July 12, 2013 10:39 AM UTC

At Least He's Not Your Governor

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Washington Post reports, one of the GOP's darling conservative "Tea Party" state governors, outgoing Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia, is facing calls to resign before his term ends as revelations of large gifts to family members from a corporate benefactor continue to grow:

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus says he’s “the wrong guy” to ask about whether Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) should resign amid revelations of additional allegations he took improper gifts from a prominent donor…

“I haven’t talked to the governor,” he said. “I know as much as you do. I don’t know the Virginia campaign finance laws. What I do know is Bob McDonnell has done an incredible job as governor. You’re asking the wrong guy.”

Gov. McDonnell has been reeling from the scandal over his relationship to a diet supplement executive, who supplied thousands of dollars for lavish personal spending on McDonnell's family members–and a $6,500 Rolex watch inscribed "71st Governor of Virginia" that McDonnell proudly wears (or least wore) himself. Columnist Ruth Marcus summarizes the fall of the once-enormously popular McDonnell, calling for his resignation:

As astonishing is the governor’s technocratic defense: that he is complying with the letter of Virginia disclosure rules, which do not require reporting of gifts to family members. “To, after the fact, impose some new requirements on an official,” McDonnell told a Norfolk radio show, “obviously wouldn’t be fair.”

But gifts and entanglements like these are simply wrong, a violation of the governor’s duty to citizens, whatever the rules. That McDonnell doesn’t get this basic point makes him unfit for office. Obviously.

Like we've said previously, Colorado's "ethics in government" law, Amendment 41, isn't perfect–Scott Gessler will naturally be first to agree–but the situation in Virginia provides reductio ad absurdum proof that you need to have something. More than just a "loophole," Virginia's status quo seems almost guaranteed to result in corruption.

Or maybe something besides the proverbial cream rises to the top in Virginia GOP politics.