As Scott Whitlock noted last week, the Washington Post editorial page thumped away at conservative Republican Ken Cuccinelli, who’s currently ahead in the race for Virginia’s Attorney General: "Given his sometimes bizarre and incendiary ideas, we worry that Mr. Cuccinelli would drive qualified and nonpartisan lawyers away, transform the attorney general's office into a staging ground for his pet peeves and causes, and make it an object of ridicule in a state where it has enjoyed a long run of respect."
But what about when Cuccinelli’s Democrat opponent, Steve Shannon, becomes an object of ridicule? The Post ignores it.
At National Review Online’s Campaign Spot, Jim Geraghty suggested it could be the "Worst Debate Answer Ever?" When they allowed the candidates to ask a question to each other, Cuccinelli calmly asked Shannon to name each division of the attorney general’s office and explain what each does.
You would think that political reporters would like an informational question like this. Shannon refused to answer it, so Northern Virginia blogger Greg Letiecq made a funny video. It's a sensation among conservatives. The Washington Post never acknowledged that Shannon refused to answer this question – even when asked by a reporter in the post-debate spin time. They used debates in this way:
"I'm a pro-business, law-and-order centrist," Shannon said at a recent debate. "Last week I got the endorsement of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce. I am not an ideologue."
Meanwhile, in the same October 19 story, reporter Amy Gardner suggested Cuccinelli was a strange ultraconservative who home-schools his too-numerous children (gasp!):
Cuccinelli is a hero to supporters of a range of conservative causes, and he does not shy away from his views on gun rights, gay marriage, abortion, home-schooling (he has seven children, and wife Teiro home-schools four of them).
PS: Letiecq (whose blog is called Black Velvet Bruce Li) has been dissed on the front page of the Washington Post with the suggestion that he's a "mouse-pushing crackpot."
