Curses, Mr. Deeds

Tingles are racing up legs in that bristling sphere known as the left, this time over Virginia gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell’s utterance of the queen mother of dirty words. The dread term spilled from the same mouth McDonnell kisses his wife with during a radio interview last week. Fudge.

Here, Democrats see an opening for their man, state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, who persists in lagging in the polls even after wearing his arms to rubber waving at a 20-year-old McDonnell social treatise. This further reveals what so far has been Democrats’ principal strategy, which is to resuscitate macaca, or as Dems like to call it, the “macaca moment.” Republicans are all George Allen now, a distinctive change in tack, since previously Republicans were all George W. Bush.

Recall, as leftists do with relish, that Allen sunk himself in the 2006 Senate race when he called his opponent’s 20-year-old spotter a “macaca.” The young campaign volunteer was of Indian descent. The term “macaca” means monkey, depending on its spelling, and in parts of Europe is considered a racial slur against African immigrants. Cue the Webb victory.

So along comes McDonnell dispensing conservative mantra on taxes. Pressed by Washington, D.C., radio host Mark Plotkin for a “read-my-lips” pledge on taxes – apparently Plotkin was working an older strategy: all Republicans are George H.W. Bush – McDonnell answered: “I’ve outlined 12 [expletive] funding mechanisms that are creative, that are entrepreneurial.” Twelve! Got it? How many more blanking funding mechanisms do you want?

Let’s retrace, for understanding. Allen snaps off an epithet at a 20-year-old volunteer who’s vexed the candidate by following him on the trail. The volunteer and others – go figure – take offense at the slight. McDonnell lets the big nasty of profanities slip on live radio. These moments are equal only in the remedial arithmetic of partisanship. Whom did McDonnell slight? Funding mechanisms? Damn him.

McDonnell says that he did not intentionally use the term in question but rather became tongue-tied. Funding mechanisms will do that to a guy. Damn them.

A more likely candidate for macacadom remains McDonnell’s 1989 thesis in which he disparaged working women, homosexuals and “fornicators” as “detrimental” to society. Since the 93-page paper surfaced several weeks ago, McDonnell has been busy blunting sharp edges, saying he sees things differently than he did in those heady post-Reagan days.

Reasonable discussion can and should be had on what McDonnell thinks now, but it should not be limited to him. Views supporting traditional, two-parent families are widely held in this state, especially this section of it. If Deeds insists on a conversation about social rather than economic issues, then let the senator take his stands and the lumps that might correspond. He prefers to sling shots from afar then plunge from sight, avoiding return fire.

This suffices, apparently, for strategy but not for leadership. Come into the open, Mr. Deeds.