Bob McDonnell

WaPo Expands Quest to Torpedo McDonnell; 12 Hit Pieces in 11 Days
By Scott Whitlock | September 9, 2009 | 5:14 PM EDT

The Washington Post on Wednesday expanded its attack on Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, branching out beyond the Republican’s 1989 master’s thesis to a hit piece on the removal of a 2003 judge and whether or not it was because of homophobia on the part of the then-state delegate. The story centered around Verbena M. Askew, a Virginia judge who had been accused of sexually harassing a female colleague.

Post reporter Amy Gardner, who has written or co-written four of the Post’s 12 anti-McDonnell articles that have run over the last 11 days, stated that the 2003 removal of Askew "led to questions about whether the future Republican gubernatorial candidate thought gays were fit to serve on the bench." In the piece, Gardner left out any mention of the fact that two State House Democrats also voted to deny Askew reappointment. Gardner belatedly admitted this point in a blog on WashingtonPost.com:

Weekly Standard Mocks WaPo Crusade Against Bob McDonnell
By Scott Whitlock | September 9, 2009 | 3:19 PM EDT

The Weekly Standard’s September 14 issue parodied the Washington Post for its biased, obsessive coverage of Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, wryly featuring a mock headline that read: "Post Runs Another Story About Its McDonnell Story: Stories to run until ‘controversy’ takes on life of its own, sources say." [Emphasis added]

The Washington Post has published 12 pieces in 11 days highlighting a 1989 Regent University thesis by the Republican about the traditional family structure. The spot-on Weekly Standard parody spoofed, "Three days after publishing a story in hopes of generating a controversy over a master’s thesis written 20 years ago by GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bob McDonnell, The Washington Post will publish another story today about the reaction to its original story, the Washington Post has learned."

WaPo Continues Relentless Attacks on McDonnell; Nine Stories in Five Days
By Scott Whitlock | September 3, 2009 | 3:18 PM EDT

The Washington Post continued to attack Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell on Thursday, highlighting the Republican’s 1989 thesis three times and bringing the paper’s grand total to nine articles in five days. The Post, which recycled George Allen’s "macaca" moment 112 times in the 2006 campaign, featured this headline in the Metro section: "McDonnell's Thesis Is Relevant, Deeds Says: 1989 Paper Highlights Candidates' Differences, Senator Says." [Emphasis added.]

So, the Democratic candidate for governor wants to hype a 20-year-old master’s thesis on the family structure and that automatically makes it news for the Post? Staff reporters Rosalind S. Helderman and Anita Kumar used the Metro section article to parrot comments from the Creigh Deeds campaign on the importance of the thesis:

Bloomberg: Obama Hurting Democrat in Virginia Governor's Race
By Noel Sheppard | September 2, 2009 | 11:10 AM EDT

Barack Obama has been President for less than eight months, yet his policies are already having a negative impact on Democrats seeking office this year.

So said Bloomberg Wednesday in a piece entitled, "Corzine, Deeds Electoral Weakness Reflects Obama’s Lower Rating."

With a number of high-profile off-year elections scheduled for November, it will be fascinating to see how Obama-loving media spin Republican victories at the polls (h/t Chuck Todd):

WaPo Ratchets Up Attacks on Republican Bob McDonnell; Six Articles in Four Days
By Scott Whitlock | September 2, 2009 | 11:03 AM EDT

The Washington Post on Wednesday increased its frenzied attack on Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, featuring two stories in the paper’s Metro section, an op-ed and a cartoon. Including opinion pieces, the Post has delivered six articles in four days on the Republican's 1989 master’s thesis about families and government policy.

In an article with the loaded title "McDonnell Tries to Salvage Women’s Votes," Rosalind S. Helderman and Sandhya Somashekhar described how the candidate is trying to "help rebuild his relationship with the key voting bloc, damaged in recent days by the publication of his 1989 master's thesis." Helderman and Somashekhar highlighted that McDonnell "wrote in the thesis that working women and feminists had been ‘detrimental’ to the traditional family and criticized federal tax credits for child care because they made it easier for women to be employed outside the home."

Making sure to tout supposed growing outrage over the thesis, the Post reporters featured this liberal protestor:

Barone: 'Is the Washington Post Trying to "Macaca" Bob McDonnell?'
By Noel Sheppard | September 1, 2009 | 2:55 PM EDT

As most NewsBusters readers are aware, former Virginia Sen. George Allen's re-election campaign in 2006 -- and likely his entire political career -- was destroyed when media members spent months focusing attention on a word he uttered that likely nobody in the nation had ever heard of prior to that point.

At the forefront of such politically motivated obsession was the Washington Post which according to LexisNexis mentioned the word "macaca" along with Allen's name in 107 articles prior to Election Day 2006.

Now, according to the Washington Examiner's Michael Barone, the Post might be trying to do the same thing to the Republican candidate in the Virginia governor's race, Bob McDonnell: 

WaPo Ignores Itself, Prods McDonnell to Be More Vocally Pro-Life
By Mike Sargent | August 17, 2009 | 11:58 AM EDT
The Washington Post editorial page threw itself today into quite an odd political position.

The Post seems to think that Bob McDonnell, the GOP candidate for Virginia governor, should be more vocal about his opposition to abortion.  His opponent, Creigh Deeds, recently attempted to make a campaign issue out of his (somewhat newfound) support for abortion rights – a strategy that the Post called “risky.”  Today’s editorial, however, backed Deeds’ strategy:
Mr. Deeds's strategy of stressing abortion may work or backfire; time will tell. But to suggest, as the McDonnell campaign has, that a campaign discussion about abortion "is engaging in the politics of division" is disingenuous and wrong. Thousands of Virginians have abortions every year, a decision that touches on families and futures. It's a fair and pressing topic of debate.
That is a somewhat perplexing position.  On its face, that appears to be gently pushing McDonnell to engage on an issue critical to winning over Virginia voters.  The problem is, the Post’s position would throw the current debate among Virginia voters wildly off-topic, according to no less a source than a recent Washington Post poll.
Prominent Dem Businesswoman Backs GOP Gov. Candidate Citing Economic Issues, WaPo Not Impressed
By Ken Shepherd | July 21, 2009 | 1:21 PM EDT

<p>She's the nation's <a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_11_58/ai_106700553/" target="_blank">first black female billionaire</a>, a co-founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET) whose political contributions <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.php?name=Johnson%2C+Sheila&amp;... target="_blank">skew heavily Democratic</a>, and in 2005 she backed the now outgoing-Democratic Gov.Tim Kaine's bid for office. But now Sheila C. Johnson has crossed the aisle to endorse Republican Bob McDonnell in his bid to be Virginia's chief executive, arguing that he has a better grasp on economic issues than his Democratic opponent. </p><p>Yet in reporting the news of the endorsement, the Washington Post elected to leave any word of Johnson's endorsement from its Metro front page headline. Instead, the Post blandly offered readers this headline and subheader:</p><blockquote><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/20/AR200907... target="_blank">Business Leaders Are Major Prize In Va. Race</a>: McDonnell, Deeds Seek Credibility Among Execs</blockquote><p>Indeed, in her July 21 story, staffer Rosalind Helderman pitted McDonnell's newsworthy endorsement against a &quot;competing&quot; announcement from the camp of McDonnell's Democratic opponent:</p><blockquote>