McDonnell: Not Just Bigoted, Also Pretty Dim

I'd like to believe that the recent uncovering of Bob McDonnell's graduate thesis was a smart act of investigative sleuthing, if only because watching people shoot themselves in the foot this badly makes me squirm. But it wasn't. How did the Washington Post get their hands on the thesis that has likely ruined McDonnell's political career in one day? He simply told them about it. OOPS.

In an online forum earlier this afternoon, WaPo reporter Anita Kumar had this to say when asked how the paper found out about McDonnell's decades old thesis:

We recently obtained the thesis. Bob McDonnell mentioned the thesis a couple weeks ago when we were interviewing him for another story. We then went to find it. As we indicated in the story, it is available at the Regent library and has likely been there for 20 years. We did not wait to publish the story until Labor Day. We published the story after we finished our reporting, which included receiving comments from his campaign.

In my mind, this reveal negates his "It was 20 years ago" excuse. Why openly bring up something you think is dated and inaccurately reflects your current political views with members of the press? It's like exposing yourself to a cop, and then acting shocked when your picture ends up in the paper.

Photograph of Bob McDonnell's signature on his master's thesis is a screenshot.

Tags: McDonnell, thesis, washington post

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Lauren Bans is a Brooklyn-based writer and Internet addict.

Comments

Good Lord.

By: Punditus Maximus | Tue, 09/01/2009 - 17:52

Of course he's stupid, but why can't he be a liar? He's a politician. Is it just barely kinda vaguely possible he's stretching the truth? Are political reporters allowed to think this?

IOKIYAR.

but it gets better!

By: P Starling | Tue, 09/01/2009 - 17:06

What's super-awesome about this story is that he brought up his thesis by saying that it was about welfare reform (as in, "I care about welfare reform SO MUCH that I wrote my masters thesis about it!") The reporter, wondering exactly what he had to say about welfare reform, then went to find it and discovered that its big comments about welfare reform were more or less that fornicators such as unwed mothers ought not be entitled to government money because they weaken the nation. Wow.

Public record

By: grocer | Tue, 09/01/2009 - 16:27

Isn't the real question why nobody bothered to read it until now? Or was just not relevant until the latest round of culture wars? Have we reached a tipping point where it's now anachronistic to expect women to get married and stay home while men go out and work? (Merely using college to pick up a husband) I certainly hope so...it means my four daughters will not be pigeonholed into one role by society and be able to have their own lives at their own pace...