Soccer Dad

Where was the thesis four years ago?

Four years ago the Washington Post endorsed Creigh Deeds over Bob McDonnell for Attorney General. (The date of the endorsement was October 23, 2005 in an editorial titled "Our Choices in Virginia;")

For attorney general, a refreshingly civil campaign has been waged between Republican state Del. Robert F. McDonnell of Virginia Beach and Democratic state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds of Bath County. Mr. McDonnell is an able, articulate legislator, but we worry he would bring a dogmatically conservative social agenda to the job. He has been among the General Assembly's staunchest opponents of abortion rights and a supporter of state intervention in end-of-life decisions, as in the Terri Schiavo case.

Mr. Deeds, a rural lawmaker, is no liberal; he won the National Rifle Association's endorsement. We think he would be the more pragmatic choice, and a better attorney general.

It was a race that McDonnell won narrowly. Now, with the same two candidates running for governor the Post has effectively joined the Deeds campaign. To Michael Barone history repeats; this is the Post's "macaca" campaign all over again.

While Legal Insurrection points out the hypocrisy of those who are curious about Bob McDonnell's academic career but similarly incurious about Barack Obama's he asserts:

This dispute, in and of itself, is fair enough. What a candidate wrote, even 20 years ago, is fair game.

But a paper that was written 20 years ago was available four years ago. Why wasn't McDonnell's paper an issue when he ran for Attorney General?

The Post editorialized:

Nonetheless, in his 14 years in the state's General Assembly, Mr. McDonnell did aggressively pursue a socially conservative agenda largely in line with his thesis. As governor he could do the same, although he would be constrained by a legislature at least partly controlled by Democrats. He could not ban abortion and contraception, but he could help restrict access. The Bob McDonnell who wrote that thesis would make a divisive, disruptive and partisan governor -- a sharp departure from the tradition of generally pragmatic executives who have helped make Virginia one of the better-managed states in the union. Virginians deserve specific answers about where the thinking of his early middle age has shifted, and where it remains consistent.

Note what's missing from here: McDonnnel's 3 1/2 years as Attorney General. Honestly, I know nothing of McDonnell's record as Attorney General, but why didn't the Post's editors cite his performance in his most recent position to either confirm or refute the caricature they are drawing of him? My guess is that if McDonnell had been too conservative as AG, the Post would have mentioned it.

A quick look at the Post shows that Barone is correct. The Post has changed coverage of the governor's race to how McDonnell's thesis has affected the race.

The Post's reporter Rosalind Helderman writes:

The Republican Party of Virginia is saying the thesis is a decades-old academic paper and Deeds Country is using it to "inject divisive social issues into the campaign."

"McDonnell wrote the paper as a graduate student at a time before the fall of the Berlin Wall and before many of those eligible to vote in this November's election were even born," writes spokesman Tim Murtaugh.

They compare it with a 1979 Atlantic Magazine article written by Jim Webb in which he questioned women's ability to fight in the military. They say it's hypocritical for Democrats to want to make an issue of McDonnell's thesis when in 2006 they dismissed the importance of Webb's decades-old article. (Of course, Republicans in 2006 were just as insistent that the article was absolutely relevant.)

Well, yes Republicans are hypocritical that way. They're looking out for their party. What's the Post's excuse? It's supposed to be an objective observer of politics not a partisan cheerleader. Why the Post wasn't nearly as curious about the Webb thesis (or the President's academic record) as it is about McDonnell's. The most obvious answer is that the Post received a bit of opposition research and saw fit to use it to drive the news:

(Sample headlines from the Post's website:

Deeds Camp: Our Phones Are Ringing Off the Hook
Update: McDonnell: Women Support Me
McDonnell Unveils Proposal, Avoids Thesis Talk
Deeds Continues to Push McDonnell Thesis
Kaine Has 'Grave Concerns' About McDonnell's Thesis
Thesis Issue Builds, McDonnell Tries to Move On

That last one should have read: "As we build the thesis issue, McDonnell tries to move on, but we won't let him." I wouldn't expect much different from the Deeds campaign.)

The Post's masthead declares that it is "An independent newspaper," its antics in Virginia's gubernatorial make that boast implausible.