McDonnell uses obscenity by mistake
Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor, used an obscenity during a live interview on a Washington-area radio station on Friday.
A campaign spokesman said last night that McDonnell was trying to say "funding" but instead said another word.
"It was unintentional, and anyone who spends any time around Bob McDonnell knows he does not use such language," campaign spokesman J. Tucker Martin said in an e-mail. "It was an unfortunate stumble over the words, and Bob McDonnell apologizes for the mistake."
McDonnell, a former state attorney general, was sparring with WTOP host Mark Plotkin on transportation funding when the slip-up occurred, according to CNN. Plotkin asked if McDonnell would consider increasing state gasoline taxes to help pay for the transportation budget. McDonnell said no and uttered the expletive in his response.
"So no tax will be raised during your four-year term?" Plotkin asked.
McDonnell answered: "I'm going to find other ways to be able to fund transportation. I've outlined 12 [expletive] funding mechanisms that are creative, that are entrepreneurial."
The remark was first flagged by the Virginia Democratic blog NotLarrySabato.
McDonnell's campaign last night accused the campaign of his Democratic opponent, state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds of Bath County, of pushing the story of "this absolutely trivial matter to every blog and media outlet they can think of."
Deeds spokesman Jared Leopold denied promoting the story and fired back. "We're less concerned with Bob McDonnell's verbal miscues than his misguided plans to take $5.4 billion away from Virginia's schools" to fund transportation, he said. -- Will Jones
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Reader Reactions
In response to xxxx- don’t forget that every ballot in VA has a provision for a write in candidate for any position. If you don’t like the candidates named on the ballot, use it! It’s your right and the most direct means to assert your vote for the person that you want elected for the job!
I wonder what the religious conservatives think about Pat Robertson’s boy now. First the thesis renunciation and now this. They may be in line for an ‘attitude adjustment’. Bob knows what that is from his military days.
They are giving it space because BoB McDonnell is once again denying his own words.
I mean it’s pretty pathetic that he does’t have the cojones to stand up and say “Yeah, I said it. I was pissed off because no one takes my funding plan seriously . My Bad”
And that would have ended the controversy in it’s tracks.
Not that it matters. Kaine seems determined to give McDonnell the governor’s office on a silver platter.
Neither Deeds nor McDonnell are actually going to address funding for transportation in a serious manner.
Right now, the average driver pays less than a penny per mile in taxes to travel roads that cost almost, on average, more than a million dollars per mile to build.
VDOT has had it’s workforce forcibly shrunk by the privatizationist government policies by almost 50 percent over the last ten years, resulting in huge increases in costs for maintenance and construction services.
And no, you can’t see the cost figures - you ain’t entitled to know what your government is doing.
But, consider this, if the policies were actually saving money, then why are the numbers not being shouted from the rooftops?
Why are the budgets being busted, and the money disappearing faster than water down the throat of a commode?
Why are the bridges falling down, the roads falling apart, and the systems shutting down?
Why is the grass two feet tall?
Why is McDonnell, and Deeds both touting do-nothing policies concerning transportation, and everyone ignoring the white elephant in the center of the room.
You know, if the gas tax were doubled, the average person would pay 2 cents a mile to drive on a system where it costs tens of millions to build a midrange bridge, billions of dollars to build a major crossing, and on average a million dollars per mile to build a simple stretch of road.
In many instances it costs several hundred thousand dollars to overlay (resurface)one mile of two lane road.
And that folks, takes a source of funding that is direct, reliable and consistent. in other words, “funding mechanisms that are creative, that are entrepreneurial” are do nothing gimmicks that will add to the misery, add to the complexity, and totally do nothing to address the problems that are growing as the normal aging process destroys the infrastructure just as it does the human body.
I’ve had a slip or two like that and it’s usually during a highly charged conversation or when I am multi-tasking and not totally focused. The one thing I know is that what comes out is usually what I am thinking.
Frankly I don’t like either Deeds or McDonnell. I don’t agree with everything Deeds says or intends to do but I do believe he is sincere. I also don’t agree with everything McDonnell says or intends to do but I also don’t trust him.
It’s a good thing the election is a couple of months away, otherwise I’d be voting for Mickey Mouse.
The difference between Clinton and McDonnell is that Clinton is not part of the “family values” and “morality” party. It was the Republicans who got up in arms over Clinton but for some reason want to forget the “morals” of their own leaders.
It is McDonnell who is trying to portray himself as holier than thou so he is biting his own self on the back side.
Always such a cute move from the right fringe posters on this site, to not only try to deflect wrongs that people they support do by saying the other side did it worse, but to also give people they are opposed to nicknames like Timmy or Billy. I have a few nicknames for Bob McDonnell. Let’s start with misogynist, then maybe homophobe, possibly zealot, or Robertson’s chosen one. I think maybe the most telling nickname would be cynical calculator, in that he is a man with no apparent principles who has latched onto a group of people who vote purely on fear and hatred.
The difference between Clinton and McDonnell is that Clinton is not part of the “family values” and “morality” party. It was the Republicans who got up in arms over Clinton but for some reason want to forget the “morals” of their own leaders.
It is McDonnell who is trying to portray himself as holier than thou so he is biting his own self on the back side.
It was a mistake and we know what he was trying to say. Leave it to radical liberals to blow this out of proportion. I seem to remember Billy Clinton making a “mistake” or two. His mistake wasn’t about “funding” though. “I did not have funding relations with that woman, Miss Lewinski…“ or something like that. See, isn’t this ridiculous?
Oh, and Bob McDonnell—you still have my FUNDING vote.
Bad Boy Bob’s Potty Mouth is not the f*****g issue here. The real issue is that Bad Boy Bob has exposed himself as the f*****g hypocrite he really is.
So Jb are we Nazis or Socialists? Let me know. It would make my life so much easier if I knew which side of the political spectrum I was being demonized on. Cheers to inbreeeding
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