McDonnell unemployment remarks rebuked

Virginia Democrats today assailed Bob McDonnell for off-the-cuff comments he made at a political gathering last week in which he described himself as "sort of unemployed."

Seizing on those words, Virginia Democratic Party chairman C. Richard "Dickie" Cranwell said McDonnell, a Republican running for governor, is "out of touch" with the roughly 291,000 unemployed Virginians.

"Where I come from, you can't be halfway anything," Cranwell said during a conference call today, alluding to McDonnell's remarks. "You're either employed or you're unemployed."

McDonnell recently resigned as state attorney general to focus on his gubernatorial campaign. He took a job with the Hampton Roads-based Huff, Poole and Mahoney law firm where he was once a partner.

Tuesday afternoon, McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin responded to the latest criticism Democrats heaped on the Republican.

"Enough with the gotcha politics, Virginia Democrats need to start answering the tough questions. Whose side are they on?," Martin said in an e-mail. "Democrats need to stop playing games and start explaining why they won't stand up for positions and policies that will create and protect the jobs Virginians need."

The brouhaha over McDonnell's employment status stems from a response the candidate gave to a question he was asked at last week's annual Shad Planking in Wakefield.

At that event, McDonnell said this: "A lot of people in Virginia that are hurting, that are struggling with mortgage payments and college tuition, and jobs losses and so forth."

"We're raising five kids in Virginia, we're feeling a little bit of it as well," McDonnell added, nodding towards his wife Maureen. "I'm actually now a retired state employee, sort of unemployed myself."

Tuesday's conference call is another attempt by Democrats to link McDonnell to the state legislature's rejection of $125 million in federal stimulus money for unemployment benefits contingent on an expansion of Virginia's unemployment system.

That expansion was opposed by business leaders who feared that companies would suffer the costs and consequences of expansion when the federal money was exhausted.

The expansion plan was defeated in the Republican-controlled House of Delegates earlier this month. McDonnell opposed growing the state's unemployment system.

-- Julian Walker

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