The impression the media gives of Virginia’s Attorney General
Ken Cuccinelli is something of an obstinate hacksaw one shade shy
of
anarchist, a powder keg whom Republicans watch just waiting for
an Akin/Mourdock moment.
Cuccinelli is the state’s presumptive Republican gubernatorial
nominee whose quest to succeed the state’s current Republican
governor Bob McDonnell (who is limited to one term) has drawn
criticism from both sides.
Democrats, led by challenger Terry McAuliffe, are painting him
as a ruthless radical intent on destroying government programs
which promote the common good. McDonnell’s Lieutenant Governor
Bill Bolling and
those who share in his thinking that the Republican Party needs
to moderate its tone to broaden its appeal, have condemned
Cuccinelli and the so-called extremist views of his new book,
The Last Line of Defense.
I spoke to Cuccinelli about his campaign strategy, the future of
the GOP, and his war on big government, as well as the contents of
his book and the perception his words generate.
In a state that has gone twice for Obama and elected Democratic
senators the past three times, Cuccinelli said his reliability
accounts for much of his popularity. “People have come to
understand in Virginia that what you see is what you get,” he said,
“and I think that accounts for the support I get from some people
who don’t necessarily agree with me on a lot of issues. They really
appreciate knowing where I stand.”
Cuccinelli has been described as “uncompromising” and
“undaunted.” He’s stood for unapologetic conservatism during his
eight years as a state senator and three years as attorney general,
and hasn’t lost an election yet.
Early polling in the gubernatorial race shows him tied
with McAuliffe.
Pointing to the anti-Paul Ryan “Medi-scare” ads of the 2012
presidential election, Cuccinelli defended himself and the way the
other side has portrayed his stance on entitlement programs. “Of
course those programs have perfectly good goals,” he said, “but…our
government has crowded out all alternatives to Medicare, and so
when somebody like Paul Ryan actually has the temerity to try to
suggest how we can make it sustainable, to put an actual plan on
the table, the other side simply attacks. ‘He’ll take away your
government program, and that’s all there is!’ According to [big
government folks], you can’t touch any part of government, unless
you want to grow it.”
“One of [politicians’] favorite ways to increase their power is
by creating programs that dispense subsidized government benefits,
such as Medicare, Social Security and outright welfare (Medicaid,
food stamps, subsidized housing and the like),” Cuccinelli writes
in The Last Line of Defense. “These programs make people
dependent on government. And once people are dependent, they feel
they can’t afford to have the programs taken away, no matter how
inefficient, poorly run, or costly to the rest of society.”
He continues, “Once they’re elected, they decide that
eliminating that government program or that regulation is a little
too risky, because there’s some group of voters (who probably won’t
vote for them anyway) who’ll be angry and vocal about it if they
do.”
Opponents on the left are calling these remarks “echoes
of Mitt Romney’s infamous remarks about 47 percent of Americans
[who are] dependent on government.” But Cuccinelli doesn’t seem
concerned that his words will have the same damning effect. “I
think what Mitt Romney said was that there’s so much of this
dependence that 47 percent of the Americans will never vote for
him,” he said. “Well, my number is zero percent. There is no vote
in Virginia that I don’t have a shot at. I literally haven’t found
a human being yet that I don’t agree with on something. Don’t put
me in that category. I haven’t written anybody off. I think that
Governor Romney’s statement left him as perceived that he had in
fact written some people off. Well, I haven’t written anybody off,
and I don’t intend to.”
Cuccinelli made it clear that his goal is not adamant
dissolution of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and “outright
welfare” programs, but rather to reverse the federal government’s
“extraordinary overreach in the regulatory arena.” “Let’s face it,”
he said, “bad policy or good policy is the subject of elections. We
don’t sue the federal government because we don’t like what they’re
doing. For that we vote. We only sue them when they’re breaking the
law, or violating the Constitution. That’s what lawsuits are
for.”
Cuccinelli’s book chronicles his challenges to Obamacare, the
Environmental Protection Agency, and the Federal Communications
Commission. “It isn’t just what’s good policy and what’s not,” he
explained. “We’re dealing with something much more fundamental, and
that is the fact that the federal government isn’t obeying the law
and is trampling the Constitution. The states have stepped up and
played a role that the Founders expected states to play, and that
is to put a check on the federal government’s overzealous abuse of
power.”
Cuccinelli’s arguments are based on a sound understanding of the
Constitution and America’s founding documents. Despite repeated
calls from liberals to do away with the Constitution and “all
its archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions,”
Cuccinelli is determined and optimistic: “We beat the EPA. That
makes me optimistic. The NLRB ruling was a big deal. When a state
like Michigan becomes a right-to-work state, that gives me a great
deal of optimism.”
And he’s sanguine about continuing his success in the governor’s
mansion: “I intend, if I can win this governor’s race, to continue
that innovative, aggressive push to make our economy here in
Virginia more pro-growth, more encouraging to innovation and
risk-taking, and when people finally throw in the towel on this
bigger government approach of federal government, there’ll be
examples all over America in states that have undertaken these
sorts of free-market, pro-growth, and pro-liberty policies, and we
intend to be one of those here in Virginia.
Cuccinelli referenced a recent
Pew research survey which finds that a majority of Americans
believe the federal government threatens their personal rights.
“American people are getting sensitized to the fact that they’re
losing their freedoms slowly but surely to the illegal activities
of a lot of these regulatory agencies,” he said.
Speaking about the division which emerged in the GOP following
Romney’s loss in the fall and whether it could lead to the rise of
a third party, Cuccinelli, a Tea Party hero, said: “I think the way
we got President Obama as president in 2008 is that Republicans in
years running up to it had abandoned their principles when they
actually had the ability to govern, and were in a position to do
so. He didn’t win so much as we lost in 2008. We’ve got to step it
up to do better in that area at one-on-one campaigning. We’ve got
to have our people able to explain why the course we want to be on
is better.”
So far, Ken Cucinelli’s race is certainly one to watch. As a
champion of small government in the only high-profile race this
off-year, his campaign will be followed with intense interest
across the political spectrum. Even
Slate can’t find much bad to say about him, other
than that he is “ultraconservative.”
Those conservative values will be on trial in Virginia this
November. And the whole country will be watching.
Photo: UPI.
