That tried and true tactic of vapid conservatives everywhere is to call your opponent a liberal, as if that says it all. That says he or she has no values, cares little about working Americans and is a coward. Or I can only surmise. But Jerry Kilgore, under attack for avoiding debates with Kaine, prefers to stand to the side and call Kaine a liberal. Well, OK, the Neanderthals who couldn’t understand an argument if it hit them on the back of their red necks, might say, “That’s all I need to know.” But you’d think Kilgore would have something to point to as proof.
It seems all he has is Kaine’s support for tax increases last year and his work on two cases referred to him by that anti-American, commie-pinko, radical ACLU. Never mind that most Virginians supported the tax increase, meaning, I guess, that most Virginians are liberal. And how is it that a group that seeks “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States,” and who also seeks to “conserve America’s original civic values – the Constitution and the Bill of Rights” is liberal? Do liberals “conserve America’s original civic values”?
Kaine need only remind voters of the popularity of the tax hikes and of what preserving our rights mean in a post-9-11 Patriot Act world. And he might tell them of what the cases were that earned him this epithet. Kaine’s spokesman Delacey Skinner did that, but not before taking the bait.
“They like to say that Tim Kaine is an ACLU lawyer. But the truth is that Tim was never a member of the ACLU and has never worked for the ACLU,” Skinner said.
“The closest contact that he has had with the ACLU was his work on two cases that were referred to him by the ACLU. One of those was a housing-discrimination case in which the people that he was representing had been discriminated against on the basis of their race. Regardless of your political beliefs, it is hard to criticize Tim for offering his services on a case of that nature,” Skinner said.
The apology for the ACLU — in the form of a distancing statement — adds credibility to the charge. Why not defend this organization that regressives don’t like until their rights are trampled?