Politics is often at its most entertaining when politicians rant indignantly about some allegedly outrageous offense that is not only not offensive but is in fact a statement of the obvious. A humorous case in point is the current hissy being thrown by Virginia state senator Creigh Deeds over a remark made by Mike Huckabee at a fundraiser in Tazewell County, in Southwestern Virginia, for Republican Bob McDonnell. Deeds, who lost to McDonnell for Attorney General in 2006, is now in a three-way Democratic primary race to run against him for governor in 2010.
Deeds’ campaign is steaming (or perhaps just blowing smoke). It has sent out a media advisory condemning “McDonnell’s refusal to condemn former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s divisive remarks about Virginia.” Deeds has put up a form on a web page asking viewers to “Stand Up Against Divisive Politics” and to “Join me in telling Bob McDonnell to condemn these remarks and this type of politics.” He has sent an email to so many Virginians that even I got one quoting Huckabee’s remark and inviting recipients to “Click here to join me in taking a stand against Republican campaign tactics and tell McDonnell to apologize for these divisive remarks.”
Even (especially?) the Washington Post has chimed in, asking “Did Mike Huckabee’s visit to Virginia this week end up helping or hurting Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell?”
I suspect that by now you may be wondering what horrible, divisive comment Huckabee made. Could he have been so bold, so tactless, as to say we should put an end to illegal immigration? That we should stop the state from favoring some and burdening others because of their race? You might think that, because the Democrats have a long track record of condemning such comments as hateful and divisive. But that’s not what he said. Sit down. Brace yourselves. Cringe in anticipation if you must. Here is what Huckabee The Horrible said, as quoted on the web form Deeds wants everyone to sign condemning it (in fact, here’s the whole form, minus lines for name and address):
Stand Up Against Divisive Politics
One of Bob McDonnell’s surrogates, Mike Huckabee, recently claimed that Northern Virginians “aren’t necessarily thinking the same way folks like you and me think.” He even had the nerve to say that Northern Virginians “may have never fully understood how hard it is for a lot of people to put a paycheck together and be able to feed a family.”
During these tough economic times, we can’t afford for our leaders to pit region versus region and Virginian versus Virginian for their own political gain.
Join me in telling Bob McDonnell to condemn these remarks and this type of politics.
Wow! Can you believe it! Huckabee actually had the gall to suggest that voters in northern Virginia “aren’t necessarily thinking the same way folks like you and me think” in the Piedmont, Southside, and Southwest! And McDonnell, that cad, has refused to condemn him!
In this warped view Nixon’s “Southern strategy” and what might be termed McDonnell’s “Southside strategy” are a piece of the same tainted cloth. Deeds has been striving mightily to find some high ground here from which to attack these low politics, but his strained effort comes across, at least to me, as ridiculous. Thus, from his mass email:
Unfortunately this type of rhetoric from the Republicans is all too familiar….
We can’t let Republicans continue to pit one region of Virginia against another. I’m running for Governor to stand up and fight for every Virginian….
Bob McDonnell doesn’t understand that we are one commonwealth. His supporters are trying to pit region versus region and Virginian versus Virginian for political gain. We can’t let Bob McDonnell continue to stand by these out-of-touch comments.
Out of touch? Since when has stating the obvious been “out of touch”? Excuse me for a moment while I introduce a fact or two, so that you can judge whether Huckabee’s comment was “out of touch.”
In the 2008 presidential election Virginia’s vote mirrored the national vote very closely: Obama beat McCain by 52.7% to 46.4%; his winning margin in the state was 232,317 votes. But the Red – Blue divide inside the state was quite dramatic, with Obama winning populous northern Virginia jurisdictions by lopsided amounts: Arlington 78% to 27%, Alexandria 72% to 27%, Falls Church 70% to 29%, Fairfax County 60% to 39%. In fact, Obama’s margin in the northern northern virginia jurisdictions (Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Fairfax City, Falls Church, Loudoun) plus Richmond was 260,372. In Tazewell County, where Huckabee spoke, McCain won 66% of the vote (which was actually a bit lower than in a number of other counties that voted for McCain).
One doesn’t have to look at just that one election to find irrefutable evidence that voters in Northern Virginia “aren’t necessarily thinking the same way folks” like Huckabee and the voters in the Piedmont, Southside, and Southwestern Virginia think. In 2006, for example, Virginia passed, with 57% of the vote, an amendment banning gay marriage. Northern Virginia, however, voted heavily against the amendment: 70% to 30% in Alexandria, 74% to 26% in Arlington, 54% to 46% in Fairfax, 69% to 31% in Falls Church. Tazewell County, in the Southwest, by contrast, voted for the amendment, 86% to 14%.
Let’s look at just one more example. In 2007 the Center for Social Science Research at George Mason University conducted a thorough survey of the attitudes of Virginians on a range of issues in immigration. One of the variables considered was geographic region of the state, and the survey found that “the depth of the attitudinal disparities” by region was striking.
Virginia’s 8 million residents live in regions that are highly diverse culturally, economically, and ecologically. The most affluent and urbanized region of the state is Northern Virginia, which has experienced the largest influx of newcomers. Other urban concentrations are in Richmond and Hampton Roads. More rural, less affluent parts of the state include the Southwest, South Piedmont, and Roanoke regions in the south, as well as the Shenandoah region adjoining West Virginia. Many of the latter regions have experienced economic hardship in recent years.
Our data indicate that different regions show highly divergent views of immigration policy and illegal immigration. The most tolerant and accommodating views are found in Northern Virginia; the least accepting attitudes are in the strip that reaches from the Southwest, the South Piedmont and Roanoke area….
And again:
While the most urbanized and culturally diverse region (Northern Virginia) holds relatively accomodating views on immigration policy, regions that are less urbanized and less affluent (such as the southern, Southwestern, and Piedmont regions) adopt significantly harsher views.
Take a look at the report for the actual numbers, which resemble the sort of division noted above in the votes for president in 2008 and for and against the anti-gay marriage amendment in 2006.
The only people “out of touch” here are the Democrats who deny that Northern Virginians “aren’t necessarily thinking the same way folks” are in the Piedmont, Southside, and Southwest and then try to brand those who note those differences as “divisive.”
