State official helped fix a home, then broke his jaw

RICHMOND

Attorney General Bob McDonnell came back from a recent family vacation to the New Orleans area with more than a sense of satisfaction that he and his clan helped rebuild a home damaged during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

He also returned with a n injured jaw, and an interesting, if painful, story to boot.

The injury was suffered during a pickup basketball game McDonnell and two of his sons were playing in at the end of a long day working at a storm-ravaged property belonging to a Vietnam War veteran and his family.

It happened around 10 one night while McDonnell and a volunteer from the Virginia Beach-based Operation Blessing International were ahead by a score of 9-2 during a 2-on-2 matchup against the attorney general's 16-year old twins, Bobby and Sean.

McDonnell sustained the injury when he chased a loose ball out of bounds and crashed into a nearby boxing ring at the Adullam Christian Fellowship gymnasium where they were playing.

That church hosts volunteers, like the McDonnells, who come to help rebuild still-recovering sections of Louisiana.

When asked about the injury, McDonnell spokesman J. Tucker Martin joked that he might insist that his boss, a former high school football and basketball player who still enjoys pickup games, refrain from such athletic contests "between now and November 2009."

A former member of the House of Delegates from Virginia Beach, McDonnell is running for governor as a Republican next year.

"They were up 9-2; he could have just let the ball go," Martin quipped.

An X-ray that McDonnell received at a Louisiana hospital at the time did not detect any broken bones, and the attorney general resumed his official duties upon returning from his late July vacation.

But the pain in his jaw persisted, bothering him so much on a recent trip to Southside Virginia that he could barely open his mouth to eat, Martin explained.

A visit Thursday to his family physician in Henrico County yielded a referral to a Richmond oral surgeon, who wired McDonnell's jaw shut Friday to help it heal.

For the next two weeks, McDonnell will subsist on a liquid diet of energy and nutrition beverages, Martin said.

Another result of his injury is that several scheduled speaking engagements for McDonnell in the coming weeks, including a planned visit this Wednesday to Old Dominion University, will become appearances instead of a speeches.

McDonnell's injury is not expected to prevent his attendance at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis early next month as a state GOP delegate.

While at the convention, McDonnell might bump into Louisiana's Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal - the two had a private meeting in Baton Rouge last month - whose name has been mentioned as a possible running mate for presumptive GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain.

Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com