Democratic candidate promises to keep your cemetery space properly moisturized

They also say they're against murder, at least while the lights are on. When they go off....

I live in Virginia, which has elections this year for statewide offices, including Attorney General. The incumbent, Republican Jason Miyares, is a movement conservative. I have contributed to his campaign, here, and suggest that you consider doing so as well. His opponent is Democrat Jay Jones, a former Assistant Attorney General, a member of the state House of Delegates, and an outspoken liberal.

Well, “outspoken” might be putting in charitably. As reported here:

[Text] messages were first reported by National Review on Friday, and were sent by Jones on August 8, 2022, as other GOP delegates were eulogizing a moderate Democratic lawmaker [who had died earlier in the session].

Jones…objected to the glowing tributes, the screenshots [of his texts] showed.

“If those guys die before me, I will go to their funerals to piss on their graves. Send them out awash in something,” Jones wrote to Republican House Del. Carrie Coyner, in a text thread that suggested his messages were initially intended for someone else...

I gather Donald Trump is not the only person who speaks………..candidly.

“Three bullets, two people,” Jones texted Coyner.

“Gilbert, Hitler and Pol Pot,” the message read.

“Gilbert gets two bullets in the head,” Jones continued. “Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets,” he mentioned in the text.

I swear I remember the Democrats running against “gun violence,” but perhaps my aging memory is going bad.

When this story first broke yesterday, and (I presume) the Jones campaign wasn’t sure it could be proven, Jones issued the following statement, reported here:

Like all people, I’ve sent text messages that I regret and I believe that violent rhetoric has no place in our politics. Let’s be clear about what is happening in the Attorney General race right now: Jason Miyares is dropping smears through Trump-controlled media organizations to assault my character and rescue his desperate campaign. This is a strategy that ensures Jason Miyares will continue to be accountable to Donald Trump, not the people of Virginia. This race is about whether Trump can control Virginia or Virginians control Virginia.”

It’s all Trump’s fault! And, like everyone else, “I’ve sent text messages that I regret.” Translation: It’s no different from your twelve year-old texting to his former friend Billy that he’s a schmuck.

This was Jones’ line — it’s just a bunch of smears! — until, later on Friday, the reliably Democratic Washington Post picked up the story, and added yet more:

According to National Review’s Audrey Fahlberg, who broke the story, Jones subsequently called Coyner, and she hung up on him. Later in the text exchange, she accused him of hoping that Gilbert’s children would die. “Yes, I’ve told you this before,” Jones replied. “Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.” As the back-and-forth continued, Jones wrote: “I mean do I think Todd and Jennifer are evil? And that they’re breeding little fascists? Yes.”

At that point — but only at that point, after the WaPo had blown his cover — Jones did a 180:

“I take full responsibility for my actions, and I want to issue my deepest apology to Speaker Gilbert and his family. Reading back those words made me sick to my stomach. I am embarrassed, ashamed, and sorry.

“I have reached out to Speaker Gilbert to apologize directly to him, his wife Jennifer, and their children. I cannot take back what I said; I can only take full accountability and offer my sincere apology.

“Virginians deserve honest leaders who admit when they are wrong and own up to their mistakes. This was a grave mistake and I will work every day to prove to the people of Virginia that I will fight for them as Attorney General.”

The problem is that this wasn’t a “mistake” in anything other than the now-urgently-needed PR sense. Saying that you want to “piss on” someone’s grave and want their kids dead because the parents are “breeding little fascists” isn’t some kind of error. It’s as genuine as it gets. And as for owning up to his “mistakes” — even if it could be called a mistake — that’s baloney too: You get credit for owning up to your “mistakes” if you do the owning up before the press nails you on them and you’re cornered at the end of the chase.

Mr. Piss-on-Your-Grave and kill-your-kids is, to my way of thinking, disqualified on those grounds alone. He let loose with this malignant sort of stuff three years ago, when he was fully adult. But even if that could be waved away, what to me is unarguably disqualifying is Jones’ fancy dance within the last 24 hours, in which he first sought to shift the blame for his malignancy to Trump, then backtracked only after press coverage left him no choice. That’s the sort of bone-deep dishonesty bespeaking a character so low and so unworthy that it’s disqualifying for any position of public trust, much less Attorney General.