No Ed Gillespie Sign in Our Yard!

After the Virginia Republican state convention in Roanoke, we were considering active support for Ed Gillespie. He wasn't our candidate, but he gave a gracious acceptance speech and promoted "unity." Well, that was then. The other night during his debate with Mark Warner he came out for chemical birth control being sold without prescription. So much for courting unity with "social conservatives." And it was totally unnecessary, pure political expediency. He also back-pedaled as fast as he could when Warner's accused him of supporting the personhood amendment. Oh no, that's only in the Republican Platform. (Hmmm....at the convention there was all kind of rhetoric about supporting "our" platform.) But Gillespie insisted he never supported it and defied Warner to prove he did.

Oh, I know what he was doing all right -- trying to defuse the Democrats' "war on women" rhetoric. One problem: hormonal birth control IS a war on women -- chemical warfare. It's a group one carcinogen KNOWN to cause cancer. Making it more easily available without medical supervision is nuts! And abortion, which the personhood amendment addresses, is a war on little unborn women as well as little unborn men.

But hey, it's all about getting elected and if you have to deep-six your Catholic faith in the process, no problemo. Jack Kennedy and Mario Cuomo illustrated how it's done.

Sooo...no sign for Gillespie in our yard. Heck, I may have to wash my hair on election day. Why work to trade a hot Democrat for lukewarm Democrat-lite? Can a man who puts his politics above God's law really be trusted with man's? Darn, I wish Shak Hill were our candidate!

"I know your deeds; I know you are neither hot nor cold. How I wish you were one or the other -- hot or cold! But because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth!" Rev. 3:15-16

Virginia Republicans Call for Unity

I attended the Virginia Republican State Convention yesterday as a delegate supporting Shak Hill. It was interesting. Ed Gillespie's folks were clearly nervous. They spent the morning and early afternoon lobbying Shak's delegates. When the vote, came Shak was clearly outnumbered but probably received 30-40% of the vote. (Actually, RPV published the results. Shak received almost 39% of the vote. See here -- 1040 to 1616.) Considering he was running against a better known candidate and favorite with establishment backing and plenty of money, his numbers were pretty impressive. The reason we don't know exactly how many votes he received is that, before all the results were announced, Shak motioned for the convention to elect Gillespie by acclamation. His brief statement was a gracious class act and he quoted Gillespie's statement that we should exit the doors of the convention in unity to elect a Republican Senator to replace Obama-clone Mark Warner. Ed Gillespie reached out to everyone in his acceptance speech and mentioned the Tea Party by name. He emphasized that Republicans needs everybody who supports our core principles and we're all part of the team. Unity was his big message. I hope he means it. Party conservatives have been the ugly stepchildren of the party for far too long.