The McDonnells: Too poor to govern

last updated 8 January 2015

Bob and Maureen McDonnell have very expensive tastes, said Chris Cillizza in WashingtonPost.com. Everyone can agree on that much, after the former Virginia governor and his ex–NFL cheerleader wife were indicted last week on federal corruption charges over their relationship with millionaire businessman Jonnie Williams. What the McDonnells allegedly got from their friend “reads like an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” Williams took Maureen on a $20,000 luxury shopping spree in New York City, and loaned the couple his private jet, his Ferrari, and $120,000 in cash. In return, prosecutors say, Virginia’s first couple—whose term ended earlier this month—used their positions to promote Williams’s health-supplements company, hosting a launch party at the governor’s mansion. What an astonishing display of greed, said Byron York in the Washington Examiner. Most politicians cash in after they leave office. But the McDonnells “couldn’t wait, even four years, for the payoff.”

Yes, their pursuit of goodies was “cringeworthy,” said Susan Milligan in USNews.com. But that doesn’t mean it was illegal. Virginia law allows politicians to accept gifts, so long as they’re properly reported. And it will be very difficult for prosecutors to prove “a quid pro quo,” since McDonnell did not push any legislation to help Williams and adamantly denies providing a “direct and obvious payback.” Legal or not, the McDonnells’ profligate lifestyle shows that “fiscal conservatism is a myth for many who spout it most vociferously,” said Dahlia Lithwick in Slate.com. McDonnell was elected on a platform of balanced budgets and sober spending, but the Republican was “incapable of walking the walk when it came to his own life.” Living within your means, it seems, “is only a rule for chumps.”

The real lesson of this case is “just how difficult it is to be an American politician without great wealth,” said Matt Berman in NationalJournal.com. The McDonnells arrived in office loaded with credit card and real estate debt. As they mixed with millionaire fundraisers and rich politicians, they asked Williams to help them acquire the trappings of wealth and power, such as a $6,500 Rolex watch for him and Oscar de la Renta dresses and Louis Vuitton shoes for her. It’s a sorry state of affairs when our political system is so dominated by millionaires and billionaires that “not having enough money can carve out a path to ruin.”