Life under the Regency category archive

That summarizes the Regent’s defense.

Now comes Pat Robertson saying it’s all Obama’s fault.

The Regency Medicine Show gets more interesting.

Two witnesses told a federal jury Monday about a personal testimonial from then-Gov. Bob McDonnell touting the tobacco-based diet supplement Anatabloc.

The supplement is at the heart of the corruption trial of McDonnell and his wife, Maureen. They are charged with soliciting more than $160,000 in loans, gifts and other favors from businessman Jonnie Williams in exchange for promoting the product made by Williams’ company, Star Scientific.

Lots more at the link.

Jon Stewart takes on the case of the Regent and the Medicine Showman.

Moved below the fold because it autoplays on some systems.

Read more »

Dick Polman looks at the Regent and remembers Rick’s American Cafe.

Just read it.

In related news, a letter writer to my local rag reveals who won the bet on the defense strategy.

Vivian Paige, preeminent local politics blogger and columnist for my local rag, asks, “Will the real Regent please stand up?”

The second day of the McDonnell trial brought the bombshell revelation of a splintered family. I couldn’t help but remember the former governor’s 1989 thesis, which was made public during his gubernatorial campaign. In it, Bob McDonnell lamented the breakdown of the traditional family and proposed specific policy proposals to curb it.

Either McDonnell didn’t take his own advice, or the defense is just an effort to win an acquittal. In either case, the Bob McDonnell of 1989 wouldn’t recognize the Bob McDonnell of 2014.

The Regent went on trial today, and the trail opened with a bombshell.

Here’s a snippet from a long report in my local rag:

Those revelations came Tuesday morning during the opening statement of Maureen McDonnell’s defense team.

Attorney Bill Burck said Maureen McDonnell was unhappy and lonely as a governor’s wife. By the time Williams came onto the scene, the former first couple were “barely on speaking terms,” but were “putting on a brave face” for the public.

Burck said Williams used Maureen McDonnell to get to her husband, lavishing her with the “attention and time” she was not getting from “the other man in her life.”

Family Values. It’s a Republican thing.

Video ia C&L, which has more.

It appears that the Regent also loves him a parade.

Former Gov. Bob McDonnell asked U.S. District Judge James Spencer on Thursday to permit 20 additional blank subpoenas for the defense, which would keep those witnesses’ names secret, for now.

Last month Spencer agreed to an initial 10 blank subpoenas for McDonnell. The former governor’s lawyers say blank subpoenas are critical to the defense in order to keep certain witnesses’ names from the prosecution and the public via the media.

When I entered college, I wanted to be a lawyer. Then I met some law students . . . .

Anyhoo, from my non-lawyerly perspective, I think the Regent’s legal staff has decided that their only available strategy is to raise so much dust that the truth becomes obscured by clouds.

More dust bunnies at the link.

The Regent wants himself some character witnesses. A nugget:

“Mr. McDonnell cannot adequately defend himself without relying heavily on character witnesses,” defense attorneys wrote. “First, the heart of this case is a credibility contest between Mr. McDonnell on one hand and Mr. Williams, the Government’s chief witness, on the other.”

Prosecutors argued in their motion last month that any more than three character witnesses would be redundant. McDonnell’s attorneys disagreed.

In my experience, persons who have character don’t need wi–oh, never mind.

Dan Casey recounts the strange tale of the “greenie tax.” A snippet:

Remember the greenie tax? It was probably the weirdest law that emerged from the 2013 Virginia General Assembly. It targeted the more than 95,000 owners of hybrid and electric cars in Virginia. They had to pay an extra $64 fee on top of their regular annual vehicle registration.

The cockamamie idea (along with many others–ed.) emerged from then-Gov. Bob McDonnell’s administration.

It’s been repealed, but yet lives one (at least for another three weeks). Follow the link for more.

. . . for the Regent and Milady. They are stuck with each other.

Bob and Maureen McDonnell will have their day in court, together, even if they would rather not.

U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer in three orders Tuesday denied motions by both defendants to dismiss many of the charges they face, to separate their trials, or give them access to communication records between prosecutors and the grand jury.

Afterthought:

A rule of thumb, though not an ironclad one: the weaker attorneys’ cases, the more pretrial motions they file. It’s the W. C. Fields theory of jurisprudence.

Persons often ask for them when they are in a trial marriage.

Afterthought:

This gives new meaning to the term, “trial separation.”

The Regent’s defense lawyers are trying every trick in the book to blow smoke around his prosecution for taking favors from Jonnie Williams, purveyor of magickal nicotine pills.

Judge James Spencer likened the McDonnells’ legal team’s reasoning to “just dancing through fantasy land” and urged the defense and prosecutors to limit their legal wrangling before trial in consideration of the “sanctity” of the trees.

Follow the link for the dance card.

The Regent, still at the public trough:

A pair of newly released invoices for a combined $10,358 in attorneys’ fees related to former Gov. Bob McDonnell’s gift scandal brings the taxpayer tab for that legal service from two main firms the state had retained to about $795,000 since last spring.

There’s an old joke that goes,

Q. How do you go bankrupt?

A. A little bit at a time, then all at once.

I think that’s how The Regent got into his mess: a little bit at a time and then all at once.

Looks like the Regent will be in the news a bit longer.

Former governor Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, have been charged with violating federal public corruption law in a 14-count indictment handed down Tuesday, a law enforcement source confirmed.

Details of the indictment were not immediately available, but the source said it stems from the McDonnells’ relationship with former Star Scientific chief executive Jonnie R. Williams Sr.

Frankly, I do not think that MacDonnell was knowingly on the take in a tit-for-tat manner, but I do think he took when he should not have and probably allowed his judgment to affected. I am also confident that he is stunned at finding himself in this mess, for I am certain that he is convinced of his own virtue.

As corruption goes, it’s stupid penny ante stuff, stuff that would get the Regent laughed out of Louisiana or New Jersey, for example. Nevertheless, it illustrates once more the Republican conviction that wealth ipso facto means virtue.

Via The Richmonder, who’s wondering when the indictments will come down.

Always a fighter, I reckon:

During his final days as attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli released a pair of nonbinding opinions that can be read as legal arguments against Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s campaign pledges to fight for gay rights and undo abortion restrictions.

Fortunately, Governor McAuliffe seems to be choosing to disdain Cooch’s bigotry.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed Executive Order Number 1 at the Capitol of Virginia on Saturday, which prohibits discrimination based on race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, political affiliation, or against otherwise qualified persons with disabilities in Virginia state government. McAuliffe signed the Executive Order immediately following his inauguration.

It’s safe to say we haven’t heard the last of the Cooch and the rest of the Cuckoos.

This is the end of the Regent’s term as Governor of Virginia. Indeed, Governor McAuliffe is being sworn in right about now.

Brian Devine thinks that the Regent’s term was memorable. Find out why.

. . . for we all know that a lamer website means a failed policy. It’s ACA rules.

VDOT website crashes after Hampton Roads drivers rush to get E-ZPass

Aside:

The policy is a failure for many other reasons, not the least because it exemplifies the Commonwealth’s selling out to the highest bidder its responsibility for providing for the transportation needs of its citizens.

A crashed website, though, is nothing more than a crashed website.

The Regency ends officially on January 11, but it looks like Virginia’s addiction to magickal nicotine pills will continue for quite a while.

Through September, Virginia had been billed roughly $575,000 by several lawyers from different firms under open-ended contracts outgoing Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli authorized last year after withdrawing as counsel from related cases due to his own conflicts in the matter.

And in the waning days of McDonnell’s tenure, it’s unclear when those deals expire because the contracts binding them stipulate they “will continue” through an undefined completion point.

Afterthought:

When I went to college, I thought I wanted be a lawyer.

Then I got to know some law students . . . .

It is a truism that every lawyer is a crook until you need one (and, when I needed one, I’ve always found persons of integrity), but, really, now, open-ended contracts?