Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is a Coward - Sells Out Pro-Lifers for Spot on Romney Ticket [UPDATED]

Some "pro-life Catholic". I can't believe I ever wanted this d-bag to be President some day:

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, a Romney supporter and leading contender for the VP spot on a Romney-headed ticket, demonstrated his complete philosophical alignment with Romney yesterday by flipflopping on a bill he has championed and in the process hanging VA GOP delegates out to dry.

For those who haven’t been paying attention, Virginia’s legislature has been going after the abortion industry root and branch. Last year they passed a law requiring aborttoirs to be regulated as if they did what they do: perform a surgical procedure which can be life threatening. This year a bill is being finalized that requires a woman seeking an abortion to see ultrasound pictures of the baby. Somehow this bill, which does not require any medical procedure the woman was not going to receive in the first place, has the pro-abortion lobby in a tizzy. Dahlia Lithwick at Slate has predictably styled this as rape.

Up until yesterday, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell had unconditionally supported the bill.

Gov. Robert F. McDonnell is backing off his unconditional support for a bill requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion, focusing new attention on one of the most controversial pieces of legislation in Virginia’s General Assembly this year.

Until this weekend, McDonnell (R) and his aides had said the governor would sign the measure if it made it to his desk. McDonnell, who strongly opposes abortion, will no longer make that commitment.

[...]

There is only one explanation that fits all the facts. McDonnell wants to be Mitt Romney’s choice for vice president should Romney almost certainly win the GOP nomination. The ultrasound bill is causing too much controversy and probably has Romney’s handlers wearing brown trousers at the thought of having to actually take a pro-life position in a general election campaign. McDonnell takes to opportunity to look moderate and abandons ship...

[More]

My Comments:
I already knew Dullard Flip Rino was a pro-abort squish, so his discomfort with the recently-passed Virginia pro-life law comes as no surprise to me. But for an allegedly "pro-life Catholic" like Bob McDonnell to suddenly go wobbly and hint opposition to signing the pro-life law just to appease Romney's handlers? May he rot.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote in regards to Bob McDonnell:

When Romney does finally go down to an inglorious defeat (and he will, be it either in the primaries (hopefully, to Santorum) or in the general election), I hope like hell he takes people like Bob McDonnell down with him.

McDonnell's egregious sell-out of the pro-life cause (much worse than Santorum's sell-out of pro-lifers by endorsing Specter) for the sake of raw political ambition and a potential spot on a Romney ticket makes that outcome inevitable. May he fall far and fall hard.


UPDATE:
Here's McDonnell's statement from today on this matter:

I am pro-life. I believe deeply in the sanctity of innocent human life and believe governments have a duty to protect human life. The more our society embraces a culture of life for all people, the better country we will have. Over the course of my 20-year career in elected office, I have been glad to play a leading role in putting in place common-sense policies that protect and defend innocent human life in the Commonwealth. One of those bills was Virginia's informed consent statute, of which I was the chief patron in the House of Delegates, finally seeing its passage in 2001. This session, the General Assembly is now considering amending this informed consent statute to include a requirement that any woman seeking an abortion receive an ultrasound in order to establish the gestational age for appropriate medical purposes, and to offer a woman the opportunity to voluntarily review that ultrasound prior to giving her legal informed consent to abortion.

Over the past days I have discussed the specific language of the proposed legislation with other governors, physicians, attorneys, legislators, advocacy groups, and citizens. It is apparent that several amendments to the proposed legislation are needed to address various medical and legal issues which have arisen. It is clear that in the majority of cases, a routine external, transabdominal ultrasound is sufficient to meet the bill's stated purpose, that is, to determine gestational age. I have come to understand that the medical practice and standard of care currently guide physicians to use other procedures to find the gestational age of the child, when abdominal ultrasounds cannot do so. Determining gestational age is essential for legal reasons, to know the trimester of the pregnancy in order to comply with the law, and for medical reasons as well.

Thus, having looked at the current proposal, I believe there is no need to direct by statute that further invasive ultrasound procedures be done. Mandating an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent is not a proper role for the state. No person should be directed to undergo an invasive procedure by the state, without their consent, as a precondition to another medical procedure.

For this reason, I have recommended to the General Assembly a series of amendments to this bill...

You can read the snivelling rest if you'd like, but it's the weasel words of a liar, a hypocrite, and a coward, so take it for what it's worth.


UPDATE #2
And for those of you keeping score at home, rack up another huge victory for Planned Parenthood.

Between (1) electing the most pro-abortion President in history, (2) passing Obamacare, (3) successfully rallying the Democrats to hold out and defeat the Stupak Amendment thereto, (4) having the President take the government to the brink of shutdown rather than deprive Planned Parenthood of one penny of taxpayer money in the federal budget, (5) getting the opportunity to put the screws to their arch-enemy the Catholic Church by being invited to help write the HHS mandate requiring the Church to violate its teachings by covering contraceptives, abortifacients, and sterilization, (6) cowing Susan G. Komen back into the Planned Parenthood fold via a campaign of intimidation, and now (7) cowing an allegedly pro-life Catholic governor who previously had strong social conservative bona fides into backing down on signing one of the more pro-life pieces of legislation to have passed in a long time, Planned Parenthood is on quite an impressive role.

It would be difficult to argue that any private organization in the country comes close to matching the power and clout of Planned Parenthood. They certainly seem to always get their way.


UPDATE #3
“You know what I’m concerned about? I’m concerned about the budget.”

And the transformation to Establishment-RINO-Fiscal-Conservative-Social-Moderate (and don't bother me with all those divisive social issues) is complete.

Jerk.


UPDATE #4
Posting this update just because I want to use this word, and didn't think of it when writing any of my previous descriptions of McDonnell:


CRAVEN

That is all.

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell: Romney's Anti-Santorum Hatchet Man [UPDATED]