politician had been caught viciously beating his girlfriend in a drunken rage. The incident was witnessed by police, who made an arrest (getting assaulted themselves in the process); the victim went to the hospital, and allegedly treated for a skull fracture and a broken nose. Now also imagine that the politician HAPPENED to be a senior figure in his political party, and who HAPPENED to belong to a federal-level legislative body that HAPPENS to have direct oversight over the municipality where the attack took place; and that the politician’s son just HAPPENED to be able to plead down from felony assault to regular assault and probation. And, to cap it all off… the victim is in classic fashion sent out to claim that it was all an accident – and then the politician declares the whole thing to be an ‘embarrassing situation.’

If all of this happened on the other side of the world, do you think that there would be anybody credible – on either side of the American political spectrum – who would not agree that the politician needed to be investigated?

Anybody? Continue reading Why Jim Moran’s son Patrick will get away with domestic abuse.

Sen Mark Warner (D, VA) declines to run for VA-GOV.

He’s sticking with the Senate.

After months of speculation, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner today announced he won’t seek another term as governor, meaning whatever his political future holds is likely be oriented around Washington rather than the State Capitol.

Which apparently means that the new Democratic front-runner will be… Terry McAuliffe.  For those who don’t remember the 2009 VA-GOV election, he’s the failed DNC chairman from New York who’s never actually won an election; it is a measure of the fellow that McAuliffe decisively lost to a man who kept hitting people with his car.  On the other hand, thanks to that “no consecutive terms” thing Virginian gubernatorial elections have a distressing tendency to resemble a metronome, so McAuliffe can make a half-credible argument that he might as well be Governor of Virginia: everybody else in the state has, after all.

As for why Warner isn’t running in 2013… I dunno.  Maybe Warner wants to run for President in 2016.

…Puede ser difícil.

 

October surprise: Obama’s killing Democratic House prospects.

Let me just list the House races that Democratic strategists are willing to admit – some, even by name! – as having been endangered by Barack Obama’s sub-par October performance.  Just list.

And then there’s the generic ballot, which has gone from plus-Democrat to even-steven. Also note the ostensible swing-state nature of most of the races on that list; you can be certain that official political operatives from both parties have.  All in all, this is pretty good news to have, less than two weeks out – both on the Congressional, and the Presidential, level.

Needless to say, the Republicans in all of the races above could use whatever support that you can muster.  The Democrats were counting on taking or holding all of those seats.  Deny them the satisfaction.

Moe Lane

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