Semi Truths

Continuing my review of the 2006 VA Bloggers Summit…

After a few brief introductions, the Summit got under way with opening remarks from VA Attorney General Bob McDonnell. This was a rare opportunity for many of us to see this important man in person and he came across as very smooth, very Republican. He has been the AG for only five months after a close and contested race with Creigh Deeds.

To his credit, McDonnell actually read some blogs before showing up and quoted from them (although horribly mangling Waldo’s last name in the process). He had some complimentary words of caution for us, referring to blogs as “new media”, which showed he had done his homework, and openly recognizing that they play an important part in political discussions. He also brought up some legal considerations, but didn’t offer much meat. He was probably wise not to take questions afterward, but I wish he had. Here was a rare opportunity for the Commonwealth’s Attorney General to address issues of defamation and copyright with a captive and interested audience, but he seemed more interested in talking than in listening.

In the final analysis, I don’t think that McDonnell said much of substance and he was too much in campaign mode for my taste. I heard later from one of his aides that the AG actually wrote his own talk, which raises him in my estimation, especially after we heard from Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling the next day (more on him in a later post).

This entry was posted on Monday, June 19th, 2006 at 3:18 pm and is filed under VABlog06. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.