Ah, Bigotry Rears Its Ugly Head in Virginia as Republican Deny Judgeship to Person Because He is Openly Gay

An Embarrassing Turn Of Events, Embarrassing Because It is Not Embarrassing to the Republicans

If there is any doubt that Republicans favor a merit based society their position on Affirmative Action should erase all doubts.  Republicans are firmly opposed to any programs that try to make up for prejudice and injustice of the past, because they say everyone should be judged on their merits, and not on their personal characteristics.  Discrimination is wrong, utterly and totally wrong they say.

Of course this meritocracy position is shattered by what Republicans actually do. In Virginia they have rejected confirmation of a judge for that state for the sole reason that he is gay.

The Virginia House of Delegates rejected the judicial nomination of a gay prosecutor on Tuesday after conservative Republican lawmakers argued that the nominee would press an activist agenda.

Apparently the Conservatives felt that among other things, if made a judge an openly gay person would impose same sex marriage on the state, and always rule in favor of gays people over straight people.

Conservatives, including Delegate Bob Marshall, a Republican from Prince William County, argued that certain aspects of Mr. Thorne-Begland's biography meant that he would not be able to be impartial if he became a judge, an assertion that those supporting Mr. Thorne-Begland disputed.

This position by Conservatives is certainly understandable.  Since they vote their prejudices they naturally assume that everyone else will be equally prejudiced and act in a judicial manner that is prejudiced.  It may be that these Conservatives have been prejudiced for so long that they simply cannot imagine that anyone else would not be prejudiced.

The Republican Governor of the state, desperately hoping to be chosen as Mr. Romney’s Vice Presidential nominee took his cue from Mr. Romney and attempted to be on both sides of the issue by 'implicitly' condemning the vote, leaving everyone open to interpret his position as they see fit.  

Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, implicitly condemned the vote in a statement released by his office Tuesday, saying judicial candidates “must be considered based solely on their merit, record, aptitude and skill.”

Contrary to expectations Mr. Romney did not release a statement congratulating Mr. McDonnell for his wishy-washy position, and did not say “Congrats Bob, I could not have done it better myself”. The press, fearful of being called partial by Republicans did not press Mr. McDonnell to say whether or not he supported the rejection.  "That would be doing our job" one reporter said, "and we don't do that anymore."