# Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell & wife indicted \[ed: and convicted\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 21, 2014, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414 "2014-01-21T23:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/21 "2014-09-04T20:23:30Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > So much for the “we totally hate each other” defense. Still, it’s too bad they can’t be cellmates. ---
**Author:** ![2gigch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2gigch1/32/3313_2.png) [@2gigch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2gigch1)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/22 "2014-09-04T20:33:20Z")
I’m in an uplink truck here at the courthouse. The going bet by pundits was a hung jury or acquittal, most viewers were not impressed with the state’s case. When it came down it was some royal chaos to be sure. At least we won’t be back next week. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/23 "2014-09-04T20:38:27Z")
> [@2gigch1](#): > > I’m in an uplink truck here at the courthouse. The going bet by pundits was a hung jury or acquittal, most viewers were not impressed with the state’s case. > > When it came down it was some royal chaos to be sure. At least we won’t be back next week. That’s interesting. I wasn’t following\* that \*closely, but I was under the impression there was little doubt the defendants were trading favors and lying about it. I have some rich friends, but none of them are as nice to me as this guy was to the Governor’s family. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/24 "2014-09-04T21:05:00Z")
Good. Hopefully they’ll grow old in prison. ---
**Author:** ![2gigch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2gigch1/32/3313_2.png) [@2gigch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2gigch1)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/25 "2014-09-04T21:12:18Z")
It was clear to everyone that stuff happened, but what was not clear was whether the state could prove it to the level of a conviction. [Camera locations](http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg596/2gigch1/Work%20Photos/18C63C7D-623A-4495-9FDD-3FFEDCE8B0F0_zpsurz2nsml.jpg) (after the convictions) [Live trucks](http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg596/2gigch1/Work%20Photos/4D027A99-8653-47A1-AB40-6361A66366F5_zpsm9ounjpf.jpg) (mine is the one closest with the door open) ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/26 "2014-09-05T00:26:44Z")
I’m glad they finally nailed one of these guys for this kind of stuff. Yes, many have gone before, but they usually are so guilty they have no recourse (ABSCAM), or they are so incompetent (the guy in LA with the cash in his freezer, Blago, “Duke” Cunningham, the guy in Ohio with the hair) that you wonder about their mental competence. McDonnell, while guilty as sin IMO, could conceivably have been let off by the jury, and while they would take criticism, most would shrug it off as another rich connected guy getting special treatment. I’m also happy to see the voters of Virginia starting to regain their senses after heading deep down the rabbit hole for a few years. You’re Virginia for Christ’s sake! Washington, Jefferson, Madison… we expect more from you guys. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/27 "2014-09-05T00:28:14Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > Good. Hopefully they’ll grow old in prison. My bet is they’ll get probation, or at most a few months in a country club “prison”, and some sort of fine. He’ll end up as a lobbyist or a Fox ‘analyst’, making millions. That’s how shit works in this country. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/28 "2014-09-05T03:14:04Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > My bet is they’ll get probation, or at most a few months in a country club “prison”, and some sort of fine. He’ll end up as a lobbyist or a Fox ‘analyst’, making millions. That’s how shit works in this country. Yep, failing upward is a treasured American tradition. ---
**Author:** ![yawuntz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a5b964/32.png) [@yawuntz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yawuntz)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/29 "2014-09-05T04:29:30Z")
Won’t be long before he’s cohabiting with homosexuals and fornicators. There may even be some forced sounding. Very fitting. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/30 "2014-09-05T05:41:34Z")
Yeah, hard to feel sorry for the corrupt Governor Ultrasound. Just goes to show that whenever a politician runs on a platform of theocracy, he’s bullshitting you. Heck, we already knew that, since this country is explicitly not a theocracy. Might be quicker and easier to come up with a short list of Republican governors that aren’t criminals. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/31 "2014-09-05T07:22:29Z")
I doubt you want to count up the Democratic vs. Republican corruption convictions over the years. Anyway, just stupid and wrong on so many levels. He could have taken a plea deal that would have at the very least shielded his wife from prosecution and probably kept him out of jail. Now both their lives may be essentially over. But you know what they say, if you can’t do the time… ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/32 "2014-09-05T11:11:07Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I doubt you want to count up the Democratic vs. Republican corruption convictions over the years. “Both sides are exactly the same!!!” ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/33 "2014-09-05T12:59:38Z")
It’s probably true that Democratic governors have a worse record for corruption convictions. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/34 "2014-09-05T13:03:36Z")
In related news, the Illinois legislature named McDonnell as honorary governor of their state. So the guy who ran on family values and on the strength of his wonderful marriage rejected a deal that would have saved his wife from prosecution in exchange for a guilty plea on one felony. Now he and his wife both have multiple felony convictions and may not walk the streets for decades. And he based his defense on “it’s all my wife’s fault!” What a chump. One GOP governor down, one more to try, another one to indict. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/35 "2014-09-05T13:24:30Z")
Ah, wonderful schadenfreude. My favorite part was the [picture of McDonnell with the Rolex and a big shit-eating grin](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/liveblog-live/files/2014/08/mcdonnell-watch2.jpg) that he (McDonnell) texted to Williams. Seriously, how hard did Williams :smack: himself when he got that? His exact thought at that moment _must_ have been, “I’ve been bribing the stupidest people in the history of bribery.” . ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/36 "2014-09-05T15:12:23Z")
He didn’t really mean to shove his wife under the bus! What really happened was he saw that she was standing dangerously close to the curb in the path of the approaching bus, and dashed forward to grab her and pull her away. Unfortunately, his shoe-tying aide was out sick that day, and he tripped over an untied lace, with his arms outstretched, and thus _appeared_ as though he was shoving her into harm’s way! Others have suggested it was a weird-ass legal stratagem: the charges were _official_ misconduct, if it was all about his wife, then he walks, because she was not an official, therefore it legal and Constitutional to bribe her, because she wasn’t the Governor! So, all just a big misunderstanding and a failure to communicate! ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/37 "2014-09-05T15:25:46Z")
Sort of a political ‘twinky defense’, then? ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/38 "2014-09-05T15:35:41Z")
Sounds like the jury didn’t buy the whole lousy marriage story and that may have even worked to convict them. This whole thing has been pretty sad and sordid. Johnnie Williams got immunity, which I find equally as sad. His whole life seems to have been one con after another and yet he lives the life of a very wealthy man. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/39 "2014-09-05T16:02:48Z")
For the moment. He has attracted a _lot_ of attention. A tobacco-based miracle vitamin? Hmmm. About _that_… ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414/40 "2014-09-05T20:30:55Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > And he based his defense on “it’s all my wife’s fault!” What a chump. [That one worked for John Tierney.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Tierney#Wife.27s_tax_fraud_conviction) Whom I \*really \*hope not to have to vote for again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-wife-indicted-ed-and-convicted/679414.md?page=3)