Well, it’s official now, to my chagrin as a citizen of Virginia who happens to share the surname of the Attorney General of that state. Jerry Kilgore has announced he will run for Governor of Virginia later this year, and he’s the odds-on choice for the GOP nomination.
But just days before his announcement, veteran Hampton Roads Daily Press columnist Gordon Morse penned a piece in the WaPo that not-so-delicately raised the big question about Kilgore’s candidacy. Entitled “Will Being There Be Enough?” Morse’s column aired GOP concerns that the candidate is not considered to be exactly the sharpest tool in the Commonwealth’s shed, as witnessed by his flailing performance in a preliminary debate with his likely general election rival, Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine.
While the title of Morse’s piece ostensibly refers to Kilgore’s unique position as a visible and independent statewide GOP elected official who served his time in the party and conservative cause, you have to assume there’s a sneaky reference here to the unlikely, idiot-savant politician Chauncy Gardiner of the Jerzy Kosinski novel (and Peter Sellers movie), “Being There,” as well. “Kilgore is game,” quoth Morse, “but someone must hand him the right script.”
As we speak, someone in the vast infrastructure of the Virginia or national GOP may be working on that script. “In the fall, we plant the seeds. And in the spring, the flowers bloom,” as Chauncy Gardiner explained the theory of supply-side economics.