VA GUBE: Trickle Down Rush

VA Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe has seized on the national coverage of Rush Limbaugh's role in leading the GOP to urge his Republican rival, Bob McDonnell, to reject Limbaugh. McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, asks McDonnell, the former state AG, to condemn Limbaugh for saying he wants Pres. Obama to fail.

This is the first evidence that the Limbaugh hullabaloo is being used at the state level. A successful co-opting of the national Democratic message? You decide.

Dear Bob,

I know that you and I disagree on many issues, but I'm hoping that we can agree on this: hoping for failure isn't the right way to get our economy back on track.

That's why I'm asking you to join me in condemning the remarks Rush Limbaugh made wishing for the President to fail.

I'm sure that you are hearing the same things from Virginians that I am - they are nervous about their future; they're struggling to hold onto their homes and their jobs; they want us to stay focused on getting results for them.

There are a lot of things that all of us can do to help - we can encourage cooperation and help our neighbors. We can support the work that the President and Congress are doing to get our economy back on track. We can also speak our minds when we disagree. In a democracy, difference of opinion is what fuels our best ideas. We don't come up with the right answer if folks don't stand up and say what they believe in.

I know Rush doesn't agree with the approach President Obama has taken to helping get our economy back on its feet. And no one says he has to agree - but there is a point at which criticism is no longer constructive, and simply put, his comments have crossed that line.

Rush reinforced his comments about hoping that President Obama fails just this past weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference. When Rush started wishing that our President would fail, he stopped participating in an open debate about the right course of action. Instead, he was feeding a political culture that isn't about results - it is about who wins and who loses.

Rush said as much himself this weekend. But this isn't the Super Bowl we're talking about. It's our economy. It's our families. It's our country. It's our future.

When politicians and pundits focus on who is winning instead of succeeding, it's the American people who lose. As many times as you've disagreed with Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, you know that you can disagree with someone without wishing for them to fail.

I hope you'll join me in calling for Rush to start taking an approach that reflects the best of what our system stands for.

Best,

Terry