330 Upland Shores Drive, in the Water’s Edge subdivision of Franklin County, owned by Jonnie Williams, a friend to both Gov. Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. | Photo by Stephanie Klein Davis | The Roanoke Times

To get to one of the most noteworthy homes of late on Smith Mountain Lake, you head east on Virginia 40 from Rocky Mount. Pass the one-horse communities of Redwood and Glade Hill. Soon you’ll come to Penhook and the local landmark known as Carl’s Place, a friendly diner and gas station.

Just past Carl’s, follow some back roads for 3 to 4 miles to the lushly landscaped golf community called Water’s Edge. A little ways off a cul de sac at the end of Upland Shores Drive, you’ll find No. 330, a house owned by Jonnie and Celeste Williams.

Built in 1993, the cedar and stone-sided mansion stands on two waterfront acres, behind some shade-providing trees on a point that juts out into the lake’s Blackwater River side. There’s a stone-paver driveway with a turning circle, six parking spaces and an attached, two-car garage. It’s currently listed for sale at $3.9 million. (More pix are here).

There’s another waterfront home in Water’s Edge which Jonnie Williams owns with his son, Jonnie Jr. It’s at 125 Sconset Drive, and is smaller and is also for sale — for $649,000. )More pix are here.)

125 Sconset Drive, in the Water’s Edge Community of Franklin County, owned by Jonnie Williams and his son, Jonnie Williams Jr. | Shot by Dan

Neither home is particularly noteworthy at Smith Mountain Lake, where scores of similar mansions dot 500-some miles of shoreline. Instead, the recent prominence comes from the friends of Williams — a car dealer turned tobacco magnate — who he’s gifted with lake vacations in recent years.

One is Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican candidate for governor, who’s vacationed three times at Williams’ expense. Twice, in 2011 and 2012, Williams gave the Cuccinelli a week in the summer (value of each: $3,000), according to the attorney general’s recently amended financial disclosures.

Once, in 2010, Williams provided a place to Cuccinelli for a four-day Thanksgiving retreat (value: $1,500). For that, Williams also provided a catered dinner.

Another is Gov. Bob McDonnell. In 2011, according to the governor’s financial disclosure, Williams gave McDonnell $2,268 worth of lodging and entertainment at Smith Mountain Lake. Williams has lavished other gifts upon the governor as well.

READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE.

AP Photo from CBS News

Gov. Bob McDonnell has come under all kinds of questioning lately about his relationship to Jonnie Williams, CEO of Star Scientific, a company that makes some kind of nutritional supplement from tobacco. Much of it focuses on the $15,000 in catering Williams covered for the governor’s daughter’s wedding, and the the nettlesome fact that McDonnell initially failed to disclose the gift.

This morning on a Richmond radio station, McDonnell explained why. It was a gift to his daughter — not him! Of course! Why didn’t we realize that before now?

From Roanoke.com:

Gov. Bob McDonnell says he always viewed a $15,000 check from a political backer to pay for catering at his daughter’s wedding to be a gift to his daughter, not to him, and felt no need under the law to report it.

I’m sure the FBI, which is investigating the case, will find this interesting. No doubt they will carefully scrutinize the payee line on that check. While the probe drags on, there’s an important lesson for us all to keep in mind: Invite Jonnie Williams to your daughter’s wedding! You might want to enclose the catering contract with the invitation.

(BTW McDonnell isn’t the only pol facing questions over “gifts” from Jonnie Williams.)

I wonder what Miss Manners would say?

AP Photo & FASTILY | Wikimedia Commons

Note from Dan: The following metaphorical verse comes courtesy Allison Cole of Roanoke.

Ken Cuccinelli has taken a stand

Making vanilla flavor of the land

Hey! I do not really think that is fair,

Have you tried the other flavors out there?

Some with walnuts, berries, and caramel ropes

Chocolate, marshmallows and rootbeer floats

Some have sprinkles, showing off the rainbow

Others with brownie bites and cookie dough

Do it with Ben, Jerry, or Blue Bunny Read more »

ncpedia.org

Let us peak into a crystal ball and envision Richmond, Va. in 2014. Gov. Ken Cuccinelli is in the governor’s mansion, the state’s GOP is even more firmly in power in both the House and the Senate.

The theocrats are doing high-fives in the House and Senate chambers. Del. Bob Marshall can’t believe his good fortune. He wonders if he’s living a dream.

Imagine what darling pieces of legislation might emerge from that scenario.

1. A resolution that declares the commonwealth of Virginia may adopt a state religion – never mind the First Amendment, which applies only to Congress (ha, ha!). Hint: It’s not going to be Sufism, or Unitarianism, or Judaism or even Catholicism.

2. A bill that would deny any parent from claiming college-student offspring as dependents on state income tax forms if said college student voted in a precinct other than where his or her parents live. Read more »

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling | AP Photo

Everyone knows that Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who has long awaited his own gubernatorial bid, felt stabbed in the back when Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli flip-flopped and announced he would go for Virginia’s top job.

Next, Cuccinelli engineered a party convention rather than a primary election which utterly sidelined Bolling and left him with no chance to get the Republican nomination.

Now Bolling has scheduled a big announcement for March 14, the Ides of March eve. Is Bolling going to stab back, and announce an independent run?

Potentially, that would split the Republicans (the hard-righties would vote for Cuccinelli; the others would go for Bolling) which could allow Democrat Terry McAuliffe to waltz into the governor’s mansion.

The AP notes that Bolling on Wednesday pimped his big announcement while he was guest speaker at a dinner where “Bolling offered barbed jokes at Cuccinelli’s expense.”

Could that be any kind of a clue? Did he suggest the attendees sidle up to the bar and grab themselves a Bloody Caesar?

Does anyone know what those jokes were? I don’t see any reports of specifics as to those.

What do you think Bolling’s going to do?

Listen to the clip below, from a talk show Virginia Attorney General  Ken Cuccinelli appeared on Monday, in which he kinda sorta compares himself to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., on the holiday memorializing the famed civil rights leader.

AP Photo | Text by Dan

Saturday Column Reprise

Note from Dan: While I’m on vacation, I’m treating you to some oldie-but-goodie columns from the past. More-fanciful-than-usual, this one originally appeared March 29, and was inspired by an a event at Wasena Elementary School March 2 (Dr. Suess’ birthday) at which I read the famous author’s work to three classes. That was well before Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli had secured the GOP nomination for governor (it’s all his, now). Thus, the prospect of a nightmare has drawn even closer.

Night is falling on the household of Ken Cuccinelli. Let’s call it bedtime in Coochville, where there’s a bunch of young’uns.

As usual, the Virginia attorney general and his wife split up the chore of getting the kids settled into their slumbers. For Ken, it’s story night for three pipsqueaks.

Let us imagine some of those scenes.

The attorney general enters his son’s room, and picks up a copy of Dr. Seuss’ “Horton Hatches The Egg.” He turns to the page he’d stopped reading from the night before.

“Very well,” said the elephant, “since you insist

You want a vacation. Go fly off and take it.

I’ll sit on your egg and I’ll try not to break it.

I’ll stay and be faithful. I mean what I say.”

“Toodle-oo!” sang out Mayzie and fluttered away. Read more »

Jonathan Montgomery | Virginia Department of Corrections

Here’s some info about the troubling case of a wrongful sexual abuse conviction of a young man, Jonathan Montgomery, on charges later proved fabricated.

He was charged (and convicted) m as an adult even though he had “committed” the (fabricated) offense when he was 14. His accuser has since been charged with perjury.

And Montgomery is still in prison, where he has been wrongfully since 2008. This is because of Virginia’s 21 day rule, and despite a judge’s order for his release. Apparently, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is keeping him there.

From the Virginia American Civil Liberties Union:

Richmond, VA – November 15, 2012 -The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia sent a letter to Governor Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli encouraging them to take action to assist an innocent Hampton man in gaining his freedom and to reform the state’s 21-day rule.

“No person in Virginia should be deprived of liberty for crimes he or she did not commit nor held any longer than necessary once known to be innocent,” said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Claire Gastañaga. “This is another unfortunate example of the problems stemming from Virginia’s 21-day rule. Wrongfully convicted individuals need a quicker process to have their convictions overturned and gain their freedom.”

Despite the recantation of the victim, and agreement by all involved parties – defense counsel, prosecutors and the court-that Jonathan Montgomery is an innocent man, Montgomery remains in prison. Montgomery is sitting in prison for a crime he did not commit because evidence of his innocence was not discovered until more than 21 days after his conviction. Under Virginia law, a convicted person has just 21 days to return to the circuit court to have the conviction vacated. After 21 days, the individual must appeal to the higher courts for a “writ of actual innocence.” The only other course of action is to appeal to the Governor for a pardon. Read more »

He was born in New Jersey, of Italian heritage, and raised Catholic. Graduated from high school, then got an undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia. He moved onto law school, and later set up a small independent law practice. And then years later, he got deeply involved in conservative politics.

The facts above describe John Donald Cody, who now sits in an Ohio jail cell, awaiting trial for fraud and other felony charges. Until recently he was known under an alias, “Bobby Thompson,” founder of the scam outfit known as the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. It raised tens of millions of dollars from good-hearted unsuspecting givers. And under that fake name “Thompson” he contributed at least $180,000 to politicians across the United States. Almost all of them were ultra conservatives.

You can read more about him and his background, and his bizarre career, in the Tampa Bay Times.

Coincidentally, the same set of facts in the first paragraph above also are true for Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli. Read more »

AP Photo

Attorney General (and gubernatorial hopeful) Ken Cuccinelli has some strong words for members of the Virginia Board of Health. Basacially it’s this: They better regulate abortion clinics the way he says to. Otherwise, the attorney general’s office won’t defend them and they’ll have to hire their own lawyer.

What has excited the Cooch’s uncharacteristically pro-regulation fervor? It all goes back to 2011, when some canny parliamentarians in the Virginia General Assembly took an innocuous bill and amended it late in the game to subject abortion clinics to the same building regulations as hospitals. They got it passed by a single vote.

The law required the Board of Health to write those regulations. But when it did, it made them applicable only to new abortion clinics.

Existing abortion clinics were grandfathered, so they wouldn’t have to make changes that could cost a lot of money, or be forced to close (which is the actual intent of the lawmakers who passed the bill).

This has outraged Cuccinelli and Gov. Bob McDonnell. Read Cuccinelli’s letter here.

It’s his way, or the highway!

I wonder if he feels that way about other building-standards regulations?