I love the implication that the main problem with the fireplace is that it would clash with the architecture of the rest of the building.
Gotta be pretty hard to make a statie cry.
Attacks on politicians' wives (or spouses, but, you know, come on) are usually just threadbare camouflage for attacks on the politicians themselves ("He married that shrieking harpy!"), and being a politician's wife would derange Florence Nightingale, but this is just a vulgar display of superficiality.
Also, isn't it roughly the case that Federal style is Georgian, except about three minutes later and in America?
she had screamed at employees, called and sent text messages to them in the middle of the night for minor matters, ... and pushed them to pursue extravagant plans, .... She has reduced [employees] to tears, the people said.
Wait, that isn't what everyone's office is like?
(Geez, self, learn to hold back such comments once in a while.)
So basically, actual scandalous stuff about monetary relationships with the first lady as the intermediary (because reporting requirements are lower for family members) comes to light, and the newspaper feels it has to make it feel realer by reporting she's also a harridan? Barf.
Also, I assume this is an ellipsis:
"She truly put her heart and soul into her . . . initiatives," said Sarah Scarbrough, mansion director and spokeswoman for the first lady.
...but I like thinking of it as a pregnant pause.
I assume Cuccinelli is behind the leaks of these things, so he can run for governor with the advantage of already having been governor for a few months?
I'm surprised there is a federal style mansion still standing in Richmond, post 1865.
Also, isn't it roughly the case that Federal style is Georgian, except about three minutes later and in America?
Regency, I think, rather than Georgian. (Inasmuch as there's a difference). But neo-Georgian/ Georgian Revival is Lutyens and that lot. Early 20th century rather than early 19th.
On first reading it seems that the maids and state trooper were reduced to tears by the fireplace proposal which is rather a pleasant image. British police are made of sterner stuff:
http://www.anyclip.com/movies/hot-fuzz/VrbMJYJnthtmb/#!quotes/
"It's hardly in keeping with the village's rustic aesthetic!"
a $400,000 Georgian-revival fireplace in the federal-style mansion dining room over the objections of architectural advisers.
if it was an authentic Georgian fireplace in an authentic Federal era mansion, $400K would still be WTF out of order.
True. An authentic Robert Adam marble fireplace might set you back £50k, but $400k?
Maybe she had picked out an already existing fireplace that needed to be carefully taken apart at it's original location and then reconstructed at the mansion by a team of archeologically trained stonemasons. That might set you back $400k.
Alternatively she was throwing some scratch in the direction of some fireplace contractor she owed a favor.
I'm guessing it wasn't just a question of installing a fireplace, but of rebuilding an entire exterior wall to put in a chimney.
My favorite part is the gift of a $6,000 Rolex watch to Mrs. McDonnell, who gave it to her husband as a birthday present. Since there's no requirement that gifts to a first lady be disclosed, and no requirement that gifts from wife to husband be disclosed, they didn't disclose either gift. Apparently the prosecutor claims this a a violation of the transitive law of donations to government officials.
15: Why not a gas fireplace? They make them now so you can just vent right out the wall instead of needing a chimney.
I like how the evidence of McDonnell's humble beginnings is that she grew up in a house without a dishwasher and the family only had one car. She suffered!
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My therapist has brought her 5 month old baby into the office today. I wonder if she'll buy my argument that holding the baby would be very therapeutic for me?
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My therapist has brought her 5 month old baby into the office today. I wonder if she'll buy my argument that holding the baby would be very therapeutic for me?
Probably!
It's weird that she'd be so interested in fixing up the fireplace in a place she'd be living for a maximum of 4 years.
19: She's on to you. She brought the baby specifically for you.
21: Probably just leaving a territorial marker. If she just shit on the wall, the next governor could clean it up and forget it. But pull down a fireplace because it's too much, and suddenly the new governor is the asshole.
24: Baby unsuccessful held was one of my continual fears when I was a new parent.
re: 26
My current fear is 'baby successfully hurls himself out of hold.' The wee bugger has taken to doing a rugby style hand-off, where he'll sit quite contentedly and then suddenly stiff-arm my chest while hurling himself backwards.
There were some attempts to flee my loving arms/stranglehold, but I figure it was just because the poor thing is teething, and miserable. That's totally it, right?
Babies enjoy teething, if they're being held right.
15: Why not a gas fireplace? They make them now so you can just vent right out the wall instead of needing a chimney.
Don't ask me, I'm not a governor-on-the-take's spouse.
You could be, if you applied yourself.
True. An authentic Robert Adam marble fireplace might set you back £50k, but $400k?
It's Richmond, Virginia: Confederate dollars.
Who could have ever predicted that the Gov would get into this kind of trouble!??!
http://waldo.jaquith.org/blog/2013/07/deja-vu/
27: Britney Spears was carrying her baby when he did the backward lurch, and got a lot of pictures and headlines about how she was a bad mom. I remember thinking that wasn't fair. Babies lurch!
Don't do it!! J Robot isn't giving that baby back.
27: shiv was startled the first time the Calabat threw a stiff-arm while sitting on him. We are very glad that he is a strong healthy baby but with every new ability comes a new way he can probably kill himself.
37: The kink in the GOP trend line is right after the point where the coalition with evangelicals began, when Weyrich et al set out to deliberately drive the party rightwards. They've been remarkably successful.
39 gets at part of it, but really it's just the consolidation of the Southern Strategy and the end of conservative democrats in the House (which means that 37.2 gets it exactly right).
Liberal Republicans were also replaced, of course, but by not-substantially-more-liberal Democrats, while the opposite was true for conservative Republicans in the South (where conservative Democrats were replaced by way more conservative Republicans).
39: and the late 70s explosion of Corporate lobbying of Congress.
The corporate lobby grew so powerful it required capitalization.
9 - It's not at all implausible that Cuccinelli is leaking this, but that would be because his political instincts are bad. He wouldn't be the replacement governor (that would be Lt. Governor Bill Boling, who hates Cuccinelli, not least because Cuccinelli stiff-armed him out of the gubernatorial race), and this Star Scientific stuff touches Cuccinelli as well. Between the continuing now-Republicans-are-starting-to-consider-impeachment-as-the-least-bad-option bribery scandal and the lunatic the Republicans nominated at convention to be the Lieutenant Governor candidate, I think Terry MacAuliffe is probably the front-runner now despite historical precedent and the fact that Terry MacAuliffe is a transparently phony, unlikable asshat.
45 - Fair enough. I'm thinking of Virginia's consistency in sending Democrats to the governor's mansion when a Republican is president and vice versa.
the late 70s explosion of Corporate lobbying of Congress
CorplobsplosionCon! Or something like that.
37 et seq, also just about where wage stagnation really started to kick in.
Virginia desperately needs to be saved from asshats and maniacs. Now is the time for Creigh Deeds to ride in on the banner of the Connecticut For Lieberman Party.
The worst incidences of baby lurching occur on the changing table, from where they can fall & do a hell of a lot of damage.
You can always sand out any damage to the table.