OPINION:
Perhaps nowhere else has the Democrats’ phony “Republican war on women” narrative boomeranged, and in such force, as in the race for the House seat being vacated by Rep. Frank R. Wolf, the Virginia Republican incumbent.
Democrats were giddy at the prospect of turning the 10th District into a blue redoubt in the Washington suburbs, only to see their nominee, Fairfax County Supervisor John W. Foust, commit a dreaded sexist gaffe. In a speech in late summer, Mr. Foust dismissed his Republican opponent, Virginia state Delegate Barbara Comstock, as a Washington insider who had never held “a real job.” It’s not clear why this was necessarily a “sexist” gaffe, but an accusation of “sexism” is as deadly as the Ebola virus, and the remark was a costly mistake.
Mrs. Comstock earned her law degree as a stay-at-home mom taking night courses. She’s a former congressional aide to Mr. Wolf and a former Justice Department official. Mrs. Comstock unleashed campaign ads observing that Mr. Foust is the one who will need “a real job” after Nov. 4. The Foust faux pas prompted the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to withdraw a $2.8 million campaign blitz, according to Roll Call, the Capitol Hill political newspaper.
Mrs. Comstock is a common-sense conservative who would repeal Obamacare, defend the Second Amendment and lend her voice to protect the unborn. Mrs. Comstock opposes the Obama administration’s war on coal that would cost 9,000 jobs in Virginia.
In the legislature, Mrs. Comstock stood up to the unions by drafting the law that now shields employees from being harassed by labor organizers who improperly obtain worker phone numbers and email addresses from employers. She proposed a bill that would have tied the state’s mass-transit funding to objective performance measures, requiring the bureaucracy to work to get the public’s money. It’s a novel concept, one that ought to spread to Capitol Hill.
Mr. Foust prescribes a job-killing raise in the federal minimum wage because “It’s time to give America a raise” — an idea he obviously copied from a bumper sticker. He’s pushing amnesty “with a clear path to citizenship,” which would add millions of undocumented newcomers to the voter rolls who would be expected to be Democrats. He’s a generic liberal whose campaign shows little imagination or creativity.
Frank Wolf has been a unique voice in Washington, especially on human rights. He won’t be easy to replace, but his former aide will be up to the task. We enthusiastically recommend Barbara Comstock for Congress in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District.
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