The Clunker that is Scott Rigell
The wealthy Freedom Ford car salesman in the race for the Republican nod for the pleasure of taking on Rep. Glenn Nye has more to sell than just used cars. He’s all say one thing, do another.
From USA Today “Dealers-turned-candidates run into trouble”:
Scott Rigell, who is running for a House district that includes Virginia Beach, criticized Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a January speech for “reckless bailouts and an out-of-control federal debt.” But records show he sold 138 cars under Cash for Clunkers last year.
“It’s the hypocrisy of it,” said Ben Loyola, a Republican challenging Rigell in the primary. “You can’t say you’re against these programs, bailouts, and yet benefit wholeheartedly from them.”
FYI… it’s an open GOP primary on Tues., June 8. Crossover voting permitted!
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May 12th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Who is the Tea Party candidate?
May 12th, 2010 at 9:41 am
The consensus in the Tea party is between Taylor and Loyola, but following the primary there is a libertarian candidate Hutchinson running as an independent. Then throw Kenny Golden in the loop after the Primary. It’s a Circus.
May 12th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
In viewing Rigell’s virtual town hall this evening, I was watching the chat screen. Obviously they were screening the window to make it a softball event, but one got through about an affair he had or is supposedly having with his Vice President of administration at Freedom automotive. Anyone know about this… was it something from a disgruntled employee or a problem in the “family”? Several other comments made it through, but this one almost made me choke.
May 13th, 2010 at 8:07 am
Another question that popped up in the chat panel and then quickly disappeared was a question about Rigell’s Volvo connection to China. Ford sold 100% of Volvo to China who now controls the Volvo franchises world-wide. To paraphrase the question “Scott, if you get elected as our Congressman, how can you be objective when voting on bills regarding China since you are currently in business with the Chinese?” The speed with which the comment was deleted means that Rigell has another car problem with his candidacy.
May 13th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Glenn Nye has the proven track record that shows he is capable of representing the constituents of his district. He has shown himself capable of standing up to the special interests unless you choose to define special interests as including the small business man and the veterans. Well, these special interests are his constituency and I will pardon him for serving as the voice of them and he will get my vote.
May 13th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Just wait until Kenny Golden really begins to campaign and put out his message to the district. I am sure a lot of Democrats will see that he is head and shoulders above both Glenn Nye and Scott Rigell.
I stumbled upon his Facebook a while back and every day they several new videos where Kenny goes over his stances on a myriad of issues. To date he’s got 38 videos on his YouTube account, laying out his positions on so many issues.
According to whoever updates his facebook, most of them were done with no prior preparation or talking points, and from the content of the video, it seems to be true. He is just talking and telling stories about his life experiences and the depth of his knowledge is truly remarkable. This guy is the real deal, check out the videos and see for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Golden4Congress
May 13th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Thanks Mustanger, if experience means anything, folks at least have to take a look. You are correct the video’s are non-scripted as are all of my speeches. These are heart felt and sometimes I don’t get it right, example, I was a “Drill Baby Drill” guy. You would have to be crazy to advocate that position now on the eve of the greatest environmental disaster since Chernoble.
If you get a chance come to the Funny Bone at VB Town Center Monday night (17 MAY) at 7pm and see Kinky Friedman, The Jewish Cowboy and I talk about Virginia and National Politics. He claims he’s gonna lay out a platform for “Dewussifying” Va. Politics. He and I will be on Tony McCreeney Monday am as well. I can’t wait. Please tell my good Friend Ollie Bates Hello. r Kenny
May 13th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
Kenny!! Good to hear from you over here! I hope your campaign is benefiting from the Rigell implosion… C4C, and now China! As they race to the Primary, I can’t wait to see what other IEDs are going to pop. Some guy just quoted the post above about China on Bearing Drift and threw ice water on the Rigell Orgy over there after the McDonnell endorsement. I hope you are well, and keep pounding away at the political establishment with those 5″ 54 VT Frag rounds.
May 14th, 2010 at 3:30 am
I met Jessica Sandlin at a Surfrider Meet & Greet last night. She says she’s the only candidate voicing opposition to offshore drilling. Good for her. Too bad she doesn’t really stand a chance.
May 14th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Kenny,
The oil spill down in the gulf does not change the fact that we still face peak oil and we still import a huge percentage of our oil needs. What’s worse? Accepting the risks of additional spills or the certainty of the damage to the environment caused by increasing the amount of oil that we import from Canada that comes from the tar sands?
Perhaps additional measures are necessary to ensure that something like this does not happen again. Perhaps there needs to be a backup to the blowout preventer or something. I will leave it up to the engineers to determine how best to come up with a plan B if plan A does not work. However a candidate shifting positions from Drill Baby Drill to “You would have to be crazy to advocate that position now” exposes a willingness to change positions to whichever way the political winds are blowing. Back when you were advocating offshore drilling, before the gulf spill, Eileen was making a good case here that such an occurrence was possible. She pointed back then to the Australian spill as a real life example of what could happen off our shores. I would have thought you took such risks into account when you decided back then to favor offshore drilling. Either you did not factor in the risks in your decision making or you are just all too willing to drift with the political currents. Either way it does not motivate me to cast my vote for you.
Glenn Nye still gets my vote! But what will I do if Glenn switches his position on offshore drilling? Well, I won’t be real pleased, but I think I will still have reason enough to vote for him even though I am going to think less of him. I guess I’ll just have to forgive him for being a bit of a coward. He was right the first time and he should work to ensure something like this does not happen again. Even if we do not drill off Virginia’s shore, drilling is going to continue in the Gulf and the citizens down there shouldn’t have to put up with it either.
Oh, by the way, while I was down in Louisiana several days ago I got a chance to sample the opinions of the citizens down there. While those who’s livelihood are apt to be directly impacted by the spill are upset, the majority of the citizens do not want to stop drilling off their shore. Politicians from Louisiana are saying much the same thing. They seem to think the benefits outweigh the hazards. Perhaps the improved royalty payments they recently won influences their opinion. If we are going to allow drilling off our coast we should insist we get the same deal they got. If it is fair for Louisiana then it should be fair for Virginia.
May 14th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Little David & Kenny,
It also seems like we weren’t really prepared to deal with this oil spill scenario. Needed resources and a workable plan (perhaps even practiced) didn’t seem to be available. Seems that containment efforts were too slow and ineffective. It seemed like we were scrounging for materials to combat the spill. Surely some of the royalties can be set aside for a more robust response team that is ready to go and more resources stored and readily available.
May 15th, 2010 at 12:22 am
Little David, Kingsmoothie, Eileen, and all; Unfortunately, my beautiful friend Jessica is not the only candidate asking for a moratorium on drilling, I have voiced that opinion on my radio show two weeks ago. Why? This environmental disaster should have been avoided if we were ready with the technology and assets to both stop the leak at the well head or above and to keep the oil from the shores of our most precious seafood and beach areas. We are not ready for this in either case and while I wholeheartedly agree we need to go after our own resources as well as continue to conserve and look for alternative resources to include wind, sea motion, sun, switch grass, nuclear etc. we must first fix our technological shortfall in ability to handle this disaster. At 212 thousand gallons per day we are heading towards the greatest environmental disaster since Chernobyl. The results will certainly ruin fishing and tourism on all coasts of the Gulf of Mexico to include our Central and South American neighbors. Before we continue to pursue any more drilling we must completely solve these very difficult problems to the satisfaction of all of us. I will be from Missouri on this……Show me. r Kenny
May 16th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Kenny Golden it is remarkable to me that you would let the Gulf oil spill so dramatically alter your political stance on offshore drilling. All of us can agree that the spill down there is a serious environmental disaster, but your post above just sounds like pure political rhetoric and pandering to this crowd.
Changing from a “drill baby drill guy” to someone who’d say “you’d be crazy to advocate that position now” sounds kind of like figuring out you won’t win the republican nomination and then deciding that you’re the independent, tea party, VBTA, Constitution candidate. Oh, wait…you’ve done that, too.
May 16th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
I don’t see a problem with a change in this certain position. The position of everyone that advocates offshore drilling is that we have all the technology to do it safely. This spill proves that although we may have the technology, not everyone uses it nor is everyone mandated to use it.
That is the problem, if we can’t trust that oil companies will use best management practices every time, then its too risky in my opinion to continue expanding offshore drilling.
May 16th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
OpenMinded,
This is from Kenny’s issue page for energy, which it says was just recently updated;
In light of the new developments regarding the Gulf Oil Spill, I have changed my position on offshore drilling. Clearly the large oil companies have misled the government and the American people into believing that they are capable of properly maintaining and protecting their current oil rigs. While I firmly believe the technology exists to drill safely for oil off our shores, this recent disaster has shown that the large oil companies cannot be trusted to use best management practices and the latest safety procedures. I therefore propose that prior to any further construction of offshore oil platforms we;
- Conduct a thorough inspection of all existing oil platforms to take stock of where each stands in regards to implementation of the newest technology and safety measures
- Commit the resources necessary to ensure all oil platforms are operating in the safest possible manner
- Create nationwide standards for oil rig safety and operation that reflect the newest advancements in drilling and safety technology
This isn’t really pandering, its more like learning new information and updating your thinking. If you look at what really happened with this spill, it was because BP was cutting corners and not doing what it was supposed to be doing. Who knows what else is happening on other rigs.
May 17th, 2010 at 5:07 am
It sounds like Kenny Golden is now in favor of more government regulation.
When I went to his website, all I found related to offshore drilling was this:
That would seem to be a pro-drilling position, since potential revenue for Virginia is one of the big selling points. Of course, it would depend on convincing 26 interior states to give up federal revenue to the coastal states.
May 30th, 2010 at 12:29 am
Yes, David, I want the same kind of triple redundancy we have in the Nuclear programs we run in the Navy. I know, I’ve been in it. If we had required the same superior technology, coupled with the certification, inspection, training, and rigorous inforcement we have in our Navy Programs we wouldn’t be experiencing this problem. We additionally need a national response team set up that will allow us to contain and cleanup these catastrophes on all of our coasts in inland as well. We need to go after this energy source in the future but not until we have these programs in place.
On the issue of changing my mind about the oil industry, look at the 60 minutes documentory of several weeks ago and then do some personal reading from both environmentalist and the industry and you’ll find the oil industry has been driven by extreme greed and has taken chances. BP and Transocean did so on this spill and it costs us all. Secretary Salazar and Adm. Thad Allen have done a good job but the government has been slow in giving the states all the necessary assistance they need. Governor Jindal is correct in taking the situation in his own hands and in some cases pushing the Feds out of the way. Our coastlines in the Gulf must be saved. r Kenny
September 18th, 2010 at 8:11 am
Circus circus this is a private family relations matter for thembut the rumor effects my family. The person you are talking of was Janet Gill. We are not rerlated. With the same last name I am asked from time to time if we are.
November 3rd, 2010 at 10:54 am
circus circus……. i understand this affair to be true also, that (to my understanding) is why scott was forced to quit doing Freedom commercials for awhile, among other things associated with the dealerships! but there (to my understanding) is more to the story. lets talk insurance policies and employee 401k. i (to my understanding) understand that he was envolved with some “criminal” activity with handling these funds and (to my understanding) there were 2 others involved with him. 1, i understand was either “paid” or “framed” to take the heat, while the other got awarded a dealership of his own on the peninsula. ANY way that you want to slice it, the 3 of them put together dont have sense enough to pour water out of a boot with the directions engraved on the heel!!! its a sad day for virginia!!! (in my opinion!!) ………..THIS IS T.L., AND I APPROVE THIS MESSAGE
November 9th, 2010 at 11:14 am
“Crossover voting permitted!”
Good job, assholes. Maybe you will shut your mouths and stick to your own primaries. RIgell kicked Nye’s and Golden’s asses outright.
November 9th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Haywood,
My crossover Republican Primary vote went for Jessica. Of course, at the time it was not technically a crossover because I was still calling myself an Independent back then.
I’m going to keep crossover voting as a tool in my box. If there is no real primary election battle amongst Dems, I intend to vote in the Republican primary and try to get the most acceptable Republicans nominated.