Goode to Seek a Recount

Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), down 745 votes in his race against Tom Perriello, is asking for a recount. Perriello's victory was one of the bigger upsets of the 2008 cycle, a fact made all the sweeter due to the nature of his opponent.

Yet, watch me be principled. Goode has every right to ask for this recount. If he requests it, it should be granted. Democracy means knowing who actually won contested elections. If it turns out Goode won, he should be re-elected. It's that simple.

Don't Backslide!

No! Regress! Regress! After his crazy comments on Keith Ellison, I congratulated Virginia Representative Virgil Goode for expressing a willingness to meet with representatives from the Muslim community, commenting that "If nothing else comes out of this controversy, hopefully it will be one Congressman broadening his horizons a little bit." Apparently, I spoke too soon, as Goode apparently got up on the House floor to say that America is in danger of coins that say "In Muhammad We Trust" if we don't stop the raging Muslim hordes attempting to immigrate to America. Or don't approve the Iraq surge. Or something like that. It's also amusing to hear Rep. Goode lecture on the virtues of religious toleration and the First Amendment, but we'll let that lie for now. Goode also appears to oppose the "Save Whomever We Can" option, by which we allow the Iraqis who bravely worked with the CPA and assisted our efforts to bring democracy to the region to gain refugee status in America. The alternative, of course, is for all of them to be brutally slaughtered as a thank you for assisting us. But that doesn't really seem to bother Goode that much. Having read recently of Otto Frank's desperate and futile attempts to get to America and escape the Nazi genocide, I'm a bit more sympathetic, but that same history makes me quite pessimistic. People with immigration views like Goode's have some of Anne Frank's blood on their hands as well. When we turn away people who are attempting to reach our borders (our friends, no less, in Iraq), knowing that they will be killed in their homes, our conscience is stained and our souls are tainted. But apparently, Virgil Goode can live with that. Moral values, I suppose. All in all, a large step backwards for Representative Goode. (And my God, is his voice annoying or what?)