Goodlatte gets name-checked in Indiana Senate debate
Bob Goodlatte
Incumbent Congressman Bob Goodlatte is in the midst of a three debate series with challenger Andy Schmookler. They debated in Roanoke on Saturday, in Bridgewater yesterday, and are scheduled for a final debate in Lynchburg tonight.
But a reader let us know that Goodlatte’s name recently cropped up in another debate – in Indiana.
There, Republican State Treasurer Richard Mourdock and Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly are running for the seat held by Dick Lugar (who was defeated in a primary by Mourdock).
Those two debated last night — and in Donnelly name-checked Goodlatte in his opening statement, which focused on bipartisanship. He noted that he’s voted for more than $2 trillion in spending cuts and then said, “I made sure we had a vote for a balanced budget amendment I worked with my good friend Bob Goodlatte on.”
Donnelly then wrapped up his opening statement with this line: “It’s not about right or left – it’s about America.”
You may recall the balanced budget amendment got a guaranteed vote (it didn’t pass) as part of the deal worked out last year to raise the debt ceiling. That was the same deal, incidentally, which produced the “fiscal cliff” that’s been a part of recent political discussion.
– Mason Adams
October 16, 2012 - 12:33 PM
You have to love that! Richard Mourdock is running a fiscally conservative race, and according to conservative talk radio, Mourdock is getting slowrolled by the Republican establishment in Indiana who resented his primary whipping of GOP establishment icon Richard Lugar. The only mention a constitutionalist would honestly have of Bob Goodlatte would be a word of warning for his lack of backbone and his tendency to overregulate everything he can get his fingers on. His unflagging support for the intrusive Patriot Act, TSA and DHS, his incessant interference with the Internet (remember SOPA, the blacklisting bill, and online poker prohibition (with exceptions for betting on horses), and his love for micromanagement of the economy — ethanol subsidies come to mind immediately, etc, etc.. The progressive Schmookler and establishment Goodlatte may not be fundamentally that much different from each other after all!