Virginia Gov. race update – McDonnell too conservative for George Allen

A few more highlights from WaPo’s article on Bob McDonnell – apparently McDonnell is too much of a theocon for racist former Governor and Senator George “Macaca” Allen:

Republican friends who support McDonnell’s campaign for governor acknowledge parting ways with some of his more conservative views. Former governor and U.S. senator George Allen said he doesn’t share McDonnell’s opposition to abortion in cases of rape or incest. “There should always be an exception,” he said. And state Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle (Virginia Beach), a close friend first elected to the legislature the same year as McDonnell, described covenant marriage as “the state overstepping its bounds.”

Covenant marriage is what now?

He also sponsored bills on four occasions to establish covenant marriage in Virginia. All four were unsuccessful. Under McDonnell’s proposals, couples choosing to enter covenant marriage would have been required to obtain premarital counseling and sign a declaration of intent acknowledging that marriage is a lifelong commitment. In addition, the time of separation necessary for couples with children to obtain a no-fault divorce would have been extended from one to two years.

Apparently “traditional marriage” isn’t good enough, so count on a theocon to redefine it. It’s just good ol’ fashioned small-government conservativism, right?

“Leaders must correct the conventional folklore about the separation of church and state,” he wrote.

The constitution is just “folklore” huh?

He advocated character education programs in public schools to teach “traditional Judeo-Christian values” and other principles that he thought many youths were not learning in their homes. He called for less government encroachment on parental authority, for example, redefining child abuse to “exclude parental spanking.”

This makes my head spin. How is “less government encroachment on parental authority” compatible with forcing schools to teach religious principles that students “were not learning in their homes”? Obviously McDonnell has no opinion about big or small government whatsoever, he just wants whatever shoves the maximum amount of evangelical theology up our backsides.

He went on to say feminism is among the “real enemies of the traditional family.”

In this case, I’m willing to believe life experience might have taught him otherwise. His daughter served in the Army in Iraq. I wonder how she feels about this:

In 2001, he voted against a resolution in support of ending wage discrimination between men and women.

My favorite part is this:

What he wrote in the thesis on women in the workplace, he said, “was simply an academic exercise and clearly does not reflect my views.”

I have a feeling all of McDonnell’s campaign promises are also “simply an academic exercise”.