Political nerds are the sort who can tell you about Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor who's the Libertarian party's latest nominee from the castoffs of the big parties.
But you have to drill way down to know that former Virginia congressman Virgil Goode is running for president as the standard-bearer of the Constitution Party. It's the party of middle-of-the-road fringers and haters (they rejected Alan Keyes as their nominee during his 2008 run for president as a Republican, Constitutionalist and, finally, under the freak flag of George Wallace's old American Independent Party).
Goode just qualified for the ballot in his native state and that, The New York Times says, is potential trouble for Republican nominee Mitt Romney:
The Virginia State Board of Elections announced Tuesday that Mr. Goode’s
name would appear third on the ballot, following the Republican and
Democratic presidential nominees. At the same time, the board asked
Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the state’s Republican attorney general, to
investigate Republican allegations that Mr. Goode’s party used
fraudulent signatures to qualify for the election...
For now, Republicans, must figure out how to handle their new
presidential competitor. Mr. Goode, a former congressman, may not win
many votes, but in a close election they may have outsize significance.
“I look at it today as unimportant, but in November it could be very
important, ” said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of
Virginia’s Center for Politics. “In a close race, almost anything could
matter.”
But Mr. Kondik said he would be “shocked” if Mr. Goode captured 5
percent of the state’s votes. If either major party candidate builds
even a slim lead, Mr. Goode’s place on the ballot will become
meaningless.
Congressman Goode is another political cross-dresser of the sort that seems to roll down into the Constitution Party bin: he's been, variously, a Democrat, an independent, and a Republican.
It's that rock-solid adherence to principle that not only has drawn Alan Keyes back from George Wallace's shade to endorse Goode, it has drawn the full-throated backing of South Carolina's own Pomp & Punishment, the blog that casts Sir Winston Churchill as God, the Pope as the Son and the Queen of England as The Holy Ghost:
"Conservative pragmatism"
has brought us to a conclusion that will probably shock our readers --
it would be better for Barack Hussein Obama to be reelected and face
what is expected to be an enlarged conservative opposition in Congress,
than for Congressional conservatives to become the pawns in the
consolidation of socialist politics and the "leftist deconstruction of
America’s moral identity." Better that our representatives should be a
minority fiercely defying what is wrong, than its docile facilitators
"carrying water" for another liberal Republican administration.
Which, according to The New York Times' report, is pretty much what Goode will do if he gets a toehold in Virginia, the swingingest of swing states this year.
It is America's acquiescence with evil - choosing over and over again the
lesser of two evils -- that has brought us to bankruptcy, moral
degradation and near collapse. Stand tall, in solidarity with one
another, and in the spirit of America's founders, reject the false
pragmatism. The lesser of two evils is still evil.
And surely nobody knows bankruptcy, moral degradation and near collapse like Virgil Goode. Until the voters called him home in 2008, Goode was a good soldier of the House Republican Caucus- he voted for every Bush budget-busting bill and war that came along. When the fiscal decisions were being made that ran up America's bar tab, Goode was shouting, "Drinks for the House!"
So, how does an anti-gay Republican US Congressman come to support a
movie that is filled with lots of gay sex and lots of drug use? Well,
the best place to start is with Linwood Duncan,
Goode's Press Secretary. Linwood is gay (an open secret in DC) and has
aspirations to be a movie star. In 2003, Ed Henry, then with Roll Call, reported about Linwood and his dreams of the silver screen:
Who knew that Linwood Duncan, the unassuming press secretary for Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Va.), has been dabbling in acting on the side and turns up with a bit part in the new movie "Eden's Curve"?You're thinking "what's the big deal?" Who cares if Roll Call wrote about a movie starring a right-wing Congressional staffer that was "especially popular at gay and lesbian film festivals across the country because the lead character gets mixed up in relationships with his male roommate..."?***Duncan has played everyone from Sherlock Holmes to Sir Thomas More in dozens of shows in the D.C. and Charlottesville, Va., areas. He was approached by a longtime friend, Jerry Meadors, screenwriter and producer for "Eden's Curve."
I'll tell you who cares. The anti-earmark conservatives care and the anti-gay troglodytes care... A LOT!
You read it here first: After his press secretary got his first film
acting break in a movie filled with gay sex and drug use [Duncan played the Dean of Students- Waldo], the
conservative Republican Congressman moved an earmark for $150,000 to the very theater run by the movie's producer. And get this, the press secretary is on the board!Who is the Artistic Director of the The North Theatre? Jerry Meadors.
Who is on the Board of Directors? Linwood Duncan. From the Theater's web
page:
As blogger Mike Rogers wondered:1. What exactly are the personal relationships between Virgil Goode, Linwood Duncan and Jerry Meadors?I wonder, just what did Virgil Goode do to land in the credits of a movie like Eden's Curve?
2. How was this earmark connected to Linwood Duncan's acting break?
3. How does Virgil Goode square his condemnation of gay and lesbian Americans while helping to make Eden's Curve?
4. How many other films exploring gay issues has Virgil Goode been involved with?
5. Can we gain access to the records that document how the $150,000 earmark was spent?
Doubtless P&P will explain it all.
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