Biddlecomb Column: Academic exercise or a governing blueprint?

Virginia voters sleeping through this year’s Ambien-laced gubernatorial campaign were given a quick shot of Red Bull this week when the Washington Post dusted off Republican Bob McDonnell’s 20-year-
old political manifesto.

The document in question — McDonnell’s 1989 Regent University graduate thesis — outlines his views that, among other things, criticize a “dynamic new trend of working women and feminists that is
ultimately detrimental to the family.”

Other highlights of the thesis, as noted by a Sunday article in The Post, read like talking points for Democrat Creigh Deeds whose sagging campaign is using the academic paper as a means of exposing
McDonnell’s right-wing views to moderate Northern Virginia voters.

One zinger can be found on page 65 where McDonnell writes that “every level of government should statutorily and procedurally prefer married couples over cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators (no
mention of lions, tigers and bears). The cost of sin should fall on the sinner, not the taxpayer.”

Suddenly, a race that’s been about jobs, the economy and, to a lesser extent, transportation, has taken a turn into political ideology. Those familiar with McDonnell’s educational background and political
record, are probably not surprised something like this surfaced.

I was wondering how it took this long. McDonnell has thus far run a pristine campaign casting himself as the moderate family man with little hints of his House voting record.

The thesis revelation put McDonnell on the defensive this week as he initially brushed off the 1989 paper as a simple “academic exercise.” If that were true, then are we to believe that he was simply
saying in his thesis what Regent University founder Pat Robertson wanted to hear? I guess we can call this the “I wanted an easy A” excuse.

Many of us write and do things in college that we would never consider later in life. How many William & Mary graduates have streaked across the campus’ Sunken Gardens prior to graduation? But
McDonnell’s thesis isn’t the equivalent to an 18-year-old smoking pot while a freshman at Berkeley. This paper was written by a 34-year-old Army veteran two years prior to his election to the House of
Delegates. It obviously wasn’t the work of some mixed up kid.

Deeds campaign strategist Mo Elleithee pounced on the thesis calling it a gubernatorial blueprint. “This is who Bob McDonnell is. . . . He gives us no reason to believe this is not how he would govern,”
he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Jeff Schapiro.

McDonnell held a conference call with reporters earlier this week where he compared his thesis with his record, highlighting the fact his wife has worked, his daughter served in the Army and that he hires
based on qualifications rather than sexual orientation.

The headlines across the Commonwealth yesterday read that McDonnell now “distances himself” from his 1989 thesis. That is somewhat believable, considering how politicians evolve with age and life
experience.

That brings me to the Monica issue. I’m talking about Goodling not Lewinski.

Monica Goodling — a 1999 graduate of Regent Law School — put Pat Robertson’s evangelical college on the map a few years ago. Working as the White House liaison to the Justice Department, she
was accused of screening career job applicants based on their political loyalty and religious believes. Some believed she was trying to use the Justice Department as a farm system for the GOP.

A 2008 Justice Department Inspector General’s report said as much while Goodling spent most of her time refusing to testify citing executive privilege.

Monica Goodling came to mind when I read parts of McDonnell’s Regent University thesis — especially page 65.

How much of an effect this will have on McDonnell’s campaign remains to be seen. The thesis is an “August Surprise” of sorts. In today’s ADD-based campaigns that are often driven by the 24-hour news
cycle, bombshells in August and September are nowhere near as devastating as the October variety.

Look for McDonnell to turn the page . . . quickly.

Alfred Biddlecomb is the former editorial page editor for the Potomac News and the Manassas Journal Messenger.