Ken Cuccinelli had a pretty good day today, getting some surprising editorial love from the Washington Post for calling for a special session to deal with the dangers of the Melendez-Diaz case and what it will do to ongoing criminal prosecutions. Then, this letter Cuccinelli just sent to Steve Shannon is marvelous, here is my favorite little jab.
Your attack on my request for a special session was either an uninformed knee-jerk political reaction, or you do not appreciate the grave concern that the prosecutors of Virginia have regarding the potential impact of the Melendez-Diaz case. I would note that when you attack me for proposing an immediate special session, ou did not propose any other method of addressing the problem, rather you left it to other people. As Attorney General you won't have that luxury. The Commonwealth's Attorneys of Virginia look to the Attorney General to solve problems like this.
What I think might be going on is that the Democrats, and Shannon especially, had no idea what they were getting into with Cuccinelli. They assumed he was the firebreathing radical right winger that so many on both sides have accused him, and didn't realize or appreciate what a good candidate he is. He's smart, sticks with his principles, but can connect people to his principles. Shannon is a backbencher who's done nothing, stood for nothing, and has never really had to work hard for anything in your political life. He's lived and died by the swings of the mood, and has worked very hard not to make enemies. He is the exact wrong candidate to run against Cuccinelli, someone who is the exact opposite, someone ready to jump into the middle of every thing and not scared to take a position that might make him lose. Shannon's career is based on not doing anything to make anyone angry, Ken's career has been built on a steady application of political principles to state government and constituent service. Its a lot harder to do it Ken's way, but it makes you ready when its time to run a race like this.
This race has been fun to watch because it seems, legally speaking, Cuccinelli has been running circles around Shannon. Simply pounding your chest and saying your a prosecutor isn't good enough when your running against someone who has a clear understanding of how decisions like Melendez-Diaz will effect the state and that it takes decisive leadership to fix that problem. Like a typical Democrat, Shannon wants to fall back to government, to an administrative fix. The Shannon people, much like the Oleszek campaign before them, sought that simply making Ken the issue and his supposed extremism combined with taking no stands on any issues was enough to sit back and ride out an easy win.
We might see Ken run ahead of his ticket given how things are going in this race.
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