I could not agree more with Chris Graham’s column about the McDonnells (“Bob McDonnell trial: Yeah, he’s done“). As a liberal Democrat, I did not vote for the man, but bought into his “curb appeal” image that he was every bit the family-values-Christian-right exemplar he purported to be.
Ironically, I think he still is (in his own mind, anyway) and I believe THAT answers the mystery of why in the hell he did not accept the plea bargain. I thought that was an idiotic decision before the trial began, and there’s no doubt of it now. And I think Maureen — however nutty and culpable and unsympathetic she may be in all this — was the prime sacrifice.
I think it’s pretty cowardly and sleazy that he threw her under the bus like this — she must be beyond mortified — and I believe it was his “Christian arrogance” that drove it — that he felt so righteous about being “Mr. Moral Majority” that he was not only above reproach, but would beat this rap by virtue of “the purity of his own heart.” Now, again, as a Virginia citizen, I never felt that McDonnell’s behavior harmed me, hampered his ability to govern or wildly violated the public trust — I certainly did not (and still don’t) — want to see him and/or Maureen to serve time for some boneheaded white collar crime.
But I do think he should be accountable, and his behavior in choosing this defense strategy tells me more about his “morality” and “integrity” than any 500 master’s theses (like the famous one he wrote at Regent University) ever could. What a mess.
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