Virginia Is For Lawlessness? 

Decades ago, Virginia tourism officials adopted the slogan, "Virginia is for lovers." With the newly-elected governor and attorney general seem determined to change the slogan to "Virginia is for lawlessness."

Earlier this week we warned that Attorney General Herring had suggested that he might not defend the popularly enacted state marriage protection amendment. During an interview on National Public Radiothis morning, Herring announced his decision: 
 

• "As attorney general I cannot and will not defend laws that violate Virginians' rights. That's what I have pledged over and over to do, is to put the law and put Virginians first. … It's about what the law requires here, and we have concluded, I have concluded, that the law here is unconstitutional, and I think the Supreme Court … would find the law unconstitutional."

Incredible. Outrageous. Lawless.

There is no "right" to same-sex marriage anywhere in the laws of Virginia. 

Herring is not putting the law or Virginians first. The people of Virginia overwhelmingly voted for the state's marriage amendment. Herring, on the other hand, won his race by just 900 votes out of more than two million cast. Herring is putting his radical left-wing agenda first. 

It is not up to Herring to unilaterally decide whether the law is unconstitutional or not. When he was sworn in as attorney general, not as a judge, he took an oath to "support the constitution of the commonwealth of Virginia." Instead, he is ignoring that constitution just as Obama ignores the U.S. Constitution. 

Some conservatives and some Christians have argued that our position on same-sex marriage should be a federalist position -- let the people of every state decide. But just as it did with abortion, the left will not permit that. 

The radical left is intent on taking the "anything goes" ideology that prevails in New York and San Francisco and imposing it on Middle America. It is using the courts to make law and invalidate the will of the people. The left will force same-sex marriage on every state in the union. 

The Virginia General Assembly can trace its roots back to the earliest legislative body in America. The House of Burgesses was in operation in 1619. It hosted leaders, who resisted the lawless tyranny of their day, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Patrick Henry. 

But today, Virginia's governor has demanded that Obamacare be expanded or he'll do it by executive decree. Now Virginia's attorney general has decreed that he doesn't care what the law says or what 57% of voters want. Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Henry must be rolling over in their graves.

Iranian Nuclear Disaster 

Two weeks ago, President Obama said his nuclear deal with Iran would cause the Islamic Republic to "start eliminating its stockpile of higher levels of enriched uranium and dismantling some of the infrastructure that makes such enrichment possible." 

But in a CNN interview, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said this: 
 

• "We [Iran] did not agree to dismantle anything. …If you find a single, a single word, that even closely resembles dismantling or could be defined as dismantling in the entire text, then I would take back my comment. …we are not dismantling any centrifuges, we're not dismantling any equipment…"

Zarif also insisted that the White House's version of the deal "underplays the concessions [made by America] and overplays Iranian commitments." 

Don't dismiss Zarif's comments. He is not the only one saying this. In recent reports we told you that Abbas Araqchi, Iran's lead nuclear negotiator, said, "No facility will be closed; enrichment will continue, and qualitative and nuclear research will be expanded. All research into a new generation of centrifuges will continue." 

Iran's new "moderate" president, Hassan Rouhani, posted on his Twitter feed, "In #Geneva agreement world powers surrendered to Iranian nation's will." 

This deal is a disaster made between two governments that cannot be trusted. Iran is operating from a disgusting, but understandable, worldview. Tehran wants control over the Middle East. It wants America to retreat. Iran wants to "wipe Israel off the map" and lay low the "great Satan" -- which is what it calls America. 

The dissembling of our own government is worse. Obama is bargaining away our security and the security of our allies, putting the lives of Americans and Israelis in jeopardy. The Iranians are lying in their own self-interest. The lies of our government are contrary to our own national interests and amount to little more than appeasement. 

Kudos To Cruz 

Texas Senator Ted Cruz fired off a blistering letter yesterday to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding the appointment of a special prosecutor to thoroughly investigate the IRS/Tea Party scandal. The senator pulled no punches. 

Cruz blasted the appointment of an Obama donor to lead the Justice Department's investigation and slammed Holder for lacking the courage of past attorneys general who appointed special prosecutors to investigate Presidents Nixon and Clinton. Here's an excerpt: 
 

• "Two hundred fifty-three days have passed since both you and President Obama professed outrage at the IRS's wrongful conduct. To date, no one has been indicted. And it has been reported that the FBI plans not to file any criminal charges. …This is a sad state of affairs. The widespread perception of partisan bias, of manifest conflict of interest, besmirches the reputation of the Department of Justice. And it undermines confidence in rule of law.

  "I ask you personally to demonstrate the independence that so many of your predecessors have demonstrated, and act to preserve the integrity of the Department of Justice and immediately appoint a special prosecutor, with meaningful independence, to investigate the IRS's illegal targeting of conservative groups."

You can read the entire letter here.

Kudos to Senator Cruz! This is exactly the kind of response that should be coming from every member of Congress who values justice and the rule of law.