Category: Virginia Page 21 of 34

This is the fourth and final part of a multi-part interview with Mark Ellmore, candidate in the GOP primary, where he’s facing Amit Singh (also interviewed at Blacknell.net). The winner of the June 10th primary will face long time incumbent Rep. Jim Moran (D) this fall. Part I is here , Part II is here, and Part III is here.

(I’m including part of an answer that has been previously published, to give context to the follow up question).

ME (Mark Ellmore): [ . . .  ]Now you’ve got to take extreme measures, unfortunately. Id like to be able to go to the airport like I used to in the old days and just show my drivers license and I walked in there with whatever. Those days are done based on these people who have created a situation for us, and the goal, the responsibility of the United States government is to keep you safe. That’s goal number one, at all costs.

MB: Actually, isn’t “goal number one” to uphold and protect the Constitution of the United States?

ME: Absolutely, which is . . .

MB: Which may not be the same thing as keeping me safe . . .

ME: Hold on . . . [he starts pulling out a paper copy of the Constitution]

MB: I’ve got one of those, too, in my bag. [I do, about a foot away.]

ME: Alright, so, but again, you’re right. Again, from the standpoint, that is. But in the bigger picture, their responsibility is to keep us all safe.

MB: No, because [I think] there is a tension – I mean, the next question I want to ask you, obviously, is the place of government in surveillance. Now, theoretically – I don’t believe this myself – if you had a government listener listening in on every single conversation we had, on all callers in the United States – we might actually be safer, physically. But that’s not a country I want to live in.

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New VA GOP Chairman Jeff Frederick’s 100 Day Plan (PDF) to save the VA GOP from itself was issued this morning.  It’s the usual pablum most political public “plans” are made up of – but this part caught my attention:

These events will be creative, such as concert/dance venues and socials for younger Republicans with maybe a top east coast club DJ, to a karaoke session for seniors with Pat Boone, to a lecture and workshop with Newt Gingrich[.]

Man.  How can the Democrats compete with that?  It’s over, guys.  Dems might has well give up now.

This is the third part of multi-part interview with Mark Ellmore, candidate in the GOP primary, where he’s facing Amit Singh (also interviewed at Blacknell.net). The winner of the June 10th primary will face long time incumbent Rep. Jim Moran (D) this fall. Part I is here and Part II is here.

(If some regular readers have had enough of the immigration discussion, I encourage them to scan down to “The REAL ID Act and the Security State” section.)

On Immigration

MB (Mark Blacknell): So let’s jump onto some other issues. Immigration. This is an area that’s benefited greatly from immigration. This is an area that’s taken a very different approach than, say, Prince William County where, you know, they want to find every brown person and lock them up.

ME (Mark Ellmore): Well, it’s not just brown. That’s just not fair.

MB: No, I’m pretty sure of it.

ME: If somebody was pulled over, and they didn’t have proper ID, somebody from the Ukraine, or the Czech Republic, or China or Japan, they’d get the same treatment.

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I’m a little troubled by the buzz surrounding Jim Webb as a possible VP to Obama. When it was just the usual cult-of-personality folks pushing it, I didn’t think much of it. But the idea that Webb could bring some GOP-attack-defeating military cred to the Dem ticket, pushed along by this foolish notion of having to win over every last racist in Appalachia, has slowly been rising through the bigger public conversation. So it’s worth considering exactly what’s being sold, here.
First, though, I want to be clear – I’ve been a fan of Jim Webb. I contributed to his campaign, I volunteered long hours for him, and was absolutely thrilled to be part of the effort that led to this moment. Webb is – without a doubt – orders of magnitude better than the guy he replaced. Since his election, I’ve been glad to see him push better benefits for veterans and start tackling the (enormously unpopular) topic of prison crowding and violence. He has disappointed me greatly on some issues, but on balance I think he’s a net positive for the United States Senate.  I believe he’s got a fine Senate career ahead of him.

As a VP? Not so much. Kathy G., like me, questions Webb’s:

shaky campaigning skills, his well-documented history of extremely poor political judgments, his johnny-come-lately status as a Democrat, his questionable ability to attract votes, and above all, his horrible record on gender[.]

Check out her lengthy post for solid examples of each. Now, I’m not suggesting that Webb hasn’t improved in some of these areas, or that he isn’t entitled to credit for evolving views. But he’s got a very public record available that shows some pretty bad judgments over the years.  Further, he’s also demonstrated some bad judgment as Senator (again, here).  For me, this doesn’t necessarily add up to him being a poor choice for Senator. But it certainly doesn’t support the idea of him as a good choice for Vice President.

The Vice Presidency isn’t merely another political pose – it’s what the country intends to rely on in a time of enormous crisis, and it’s the slot from which the occupant will do all he or she can to make herself the prohibitive favorite of the party for 2016. And right now, Webb hasn’t yet proven himself to be worthy of either of those things.  Democrats can do better.