Virgil Goode comes to GMU
On April 27th, the Young Americans for Freedom-GMU Chapter have invited Former Congressman Virgil Goode to speak. It should be a great evening, and Goode will be speaking on the topic, “The Creeping Influence of Islam in America.” This event will be taking place from 7:30-9:30 p.m. in the Johnson Center Bistro at George Mason University, and it is open to the public. There is no charge. Please see http://mason.yafva.org for more information.
Additionally, on the same night, Former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo will be speaking on the Virginia Tech Campus.
Advertisement
Posted on April 17, 2009, in National Politics and tagged GMU, Virgil Goode. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
Virgil Goode is an excellent speaker and he was a superb Congressman. The people of the Fifth District need to get Virgil back into office in 2010.
2008 saw a bunch of voters voting against the Republican side out of disgust at Bush’s abuse of power. It was ironic that one of the most independent and honest Congressmen, Virgil Goode, had to pay the price for Bush’s lousy record.
Most of us hope to see Virgil Goode in Congress again. I would be especially pleased if he ran for Senate. Debates between Jim Webb and Virgil Goode would be like a modern version of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. It would be great to see two men actually hold honest debates where both sides actually discussed real issues and did not fall back into the old, sound-bite and spin cycle.
One lesson that should be learned from the last election by every Republican, is that GOP candidates can no longer win merely by pushing a message of fear or by trying to label their opponents as “Socialists” or “Communists.” Those tags just don’t have much of a sting with the voters since the Cold War ended. When asked to name a Socialist country, most educated voters will name Israel or England (hardly candidates for “great SATAN status). When someone mentions Communists, most people think of our bankers, the Chinese. I just think of Wal Mart, and how Americans ship billions of dollars to the Commies in China every year via that destroyer of American small business, Wal Mart. One wonders if Sam Walton, if he still were alive, would be proud of the mega-corporation into which his business has morphed?
Citizens should go to hear Virgil Goode speak. Afterward, they should ask Virgil what ideas he would pursue to help break-up these multi-national oligopolies and what proposals he plans for the revitalization of our strategic manufacturing base?
That is great insight! I hope to see you there!
Virgil Goode is an embarrassment to thinking people everywhere and brought shame on the 5th District with his anti-Islamic remarks. Maslow said “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you treat everything like a nail.” Goode clearly has only one tool in his toolbox, and it has proven completely inadequate for governance in the 21st century.
The remark above – “most of us hope to see Virgil Goode in Congress again” is simply not true. I must admit, Perriello is proving to be not only an outstanding Congressman but is quickly emerging as a leader among members of Congress, and he does it without fear-mongering, playing party politics, or lashing out at people different from himself. He has already done more in his first 100 days than Goode was able to do in 6 terms.
Goode was and is a good man, but let’s face it. He’s a relic of the Bush-era fear mongers who would rather create discord than solve problems. Personally, I was glad to see him go, but I’m even MORE impressed that Perriello – even though a democrat – is proving to be a fine representative of Dems and Republicans alike.
If you would like to see how Virgil Goode believes in ‘liberty’ and ‘freedom,’ you need to watch this video. This is just a ‘sample’ of Virgil Goode’s campaign manager, Tucker Watkins. He is actually being nice because he knows he is on camera. Tucker Watkins scared me more than the terrorists on 9/11. He and Goode are more of a threat to me than any Islamist in waiting…
When I was confronted by Goode’s manager in a public place (because I had things on my vehicle that he did not approve of, he came up to me and started screaming obscenities and telling me to leave, etc. I wish I had a camera. He did this to a woman that was alone and to a woman who’s husband was killed in the line of duty during the Gulf War. My father was a retired AF pilot, and my husband was killed in the line of duty, and this Goode campaign manager wants to take away my freedoms??
Stand up and boo him off the stage. I don’t care what he has done/hasn’t done for the district. I don’t care how ‘nice’ he is…because the minute he hires a goon like Watkins, he is approving of our liberties being taken away because ‘they don’t like us’….
HERE IS THE TRANSCRIPT OF THE VIDEO
Watkins, “Sir, who are you with?”
Video photographer, “I’m here by myself.”
Watkins, “It’s time for you to leave…” Tucker Watkins getting in the face of the Video photographer (as he always does to intimidate people.)
Video photographer, “This is a public event, is it not?”
Watkins, “Ahhhh…”
Video photographer, “It was in the newspaper…”
Tucker Watkins (probably telling more goons) “It’s o.k.” Then… “If you identify yourself, it’s a different thing, but if you are not willing to identify yourself, sir…”
Man in crowd says, “This is America.”
Tucker Watkins, “He’s with Mr. Perriello’s (inaudible)”
Man in crowd, “So what, ….this is AMERICA.”
Then Tucker Watkins tries to convince the man to follow him and he’ll tell him more, but all the man does is repeat, “This is America….This is America…..This is America….This is America….I don‘t wana go….”
Goode should be ashamed of himself hiring such a man (and everyone knows how Tucker Watkins is…he’s famous for this, and is toning it down because he knows he is on camera. You should see how he talks and acts off of camera!!)
Goode should not be allowed to speak to our children about anything, especially to those who are in a group, Young Americans for Freedom !!!
Hey there 9/11,
I have had to go toe-to-toe with campaign operatives from both sides, over the years. I agree that some can really let their enthusiasm for their candidate or cause, to get the best of them.
There is a bit of irony in your post, because you cite Goode’s campaign staff”s attempt to censor speech at one of their events, then you wrap-up by saying that Virgil Goode should not be allowed to speak to young people.
Here in Virginia, we have generally had polite and constructive debates between the parties. Only in recent times have things really found their way into the gutter with regularity. This practice must be curtailed.
I am like most Virginians, in that I have been happy to support good candidates from both sides of the aisle. Those of us who vote issues and not party labels would prefer to hear about real ideas and have honest debates about those ideas, rather than see partisans engaging in shouting or shoving matches. Those sorts should join the World Wrestling Federation and leave political leadership to cooler heads.
As for Virgil Goode, there are a number of issues upon which I disagree with him, but I deeply respect him, because he has always impressed me with his honesty and his adherence to his core beliefs. Both friend and foe alike, know that when dealing with Virgil Goode, they will all be treated with fairness.
Most Virginians are not fiercely partisan. We welcome honest voices such Virgil Goode’s in the public debate. We need leadership from more forthright political leaders, like Mr. Goode, regardless of their party affiliation.
It is fascinating and strange to watch the latest incarnation of Virgil Goode as he emerges from involuntary retirement and begins a career making speeches to groups that are among the most conservative on the political spectrum.
Fascinating and strange because no one seems to remember the history of Mr. Goode or to pay much attention to the fluidity with which he has espoused varying and widely disparate political ideologies over the years, often adopting one ideology that reflected the mood of the electorate at one time but abandoning it with the winds of change.
It’s doubtful, for example, that many or any of his GMU hosts will realize that Goode ran for his first elective office in 1973 as a supporter of the gubernatorial campaign of the Virginia liberal firebrand Lieutenant Governor Henry E. Howell. Howell has the distinction of being the most liberal individual ever to be a credible candidate for Virginia’s governorship. In 1973, both Howell and Goode ran for office as independents, apparently because they viewed the Democratic Party of Virginia as too conservative even though it had been taken over the year before by the McGovern wing of the national party. Goode, echoing Howell’s attacks on public utilities and the conservative establishment and pledging support for the Equal Rights Amendment won. Howell lost, though with 49.7% of the vote, to one of the architects of Virginia’s conservative establishment and of Massive Resistance, former Governor Mills E. Godwin.
As a member of the Virginia Senate, Goode did join the Democratic Caucus though he was well known to be one of its most liberal members and was closely identified with a small liberal faction that included Senators Joe Fitzpatrick of Norfolk (Howell’s alter ego and chief political strategist), Adelard Brault and Joe Gartlan from Northern Virginia and L. Douglas Wilder of Richmond (the Senate’s first African American member since reconstruction).
Interestingly, within a few years Goode broke his pledge to support the E.R.A. after polling data showed it to be unpopular in his district and, in one instance, hid rather than cast a vote either for or against ratification.
Throughout most of the seventies and eighties Goode remained a fairly consistent member of the liberal bloc, helping organize the “coup” that installed the liberal Adelard Brault as Democratic leader, supporting the election and reelection of President Jimmy Carter, and developing a particularly close relationship with Doug Wilder. Indeed when Wilder ran for Lt. Governor in 1985, Goode placed his name in nomination with a blisteringly, race-based appeal that savaged the then elderly Godwin as the “overseer of Chuckatuck”. Given the historical record of the frequent cruelty of plantation overseers, Goode was essentially branding Godwin not only a racist but one of the most vile and violent types of racists.
During his time in the State Senate, Goode also twice sought the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate (first as a standard bearer for the liberal wing, second as a more conservative alternative) but was roundly defeated in both efforts. Some suggest that Goode’s anger at not receiving the level of support to which he thought he was entitled mark the beginning of his rift with the Democratic Party.
In his successful 1996 campaign for Congress, Goode ran as a fairly traditional moderate southern Democratic. In speeches and television ads, he stressed the need to protect and defend Medicare and Social Security (presumably from the likes of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich) as well as the need for a balanced federal budget. Another issue which provided a clear contrast between Goode and his very conservative Republican opponent that year was Goode’s unalterable, at the time, opposition to the use of taxpayer money to fund private academies. This more liberal position certainly had more resonance with an important part of the electorate as the Congressional district included Prince Edward County which infamously closed its public schools and established a private academy in an attempt to nullify the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
Upon his arrival in Washington, Goode, having served on the Virginia Senate’s Finance Committee, was apparently miffed that he was not appointed to the powerful House Appropriations Committee as a freshman. Most close observers, however, identify the Republican takeover of both houses of the Virginia legislature as the motivating factor in Goode’s move to the Republican conference. As Republicans would be drawing the lines of Congressional districts and Goode’s home county was in a geographically precarious location, one individual who served with Goode in the legislature said, “I knew he was going to switch and that he’d switch before reapportionment. I just wondered how he was going to maneuver to make it happen.”
As a Republican, Goode’s strange ideological wanderings continued. Traditionally, most of Virginia’s Republican Congressmen for the last 40 years (i.e. Caldwell Butler, Stan Parris, Herb Bateman, Tom Bliley, Frank Wolfe) have been quite conservative but within the mainstream of the conservative movement and their fellow House colleagues. Rather than embrace this tradition, Goode affiliated himself with a small faction of House Republicans including such individuals as Ron Paul, Tom Tancredo, B-1 Bob Dornan, Roscoe P. Bartlett and Randy “Duke” Cunningham – a group more known for making “colorful” comments during morning hour speeches or to cable news shows than for legislative acumen or accomplishment.
Apparently, it was during this time that Goode developed his fixation with a “close the borders” immigration policy, construction of the Great Wall of Mexico, and strong distaste for, and fear of, persons of the Islamic faith – legislative priorities that apparently a majority of his economically challenged district did not find especially relevant to their everyday lives in November of 2008. Indeed, when Goode left Congress after serving for 12 years, he did so without a single, notable legislative achievement to his name.
And so, Mr. Goode arrives at GMU having traveled a long way from his days as a Henry Howell independent, his heated rhetoric branding one of Virginia’s most honorable and honored conservative Governors as a racist and even his first congressional campaign. What a long strange trip it’s been.