Ole McDonnell should have just had an old fashioned sex scandal. Instead, he tried to indulge his money hungry wife and keep her happy with a lifestyle he couldn't really afford. It's ironic, really.

Just look at the stuff, and you’ll see where the problems began in Richmond.

A Rolex, cruising in a Ferrari, a shopping spree at Bergdorf Goodman, wedding catering, flying in a private jet, a lake-house vacation.

A venture capitalist’s posh world?

Nope. Welcome to the luxe life of Virginia’s first lady.

These are the gifts that have been showered upon Virginia’s first family, and the largess is now part of state and federal investigations.

The ills befalling the House of McDonnell are all about vanity. Most specifically, the vanity of the state’s first lady, Maureen McDonnell.

Just take a look at her official first lady portrait, which says it all.

It’s the oil-on-canvas version of fashion magazine Photoshopping or the equivalent of using a 20-year-old photo as your Facebook profile pic.

The official portrait underwent several makeovers, acknowledged Tom Camden, until recently curator of the state art collection. “I understand how Mrs. McDonnell thought,” he told The Washington Post in Laura Vozzella’s profile of the first lady. “And I think she wanted her best image, whether it was necessarily historically accurate or not.”

Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s supporters were probably delighted when the spotlight fell on the first lady as the vain epicenter of this scandal. The first lady’s always good for deflecting a scandal, right?
***********************************************************

The wife is taking a beating--wonder why our HONORABLE guvner isn't stepping up and accepting some of the blame?

Or we could go with the real world answer - gifts to family members don't need to be reported under VA law.

VRS bought Star Scientific stock, sold it at $87,000 loss

tXnvb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Or we could go with the real world answer - gifts
> to family members don't need to be reported under
> VA law.


You forgot about the Rolex, pal.

Gov. Bob McDonnell has begun the long-overdue process of making up with the people of Virginia, on whom he has brought ridicule through a gift scandal that, over four months, reduced him to a punch line.

In a written statement Tuesday, McDonnell announced that he had repaid — with family funds — about $124,000 in so-called loans from The Bank of Jonnie since 2011 to first lady Maureen McDonnell as well as the governor and his sister.

Then, McDonnell threw his family under the bus.

“I am deeply sorry for the embarrassment certain members of my family and I brought upon my beloved Virginia and her citizens,” McDonnell said. “I want you to know that I broke no laws and that I am committed to regaining your sacred trust and confidence. I hope today’s action is another step toward that end.”

No longer defiant, McDonnell is contrite — a sign there may be more trouble ahead. Just because McDonnell is apologizing doesn’t mean the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, a federal grand jury in Richmond and the city’s prosecutor will drop their investigations.

A master of reinvention, McDonnell is attempting to transform himself again. This time, he is shape-shifting from pariah to object of pity. He sounds like a man trying to get in front of bad news before it happens.

Could the bad news be a federal indictment?

Investigators are looking broadly at McDonnell’s dealings with Jonnie Williams Sr., head of a money-losing, Henrico County-based dietary supplement company. McDonnell’s lawyers insist Williams and Star Scientific received no special treatment from the Republican administration.

But on that, they equivocate.

Tony Troy, the private lawyer hired at public expense to defend McDonnell, last week issued a report in which he concluded there is no evidence of any direct benefit to Williams. Unclear from the report is whether Troy’s conclusion is based on contacts with the governor.

That is important for several reasons. Among them: If Troy didn’t speak with McDonnell, how could the report qualify as comprehensive? Also, because Troy is McDonnell’s advocate, his representation of the purported facts should favor his client. Otherwise, Troy wouldn’t be doing his job.

If Troy did confer with McDonnell, what did McDonnell say? And if that conversation occurred — in the process of preparing a public document — would McDonnell have surrendered a client’s privilege to keep confidential all exchanges with counsel?

Could the bad news be a resignation?

In addition to hiding out from the press and public, McDonnell is hunkering down. He is spending more time managing his personal crisis, one that could become more perilous. But is he managing the state? McDonnell could be approaching a point at which he cannot do either effectively. That will force him to make a difficult choice.

If not resignation, possibly McDonnell would temporarily relinquish the governorship to Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling. Unburdened by political pressure — Bolling is not on the ballot in November — he could provide Virginia the steady, undistracted leadership it has been denied since Giftgate erupted in March.

McDonnell is signaling, at this time, he’s going nowhere. His handling of this controversy initially conjured the arcade game “Whack-a-Mole,” with McDonnell frantically smacking down humiliating disclosures one at a time. It is now evocative of “Beat the Clock,” with McDonnell publicly determined to complete his term.

“Virginia has never been stronger, and I plan to focus on creating even more jobs and facilitating greater opportunity during the last five months of my term as your governor,” McDonnell said.

Those months will be consumed by knotty questions about the McDonnell-Williams relationship.

McDonnell and press reports, citing anonymous sources, describe as loans the $50,000 Williams gave the first lady and the $70,000 funneled to the governor and his sister to finance their debt-burdened real estate.

Are there promissory notes that would prove these are loans? Williams hasn’t said anything about that. He’s said almost nothing — on the record — about the whole messy affair.

What about the $13,000 Oscar de la Renta jacket, the Louis Vuitton handbag and two pairs of designer shoes Williams purchased in New York for Maureen McDonnell? Will the governor stroke a check for those things? Or for his bling — the $6,500 Rolex watch from Williams?

McDonnell’s apology marks a dramatic turn. It is a gamble by a besieged politician to shape events rather than be shaped by them. But it provides no real answers. It could prove as useful as Tony Troy’s cold meatball sandwich.

Report: Va. first lady Maureen McDonnell used PAC money for clothing
Monday - 7/29/2013, 9:11am ET
WASHINGTON - Virginia's first lady reportedly used nearly $10,000 from her husband's political action committee to buy clothes.

The Washington Post says Maureen McDonnell also used campaign and inaugural funds to buy $7,600 worth of other items.

The expenditures are legal under Virginia law, but the Post says they are unusual. The purchases also add to the latest in a string of financial questions plaguing Bob McDonnell and his family.

A private spokesman for the McDonnells tells the Post the first lady was borrowing the items of clothing and they will be given to charity when Bob McDonnell's term expires in January.

Gov. Bob McDonnell said today that he intends to return gifts still in his possession from a wealthy donor who showered the first family with largesse, as the governor seeks to restore trust with Virginians.

Having repaid $120,000 in loans, with interest, to Jonnie Williams Sr., CEO of Henrico County-based Star Scientific, McDonnell said he will now give back gifts.

“Everything that I have received from this particular donor, because of the concerns that have been raised by members of the public and to do everything I can to restore trust with the people of Virginia, that those gifts that I have in my possession I am working with my counsel to be able to return,” he said in his monthly appearance on Washington’s WTOP radio.

McDonnell said his eldest daughter, Jeanine, has returned a gift she received from Williams in advance of her May wedding. Williams gave that daughter $10,000 and spent $15,000 to cover the catering costs for the June 2011 Executive Mansion wedding reception for another daughter, Cailin.

Quote

Or we could go with the real world answer - gifts to family members don't need to be reported under VA law.

that would seem to be correct. although hiding behind that loophole is a complete chickenshit response. no rational person can look at this and conclude anything other than this guy is shameless whore who would resign if he had a shred of dignity.

that's not conservative/liberal, republican/democrat. that's just the truth.

oh come on.

VA just sold Virinia Ham, 1/2 of VA is on food stamps, and your whining about whether Bob's children were fed or from which funnel?

Bob's a nice guy if he did kick the can down the road: maybe too nice.

Bob has allot of people talking at his ear not always telling him the truth of current affiars (ie, ever local council member in 1,000 regions in VA who are covering up debt - who knows which and how much)

He visited much of virginia but in the end: no way you can blame bob for fairfax. oh no fairfax owns that piece of blame to itself. how could he know everything about so many million liars? can't.

is fairfax behind other regions? no. is fairfax doing what VA asks? no infact they've been cited for failing to collect tax or do as asked.

have you heard bob on the radio? kind and measured. have you notice he forked out so much money just becuase people hinted he should?

i think you a opponent of bob posting. i don't beleive any of the complaints i saw above.

^ What the fuck was that?

A private spokesman for the McDonnells tells the Post the first lady was borrowing the items of clothing and they will be given to charity when Bob McDonnell's term expires in January.

Who wants that ugly dress she wore?

yuck Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A private spokesman for the McDonnells tells the
> Post the first lady was borrowing the items of
> clothing and they will be given to charity when
> Bob McDonnell's term expires in January.
>
> Who wants that ugly dress she wore?

When I borrow shit, I return it to who I borrowed it from.

I am waiting to see the rolex posted on Craislist for sale?

keeps getting uglier Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R)
> and his wife, Maureen, have used taxpayer money
> for a range of small personal items they should
> have paid for themselves under state policy,
> according to spending records.
>
> The McDonnells have billed the state for body
> wash, sunscreen, dog vitamins and a digestive
> system “detox cleanse,” the records show. They
> also have used state employees to run personal
> errands for their adult children. In the middle of
> a workday, for example, a staffer retrieved Rachel
> McDonnell’s newly hemmed pants at a tailoring
> shop nine miles from the governor’s mansion.
> Another time, a state worker was dispatched to a
> dry cleaner 20 miles away to pick up a storage box
> for Cailin McDonnell’s wedding dress.
>
> About six months into the governor’s term, the
> official who oversees mansion spending told the
> McDonnells that they should not have charged
> taxpayers for a number of expenses, including
> deodorant, shoe repairs and dry-cleaning their
> children’s clothing. The official asked the
> McDonnells to pay the state back more than $300,
> which they did, and also gave them a refresher on
> what the state will and won’t provide for
> occupants of the governor’s mansion.

not really a crook, just half-idiot.

By Rosalind S. Helderman, Published: August 8

A Virginia Beach radiologist lent $50,000 to a real estate corporation owned by Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and his sister in 2010 — the same year the doctor was offered an appointment to a state medical board.

Paul Davis, who said he met McDonnell in church and has been friends with the governor for about 12 years, said he believes the appointment offer was unrelated to the financial assistance he provided the governor.

Gov. McDonnell has received over $300,000 in gifts since 2002. Businessman Terry McAuliffe and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II are targeting key counties in Virginia.

Davis said he declined the appointment because he believed it would take him away from his lucrative medical practice.

But the loan offers a new example of how McDonnell’s personal finances became entangled with his public role as the governor struggled to keep up with payments on property investments he and his family made during the height of the real estate boom.

Davis’s loan also appears to have been handled differently than a subsequent $70,000 payment made to the same real estate company by Jonnie R. Williams Sr., the chief executive of a dietary supplement company.

Williams’s payment, as well as other money and gifts the executive provided to the governor’s family, are at the center of ongoing state and federal investigations.

But wait, there's still more!!!

Maureen McDonnell also acquired thousands of dollars in Star Scientific stock while she was using the Governor's Mansion to promote the companies drugs. Now prosecutors are looking into whether she was attempted to better the prestige of the company while invested. These McDonnell's are walking fine line after fine line when it comes to the law.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/va-first-lady-bought-stock-in-star-scientific/2013/08/16/8757f8fc-06c7-11e3-a07f-49ddc7417125_story.html

Looks like the Republicans on FFXU have given up and are trying to run out the clock just like the Governor. They're ready for their next crook.

As disgusted as I am with these two, you have to pity him at this point.

How did his wife spend $30k without him knowing?

Impossible.

So he needs to man up and admit what he knew.

He gets a Rolex and asks no questions.....now the stock purchase????

Is he a victim?

The reason why it doesn't get much attention is because Virginia has been above this type of corruption from such a high office in the state. We're not used to it I suppose. Republicans were defending his ass at first but this rabbit hole just keeps going and going and going and going. I can't believe they got so much done in a matter of three years. They made a killing for themselves.

correction allot of his employees spent allot of money and lied to him

and he paid back a chunk money when asked - unlike his competitors

"rule close to the people". we have 1 courthouse and 1 town council for a million people. some people can't even afford to get TO the courthouse or the damn parking fee

bob can't be everywhere in 2000 counties making sure the council members aren't scamming - let alone have any idea of which of tens of millions of citizen are effected how. and he said so.

i'll say this. like busch he put too much faith in them. though for his generation that is the way

how about the election? two guys from NJ running "against" each other for running VA ? and all the mud slinging? in the 80's people wouldn't vote for mud slingers and the wash post would rail against mud slingers. now look!!

they are more remote and more weaponed and living in more far flung mansions.

if that isn't facism - when are you gonna say facism ?

Two people confirmed over the weekend that there were additional gifts, including golf clubs for each of the governor’s college-age twin sons and an iPhone for the first lady.


The McDonnells keep saying that Johnnie Williams gave these gifts only out of friendship.

I wonder if his other friends received so many gifts and money.