Another Election Victory: Anti-Muslim Rep Goes Down in VA

Posted by John Nichols, The Nation at 11:30 AM on November 9, 2008.

The 2008 election is the gift that keeps on giving.

At the close of the week of Barack Obama's election to the presidency came the news that Virginia Congressman Virgil Goode -- one of the originators of the creepy politics that was used by the worst elements within the Republican Party to try and frighten voters about the Democratic nominee -- had been swept from office in the tide of Obama votes.

Goode, an otherwise obscure Republican, stirred a national controversy two years ago when he worried publicly about the precedent set by the election of a Muslim, Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, to Congress. The Virginian declared in a letter to a constituent that "When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Qur'an in any way. The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Qur'an."

Goode made several television appearances during which he pushed this line, even after it was pointed out to him that Ellison was born in the United States and traced his family's roots in this country back at least to 1742.

Goode left no doubt about his disdain for Islam and for its practitioners, declaring that "I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped. The Ten Commandments and 'In God We Trust' are on the wall in my office. A Muslim student came by the office and asked why I did not have anything on my wall about the Qur'an. My response was clear, 'As long as I have the honor of representing the citizens of the 5th District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives, The Qur'an is not going to be on the wall of my office.'"

Predictably, Goode found a forum on Fox News, where he stood by his statements and said, without a hint of irony, that "I wish more people would take a stand and stand up for the principles on which this country was founded."

What made Goode's ignorance of those founding principles remarkable was the fact that he represents Virginia's Albemarle County, where Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743.

Ultimately, Keith Ellison countered Goode's attacks, with an assist from Jefferson.

The new Congressman from Minnesota declared his loyalty to the Constitution while clutching a copy of the Koran that was once owned by Jefferson. One of many Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist texts that the author of the Declaration of Independence donated to the Library of Congress at its founding, the Jefferson Koran was been loaned to Ellison by the rare book and special collections division of the library.

This was not mere symbolism. Ellison understood the Jeffersonian impulse that underpins the American experiment.

Unfortunately, Goode remained the representative from Jefferson's home county. And it looked as if this would be the case for a long time to come.

When 34-year-old Democrat Tom Perriello decided to take on Goode, he seemed to be a political sacrificial lamb. With his background as the founder of an international non-profit group, progressive stands on the issues and relatively small campaign budget, Perriello's looked to be the classic uphill fight.

But Perriello was an agile campaigner who attracted a cadre of committed volunteers and a good deal of grassroots support throughout the district. That combined with Virginia's quiet embarrassment over Goode's behavior, excitement about Obama's candidacy -- which would turn once red state blue on November 4 -- and perhaps a bit of the old Jeffersonian impulse to boost the challenger into competition.

The Goode-Perriello race was close on election night.

And, after three days of counting ballots, the Democrat prevailed by more than 700 votes. Perriello won with 158,703 votes, compared 157,958 for Goode.

Here's Perriello's message to his backers from late Friday:

We finally have an official tally and bipartisan confirmation from every county (less than 10 ballots left to confirm!), and the outcome is now certain: we have won the race and will be going to Washington to represent this amazing district. Some are already calling ours the biggest upset of the year and a bellwether of a new kind of politics in Virginia. I know some of you have taken a blow to work productivity as you hit refresh every few minutes, checking results. This has been a team effort from the start, and this victory belongs to all of us.

Rep. Goode has the right to challenge the outcome and probably will, so we will remain fully activated to protect our victory, but we have every reason to believe that this result will hold.

It is hard for me to express how much your support and your vote mean to me. I set out a year ago to show that a better kind of politics is possible. We wanted to show that Americans care more about an authentic sense of right and wrong than an artificial sense of right and left. We wanted to show that people are smarter and more decent than our politicians and media give them credit for. We wanted to show that our politics is capable of caring about jobs in Danville and genocide in Darfur -- we have the capacity to promote the common good.

We faced off against a politics of fear, from doctored photographs to wild accusations and insinuations. We refused to engage in the personal smears, even when the political pros told us we had to do it. We focused on an agenda that was positive and bold, and did not run away from our convictions. I am so proud of the campaign we ran and the victory we have won.

This election year was about expanding our sense of what's possible in our community and country -- what we are each capable of when called on to serve. We saw it in the movement spirit that rallied volunteers from our campaign and Obama's late Tuesday night. Amidst utter exhaustion and elation from Obama's victory, we put out the call to find volunteers willing to crank out one more 13 hour day to monitor the vote count. Drained but inspired, our volunteers did not hesitate for a second to rally one more time to ensure we saw this through. With an unprecedented get-out-the-vote push that so many of you joined and the final rally over the past 48 hours, we won this through people-powered politics. We can stand proud of the spirit of this campaign and the sense of hope and energy we have brought to our communities across Southside and Central Virginia.

You have all sacrificed beyond measure to make this victory happen. Please maintain the same vigilance about holding me accountable to these principles and this agenda as I head up to Washington.

With unending gratitude, Tom

That's a great statement.

There's just one line that needs to be added:

The Jeffersonian seat will now be represented by someone worthy of the position.

John Nichols writes about politics for The Nation magazine as its Washington correspondent.