Wouldn’t you want a governor who puts fundraising first – actually, puts fundraising so far out in front of all the rest of his priorities that he will leave a weeping wife and child in the car to go pick up a few checks? If you do, the candidate for you is former Democratic National Committee chair and current Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe.
As Andrew Kaczynski of Buzzfeed writes, McAuliffe’s book contains some not-too-charming examples of the great man at work. The most memorable incident occurs when McAuliffe is on the way home from the hospital with his wife, a newborn baby, and an aide. He has to stop by the “Sons of Italy” dinner hosted by the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters President Marty Maddaloni. Hijinks ensue:
Dorothy was starting to well up in the backseat. She was having trouble understanding how I could be taking my wife and newborn baby to a fund-raiser on our way home from the hospital. We got to the dinner and by then Dorothy was in tears, and I left her with Justin and went inside. Little Peter was sleeping peacefully and Dorothy just sat there and poor Justin didn’t say a word. He was mortified. I was inside maybe fifteen minutes, said a few nice things about Marty, and hurried back out to the car. I felt bad for Dorothy, but it was a million bucks for the Democratic Party and by the time we got home and the kids had their new little brother in their arms, Dorothy was all smiles and we were one big happy family again. Nobody ever said life with me was easy.
But that wasn’t the only time McAuliffe ditched his wife in difficult straits to go for the cash. He left his wife in delivery with his child:
We got there a little after noon and spent the whole afternoon in her room. I was trying hard not to appear restless, but I am not one to sit still for long and soon I was going stir-crazy, which drove Dorothy nuts. ‘Isn’t there something you need to do?’ she finally said. I told her The Washington Post was having a party that evening for Lloyd Grove, who wrote the ‘Reliable Source’ column. ‘Go!’ she said. ‘You’re like a caged animal here. I’ll call you if I need you.’ I went flying out the door and drove to the party. I kept calling Dorothy to make sure she was fine. I made the rounds at the party and ran into Marjorie Williams, who was writing a story on me for Vanity Fair, magazine. She was shocked to see me at the party. ‘Isn’t Dorothy having a baby today?’ she asked. ‘That’s right,’ I said, ‘but she threw me out the room.’ Marjorie just couldn’t understand how I left Dorothy alone. I almost told her about the night I was born and how my mother wanted my father to stay at home to watch Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, but decided against it. I went back to the hospital after the Washington Post party and at 3:33 A.M. little Sarah Swann McAuliffe was born.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).
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