Virginia seems to be challenging Texas for which state’s elected officials pander the most to the far right. In his first three months in office, for example, Virginia’s Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell rescinded an order barring state employment discrimination against gay people and issued a proclamation honoring the Confederacy that failed to mention slavery, the primary reason for southern secession. The state’s Republican attorney general even moved to prevent public colleges and universities from barring employment discrimination against gay people.
Now that same attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, has approved a revised state seal that covers up a woman’s exposed breast. Nico Pitney at Huffington Post reports that Cuccinelli recently distributed to his staff pins with a new seal — one that covers the exposed left breast of “Virtus,” the goddess of virtue. As Pitney notes, this episode echoes actions taken by President Bush’s attorney general, John Ashcroft, to place drapes over the Spirit of Justice statue at the Department of Justice.
Texas officials, of course, aren’t slouches when it comes to pandering to the far right. For example, Gov. Rick Perry promoted a state constitutional amendment barring gay marriage (which was already illegal in Texas) and has flirted with extremists who want Texas to secede. The state’s attorney general, Greg Abbott, has even tried to bar a gay couple married in another state from getting divorced in Texas. (Strange, yes? He so opposes gay marriage that he refuses to let a gay couple end their marriage legally in Texas.)
See the Virginia photos after the jump.
