If the voters of Virginia are okay with this, so am I.
Now then, where’s our next outrage du jour?
As I’ve told colleagues, Northam should say the following and see what happens:
“I will resign directly after Donald Trump resigns for racism displayed while currently in office as president”
GOOD.
In the era of the pussy-grabber and serial wife cheater being OK to occupy the White House - the blackface thing from 30-40 years ago is a joke anyway. It would be like catching somebody stealing a candy bar and forcing him to resign while there is a bank robber in the White House.
I attended a lecture last night by Peggy Wallace Kennedy, daughter of George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama. After he was shot, he came to realize how wrong his racism was and went to a black church to beg for forgiveness. Not only did they forgive him, they worked with him to undo some of what he had done. The generosity of their forgiveness is humbling. A different time.
In The New Reality Of The Trump Age, Northam May Actually Hang On
It would be better to say that in the reality of Virginia, they would be happy to get rid of him if they could find someone that is not tainted one way or another. We really need to put an statute of limitations on this kinds of things.
I wish the media would quit with the “if all three Democrats resign, the governorship would go to the Republican speaker.” There is no legitimate scenario where this would happen. IF they were all going to resign, the lieutenant governor resigns first. Northam appoints a Democrat to be new Lt Gov. then Northam resigns. New Democrat governor is inaugurated and she appoints any subsequent vacancies.
Maybe not so different. After the Charleston church shooting, the parishioners and families of the victims went out of their way to say they forgave Dylann Roof for murdering nine people in cold blood. The southern black church is big on forgiveness when the offenders are repentant, and in Roof’s case, even when they’re not. I think they believe in a god of mercy, and in accordance with Jesus’ teaching it’s not man’s place to judge and condemn. I don’t do metaphysics but that to me is an indispensable principle all people must live by in order to pursue justice with a human face.
I get the political purity tests being applied by the state and national D’s, they’re concerned with the fortunes of the party, as am I. But they feel the pressure from social activists too sharply and pile on too quickly before facts are known. Meanwhile those actually aggrieved in this case are only African Americans and the people of Virginia. We haven’t actually heard much from those who have the only opinions that really matter.
Northam could manage this issue by meeting with black church leadership and talking sincerely and openly about what he’s learned since his college days. Sec. Herring should join in this effort as well. There’s an opportunity here for an important conversation to take place that would move the ball down the field a little bit more. I hope that’s what he’s working on if he plans on staying, if he’s not then I would really question his judgment as a politician. So far he’s fumbled this very badly but I’ve seen no reason to think he’s a bad guy and he has the right positions on the big policy issues facing VA and the US, backed up by a pretty respectable life of service. I don’t care if he used to be a Republican, in fact I tend to put more stock in those who have erred and corrected themselves over those who smugly feel they’ve always been on the right side of every question. There’s a few too many of the latter in our camp, and I’m sure I’ve been one of them from time to time.
I’ve often told people how impressed I was by Wallace’s repentance in his later years and how there must always be room in people’s hearts to forgive. Robert Byrd is another great case in point. You don’t need god to know how important this is to human society. The piling on here has been embarrassing, I find it alarming how quickly people claim to know the inner workings of another’s mind and heart.
In an age where the Secretary of Energy’s summer camp was/is known as “niggerhead”, blackface pales by comparison:
The question being does the VA Gov’s appointment of a replacement Lt. Gov. require state senate approval. I don’t know, myself.
It’s a real shame about Fairfax, though, he is an impressive up and comer but is now stuck in the he said/she said dilemma, at least until some more facts emerge.
Snowflake Warning…
Kellyanne Conway says she was ‘assaulted’ in Maryland restaurant
Yeah sadly Rs continue to do and get away with the stuff Ds are trying to stop and Rs use against Ds form something that happened years if not decades ago.
This is like one of those hypothetical test questions where there is no correct answer so that your ability to reason through the situation is the issue. In any normal world, Northam should clearly resign. Beyond his original issue, his bumbling response was not competent or reassuring.
On the other hand, we all know full well that no republican would ever resign, short of being put in front of a political firing squad. Ethics is not something that most republican politicians do, at least not anymore.
In this case, much as I truly hate to say it, any outcome they can engineer that does not result in a republican governor is probably preferable. What a horrible cock up this has become.
Northam’s problem was he was speaking too soon trying to be honest about a situation he didn’t clearly remember. Better for him if he had followed Trump’s advice, followed closely by Kavanaugh: “Deny, deny, deny.”
I am a Virginian, and I agree than Northam did not handle this news well. He was blindsided and should have taken some time to think through his response. He would do well to give an honest recounting of how he went from a racially insensitive (at least) person to someone who cares about all people and thinks of people of all races as his brothers and sisters.
Doing blackface in the 80’s was as wrong as it is today. He was wrong then, but has shown through his life since then, as well as his political career that he has grown as a man, and works for all Virginians.
I disagree that he should resign. It isn’t because the GOP gets away with everything they do; it is because what happened 3 decades ago is not who he is today. I did not vote for him. I still think Tom Periello would have been a better Governor, but fair is fair.
I feel the same about Mark Herring, who I believe is a very good person.
The accusations against Fairfax are the most troubling. They come from women who have no obvious ax to grind, and are very credible. The contemporaneous email is very damning. He knows if they are true or not. If they are, he should resign. The difference is that if true, what he did was a crime, and getting away with at the time is irrelevant.
I do like the idea mentioned above, that Northam could appoint a replacement for Fairfax that would keep the govt in the hands of the party that won the election, no matter what would end up happening afterwards.